We are just a group of retired spooks that discuss things that you’ll not find anywhere else. It makes us unique. Take a look around. Learn a thing or two.
Youse guys getting enough big boobie women on my MM splash screen? Yeah, I seem to have a lot of fans doing this. Ah, though. Don’t worry, other things will be presented in our future. LOL.
As far as these splash screens go, the are screen captures of AI Appreciation channel(s) on YouTube. Lots of great stuff. Lots of odd-ball stuff as well. But I think that the big-boobie-women are a crowd draw, and my stats seem to show an up-tick on random visits when the splash image shows boobs.
LOL. Gosh that is a knee-slapper.
Anyways, I’ve collected a bunch, and then the computer crashed and I lost all of them. Ah. That’s life.
I will post more boobs in the future, and then I will morph into other interesting directions. You never know.
The truth is that all this boobie stuff is gonna be short lasting. I’ve got a few months more of it, and then you’ll see other stuff headline on the splash screens. Mostly just about anything… except boobies.
But just hang in there.
Roll your eyes, if you gotta. Just know that this period is transitory, and better stuff… more interesting stuff… will replace it. Don’t you know.
Today…
How dark is the politics of China?
It is day light compared to the USA. Look at January 6th incident and the assassination attempts on Trump? And you asked about China ? Are you nuts or are you intentionally insinuating and demonising China? It won’t work! We are appalled by your savage attacks on Donald Trump by you media and the Biden and Obama administration! It is worst than many banana republic!
What is an interesting experience you had while travelling in Canada?
As experienced when traveling by train from Vancouver to Toronto in February this year.
A little adventure as observed.
The train was 7 h late in eastern Manitoba; Suddenly we stopped in the middle of the very dark forest. One of the drivers came to the last car, the bar car, where we were. He said:
“We missed a flag stop, there is a trapper and his dog out there. We cannot leave him in this cold (- 33 C).”
If you want to know about “cold” read Jack London, “To build a fire”.
We could see a very faint light about 2 km behind the train. Then we backed up until we came to where we saw the trapper, his baggage and his dog.
A couple of attendants jumped off the train and tended to his baggage.
The train, 13 cars and about 500 m long, continued to back up. The trapper’s BIG black dog was taken into the heated luggage car, the first car after the TWO locomotives, wrapped in blankets and placed near an electric heater.
Our resident chef was arousen and went to the kitchen at a very late hour to prepare a warming meal for the cold man.
A bit of “Canada” for you. He had been there, outside by the track, for over five hours. No cellphone service and he had no idea when the train would arrive.
When it came, it drove by him at 120 km/h.
Imagine his horror.
What is the reason why the Panama Canal is so important to the world?
Important for the world? Important for the the US to do Gangsterism 101 just like their ugly cousin Britain hold everyone’s balls in in Suez Canal! Sure it is important for the world and but it is two Mafia weapon to hold the world at ransom.
Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins
These enticing golden brown muffins get their sweetness from a triple play of honey, semisweet chocolate, and ripe banana. Serve them with honey, butter, or soft-style cream cheese.
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Yield: 18 muffins
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/3 cups mashed banana (4 medium)
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces
Instructions
Line eighteen 2 1/2 inch muffin cups with paper bake cups; set aside.
In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Make a well in center of flour mixture; set aside.
In another bowl, combine melted butter, honey, milk, and vanilla; add to flour mixture along with mashed banana and chocolate pieces. Stir just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups, filling each 3/4 full.
Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until golden. Remove from muffin cups; cool muffins on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Serve warm.
What is the most probable mechanism that caused life to emerge on Earth?
Difficult question! My guess would be that there was not a single mechanism responsible, nor did it happen from one day to the next.
Important mechanisms to name a few probably were:
1)The spontaneous creation of complex organic molecules from simple molecules in proto-earth.
2)The 3D complexity of very long organic biomolecules, that in combination with external energy can create complex chemical systems that are difficult to reach equilibrium. Also these molecules can react with simpler compounds (CaCO3, aminoacids, etc) and create other molecules with ridiculously complex 3D spatial conformations like them and increase the available for life chemical reservoir.
3)The natural history of reactions favors (and in a way select) the most stable systems. For example adhesive properties can make systems endure external events, hydrophobicity can create membranes, pores, etc, which can protect and sequester reactions, deoxyribonucleic acids and their packaging can lead to relatively stable structures, etc.
4)The fact that we are the observers of the whole phenomenon gives us a specific viewpoint that can be deceiving. I will explain:
a)We don’t realize the unfathomable amount of chemical reactions and events that happen even in a tiny bit of living material. Every chemical reaction in life happens for a natural reason. There is locally no purpose in them, they are natural events. However, we dont see plain reactions, we see for example mitochondria, cells, etc.
b)Life from a strictly biochemical perspective is a sum of chemical systems that interact. From a biochemical standpoint, there is not such a thing as an individual organism. This is probably a result of a need of human brain to organize and understand systems. Thus, we think that living systems can create order, while in fact life as a whole, if we even include for example death, food and nutrient recycling is a much more disordered system overall, exactly like all spontaneously forming chemical systems.
c)Life’s chemical reactions seem to have a purpose because life self-organizes. However, who is the observer? We. The results of this process are the observers of the process. Everything that happens leads to them. This by itself cancels out the epicness of self-organization. If a river could think, how would it perceive the cycle of water it participates? Imagine a series of events: A->B->C…….Y->Z->A->B…etc and the observer is (N+O). The observer will think that this system can self-organize. Although an over-simplification because life is consisted by unfathomable numbers of chemical interactions, all i am saying is that any system will be perceived to have self-organizing properties from the perspective of its results.
And similar systems under the same laws of nature will constantly produce similar results. Imagine you go to a planet with many chemical reactions on its surface. Your chemical analysis will be similar both now and after 30 years. Every chemical reaction in life happens for a natural reason, for example adenine and thymine form bonds during replication. There is no purpose in them, they are natural events. DNA molecules are a part of the soup, but they are stable and their interactions will be relatively preserved and will expand. Changes in DNA sequences will affect the fate of the chemical system and the most sustainable results will dominate. Natural selection will be in full action, but its like looking it from a different angle. Biology and chemistry look like 2 sides of the same coin, but it depends on the angle you observe the phenomenon.
d)There is nothing more tricky than to try to understand logic and human cognition by using…human cognition. Its like trying to see your eyes with your own eyes.
All thoughts, regardless of how deep or complex, can be reduced down to simple chemical processes. There are no exceptions.
Reason is driven by what we perceive as pleasure-seeking integral tendencies and internal forces and instincts (reproduction, survival, etc).
If you are starving for days, you are gonna constantly think of ways to feed yourself. Just write down your thoughts 1 day after you quit smoking and read them after 2 years. One can deliberately fast, but that is because the person decided that this will give him/her even more pleasure (e.g due to religious views, etc) than eating.
Logic is also driven by self or other parties aims and interests. They build and use their existing background that is written in nervous synapses and based on what they have learned so far, they seek of solutions or develop strategies to fullfil their aims and interests. They do so, because this will give them pleasure and avoid pain.
In other words, cognition and logic is a tool of nature to serve its purposes. It is a homeostasis tool, and its no different than the lungs, the kidneys, etc on that sense.
So to conclude, there are probably several mechanisms that enabled life to emerge, but the main mechanism that made biology different than chemistry is probably the fact that we are the observers.
Where??? (She’s so confused)
Why do foreigners feel very comfortable living in China?
BEIJING: Not all foreigners feel very comfortable in China, but there are many of us who do. I have lived and worked in the capital city for over 11 years so I can provide my prospective on how to adapt and feel better here.
A person coming to China should first know their purpose for arriving in the country. Are they simply a short-term visitor planning to take a vacation or to visit friends or relatives?
If you are just coming for a week or two, it’s best to write up a list of places you hope to visit and do your best to follow the schedule.
For tourists, there are many amazing sites to see, but it’s a big country so it’s best to organize a schedule to meet your objectives. Do you like cities or the countryside?
The major cities are Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Wuhan Chengdu and many other cities with big populations and huge skyscrapers.
For first time tourists with just a week to visit, I would suggest going to Beijing and/or Shanghai.
The capital city is home to the Forbidden Palace, Great Wall of China, Summer Palace, along with many great museums.
While Shanghai is the financial hub so it’s great for dining out, shopping and strolling around the public gardens, parks and of course the Bund.
Nevertheless, China is more than a place for people to take a tour for a leisure trip.
Many people such as myself have moved here for the long-term so this requires having a different mindset to adjust to the cultural differences.
Under these circumstances, you should spend more time reading about China before moving to the country.
Good topics on China should be on Chinese-related history, literature, cultural, economics and contemporary books.
China has a long and rich history so it’s important to know not only the history of the People’s Republic of China and the ruling CPC (Communist Party of China) but you should read books about Ancient China’s history and the imperial dynasties.
That can help one better understand the real mindsets of the Chinese as they take pride in coming from a civilization that has endured for over 5,000 years.
The philosophy of Confucianism plays a strong role in Chinese culture to this day. Chinese families are closely knit and care deeply about education.
Confucianism promotes an ethical code that favors conformity, respect for elders and authority and to embrace a social harmony that places support for the community above support for the individual.
We can learn more about how Confucianism impacts Chinese society from National Geographic. The link is here:
This endangered mandrill (Mandrillus sphinx) was photographed by National Geographic Photographer Joel Sartore on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea, in his ambitious project to document every species in captivity—inspiring people not just to care, but also to help protect these animals for future generations. Before drills disappear,
As reported by National Geographic:
“The main idea of Confucianism is the importance of having a good moral character, which can then affect the world around that person through the idea of ‘cosmic harmony.’ If the emperor has moral perfection, his rule will be peaceful and benevolent. Natural disasters and conflict are the result of straying from the ancient teachings. This moral character is achieved through the virtue of ren, or ‘humanity,’ which leads to more virtuous behaviours, such as respect, altruism, and humility. Confucius believed in the importance of education in order to create this virtuous character. He thought that people are essentially good yet may have strayed from the appropriate forms of conduct. Rituals in Confucianism were designed to bring about this respectful attitude and create a sense of community within a group.”
Based on my experiences, I would advise people planning to move here for the long term to develop more patience, humility and stay reasonable when dealing with unexpected situations.
Why North America is preparing for an Arctic battle
There’s an Egyptian dessert called Oum Ali which commemorates a murder. The story goes that Shajar al-Durr, widow of a 13th century sultan, could not be ruler of Egypt unless she married. So she found herself a total pushover of a husband named Izz al-Din Aybak who she thought would make a fine puppet sultan. He was already married, but that did not stop the ambitious sultana-to-be. She simply forbade him from seeing his first wife and his son Ali.The ruling couple did not exactly live happily ever after. The sultan missed his old family. Eventually, the sultana had the sultan murdered and announced to the world that he had very tragically and completely accidentally died while taking a bath. The sultan’s first wife was not going to stand for this. She lured the sultana to the bath house, where her servants beat her to death with their slippers. To celebrate her victory, the first wife cooked up a delicious bread pudding with coconut and almonds and served it to all her friends. And she named the dish Oum Ali after herself: Ali’s mother. What a woman.I’ve never actually tasted this dessert, but the story stuck in my mind for three reasons. First of all, Egyptians are weird. Why would you name a dessert after a murderer? Second, this tragedy could have been avoided if they’d just let Shajar al-Durr be sultana and supreme ruler without a man. She was quite competent, apparently. Third, and perhaps most importantly, in the right hands a slipper can be a formidable weapon. I had a slipper. It was the middle of the night and someone was moving around my apartment. A burglar? A deranged mass murderer? A ghost? I needed all the weaponry I could get.I suppose Oum Ali and her servants used a fairly hefty type of slipper, perhaps something wooden like a clog. I had one of those flimsy slippers that are complimentary on long flights. I honestly don’t know why there was a slipper in the pocket of my dressing gown. The other pocket contained a toothpick and a postcard. I thought of the bread knife in the kitchen and the hammer in the tool chest. Both were beyond my reach. My bedroom did not contain any convenient cricket bats or thick hardcover books.My fingers tensed around the slipper in my pocket as I crept down the hallway. The light was on in the kitchen and someone was clattering around in there. Drawers. Cutlery. Plates. The tap. The fridge. A pan. The gas stove. Then a tiny crack followed by a loud sizzling sound. What kind of burglar breaks into a house to fry an egg?I peered around the corner and saw a woman dressed in green. She had dark hair that was fighting its way out of a fancy braid. She looked fairly harmless, but I did not relinquish the grasp on the slipper. Perhaps I could slip past her to the living room, find my phone, call the police…I must’ve made a noise because she glanced up.“Hi,” she said, with a flicker of a smile. “I suppose you are wondering what I’m doing in your kitchen in the middle of the night.”“Well, yes.”“Long story.” She opened a drawer and began to rummage through it. “Do you have a spatula?”“How did you get in?”“Your spare key. Honey, your letterbox is the first place burglars look. You really should be more careful.” She spotted the spatula in the earthenware jar by the stove and extracted it with a flourish. “You’re not hungry, are you? There was just one egg.”I shook my head and sat down at the kitchen table while she made herself a cup of tea and some toast to go with her egg. Sunny side up. She sat down opposite me and began to wolf down her food. I kept my hand in my pocket. The slipper felt oddly comforting.“So, first things first,” she said, between bites. “I’m Gloria.”I said nothing.“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”“I’m waiting to hear what you’re doing in my apartment.” I was also pinching myself repeatedly but all that got me was a bruised forearm. This was not a dream.The woman – Gloria – mopped up the last of the egg with a piece of toast and popped it into her mouth. “Would you believe me if I said I’m a secret agent, trying to track down a spy who could endanger my entire mission?”“What mission?”“Top secret, can’t tell you.”“I don’t believe you.”“Fair enough. I’ll give you a broad outline. It involves a stolen Rembrandt painting, three cardinals and a significant quantity of enriched uranium.”“I still don’t believe you.”“Too far-fetched? Yes, I suppose it is.” She took a sip of her tea. “What if I said I broke in on a dare?”“Better,” I said. “But still not believable enough. What sort of dare involves cooking?”“I have weird friends.”That I could believe.Gloria took another sip of tea. “You’d like me to leave, don’t you?”“Yes. I don’t like people breaking into my apartment.”“Is it technically breaking in if I used a key?”“Yes.”“I suppose you’re right.” She got to her feet, brushed a few crumbs of her shirt and put her plate in the sink. She also left the dirty frying pan on the stove.“Well,” she said. “It was a pleasure meeting you.”She held out her hand. When I didn’t move, she reached forward and pulled mine out of my pocket. I was still holding the slipper, and she raised an eyebrow at the sight of it.“You’re weird,” she said.
“Bit rich coming from you.”
“Who keeps a slipper in the pocket of their dressing gown?”
“Who breaks into a stranger’s apartment in the middle of the night to fry an egg?”
“I was hungry.”
“Then use your own kitchen!”
“Not possible, I’m afraid. My kitchen is far away. It would take me years to get back there.”
It was my turn to raise an eyebrow.
“It’s true,” she said. The smile was back on her face. The corners of her eyes crinkled. “I’m a time traveller from the distant future.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Well, then! I’m an alien, and my home planet is dozens of light years from here.”
“I don’t believe you. And if you don’t tell me the truth right now, I’m calling the police.”
“And tell them what? That someone broke in and stole your last egg? I’ll be long gone before they get here. You can’t stop me.”
I held up my slipper. “I’ll use this.”
“To do what?”
I whacked her around the head with it. She blinked. I whacked her again. The slipper was drooping at a sad angle. I would be writing the Egyptian people a sternly worded letter concerning the effectiveness of slippers in hand-to-hand combat.
“Stop it,” Gloria said, after I’d whacked her a third time.
“Not until you tell me why you are here!” My brain was fizzing and my kitchen looked oddly shiny and blurred around the edges, the way everything looks when you are so tired you don’t realise you are tired anymore. It was nearly three in the morning by now.
“All right, then,” said Gloria. “I’ll tell you. I’m the queen of the fairies, and I appear in the human world once a year. If I am warmly received, I bless the world. If I am not, I curse it.”
“Curse all you want.” I raised the slipper.
She did swear then, a colourful string of invectives that would have made a sailor blush.
“Actually, I’m a scientist,” she said. A smile flickered across her face again. “I’m studying how people respond to strange situations.”
“I wonder what your ethics committee thinks of that.”
Perhaps I could push her out of my apartment. I stepped forward, and she stepped back, eyeing the slipper in my hand. Step by step, I nudged her towards the front door.
“I’m a member of the neighbourhood watch,” she said, as she took a step backwards into the hallway. “I regularly check if people hide their spare keys in stupid places, and then confront them like this.”
“That’s crazy.”
Gloria had her back to my front door now.
“You win,” she said. She took something out of her pocket and handed it to me. It was my spare key.
I opened the door. A blast of cold air made me shiver. “Why are you really here?”
“I’ve given you at least half a dozen reasons.”
“Are you saying one of them is the truth?”
“No,” she said. “All of them are.”
And she stepped out into the night and was gone.
I locked and bolted the door and placed a chair under the handle for good measure.
I can’t remember falling asleep but I must have done. I woke up the next morning with a pounding headache, still clutching the slipper. When I padded down the hallway, the first thing I saw was a chair propped against my front door. There was a dirty frying pan on the stove and a plate in the sink. I opened my fridge and saw I had one egg. There was a tiny note beside it.
I am many things, the note said. But not a thief.
Dresses inappropriately to get attention at the gym and NO ONE looks at her.
Title: The Chronicles of Sir Whiskerton: The Farm’s Feline Philosopher
If you must know, my name is Sir Whiskerton. Yes, Sir. I wasn’t knighted, but I knighted myself because, quite frankly, no one else on this farm has the class or intelligence to recognize my superior status. I’m a cat—a sleek, black-coated specimen of perfection—living amongst a bunch of clumsy, oafish creatures who call themselves farm animals. I tolerate them because the humans here provide decent food, and the sunlit barn roof is an ideal perch for my daily naps. But let me take you through one of my days, so you can understand the trials and tribulations I endure in my noble existence.
Morning: The Rooster Rivalry
The day begins, as it always does, with Harold the rooster making an absolute spectacle of himself. At precisely 5:00 AM, he climbs onto the fence post, puffs up his ridiculous feathers, and belts out a “cock-a-doodle-doo” so loud it could wake the dead. Naturally, I’ve told him before that this is unnecessary. The sun will rise whether or not he screams about it. But Harold thinks he’s some kind of celestial alarm clock.
“Harold,” I said just yesterday, “no one asked for your opinion on the time.” He didn’t respond because, well, he’s a chicken, and chickens are not known for their intellectual prowess. I will admit, though, that sometimes I find his delusions amusing. This morning, I simply glared at him from my spot on the haystack, my tail flicking in disdain.
“Don’t look at me like that, Whiskerton,” Harold squawked. “I’m doing my job!”
“Your job is unnecessary,” I replied with a yawn. “You’re like a noisy clock that no one uses anymore. Ever heard of smartphones? The humans have those now.”
Harold didn’t get it, of course. He never does. I let him strut around like he owns the place. One day, he’ll realize no one respects him, and I’ll be there to say, “I told you so.”
Midday: The Cow Conundrum
By lunchtime, I’d meandered over to the pasture to supervise the cows. They’re a particularly dull bunch, but they’re also massive, so I make sure to keep them in check. Today, Bessie, the largest and slowest of them all, was in a tizzy because she lost her bell. Again.
“Whiskerton, have you seen my bell?” she mooed, her big, watery eyes staring at me as if I cared.
“Bessie,” I said with a sigh, “you lose that bell at least twice a week. Have you checked under your giant butt?”
This was, of course, a logical suggestion, but cows are not known for their deductive reasoning. She just stared at me, confused, until one of the humans came by and found her bell hanging from a tree branch. A tree branch. I don’t even want to know how it got there.
“See?” I said smugly. “This is why I don’t wear accessories. They’re just a hassle.”
Bessie thanked the human, completely ignoring my sage advice, and went back to chewing cud. Honestly, I don’t know why I bother.
Afternoon: The Great Pig Heist
Now, here’s where things got interesting. Around mid-afternoon, I decided to patrol the barn to ensure everything was in order. This is when I stumbled upon something truly disturbing: the pigs were plotting a heist.
Yes, you heard me. The pigs. Plotting. A heist.
I overheard them whispering near the feed trough. “Tonight’s the night,” said Porkchop, the self-proclaimed ringleader. “We’re making a run for the cornfield.”
“Are you serious?” I said, stepping out of the shadows. “You’re going to risk your lives for corn? You do realize you’re already well-fed, right?”
Porkchop snorted. “You wouldn’t understand, Whiskerton. You’re not a pig.”
“Thank goodness for that,” I retorted. “But let me remind you that the humans will not be pleased if they catch you. And if they’re not pleased, they might forget to fill my food bowl. So, no, I cannot allow this nonsense.”
The pigs looked at each other, then back at me. “What are you gonna do about it?” Porkchop asked, his tone defiant.
I smiled—a slow, menacing smile that only a cat can pull off. “Let’s just say I know where the humans keep the electric fence remote.”
That shut them up real quick.
Evening: The Surprise Ending
By nightfall, I was feeling quite pleased with myself. I’d survived another day surrounded by idiots, and I was ready to settle into my favorite spot on the barn roof. As I stretched out under the stars, I reflected on my accomplishments: I’d put Harold in his place, solved Bessie’s bell crisis, and foiled the pigs’ ridiculous cornfield heist. Truly, I was the unsung hero of this farm.
But just as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a commotion below. I peered over the edge of the roof and saw something that made my fur stand on end: the pigs had done it. They’d made it to the cornfield.
“How?!” I yowled into the night. “I warned you!”
Porkchop looked up at me, a smug grin on his muddy face. “You may be clever, Whiskerton, but you forgot one thing: we’re pigs. We don’t care about rules.”
And that’s when I realized the moral of the story: You can’t reason with stupidity. Especially when it’s determined, hungry, and covered in mud.
As I watched the humans chase the pigs back to the barn, I sighed and settled back down on the roof. “Let them have their fun,” I muttered. “I’m too dignified for this nonsense.”
And with that, I closed my eyes and dreamed of a world where cats ruled the farms and everyone else did as they were told. A cat can dream, can’t he?
The End.
What did your neighbors do to you that made you never want to speak with them again?
My husband and I were invited to a neighbors house for a potluck dinner.
I made a beautiful cake and put it on a beautiful cake platter that I had recently purchased.
It’s always my husband‘s job to make sure that whatever plate I bring to someone’s house comes back with us. So when the cake was finished, he grabbed the plate and quickly washed it and Put it into our car that was parked right outside.
A few weeks later, this woman called me and asked if she could borrow the platter. I told her of course she could and just pick it up anytime you want.
Two weeks later, I still hadn’t heard from her, so I called her up and asked her if I could come by and pick up the platter.
Her response?!?!
She then said to me “oh! You want to borrow my platter?”
I almost choked! I said “no Susan, I would like you to return my platter, the platter that you borrowed from me.
she then told me that I was mistaken, and the platter was hers. She told me she had recently bought it at Macy’s.
The first time she saw the platter was at my house and at the time she asked me where I had gotten it and I told her at Macy*s!
this woman was a member of the country club and I knew she went there regularly. I waited a few days until I knew she was at the club and sent my husband over to her house.
Her husband was home and didn’t know anything about this so my husband just said he was there to pick up our platter.
The husband was very nice and apologized that it hadn’t been brought back to us sooner.
Three hours later, I got a very angry call from Susan, who actually threatened to take me to court to get “her” Platter back.
Why did China change from being neutral to being pro-Russian?
Ask yourself what you have been doing?
You demonised China on environment and China clean up and you set 100% tariffs on EVs and Solar panels!
You accused China of stealing your technology but today you are very disturbed China is the biggest registrant of your US intellectual property rights?
You and 183/197 nations recognised Taiwan is part of China but you sell weapons to Taiwan to fight with China?
You sailed your military ships at China’s backyard but China is not in English Channel, or Florida’s coast or Tasman seas but you call China aggressive and yourself peaceful?
You wanted to finished Russia then focus on China, so why should China helped you do that!
Every Man Needs To Watch This
Do you reckon that China’s debut of its sixth generation NGAD fighter jet during the Christmas holiday has marred the leisure time of Pentagon civilian officials and will likely induce restless nights for them?
On December 26, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) simultaneously displayed two different sixth-generation NGAD fighter jet, the 076 amphibious landing ship, the WZ-9 strategic drone, and the KJ3000 AWACS in tribute to Chairman Mao, the founder of the PLA.
Some Chinese in the United States sent a message saying that traffic jams have started near the Pentagon, and classic pizza restaurants have also started to be overwhelmed.
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In Washington, the U.S. House of Representatives urgently announced on the 26th that it would hold an extraordinary meeting on the 27th…
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I didn’t expect that Americans would attach so much importance to Chairman Mao’s birthday. Americans are so polite. 😅
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Notably, photos taken in Sichuan Province indicate that China’s new aircraft are already marked with serial numbers. According to Chinese military regulations, only equipment that has been formally delivered to combat units is allowed to have serial numbers. This could suggest that China’s 6th generation fighter has already entered mass production and may even be combat-ready.
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From this perspective, it is still not enough for the US military to evacuate from Okinawa in the first island chain to Guam in the second island chain. Perhaps it will be safe enough to evacuate to Hawaii in the third island chain. The second island chain is also about to collapse… 😂
U.S Marines’ transfer to Guam from Okinawa to start in December
The transfer of U.S Marine Corps troops stationed in Japan’s Okinawa to Guam will start in December, a Marines official said Sunday, the latest development in a long-agreed Japan-U.S forces realignment plan aimed at reducing the southern island prefecture’s base-hosting burden.
The key to developing a new generation of fighter jets lies in having the necessary next-generation research facilities—specifically hypersonic wind tunnels. In this field, the U.S. is at least eight years behind China.
Wind tunnels are research facilities that simulate real-world flight conditions on the ground, with hypersonic wind tunnels reaching speeds of at least Mach 5. Beijing’s JF-22 wind tunnel can simulate speeds up to Mach 30, flight altitudes of 100 kilometres, and continuous operation for more than 100 milliseconds, making it the world’s most advanced wind tunnel. In contrast, the VOA reported in 2023 that the most advanced U.S. wind tunnel, LENS II, can only simulate speeds of Mach 7 and operate for just 30 milliseconds.
To understand the difference, imagine developing aircraft as training athletes. Having a super-fast treadmill allows engineers to closely observe the athlete’s form and offer precise feedback without having to transport test models to 100 kilometres in altitude. This not only reduces the risk of espionage during development but fundamentally improves the maturity of technology verification machines, ensuring fewer losses and greater safety for test pilots.
While the U.S. Sandia National Laboratory’s Z Machine can accelerate airflow to Mach 30, its primary purpose is to study shock waves for nuclear fusion, and it can only operate for a very brief period. Unlike Beijing’s JF-22, which is designed for continuous operation, the Z Machine cannot simulate sustained high-speed flight conditions needed for aircraft and missiles. It’s like trying to train a sprinter with a treadmill that can only simulate one step. Even if Usain Bolt’s first step is faster than anyone else’s, he won’t win the gold medal if he doesn’t complete the remaining 99 meters.
However, as of November 2024, the U.S. remains behind. The most recently delivered wind tunnel at the University of Notre Dame can only reach Mach 10, just one-third of the capability of China’s JF-22.
The development of hypersonic missiles also requires hypersonic wind tunnels. The lack of hypersonic wind tunnels is the reason why the United States has not successfully tested its hypersonic missiles.
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ARRW hypersonic missile test failed, US Air Force admits
Secretary Frank Kendall confirmed this month’s ARRW hypersonic test wasn’t successful, and said the service is more committed to another weapon.
The faster the flight speed, the greater the air resistance, and the more difficult it is to control the flight. If there is a slight deviation during the flight, the missile will have an error of tens or even hundreds of kilometers from the target.
Hypersonic aircraft is a technology that the United States has not yet developed. In the near space war zone, the sixth-generation fighter jets fly at a speed of Mach 5 at an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, opening up a new air combat mode.
The sixth-generation fighter jets flying in near space need to switch between high-density and low-density air.
Can the B2 or B21 fly at Mach 5? The only standard flight speed of the sixth-generation aircraft is Mach 5. 🤣🤣🤣
Personally, I think it would be better for the Americans to come out and brag about supersonic missiles after they have successfully developed them!
Hurdles in the Hypersonic Race: The United States’ Failed ARRW Program
The U.S. hypersonic program is lagging behind those of its primary adversaries due to multiple factors. The cancellation of the ARRW hypersonic program sheds light on this
Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope
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Neutrino experimental device
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TRUTHFULLY (How to Stop Lying with Squares) (AQAL Quadrant analysis)
Cinnamon Crunch Cobblestone Muffins
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Yield: 12 servings or 24 sample servings
Ingredients
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/3 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 (11.3 ounce) packages refrigerated dinner rolls
1 tablespoon flour
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Chop pecans using Food Chopper. Combine pecans, sugar and cinnamon in Small Batter Bowl; mix well. Microwave butter in Small Micro-Cooker(R) on HIGH 30 seconds or until melted.
Separate rolls; cut each roll into 6 pieces using Pizza Cutter. Place half of the dough pieces and 2 tablespoons of the butter in Classic Batter Bowl; toss gently to coat using Small Mix ‘N Scraper(R). Sprinkle with 1/4 cup of the sugar mixture; toss to coat. Evenly divide dough pieces to fill 6 muffin cups in Stoneware Muffin Pan. Repeat with remaining dough, 2 tablespoons of the butter and 1/4 cup of the sugar mixture; divide evenly to fill remaining muffin cups.
Add flour to remaining sugar mixture in batter bowl; add remaining melted butter and mix until crumbly. Using Small Scoop, place scant scoop of crumb topping over each muffin.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until muffins are deep golden brown.
Remove from oven to Stackable Cooling Rack. Let stand 5 minutes.
Remove from pan using Small Spreader; serve warm.
Do you think U.S. Congress should lift its ban on NASA cooperation with China in space?
No!
They were the ones that introduced the ban (Wolf Amendment) to deliberately ostracise China thus depriving them of any form of information sharing in that field.
So in asking in such a manner is looking like as if the US congress is benevolent in doing so in the eyes of those ignorant about the bad intentions of the US congress that introduced it in the first place. It gives hypocrisy a new meaning and a with such a shameless manner.
It’s like banishing someone only to accept him back when found that he’s badly needed to be reused.
The US is now seen as an ungrateful nation and treating others countries like disposable diapers. The entire EU countries and a number of Asian nations has become “Diaper Nations” to the US but China isn’t one of those.
Do I think the US congress should lift the.. ?
By lifting that ban now only show to the rest of the world how an entire congress becomes an instant pariah if it hasn’t already.
5 Real Reasons I Left America To Live Abroad As A PASSPORT BRO.
In response to Donald Trump’s threats, why doesn’t Greenland kick the US out of their base there, and get the British and the Swedes and the Germans to send troops there instead?
To kick USA out of Greenland? Not so easy.
USA is withdrawing troops from Okinawa in Dec 2024 to Guam & Hawaii.
No doubt for years, Okinawans staged countless protests against US soldiers on their island, but USA the mafia did not care, until 2024.
What makes USA change its mind?
It is because USA knows it cannot fight China in case of war. USA cannot protect its 1st island chain which covers Japan incl Okinawa, S Korea, Taiwan & Philippines. It fact, USA cannot protect its 2nd island chain Guam either. Nor Hawaii. Nor US mainland.
China has both medium & long range missiles that can hit 4000 km ie as far as Guam. China also can hit 8000 km ie Hawaii. In Sep 2024, China has successfully tested fired a 3rd generation intercontinental hypersonic missile that can hit US mainland in minutes.
USA reported that China has finished installing its med-long range missiles ie USA cannot defend its 1st island chain any more. That is why USA withdraws troops from Okinawa.
USA made it news about Okinawa because USA wanted to make it look like USA is such a gentleman who would listen to protests.
My guess is that USA may have quietly withdrawn troops & heavy duty weapons from Japan mainland & S Korea to Guam too. For the same reason, USA cannot defend the 1st island chain.
Now your question.
Greenlanders cannot kick USA out. USA is a mafia who only bows down to fist/weapon. Not to lip/protest.
Look at Syria. USA has illegally occupied the Syrian oil fields, stealing 80% of Syrian total oil production before war. USA also steals Syrian grain. UN condemned USA many times but failed because mafia USA is shameless.
That said. Greenlanders should learn from Okinawa. Protest & make international news. Constantly. Go to UN too. Lip pressure is better than none.
If Greenland is thinking to get military help, dont ask UK or Germany. They are US puppets & will bow down to USA.
Go ask for UN peacekeeping. Go join SCO to see if Russia or China can help with peacekeeping.
Good luck, Greenland. Stay strong because Greenland is sitting on a “gold” mine rich in natural resources AND north pole seaway.
What country do Westerners think has far worse corruption, the US or Russia?
One weekend in Sacramento with my girlfriend at the time we discovered a cool little state-owned military museum. It was exactly the kind of place I love, nothing too grandiose, just a treasure trove of authentic military displays, items and diaramas.
While I was there, I ran into one of the museum’s staff (he was a director or something like that) who was also a lieutenant colonel in the California Army National Guard. We had a great conversation about a lot of things. At the time, I worked for the California NG’s public affairs unit.
I messaged my boss and said this would be a great place to publish an article about, and she agreed. Then a couple of days later she contacted me and said absolutely do not write about the museum, don’t say anything about it. I was baffled and asked why. She didn’t know, that was just the instructions she received.
Then about a week later, that guy I talked to was caught by the Feds robbing the museum in the middle of the night with a few accomplices.
Just to explain what happened here: when a WWII veteran dies, his family will often donate all of his stuff to a museum. Old uniform items and nazi war trophies can be quite valuable on marketplaces like Ebay.
So sitting on millions of dollars worth of trinkets was just too much of a temptation for the lieutenant colonel. And mind you, this guy was not poor by any stretch of the imagination. He was a senior officer in the US Army, plus his position at the museum. But he still supplemented his income with theft. In his mind, he probably justified this enterprise as a victimless crime. The museum was getting more donated old kit and war trophies than they could ever use, and he decided to sell some of it and keep the money for himself.
Another example that stuck out to me. Last year I read about a Marine supply sergeant at Camp Pendleton who was convicted for his role in a crime ring that that sold leftover training ammunition on the civilian market.
Just to be clear, military bureaucracy is annoying and if this guy was just being a little fast and loose with the paperwork I wouldn’t judge him. “Hey Bob, just throw this ammo in your garage and we’ll get together to drink some beer and shoot it off later.” Not legal, but the ammo is getting used for what it was intended for. But these guys were stealing from the American taxpayer and pocketing the money.
And the thing is, it was a trivial amount of money. A Marine sergeant in California would be making at least 6 or 7 thousand dollars a month. And it’s not like they were selling Javelin missiles or 40mm grenades or anything like that. Just excess 5.56mm rifle and 9mm rounds. Was it really worth throwing away his career and spending time in prison for a few hundred dollars here and there? It blows my mind. But that’s corruption for you.
One time I traveled to Camp Roberts in central California and had a long talk with a senior guy at the G-8 (Finance). There had just recently been a massive scandal involving misuse of funds. Money that was supposed to be going to camp renovations was being rerouted to the neighboring base at San Luis Obispo, and also people’s pockets. He was the one honest guy in a den of thieves so got away unscathed, but I noticed he seemed to look older than he actually was.
I can think of at least a couple of other extraordinary cases of corruption that I interacted with personally.
So to actually answer the question, I have thought about how dirty the Russian government is in comparison to the US government, and I have tried to be impartial about it. How much does the average Russian official steal in comparison to the average American official? One HUGE advantage the US has is that our government employees are usually paid pretty well. I continue to be amazed at how little Russian government employees are often paid. BUT, as I already said, good pay doesn’t eliminate the temptation to steal.
The cultural trait working against Americans in comparison to Russians is that we tend to deny the problem exists. I have never met a Russian who denies that corruption exists and is a problem in Russia. But from talking to Americans, they very often bellow that corruption is not a problem and if you even try to suggest it might be, they scream “But but but North Korea but but but Russia but but but Cuba!” That doesn’t boost my confidence that the problem is actually being addressed properly.
She kept a stone in her pocket. A black stone, cold to the touch, but it fit her palm as if moulded just for her. In times of indecision, she ran her thumb over the flat surface discerning the small crevices and bumps, angulations eyes could not see, but touch could memorise. Intuitively, the surface’s rises and falls represented life’s journeys, the everyday ups-and-downs, and scars, and struggles. Touching was usually enough to soothe her worries, one large Zen bead, or single Rosary bead.Occasionally, she needed to see the stone; to believe it existed. On those arduous days, sitting elbows on knees, moving this touched connection, this weight, from hand to hand, she’d view the depth of the black colour with its subtle contrast of weathered-white speckles. Doing so brought the piece into reality; making it more than something connected only by emotion, or something only ethereal. She had trust in the magic of this rock. This stone delivered to her at her mother’s funeral, when the pastor’s random pull from an amethyst bag, placed the smooth weight into her hand. She needed to see it, for it to be real, on those lonely doubt-filled days, the rock got her through.She rolled the stone over, her eyes mesmerised by the gold engraved cursive. It couldn’t be wrong. It was her mother’s last word, the only unanswered question, answered by a rock placed in her hand, a smooth stone that had seen her through several storms, a gem that spoke to her by feel, and could bring the warmth and pure earthy smell of her mother’s love to her as if by magic—a beautiful black stone with a single, now tarnished, gold word—dream. She read the gold cursive word that she had poured her money into, lost family over, had worked her fingers to the bone to earn. It had to—no—must be; real. If it weren’t, then she’d have nothing.That was the day she laid aside the expectations. She let out the breath she had been holding within, with all her might, for all her life. It was the end, acting as the end always does, as a disguised beginning.She believed beyond reason because if it existed, all her dreams would transform into reality as tangible as this touchstone looked, and felt, and smelled. Faith in the pebble in her pocket fed the hunger of her dream.She slipped the treasured gem back into her pocket — the weight a subtle reminder to ground herself. With a new glimmer of onyx inspiration, she slid behind the keyboard and began the novel, yet again. Knowing beyond any self-doubt, the rock in her pocket would see her through.“When do you think she will believe in herself as much as she believes in that dark abyss of a rock she carries?” her deceased grandmother asked.“Knowing her, not until that rock is dust,” her deceased mother responded. With that, they both picked up their pickaxes and chipped away at the crevices. Each swings’ corresponding chime, creating a song along a nerve, which arrived in their loved one’s brain, tap by loving tap, when silent, she heard—It’s not the rock, baby; it’s you. Believe in you
Make Sure
What’s your opinion on hatred of H-1B workers by MAGA supporters? Do you think H1B should go back to their home country?
Are we actually seeing a Civil war?
Trump with his MAGA base, anti migration, pro bringing back manufacturing
His VP seems to have vanished completely
Instead you have Musk and Ramaswamy both of whom are migrants or descended from migrants and both of whom want more migrants into the US and one of whom has exemptions to buy batteries from China without Tariffa and who has the largest of his Giga factories in Shanghai
The MAGA dont hate the Mexican migrants anymore
The Mexicans are needed for manual labor, babysitting & harvesting veggies
The MAGA mob wont do that
So what else?
They want the H1B migrants out
The ones who can buy nice houses, pay nice rents and keep the costs high and who have taken over the Bay Area
It could be the end of the MAGA movement forever
The MAGA are feeling increasingly betrayed and feel they have been taken as suckers
Now they see main stream media and start thinking either that
Trump made fools of us
Or
Trump is being fooled by these two prigs – Ramaswamy & Musk
The may no longer vote for whoever Trump says anymore.
Do i think H1B visa holders should go back to their home country?
No idea
No idea how much the demand or supply for them is or where they work
However I can bet the MAGA supporters cannot replace them in any sizeable numbers
What do Europeans find most shocking about American restaurant culture when visiting the US?
First, I want to say that we have had excellent meals at restaurants in the U.S. This includes simple diners as well as restaurants with a Michelin star or which are on a star level.
But there are some things which are shocking indeed:
There are restaurants which do not serve alcohol. Once we stayed in a motel near Cape Canaveral in the middle of nowhere and there was nothing nearby but a Cracker Barrel to grab something to eat and they did not serve alcohol. Very hard for us Europeans to have dinner without wine.
Even after travelling to the U.S. for 40 years we still find it shocking how rushed it is in American restaurants. You have barely finished your plate and you are handed the check. In Europe, we like to sit at the table, have one more glass or two and contemplate about what we have eaten. Once, while having a longish layover at a U.S. airport we thought it was a good idea to spend some time in a restaurant. But they rushed to serve us our meal, handed us the check and indicated that we had to leave. Unthinkable in Europe.
When our kids were young we took them with us to fine dining restaurants. Obviously, the Americans do not like the idea to take children into a gourmet restaurant, although our kids always were well-behaved. We ordered filet mignon for them and other things and there was absolutely no reason to raise eyebrows.
In Salt Lake City we stayed at the Hilton Hotel when our kids were six years old. The hotel restaurant did not let the children in because the restaurant had a license to serve alcohol. Completely ridiculous to think that parents would give their six-year old alcohol! We then went to a nearby Mexican restaurant which served 36 kinds of tequila, but they happily accepted our kids.
In a restaurant in Alaska, we had show our passports, including my 88-year-old mother-in-law. How stupid can people be?
This was an honest answer by someone who loves to travel to the U.S. I expect Americans to eat me alive for my answer but the questioner asked for it.
Why Don’t Men “PURSUE WOMEN” Anymore | Women Realizing ” CHIVALRY IS DEAD” in 2024 – Kozmicverse
It was freezing as I make my way to the bus stop, but that wasn’t the only reason I stuffed my hands in my pockets and kept them there. For the majority of my life, I thought I was severely shy. So shy to the point I’d be stuck in the moment and couldn’t speak. There were so many passing moments, I should have spoken up about something, but every time, my voice escapes me. So many things I should have done, but my body would become paralyzed with an unknown fear.Later in life, I found out I was diagnosed with panic disorder and anxiety. Everything keeps me on edge. That’s why I keep my hand in my pockets. My right hand constantly caressing the content inside. I stay ready; that way, I don’t have to waste any time getting ready.I round the corner as my heart beats faster, pumping blood throughout my entire body. My eyes are wide open, and I’m alert as can be. This isn’t the best neighborhood to walk in alone, but it also isn’t the worst. I’d probably have these same emotions walking inside a gated community.My ears pick up the most silent of things. For instance, I’m sure I could hear an ant burrowing under the ground as I walk past. A dog barks in the distance. It’s faint like he’s barricaded inside the house, but it still causes me to jump, which throws my anxiety into overdrive. I squeeze my fingers around the object inside my pocket, ready to pull it out and use it at any moment. It’s the only protection I have. I wouldn’t feel safe at all without it.It’s so cold out here, my breath turns the air in front of me to that which resembles smoke. I see the bus stop up ahead, which makes me feel calmer, knowing my destination is only a few feet away. I try to slow my steps, thinking it would also slow my heart rate as I implement my breathing techniques.I can hear a car in the distance, probably going a little faster than it should in a residential area. It creeps me out because I don’t see it yet, and then it rounds the same corner I’d just turned.“WHOOP! WHOOP!” That loud piercing sound stops me dead in my tracks and freezes me. Only my physical movements because everything else inside my body again kicks into overdrive.The car comes to a rolling stop right in front of me with the cop car just behind it. In my head, I’m screaming to myself to just get the heck away from there and keep going. This isn’t my business. Once again, my hand squeezes the safety net inside my pocket. My mind shouts for my body to move and continue to make my way to the bus stop, but it’s as if my shoes have turned into cement blocks. If I don’t hurry, I will miss my bus.Nonetheless, I’m frozen with fear. Fear of the situation unfolding in front of me. Fear of leaving and fear of staying. The guy in the driver’s seat easily resembles one of my sons or even nephews. The cop approaching the car also resembles a few of my family members who wear the same uniform. We all are well aware and informed on how this scenario usually plays out. I pull my protection half-way from my pocket, making sure I have a firm grip on it.The officer pumps his chest out as he saunters over to the driver’s side. Feeling instantly agitated, he knocks on the frostedwindow. He shouldn’t have to do that because it should be common sense that he can’t have a proper conversation through the closed glass. His senses heightens, feeling this stop could bepotentially dangerous. “License and registration,” the cop barks as the driver only cracks his window open a smidgeon. What is he trying to hide? The cop thinks to himself as he places a palm on his side, firmly gripping his protection. (I get it. If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.)The guy inside the vehicle catches a glimpse of the cop resting his hand on the gun inside the holster. “Why did you pull me over?” The driver shouts through the slit in the glass.I’m sure all of our hearts were beating out of our chests at the moment.“Step out of the vehicle with your hands up!” The officer yells as he takes a step back and brandishes his weapon in front of him, pointing directly at the driver’s window. Anxiety pumps through his veins as he watches for any sudden movements.“I’m not getting out! Why did you pull me over?” The man in the car is filled with fear himself as he sees the barrow of the gun. Anxiety takes over him and he hovers his right foot over the gas pedal. His flight or fight senses kicking in as his fingers tightly grip the steering wheel. He’s contemplating his chances of zooming off and taking flight.The cop removes the stick from his side, ready to bash the driver’s window in. That’s when I pull my hand from my pocket and aim. Who do I shoot? The cop? Or the man in the car? I can’t decide, so I shoot them both.“STOP!” I yell with every fiber of my being, it had even shocked me. From my single voice, the world had come to a halt. Nothing moved or made a sound. Even my camera phone I was holding in my hand had stopped recording and paused.I make my way towards the police officer and hold my paused phone up to him. I can see everything…Officer Churchill had lost his partner not too long ago in a routine stop, just like this one. It should have ended in a warning or worst-case scenario… a ticket. Not someone’s life ending. Not only did his partner lose his life but also the person who had taken his partner’s life. That day, Officer Churchill had to make a split decision to end a human being’s life for the first time.Anxiety and panic shoot through his brain, waking up the fear inside him as he walks to the driver’s side. Inhaling a deep breath to soothe his nervousness, his chest puffs out. “License and registration,” Officer Churchill asks the driver as flashbacks of that day rush through his thoughts. The driver only cracks the window instead of rolling it down completely. Red flags go up, alerting Churchill that this guy was trying to hide something. Drugs? Weapons? He couldn’t be sure because he couldn’t see anything clearly through the frosted glass.Insubordination. It was the first clue that this guy may be a problem. I take the phone away from the officer and direct it towards the driver.Derrick had gotten a call from his son, who lived across town, telling him he’d missed the bus. One goal his son had made since kindergarten was to graduate high school with perfect attendance. Reaching middle school, he had done so thus far. Doing all that he can to help his son maintain that goal, Derrick hops in his car without having enough time to warm it properly and zooms off.WHOOP! WHOOP! That sound alone sizzles fear like electric shocks throughout Derrick’s body. Silently cursing to himself, he pulls over to the side of the road. For sure his son would be late now. The officer approaches as Derrick clicks the button to roll the window down, but because the car is still icy, the window only gives a little.“Why did you pull me over?” Derrick asks with adrenaline still coursing through his body. He did nothing wrong that he could see that would warrant to be pulled over. He quickly retraces his steps, wondering what he had done.The cop pulls his gun out and orders Derrick to exit the vehicle. No way was he falling for that trap. He’d seen way too many incidents on social media and even had a close friend lose his life this same way.If I get out, I’m a dead man. Derrick thinks to himself as panic kicks in his flight or fight senses and hovers his foot over the pedal.“Listen…” I mutter to myself as I take a few steps back from them both.Fear.Fear.Fear.We are not each other’s enemy. Fear is.Perfect love gets rid of fear.But how do we have perfect love? It can only come from both sides. Both sides must have perfect love for one another, or else fear will kick in and control us all and keep us divided.I know… it’s tricky because fear saves us too.Fear also tells us when danger is present.Maybe fear isn’t the culprit after all. Perhaps it’s panic. Maybe that’s why it’s a disorder. I’ve never heard of or have been diagnosed with fear disorder.
So, if perfect love gets rid of fear… what gets rid of panic?
“Listen,” I whisper as I press the button on my phone and continue to record.
“My window is frozen,” Derrick says, his voice shaking as Churchill lowers his stick from the window. “I can’t even open my door, sir. I had to get in from the passenger’s side.”
“Try the window again,” the officer orders. Derrick rolls the window up, down, up, and then it finally gives way and rolls down completely. “I pulled you over because you were going pretty fast back there in a residential area. It’s icy out here, and it could be unsafe for kids walking to school.”
“I understand officer,” Derrick says and briefly explains why he was in a rush.
“I will let you go with a warning this time on the premise you drive safely.”
“Will do, sir.”
My heart jolts when I hear a screech and a whooshing sound. I gasp as I turn my head and see my bus awaiting me. I smile and place my phone back into my pocket and board the bus.
“Good morning,” the bus driver grunts. “It’s a bad day out today.”
“No sir,” I smile back at him. “It’s a good day, but it is freezing out there.” I have a seat and slide my hand back in my pocket, gripping my phone tightly. Ready and waiting.
Does “from concentrate” or “not from concentrate” matter from a consumer perspective when it comes to juice?
The difference isn’t what the juice companies want you to think it is.
“Not from concentrate” indicates they pasteurized the squeezed juice. That’s it. Here’s what they do not tell you, though: they deplete the oxygen and keep it in large tanks for up to a year.
They include orange by-products’ flavor packs to restore taste lost when they are ready to sell it. These flavors are technically “natural” because they come from oranges but they are as natural as a wolf in a petting zoo.
“From concentrate” meant they squeezed the juice, evaporated the water to simplify shipping, then added water back later. They add the same flavor combinations. The nutritional value is almost exact. The only real variations are storage and processing techniques.
Neither one tastes like fresh-squeezed orange juice. The processing eliminates the subtle flavors. Designed to replicate what has been lost, those flavor packs are created by the same people that create perfumes. All of it is industrial food production; just wearing different masks.
She Broke-Up and BLOCKED Him Before 4 Day Girls Trip and then THIS Happened
Which countries are still in love with the USA today?
None.
In politics there’s nothing like LOVE but it will be deception. People who are diplomatic call it LOVE. Public is always deceived only by the jugglery of the words.
A print media’s joke will explain it. Once a President ordered his secretary “Write a 2 pages ‘no comment’ and release immediately”.
USA is bullying all other nations after the demise of USSR. Now LOVE drama is the only source to get rid of its bullying.
Is China’s J-20 stealth fighter a rival to the US F-35?
Yes, it is becoming one over time. China became only the second country in the world to mass produce a VLO stealth aircraft when its J-20 became operational in 2017. Chinese aircraft industry has taken off in the last fifteen years, since it successfully developed the J-10 series of fighter aircraft. The J-10 began its life as a relatively low-end 4th generation aircraft. China’s quest for the development of high-end aircraft began in earnest with the J-10B. This was the first Chinese aircraft to use an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. In the meantime, development work on the J-20 began as well, with its first flight taking place in 2011.
When the J-20 first entered service, its engine, passive sensor quality, avionics and sensor integration were well behind the state of the art for 5th generation aircraft. Its engine (WS-10B) wasn’t even suitable for a high-end 4th generation aircraft. The only thing that the J-20 had in its favor was a high-performance airframe, a powerful radar and a high tech BVR missile. All these things were quite noteworthy, and signaled to the world that China had cracked the code of developing high technology aircraft. The substantial size of the aircraft and continued investment by the Chinese government into developing high quality technological infrastructure made it relatively easier for the aircraft designers to enhance its array of features over time.
The J-20 has come a long way since 2017. The latest J-20A and J-20S models have slowly become formidable 5th generation aircraft. They are now equipped with the more technologically advanced WS-15 engines. These engines are not very far behind the F-22’s F119-PW-100 engine in technology. The WS-15 has enabled the J-20 to achieve better kinematic performance, including supercruise at Mach 1.6 (sustained supersonic flight without afterburners), which the F-35 is not capable of. The J-20A features a revised fuselage mold line, including a reprofiled nosecone, a deeper spine, and a slightly raised cockpit. These changes help accommodate the new engines and additional avionics, while the J-20S has added a WSO for electronic warfare.
The J-20 also features deeper sensor integration, more powerful computer processing, second generation passive sensors, better EOTS, improved HMD and new MAWS (missile approach warning system) and IRST. It now also boasts a class leading combat radius of 750 miles (1,200KM). Chinese military aviation industry has made tremendous strides and has overtaken Russia in several key aspects of aircraft design, and are almost at par with Russia in engine design technology. The Chinese and Russian engines still fall short in some key areas, especially engine efficiency, thrust to weigh ratio and engine lifetime and China still remains behind the USA in airframe life, avionics, system integration and weapon reliability.
The F-35A multi-mission aircraft. Its powerful single engine makes it affordable to fly in comparison to twin engine aircraft. The F-35 is the most widely used fifth generation aircraft in the world.
The F-35 is the swiss watch of 5th generation aircraft that is being produced in three different versions, that is a part of its strengths and its weaknesses. Its weaknesses stem from the necessity of making it suitable for the Navy, Marines and the USAF. Despite its self-imposed design limitations, the F-35 is the highest technology aircraft currently in service, anywhere in the world. Its F-135 engines are not only the most powerful in the world, but also operate at the world’s highest turbine inlet temperature of 1,925 C (3,500 F), maximizing performance. The F-35 production has been continuously upgraded since its induction.
Several major F-35 upgrades are expected between 2025–27 that are part of the Block 4 upgrade program, which includes over 75 major enhancements including:
Technology Refresh 3 (TR-3): This upgrade provides new and improved displays, computer memory, and processing power.
Increased Payload Capacity: The F-35 can now carry 5,700 pounds (2,600 kg) internally and 15,000 pounds (6,800 kg) externally, with a total weapons payload of 18,000 pounds (8,200 kg).
Enhanced Connectivity: The aircraft now features a connected fighter platform that enhances capabilities across air, land, and sea.
New Weapons and Sensors: The upgrades include newer weapons, sensors, data processing, and target acquisition capabilities.
The STOVL version of F-35 is perhaps the most complex fighter aircraft ever produced.
Enhanced F135 upgrade: In addition to a 5–8% thrust increase, this major modification will double the available electrical power from 30kW to 60kW.
This modification will improve cooling of electronic systems and current radar, while providing greater electricity reserve for the addition of more powerful computers and the new, more powerful APG-85 radar GaN radar. The new radar will have far better resolution and range compared to the J-20 radar.
Meanwhile, the GE-XA100 adaptive cycle engine, which was eagerly anticipated to be part of the block 4 upgrade has not been chosen to power the aircraft. This remarkable new powerplant increases the F-35 range by 20% and thrust by 20% with minimal modification to the aircraft. This engine possesses the capability to boost the kinematic capability of the F-35.
The F-35 has fallen behind the J-20A in long range air to air weapon systems.
The J-20 is designed as a long-range stealth fighter optimized for air dominance and interdiction missions, while the F-35 is a multi-mission aircraft for air to air, and air to ground roles.
The J-20’s larger size accommodates substantial internal fuel, increasing range in comparison to the F-35.
The J-20 also has larger internal weapon bays compared to the F-35, potentially allowing a greater payload for air-to-air and strike missions.
It houses the PL-15 missile, which currently out-ranges the long-range missiles carried by the F-35.
The addition of JATM-260 air-to-air missile in the next couple of years is expected to level the playing field for the F-35 in BVR combat.
With its larger airframe and internal fuel capacity, the J-20 can operate and intercept aircraft at extended ranges compared to the F-35.
What’s a conspiracy theory you secretly believe might be true?
Not a deliberate conspiracy, but I believe the norms and aesthetics around “old money” evolved to prevent revolt.
I am not talking about practical choices — like driving a reliable old car. “A penny saved is a penny earned” is IMO an proven tactic in accumulating wealth.
But displays of wealth are another thing, and this answer refers to the value old money puts on understated displays of wealth. One example is the brands they choose. Check out this coat from Loro Piana, a clothing company many average folks have never even heard of.
Made from baby cashmere and vicuña, “two of the rarest, finest fibers in the world,” this coat retails for $29,000.
I’m sure it’s extremely warm and soft and beautiful, but as a status symbol, it barely registers.
If you passed this person in the elevator, say on your way home from a 12-hour shift in Customer Service, the wealth disparity wouldn’t be obvious. And if you were wont to get mad about some exec wearing a coat that cost more than your car, this particular coat likely wouldn’t raise your blood pressure.
But a fellow old-money person would be impressed, and that’s the whole point. Get the status you crave from those who “matter” (and who may help you get more), while avoiding the resentment (that may devolve into revolt) from the masses.
There are TONS of these secret signifiers among those with wealth and influence, and the longer it’s held by one’s family and associates, the stronger and more entrenched they become. Sure, not all old money people conform to all customs, but enough of them do that it ceases to be a matter of personal taste.
As a social and cultural phenomenon, I find the old money thing to be deeper than it may seem. I believe it evolved over time — centuries or longer — through events like the French and Russian revolutions, as a kind of protective mechanism for the elite class.
What do you think of China’s 6th generation fighter test flight?
After reading the answers from many foreign netizens, I realized several misunderstandings between Chinese and foreigners when it comes to the military industry.
In the minds of Chinese people, the military industry is the most important and cutting-edge industry in a country.
The military industry must develop independently.
But most foreigners don’t see it that way.
Then the problem arises.
For the Chinese, the military industry can invest in research and development regardless of cost, price, or time. Therefore, in many places where China still lags behind in civilian industries, the military industry has long been ahead.
Why the military industry cannot be converted to civilian use is simply because the civilian industry needs to consider costs, cost performance, and sales.
China’s military industry actually sells very few products for export, and most of them are for its own use.
So since it is for your own use, it is natural to use whatever is best.
Also, I always feel that many people mention the research and development issues of things like chips and engines.
But have you ever thought about it, the reason why China’s 3nm chips are not mass-produced is because the cost is too high, the price/performance ratio is not enough, and there is no market competitiveness.
But when it comes to the military industry, does the military industry need to consider cost-effectiveness? Do you need to consider market competitiveness?
Military products serve the war and are used for fighting.
So even if the yield rate is not enough, even if this technology is completely loss-making for civilian use and has no market competitiveness at all, it will be fine for military use.
As for the export of military products, wouldn’t it be enough to export them after the technology matures?
I have seen many comments from foreign netizens, and one stands out: China can only copycat and steal technology?
Did you make something wrong?
China’s military industry has always been a completely independent system from the rest of the world. I admit that in the early days, our military industry was influenced by Soviet technology. But those technologies cost money and are exchanged for benefits. If you don’t believe it, you can ask Russian experts.
In addition, China, the United States and Russia are the only three countries in the world that can independently produce fifth-generation and fourth-generation aircraft.
Now China has become the only country in the world that can independently produce sixth-generation fighter jets, and it already has two types.
And even France and Britain cannot do it.
As for other countries, don’t talk about whether they have fourth-generation or fifth-generation machines.
Ask your own experts who owns the technology and components for your fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft.
Most countries do not even have the ability to independently develop third-generation aircraft.
Therefore, I am very unhappy with the many slanders against China’s military industry.
China’s private industry may indeed have gone through a long process of cooperation, copycats, and counterfeiting, and it has indeed had quality problems for a long time.
But for civilian equipment, the first premise is cost-effectiveness, which must be sold for money. So if the early technology is not good, of course the quality will be bad.
Now who dares to say that the quality of Chinese manufacturing is not good?
However, China’s military industry is rarely exported as commodities. Even if it is exported, it is products that have been eliminated after long time replacement, or that have already met the cost-effectiveness.
As for what I use, of course, what is the best thing to use? Consider value for money.
There are also some comments that think the Chinese will be angry because their military spending is too high?
I would like to respond that for the Chinese, what they have always worried about is insufficient military spending, not too high military spending. All Chinese, even those who are dissatisfied with the country, ridicule our military spending for being too low. When China’s military expenditure becomes the largest in the world, I think there will be far fewer dissatisfied voices.
What ‘die die must have’ products do you really need from the USA today? Boeing airplanes, military weapon systems, Tesla EV cars, Apple iPhones, … Don’t you think you can find cheaper and better alternatives that are more affordable?
Take India
Google is the most commonly used search engine with Bing at number two – both have 100% market
Gpay is western, PhonePe is owned by Walmart & General Atlantic
IOS & Android control the entire smartphone OS market
Spotify & iTunes are both owned by Western Entities
X, Reddit, Facebook, Instagram & Quora are all owned by Western Entities
YT is owned by a Western Entity
Commercial Servers are either IBM or Dell
Commercial Processors used are either INTEL or UNIX
Internet Infrastructure and Communication Infrastructure is entirely controlled by Alcatel, Cisco, Huawei, Zte, Nokia, Sony Ericcson & Siemens
90% of the Commercial Software like SAP and CRM and ERP software is Western owned and licensed
The Silicon Valley of India – has absolutely nothing of it’s own with even a 1% global share in the Hardware & Software Arena
Every Upgrade, Patch, Debugging & Licensing deal is dependent on the United States or it’s allied countries
Indian Currency?
Absolutely dependent on Switzerland for the Multi Chrome & the Security Inks
In fact 70% of the world uses SIPCA and its security Inks
Aircraft?
US has monopoly on Commercial Aircraft Engines
India can only make Grade D Parts and Non Composite Aircraft Body Shell
The List goes on and on
It’s not Iphones Or Tesla EV Cars
It’s the fact that for most nations, their entire advancement is entirely due to the Western ecosystem and that means US Controlled
It’s not just India
It’s every nation outside China and to an extent Russia and Iran
If India is sanctioned by the West – and all these are restricted – India will be helpless in every way
The West can demand our politicians put on a strip dance and they would have to do it if they make it a condition
Only CHINA is rapidly cutting off with its own indigenous supply chain and reducing its dependence every day
Why don’t people give the homeless a place to stay?
I have helped out a plethora of homeless people by giving them a place to stay, and it always blew up in my face. Top examples of why I do not do that anymore…
1. We let my husbands friend, her husband, and their two kids live with us in our tiny apartment. We gave them the ONLY private space we had. They physically fought, she cut her husband with a straight razor getting blood all over the beige carpet(he didn’t press charges or leave her). Then her brother broke into our home and attacked me and my husband for “mooching off his sister” because she told him we were livng with them and not paying anything, not the other way around. Then when she moved out she stole everything she could, from sheets and dishes to movies and TV series.
2. We let a man stay with us after his 6’2″ girlfriend beat him (5’7″) up and threw him out, it was winter and we didn’t want him to freeze. Woke up in the morning to more than $500 of our stuff missing along with him.
3. Let a guy stay with us that had known me since I was 2, was an acquaintance of my dad’s.. woke up to him SA’ing me…
None of those are even the people we found out were bringing drugs, bugs, and communicable diseases into our home (like oozing MRSA wounds).
Over the years giving a warm place to those without has cost me tens of thousands of dollars. There have been people I have helped who were genuinely good people down on their luck, but they were so few and so far between that it wasn’t worth it anymore. I still donate to the local shelters, but I will never host again.
Trump Uniting With China! This Will DEVASTATE Europe!
I drink coffee. Oh not like I used to. But by adaptation.
You see, coffee culture in China is much different than what I have grown up with in the United States.
In the 1960’s, coffee was the cheapest thing you could get. A cup was a solid dime. that’s ten cents, and it was served on bang-on-the-table ceramic mugs. Unlimited refills were the norm.
Then during the 1970s, the price of coffee went sky-high.
Some companies offered coffee vending machines that held small cups of very strong coffee.
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By the 1970s, it was still inexpensive, but the company started charging the people to buy the coffee. We would have “collections” and then mandatory “deductions” from our pay for our contributions. We drank them from a coffee service.
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Greed hit America in the 1980s.
The prices of coffee rose and rose, and with that came changes in how we drank coffee.
I would prefer to make my own. Sometimes over a fire, but mostly however I can and available at the time.
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But then came Starbucks…
Starbucks started making huge profits, and became a “thing”. People who normally would have spent a quarter (twenty five cents) for a cup of coffee started paying a few dollars for the same thing. Coffee became romanticized.
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The Chinese saw that the ENORMOUS profits can be extracted by selling on image though coffee; the Starbucks model. And they all wanted a piece of this.
Thus… China embraced this.
Drinking Starbucks coffee inside a coffeehouse became fashionable. And thus the price of coffee (out of Starbucks) became much more expensive. More so than anywhere in the West.
And then something happened…
Everyone started opening up their own coffee franchises.
Luckin Coffee (瑞幸咖啡)
As they grew, so did the hatred and I mean visceral hate that how dare the Chinese dare take away coffee market-share!
And it was eroding FAST!
Number of Starbucks and Luckin Coffee stores in Chinas selected cities
And thus came the flood of the anti-Luckin propaganda. Probably originating from a unity of the anti-China neocon cabal, and the Starbucks mega-corporation. Working together as a serious attempt to CRUSH and DESTROY the growing coffee threat to American dominance in coffee.
And with all the negative press, Americans came to believe that investing in Chinese coffee franchises were a highway to disaster.
And many in the West believed the propaganda.
So they shied away from investing.
But NOT the Chinese.
And so regardless of the propaganda spewing forth, Luckin prospered.
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And thus… the enormous Chinese market pushed Luckin to become one of the top coffee franchises in China.
It’s 2025.
Six years after the anti-Luckin barrage.
Luckin is PROSPERING.
And REMAINS a serious contender to Starbucks.
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Stealing or siphoning away perhaps as much as one half of Starbucks potential revenue streams.
Today, Luckin is one of the most popular brands in China.
Overview: A Chinese-born coffee chain that has rapidly expanded since its founding in 2017. Known for its tech-driven approach, Luckin focuses on affordability, convenience, and fast delivery.
Popularity: Gained massive popularity through app-based ordering and heavy discounts.
Unique Features: Focus on takeaway and delivery, competitive pricing, and frequent promotions.
But you know, there are many others…
Manner Coffee (Manner咖啡)
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Overview: A Shanghai-based coffee chain known for its minimalist design, high-quality coffee, and affordable prices. It has gained a cult following among young professionals.
Popularity: Rapidly expanding in major cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen.
Unique Features: Focus on sustainability, BYO cup discounts, and small store formats.
Seesaw Coffee (Seesaw咖啡)
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Overview: A Chinese specialty coffee chain that emphasizes artisanal coffee and a third-wave coffee culture. It has a strong following among coffee connoisseurs.
Popularity: Growing presence in major cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
Unique Features: Focus on coffee craftsmanship, barista training, and unique store designs.
Pacific Coffee (太平洋咖啡)
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Overview: A Hong Kong-based coffee chain that has expanded into mainland China, offering a mix of Western and Asian-inspired coffee drinks.
Popularity: Popular in business districts and among office workers.
Unique Features: Blend of Eastern and Western coffee culture, loyalty programs.
M Stand
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Overview: A Chinese coffee chain known for its trendy, Instagrammable stores and innovative coffee drinks.
Popularity: Popular among young, urban consumers.
Unique Features: Creative menu items (e.g., cookie-shaped cups), modern store designs.
The Chinese coffee brands are cheaper than Starbucks, and often of higher quality as they don’t over roast for production consistency. Resulting in a more complex coffee taste and that is beneficial. As most Chinese coffees offer unique flavors and variations of coffee.
Of course, you can still get Western brands in China…
McCafé (麦咖啡)
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Overview: McDonald’s coffeehouse chain, offering affordable coffee and snacks. It has gained traction in China due to its convenience and brand recognition.
Popularity: Widely accessible due to McDonald’s extensive network.
Unique Features: Affordable pricing, combo deals, and convenient locations.
Tim Hortons (Tims China)
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Overview: A Canadian coffee and donut chain that has entered the Chinese market with a focus on localization and affordability.
Popularity: Growing presence in cities like Shanghai and Beijing.
Unique Features: Canadian-inspired menu, affordable pricing, and localized offerings.
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Overview: A Japanese coffee franchise that has gained popularity in China for its sleek design and high-quality, single-origin coffee.
Popularity: Popular in affluent urban areas and among coffee enthusiasts.
Unique Features: Minimalist aesthetic, focus on specialty coffee, and Instagram-worthy stores.
Now, I was raised in a home where everyone had a pot of coffee on the stove. And when friends came over, you would warm up the pot on the stove and pour a cup of really thick coffee to share.
Ah those days are gone.
But today, drinking coffee in China is different, and I tend to enjoy the ice cream coffee infusions that seem to be very popular. Oh, sure, I still enjoy a nice cup of hot coffee, but iced coffee seems to take the lead in China and everyone drinks it.
As do I.
Now and again.
Enjoy your joe. Guys.
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Enjoy your joe.
Today…
Has anyone ever gotten over a cheating scandal/affair and continued to live with the significant other who did it? Is betrayal something you can really ever get over within a relationship?
When you are cheated on the person had not only lost trust but also respect. Both I believe can be earned again but would require much work an bs effort on both parties. If the cheater does not take accountability for their actions, show remorse and change their ways then I would say no the relationship can’t survive.
Personally I would/ am having a hard time trusting them. Everything they do seems suspicious now. Working on making myself stronger and ready to stand on my own two feet again b4 I walk. The lying and mean deflections thrown at me when this came to light died me there is no love, respect or care. Ask yourself…are you happy? Are they staying bc of the family home/assets? Many factors to coinage consider when determining if it can work out after.
Sincerely wishing you the best possible outcome for YOU! Whatever u choose to do, please keep your own self at the top. YOU are the most important factor when making ur decisions.
Separate egg over Small Batter Bowl using Egg Separator; beat lightly. Set egg yolk aside, covered, for later use. Chop olives using Food Chopper. Snip parsley with Kitchen Shears. Grate mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses using Deluxe Cheese Grater. Add olives, parsley, ricotta cheese, 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese and 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese to Batter Bowl; mix well with Classic Scraper. Set aside.
In Classic Batter Bowl, combine Pizza Crust & Roll Mix with yeast packet and Seasoning Mi. Add warm water and stir until mixture forms a ball.
Turn dough out onto well-floured Cutting Board. With floured hands, gently knead dough 8 to 10 times. Divide dough in half using Handy Scraper. Flour both sides of dough using Flour/Sugar Shaker; roll out one piece of dough to edge of Cutting Board using Dough and Pizza Roller. Place dough in bottom of Rectangular Baker, shaping to cover bottom.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the mozzarella cheese over dough to within 1/2 inch of edge. Layer half of the pepperoni over cheese. Spread ricotta mixture evenly over pepperoni. Top with remaining pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.
Roll out remaining dough and place over filling. Press dough all around edge to seal with bottom crust. Brush surface of dough with reserved egg yolk using Pastry Brush. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan cheese. Using V-Shaped Cutter, cut a decorative X pattern over surface of dough, creating holes in top layer, for steam to escape.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until deep golden brown.
Allow to stand 10 minutes before cutting.
Notes
1 (16 ounces) package hot roll mix can be substituted for Pantry Pizza Crust & Roll Mix, if desired.
Nutrition
Per serving: Calories 320, Total Fat 15g, Saturated Fat 8g, Cholesterol 50mg, Carbohydrate 30g, Protein 16g, Sodium 860mg, Fiber 0g
Attribution
Pampered Chef
My boyfriend screenshot and saved my 16-year-old daughter’s photo in a swimsuit. I broke up with him. Did I do the right thing?
That is a tricky question because i have a girlfriend that has a 13 year old girl and she is very pretty and yes i do have pictures of her usually that my girlfriend sends me and i save them but i do not hide them. I am against relationships with under age girls and massage thinking she is pretty, there is no sexual attraction and that’s what you really want to know if your boyfriend has. I would have been questioning him he may not be guilty of anything unless he is trying to hide it as for me i do not have any screenshot of her daughter. Most of the pictures i have is when my girlfriend get money from me and will buy her a dress or shoes for something along that line and send me a picture. There is really no more to say
Exposition (Green Flag #1)
What’s the most humiliating thing a doctor has ever said to you?
He told me I was perfectly healthy, then he held my hand, while I sobbed my denials, then looked me in the eye and told me I needed a therapist.
The kindness was the worst part. He was absolutely wrong, and oh-so-sure I was ‘in need of help.’ I was in need of help. My tonsils were rotting under a lovely pink layer of seemingly healthy skin. How an ENT could have missed this I don’t know, but I was already sleeping on the pavement walking between buildings for classes–I remember someone asking me if I was ok, and telling them the bricks were just so lovely-warm… It was February. In Virginia.
A month later I couldn’t go 12 hours off antibiotics without running a fever. Student health sent me to a different ENT and he spotted the problem. He put me on 60 days of penicillin (I’m not kidding) to get me healthy enough for surgery, after which the surgeon told my mother my tonsils were the nastiest necrotic mess he’d ever seen.
It’s just an awful thing, being told to get therapy by an expert who doesn’t believe you’re sick. Doctors do it a lot. I’ve had it happen several times, but that was my first.
What’s the fastest you’ve wiped a smirk off of someone’s face?
I was at a (get this) Church social club for kids when some random kid asked me how old I was
“Eleven”, I replied. His reply, as he punched me clean in the mouth, was “All the best kids are 13!”
My brother looked over a few minutes later and came to ask what had happened as he’d noticed me with a bloody lip.
The wannabe bully boy shouted over to me as he left grinning at the end of the session “Don’t forget, all the best kids are 13”
“Wrong!” Said my brother, who was waiting by the door “the best kids are 14!” as he floored him with one punch.
Never had any crap from him again.
Investor alert: China is drinking a lot more coffee, and taking the supply chains off our exchanges
The inspiration for today’s intro.
What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China
December 4, 2024 Ms. Cat
What’s Really Going On In the South China Sea Between the Philippines and China
by Tina Antonis
Maritime clashes between the Philippines and China had been mostly over the Philippines’ military outpost, BRP (BRP—Barko ng Republika ng Pilipinas, which translates to “Ship of the Republic of the Philippines”—the ship prefix for the Philippines) Sierra Madre, in the Spratly Islands, which is disputed by Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan (a province of China, as recognized by the United Nations’ Resolution No. 2758), and Vietnam.
The BRP Sierra Madre was intentionally run aground on a reef near the Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands, in 1997, so that the Philippines could stake their territorial claim.
The WWII-era ship is rusted out and on its way to disintegrating. In December 2023, the Philippines allocated funds to replace the ship with a permanent structure. Coincidentally, in September 2023, Blake Herzinger, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre of the University of Sydney, penned an article titled, “It’s Time to Build Combined Forward Operating Base Sierra Madre.”
This outpost would be “manned by combined rotational forces from both the Philippines and the U.S. Marine Corps,” according to Herzinger. In it, he admits that doing so, “would be a provocative move, and it would not be without significant risk.”
In October 2023, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFU) admitted that their resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre were carrying materials that were used in the maintenance and repair of the ship. China had been accusing the Philippines of using its resupply missions to send “illegal building materials” to reinforce the dilapidated ship on several occasions. In June of this year, The Financial Times revealed that the Philippines had “secretly” reinforced the BRP Sierra Madre at the Second Thomas Shoal.
On March 5, 2024, in response to an incident at the Second Thomas Shoal, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller stated that “Article IV of the 1951 U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty extends to armed attacks on Philippine armed forces, public vessels, or aircraft, including those of its coast guard, anywhere in the South China Sea.” At the time, the crash was “not the time or reason to invoke a Mutual Defense Treaty with the United States,” according to Philippine President Bongbong Marcos. Invoking the Mutual Defense Treaty by the Philippines could lead to an armed conflict between China and the U.S. Military.
Recently, these clashes have been occurring at the Sabina Shoal, another disputed atoll in the Spratly Islands. In May, the Philippines claimed that China was carrying out “small-scale reclamation” and anchored the BRP Teresa Magbanua at Sabina Shoal to “catch and document the dumping of crushed corals over the sandbars” (China denied this). The Philippines had been using the BRP Teresa Magbanua as a staging area for their resupply missions to the BRP Sierra Madre at Second Thomas Shoal.
A new Philippine Coast Guard vessel was sent to Sabina Shoal, according to Jonathan Malaya, the spokesperson for the National Security Council of the Philippines, on September 26. However, he declined to comment on the specifics of their intentions or plans citing operational security concerns.
Behind the scenes, an information operation has been going on. Information operations, also known as influence operations, involve spreading misleading information and obtaining tactical knowledge about competitors to get the upper hand. Think tank representatives, financed by the US government and corporate sponsors, have been working with the Philippine Coast Guard on ”assertive transparency,” or what the Philippines calls their “transparency initiative.”
With grants from the U.S. State Department, between 2022 and 2024, the Stratbase ADR Institute held a series of roundtable discussions highlighting the importance of multilateral cooperation and strategic alliances in addressing regional “security challenges” and “public diplomacy,” or the act of “influencing foreign publics” to support “U.S. foreign policy goals.”
On January 5th, 2023, Stratbase, together with the US Embassy in the Philippines, hosted a town hall discussion where experts and scholars shared their assessments and recommendations on the various Indo-Pacific strategies and the foreign policy of Marcos Jr.’s administration.
It was here that Ray Powell introduced his “Project Myoushu” strategy, which was inspired by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). CSIS receives funding from the U.S. government and other governments allied with the U.S., non-governmental and nonprofit organizations (NGOs & NPOs), defense contractors and other corporate donors. Another such event occurred on March 8th, 2023, where Ray Powell gave a presentation in which he described using “independent analysts, storytellers, influencers, media, and embedded journalists.”
Powell, a veteran of the U.S. Air Force and a former Defense Attaché (the Defense Attaché System is part of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the “Pentagon’s top spy agency”), is the team lead of SeaLight, at Stanford University’s Gordian Knot Center for National Security Innovation (GKC). The creation of Stanford University’s GKC was sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), an organization within the Department of Defense.
Stanford University has contracts with the U.S. government. The center’s goal is to assist the U.S. government in rethinking how it approaches “national security” matters.
The “transparency initiative” tactic highlights China’s “gray zone activities”, in the South China Sea. One aspect used is embedding journalists on these resupply missions.
The original purpose of embedding was to control journalists, according to Helen Benedict, a professor at the Columbia Journalism School. Citing award-winning Australian journalist Phillip Knightley’s book “The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq” which describes how the U.S. government invented embedded journalism in response to critical coverage of the Vietnam War.
As civilian casualties in Afghanistan reached 5,000, the Pentagon sought a media strategy that would bring attention back to the military’s role in the war, especially the role played by ordinary American service members. This would require bringing war correspondents on side.
Another aspect of this “transparency initiative” is using civil society organizations, such as the Atin Ito Coalition, led by Rafaela David and Edicio dela Torre, to draw attention to the South China Sea. Rafaela is also the executive director of the Center for Youth Advocacy and Networking (CYAN). CYAN has been financed from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which gets the majority of its funding from the U.S. Congress. With its origins dating back to the late 1960s, when the Central Intelligence Agency faced criticism for secretly supporting activists and opposition groups in nations that appeared to be leaning closer to the Soviet Union.
Following the revelation of those CIA plots, the agency faced criticism for what some perceived to be devious manipulation of sovereign states. Congress established the NED in 1983 after years of discussion about whether and how the financing should continue.
Edicio dela Torre is the current President and Vice Chairperson of the Philippine Rural Reconstruction Movement (PRRM). The PRRM was started in 1952 by Chinese rural education advocate Y. C. James Yen with financial assistance from the United States and the Rockefeller family. In 1983, Yen was awarded the People to People Eisenhower Medallion.
The People-to-People Program was initiated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, with initial connections to the U.S. government through the United States Information Agency (USIA).
The USIA’s public diplomacy activities were ultimately transferred to the U.S. Department of State, while its propaganda operations were transferred to the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which has since become the U.S. Agency for Global Media. In the 1950s, during the Hukbalahap Rebellion, the CIA covertly funded the PRRM through front organizations such as the Asia Foundation (formerly the Committee for a Free Asia) and the Catherwood Foundation.
On September 15th, Powell appeared on 60 Minutes, along with the Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro, and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Romeo Brawner Jr. In the 60 Minutes episode, Teodoro refused to confirm if the Typhon missile launcher—a mid-range missile system capable of reaching mainland China—would be permanently stationed in the Philippines.
Three days later, Philippine army spokesperson, Colonel Louie Dema-ala, said training was ongoing, and it was up to Philippine authorities and the United States Army Pacific Command (USARPAC) to decide how long the missile system would stay.
Presently, the Typhon is situated in the Taiwan Strait and faces the South China Sea on the northern island of Luzon. In early September, the U.S. announced that it wants to deploy another Typhon missile launcher “around Japan’s southwestern islands, which are near Taiwan”. While the U.S. claims that these missile launchers are to “strengthen deterrence”, their deployment has only provoked tensions in the area.
While 60 Minutes did state that “in 2016, an international tribunal at The Hague ruled the Philippines has exclusive economic rights in a 200-mile zone that includes Sabina Shoal” and that “China does not recognize the ruling”, their statements were misleading. The South China Sea Arbitration did not rule on sovereignty, and China does not recognize it because the Arbitral Tribunal lacked jurisdiction.
“The Arbitral Tribunal violated the principle of state consent, exercised its jurisdiction ultra vires and rendered an award in disregard of the law. This is a grave violation of UNCLOS and general international law, Wang said.”
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is not an agency of the United Nations. The PCA rents space in the same building as the UN’s International Court of Justice.
A Congressional Research Service report, dated August 2023, stated that the U.S. has not declared its position regarding sovereignty over any of the geographical elements that comprise the South China Sea.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates that about 80% of global trade is carried out by sea, both in terms of volume and value. Of that amount, 60% of marine trade travels through Asia, with approximately one-third of all shipping occurring in the South China Sea. Because the Strait of Malacca connects the South China Sea and, consequently, the Pacific and Indian oceans, China, Taiwan (the United States does not officially support Taiwan’s independence), Japan, and South Korea depend heavily on its waters.
China’s economic security is intimately linked to the South China Sea, as the country has the second-largest economy globally and more than 60% of its trade is conducted by water. If the U.S. were to attempt to enforce a blockade in the South China Sea, they would risk retaliation from China.
A war with China would not only interrupt international trade, it’s highly probable that the United States would lose due to China’s anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities. Anti-Access refers to any action, activity, or capacity, usually long-range, that is intended to prevent an advancing military force from accessing an operational area.
Area denial is described as any action, activity, or capability, usually short-range, that is intended to limit an adversary force’s freedom of action inside an operational area. Long-range artillery and rocket weapons, air defenses, littoral anti-ship capabilities, and layered, integrated long-range precision-strike systems are all part of the threat A2/AD defense architecture.
China’s advanced A2/AD system includes missiles and hypersonic weapons, which the US lacks defense against. China is also developing microwave-photonic radar systems to track incoming hypersonic missiles, potentially enabling defense against powerful militaries’ latest offensive technologies.
The Philippines, has succeeded in garnering support from Western countries through military assistance, funds to upgrade military bases and infrastructure, modernize the Armed Forces of the Philippines, defense agreements with at least 18 countries (minilateralism), joint military exercises in the South China Sea, and the addition of four new EDCA (under the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, American military personnel, planes, and ships may station themselves periodically in the Philippines at predetermined places) sites—three in north Luzon facing Taiwan and one in Palawan facing the South China Sea.
China sees this “coalition of the willing” as undermining “regional security and peace.”
The Philippines should seek détente with China and practice quiet diplomacy, as their “transparency initiative” has only escalated tensions in the South China Sea, instead of risking World War III.
You’re NOT Behind: Why Everyone SEEMS To Have More Money Than You
How does China’s J-20 compare with its US counterpart F-35?
You Americans just deceive those allies who bought your planes, don’t deceive yourself.
Yes, the F35 does not pursue the ultimate flight speed, nor the ultimate performance, but all-around.
The result became a four-dimensional image.
The maximum flight speed of the F35 is only Mach 1.6.
OK.
The new J35 supersonic cruise has Mach 2.3.
And the F35 is now difficult to continue production because China has restricted the export of key raw materials.
Is the F35 really considered a fifth-generation aircraft? It’s not even as good as the F22 from over forty years ago.
The F22, a fifth-generation aircraft, is a fifth-generation old aircraft with a maximum speed of Mach 2.25, a normal supersonic cruise of less than Mach 2, a maximum range of only more than 2,000 kilometers, and a maximum combat radius of 800.
The J20’s normal supersonic cruising speed exceeds Mach 2.5, and its maximum speed is Mach 2.8. Now there is also a two-seater J20S.
Oh, I forgot.
Now the United States cannot produce F22.
Because the production line is gone.
China has just overtaken Japan as the worlds top car exporter. Could Japan possibly take back the spot sometime in the future?
Japan’s auto industry is lost – its global position almost to be completely and permanently toppled.
What is happening in Japan is also happening to the other home of the global auto legacies – Germany.
The auto industry defines these two most industralized countries for the last half century . . . . with its sphere of influence extending beyond not just the economics. . . . but the social and political.
Even up to this mid-year, Akio Toyoda can still be seen peddling – and leading the charge of his fellow auto makers – in promoting the hydrogen car and retaining as much as possible the place of the ICE cars for the future. This is until he was replaced and no mention of the hydrogen has been heard since. But there is BMW still promising the notion of the water-engine car as an alternative to EV is still alive.
The main driver for this resistence to EV? Japan and Germany have the huge ecosystem of manufacturing ICE cars that will have to be “replaced” – i.e., millions of workers fired and massive plant closures to transition to a new EV ecosystem requiring new sets of resources, increasingly to be software assuming a greater proportion relative to hardware – a transition from analog to digital.
Japan’s and Germany’s halfhearted effort at developing its EVs have shown them to be at least 5 years behind China . . . . and even further behind if taken within the context of developing the supply chain to have a semblance of independence from China’s.
German, Japanese and Koreans are seeing their Chinese market share declining or collapsing that they were so dominant just 4 years ago. And losing position in the world’s largest market means losing their global positions as Chinese EV are now waging its offensive to takeover overseas markets.
China is on the ascendancy in dominating the global auto industry and there is very little the Germans and Japanese can do to change the trajectory because in reality this transition is not just to the EVs but to the SMARTCARS, the extension of the digital age from the smartphone. Western media has focused on the jaggernaut of BYD but is not making the world aware of the greater significance of the software Chinese EVs are being incorporated with.
Huawei is implementing its Harmony operating system as an alternative to Andriod and by extension its NearLink technology and alliance – to replace WIFI and bluetooth – as their technologies for China’s IoT platform and ecosystem. Note that the two hottest selling EVs in China are those from Huawei and Xioami. This is making EVs with software to be the central focus of mobility in the IoT ecosystem of smart devices of the future. This is China now defining and setting industry standards not just for the future of mobility but for all future smart devices .
Modern Women LOVE to Destroy MEN’S Hobbies | Pearl Daily
Is it reasonable for a wife to accept another man’s invitation for just her to go to his house for a swim at 1am, & for her to go wearing only a bikini & a totally translucent gown. Is it reasonable for a husband to get upset in such a situation? Tx!
It’s unreasonable for the wife to accept the invitation and all that entails as well as wrong.
But an invitation to go swimming with another man alone at 1am is rarely the beginning of this unreasonable act. Someone has not been present in the relationship to even consider the spouse would or should have no problem with it. And something want south before the invitation for your wife to consider wanting to accept instead of being offended by it. Don’t let anyone play dumb with you. Find out what those something’s are and go from there. Actually this is really too far.
The main contents of this issue of China Military News:
The new submarine is unveiled for the first time! Under the guidance of Xi Jinping’s thought on strengthening the army, we will forge ahead on the road to strengthening the army and fight a decisive battle; the navy and air force of the Southern Theater Command are on combat readiness patrol around China’s Huangyan Island; the Navy’s Sichuan ship is officially launched; approaching the field command post of a brigade in the Eastern Theater Command; a direct visit to the PLA’s winter training ground; Xinjiang Military Region border guards: guarding the Karakoram Mountains with loyalty; the Eastern Theater Command’s “Red Sharp Knife Company” – unmanned equipment is refined and powerful; China’s space station is operating well, and its application results are fruitful…
Main content of this episode: President Xi Jinping emphasized: “Building a strong modern navy is an important symbol of building a world-class military, a strategic support for building a maritime power, and an important part of realizing the Chinese dream of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” “In the journey of the new era, in the struggle to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, the task of building a strong people’s navy has never been as urgent as it is today.” From the first aircraft carrier Liaoning to the first domestically-produced aircraft carrier Shandong, and then to the first domestically-produced catapult-type aircraft carrier Fujian, the Chinese Navy has continuously made major breakthroughs! 2024 is about to come to an end. Looking back on this year, the Chinese military has made sonorous steps and written countless glorious chapters on the journey of strengthening the army. From the continuous emergence of new weapons and equipment, to the actual combat training on the PLA’s military training ground, from the responsibility of joint exercises and training between China and foreign countries, to the firm protection of sovereignty, Chinese soldiers have forged an indestructible Great Wall of Steel with their blood and loyalty.
Me and my ex share several mutual friends. He is constantly bad mouthing me behind my back and calling me his “left overs” and sharing intimate details about me and my body. It’s taking everything in me to not call him up and defend myself. Should I?
Don’t call him. Apoligize to the mutual friends for them having to hear those things. Some of them will believe them. They are not your friends. Others probably know you better and sense what they are saying isn’t true. The rest are hanging onto every word weather they believe them or not, and are waiting for the fireworks to begin wanting to be entertained by the melt down they are waiting for. They are not your friends either.
Once you can tell your friends keep them close. Go no contact with your EX., and all of the rest.
You’ve a new life to build, a life without any of them in it.
What is the most American thing ever?
I was working at the time for a Chinese American man who decades ago paid for his passage to America by working on a cruise ship. He got here with virtually just the clothes on his back, and through years of hard work, starting as a bus boy in a Chinatown restaurant, he worked long and hard and eventually became a very successful businessman in San Francisco.
This man, a few years ago, purchased at a charity auction the right to sing our national anthem at one of the San Francisco Giants home games. He spent weeks and weeks with a singing coach practicing. He asked me to come with him to the game to videotape him singing.
I should point out that my friend is a pretty good singer. But he does have a heavy accent.
The moment comes. He walks out onto the field. The band starts playing. He starts singing the Star Spangled Banner in his accented voice. Then in about the middle of the song the fact that he was standing there singing in front of nearly 70,000 people hit him and the delayed stage fright caused him to forget the words.
“Ow” I thought. “This might get ugly. How will this crowd react?”
But they didn’t get ugly. A few people in the crowd realized what was happening and picked up the song from where he lost it and began singing, and then more and more joined in. Soon it was my friend, with the entire crowd helping, singing the rest of our national anthem. To me that was one of the most American things that I have ever seen.
EDIT: Wow, 5.000+ upvotes. My thanks go out to everyone who has taken the time to read this and even more thanks to those who have upvoted it. I am so happy that this story has struck a chord with readers. Thank you!
Sky High Biscuits with Raspberry Butter
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Yield: 15 servings
Ingredients
Raspberry Butter
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/4 cup fresh or thawed frozen raspberries
Biscuits
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
Instructions
Raspberry Butter
Combine the butter and raspberries in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Chill, covered, for several hours before serving.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Biscuits
Mix the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until crumbly. Add the milk and egg, stirring just until moistened. Knead the dough lightly on a lightly floured surface. Pat 1 inch thick. Cut with a 2 inch biscuit cutter. Arrange the biscuits in a greased 9 x 9 inch baking pan.
Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until brown.
Serve warm with the butter.
Notes
Bake the biscuits on a greased baking sheet for crusty biscuits.
Your wife puts you down to feel better about herself. Your wife doesn’t have feelings for you and doesn’t respect what you do for her. Your wife is never going to be satisfied with whatever you are going to do for her. Your wife wants you to put more effort into pleasing her.
Your marriage is not going to work with this kind of toxic mindset of your wife. Nothing is going to be enough for your wife. You have to talk openly to your wife that you are invaluable to tolerate her behavior. If your wife doesn’t change her behavior positively towards you, then you have to leave her. If you have children together, then coparenting should be done with the help of law.
It all depends upon how you handle this situation if your wife doesn’t improve. Your wife is toxic, and kindly think about your marriage future.
There were too many to fight. He was outnumbered ten thousand to one. He watched as they all raced towards him, vengeance in their eyes and murder on their lips. They came in a mob, clamouring for his blood, each wanting to say, “I helped kill him. I was part of it.”
He stood perfectly still, hands in his pockets, not flinching or recoiling in the slightest. His hand brushed against the thing in his pocket, and his fingers clutched at it; ready, waiting.
The throng thundered down on him, not knowing what was to come. He grinned. Even after it was over, they still wouldn’t understand. They’d trample the ground into dust, confusion written across their faces, unsatiated blood lust driving them mad.
He could do it now, of course. But where would the fun be in that? Where would the showmanship be? No, best to wait until the last possible moment. To delay the act until they were just about to get him, and then…
Of course, Dara wouldn’t have done such a thing. She would have completed the mission and then gotten out of there in the blink of an eye. Nothing more than a stirring breeze that lifts the curtains. Silent like a breath, swift like a falling raindrop. She probably wouldn’t have even used it (and would likely tell him off for utilizing it, calling it a “waste of precious resources”). Dara would have only employed it in an absolute emergency.
But Raiden wanted to use it. Why have it and not use it? It would be like being a millionaire, but not spending any money. Naturally, he didn’t need to use it, oh no. He was good at his job, and he knew it. If his actions had necessitated the use of the thing, he wouldn’t have come so highly recommended at all.
But, as it was, Raiden was at the top of his field.
Well, almost.
Then
“Oh no,” she said, shaking her head vehemently. “No. No.”
“But, Dara, he’s the best—”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, second best—”
“Hang on, a second,” said Raiden.
“Look, I’m just saying—”
“I said, no,” said Dara, folding her arms across her chest. “Am I not the captain of this crew?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“But?”
“Ah, maybe we oughta forget it,” said Raiden, turning to walk away.
“Wait!” said Franky, grabbing him by the shoulder. “Please. Wait?”
Raiden nodded. “Sure. But don’t ever touch me like that again, you hear?”
“Don’t threaten my crew, you—” the word that came from her mouth made both of the men wince.
“Wait. Just… wait,” said Franky, standing in the middle of them, hands raised in case either one of them decided to go for the other. “Dara, he is very good. You know that.”
“I’m the best,” scoffed Raiden, folding his arms and rolling his eyes.
Franky ignored him. “He comes with a certain… reputation—”
“Yeah, I’ll say,” said Dara with a snort. She turned away with a childish glare.
“Look, guys, I know you don’t like each other, but—”
“Ya think?” Raiden and Dara said in unison, with the same sarcastic inflection. Looks of horror flashed across their faces when they realised, and they both turned away in disgust.
“Look. Guys,” said Franky through gritted teeth. “I know you don’t like each other, but we don’t have a choice.”
“There’s always a choice Franky, didn’t I teach you anything?” said Dara.
“Yeah, Franky…” mocked Raiden.
“Oh my God, you two are the absolute worst, do you know that?” Franky turned to his captain and pointed at her leg, which was currently in a cast and was resting on a raised cushion. “Do you honestly think you can pull off a mission with your leg like that?”
“Can do it better than him,” she said, pointing to Raiden with her chin.
“Really, Dara? Really?”
She squinted at him, and her eyes shot daggers, but she said nothing.
“And you,” said Franky, turning to Raiden. “I know how broke you are. You think that debt collectors don’t talk? I know for a fact that there are three scumbag moneylenders out there that want your head on a platter!”
Raiden paled as the colour drained from his face. Dara started to laugh, but Franky shot her a glare that told her she shouldn’t. “You both need each other. And don’t you dare argue with me,” he said, looking from one to the other, goading them into saying something to the contrary. “And, perhaps most importantly, I need both of you. I can’t make ends meet if we can’t take any jobs, Dara… and he’s the best out there. We both know he is. Hell, he knows he is, the cocky sonofa—”
“Hey!”
“Sorry.”
“It’s true.”
An awkward silence fell upon the room. Slowly, Franky lowered his hands. “So, do we have an understanding?”
Dara and Raiden glared at each other, and then flicked their eyes back to Franky.
“Fine,” mumbled Dara.
“Fine,” said Raiden.
“Great!” said Franky, more enthusiastically than he felt. “Well, done, guys. I really think that you’ve—”
“Yeah, yeah, let’s talk shop,” said Raiden, shushing him.
“Agreed. Let’s get on with it. Shut up, Franky.”
“I—” started Franky, looking from Dara to Raiden exasperatedly, but then he gave up and sighed, visibly deflating. “Oh, fine.”
“Okay, so, let’s go over the plan…” said Dara, clicking a button and bringing up the holographic map that hovered in the centre of the room.
Now
Raiden pulled the object out of his pocket with the flourish of a well-practiced magician. He saw the look of urgency in the eyes of those nearest to him as they sprinted towards his location. The gleam of fear that flashed across their faces told him that they knew he was about to pull something off, like a rabbit out of a hat… they just didn’t know what.
The natives of Raghajiv bent their heads low and really threwthemselves into their sprint, hoping to catch the blasphemous thief.
Then
“They want what?” asked Raiden, astounded. “Are they crazy?”
“Yes. Crazy rich,” said Dara. “What’s the matter, is it too big of a job for—” she adopted a mocking, babylike voice “—the great Raiden?”
“No, of course not! It’s just… this is gonna upset a lot of people, you do realise?”
“Obviously,” she said, rolling her eyes. “That’s why they’re hiring a crew to do it for them. If it was an easy task, they’d do it themselves, wouldn’t they? Besides, the added danger means they’re adding a few more zeroes to our paycheck, which is always appreciated.”
“How much are they paying?”
“That’s for me to know, Raiden. You’ll get your previously discussed share, as agreed. Now, let’s talk details…”
Now
Raiden rolled the glass orb in his palm precariously. The object was delicate and prone to shattering – it had been designed so. For when the outer shell cracked, it would spill its contents across the ground and into the atmosphere, creating the desired effect.
He watched the horde close in on him like a wildfire. The moment was drawing nearer. Almost there, he told himself. Almost… almost… Three, two, one and—
Raiden smashed the orb onto the floor at his feet.
Then
“Any idea why they want it?”
Dara shrugged. “None of my concern. As long as they pay up, they can smash it for all I care. Let ‘em chop it up and eat it. Let them deface it. I don’t care.”
“But, it’s a religious symbol,” said Raiden, treading carefully.
“Oh, what? What happened in those years that we stopped working together, Raiden? You didn’t suddenly see the light, did you? You haven’t gone all wacko on me, have you?”
“Hey, no. I’m not… a believer,” he said, taking care with the word. “But I wouldn’t talk about the followers like that. I mean, who knows? Right? I mean—”
“Do you want the job or not, man? You might be the best, but there’s a thousand others out there who are good enough who’d do the job without asking this many questions. Plenty of people need the cash.”
“Whoa, whoa, Dara. Of course, I want the job!”
“Then stop talking as if you don’t.”
Now
It felt as if all the air was suddenly sucked from the surface of the planet. Before the tinkling glass had even finished falling to the ground, a great aqua blue bubble had bloomed from the cracked container, blossoming outwards and encapsulating him. For a second it stayed there, hovering around him, crackling with electric life, psychedelic swirling patterns twirling into infinity across its surface… and then it erupted outwards, rocketing into the oncoming horde.
A subsonic BOOM rattled Raiden’s eardrums, and he felt all the hairs on his body standing on end as if with static. His lungs had the breath pulled from them, and he uttered a shocked little, “Oof!” Raiden felt like someone had gently hit him in the gut and winded him. A moment later, he was roaring with laughter.
The mob was still there – nobody harmed. But they were moving in slow motion towards him, their skins crackling with blue lightning. Somewhere in the crowd, someone was still shouting. “Geeeeeeeettttt hiiiiiiiimmmm!” The voice sounded incredibly deep and hilarious.
Giggling like a schoolchild, Raiden stepped out into the crowd, backpack heavy on his shoulders. The thing was right there within grabbing distance, and he could see the understanding in their eyes… but they couldn’t get it. He laughed again. This was brilliant! Raiden waltzed through the crowd, taking special attention to lock eyes with as many murderous gazes as he could. Every single one of them would murder him in an instant, if they had the chance. And here he was, right within their grasp, and they were, for all intents and purposes, statues.
Raiden pranced and danced around their slowly moving bodies. It was as if they were moving in zero gravity or trying to wade through a lake of custard. His laughter tinkled through the air like falling glass. This is fantastic, he thought. This is utterly fantastic!
Although he knew he should be making his hasty getaway, Raiden spent the next twenty minutes jumping and skipping through the pack of would-be assailants, laughing hysterically.
Then
“So, how will we deliver it? I assume people will be looking for it.”
“You assume correctly, Mr. Genius. We’re gonna have the handoff on Tartrak.”
“Tartrak? Dara, are you sure about this?”
“I know what I’m doing. And whilst I’m captain, you won’t question me. Just do your job, Raiden.”
“Well, okay…”
Now
The ship was waiting on the beach, rear ramp lowered onto the sand. Franky was waiting outside, leaning against the ship, arms crossed. He looked annoyed. “What took you?”
“Nothing,” said Raiden, stifling a giggle.
“Did something go wrong?”
“No, nothing at all. Went off without a hitch.”
Franky sized him up. “I hope you’re telling the truth. For your sake. Dara’s pissed. Did you get it?”
Raiden patted his heavy backpack. “Right here.”
Franky nodded, then scanned the horizon. “Nobody saw you?”
Raiden grinned. “Like I said. It went off without a hitch,” he said, avoiding the truth but not overtly lying. At least, not in his own eyes.
“All right. Climb in the back. We’re leaving Raghajiv right now. Heading to meet the buyers.”
“Is Dara…?”
Franky nodded. “Yep. Good luck.” And with that, Franky climbed into the cockpit and started the ship’s engines.
Then
“Geahek? Geahek? Dara, I—”
“Stop. I said to not question my authority.”
“I know, but, Geahek is a mean… whatever he is. And his gang? Dara, they’re wanted dead or alive on every major planet.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Dara hissed. “But he’s paying big bucks. Don’t you get it? If we prove we can handle Geahek without wetting our pants, the rest of the clients will just fall into place. The infamy.”
“I—” started Raiden, but then he gave up. He shook his head and sighed.
There was little use in arguing with Dara. He’d learnt that many moons ago. Once she had an idea in her head…
Now
Dara hadn’t been as angry with him as he’d anticipated. She was just happy he had the idol. She held the thing in her hands and rotated it around, getting a proper look at it. “Over three thousand years old…” she said, in slight awe. “I mean, I know it’s got massive importance, but it is only made from bronze. It’s not like it’s gold or crystal or whatever.”
“Dara…” said Raiden, looking at her as if she had two heads. “This idol is one of the central pillars of the entire Raghajiv religion. You are holding something that people have killed for and died for. Something that people believe in, something people pray to. There are thousands of people out there that think that when they die, they meet—” he gestured towards the statue.
“Wow,” said Dara, mockingly. “That was quite a speech.” She jabbed the idol in his direction. “You should get into politics, y’know.”
Before Raiden could retort, the pilot interrupted them. “We’re here,” said Franky, from up front.
Through the windshield, they saw the icy wastes of Tartrak, the dead planet.
Then
“It’s not too late to turn the job down, you know,” he told her on the ride to Raghajiv. “You can still—”
“Turn Geahek down?”
Raiden turned the thought over in his mind. “Nope. You’re right. That would get us killed. If you told Geahek you’d do it, we better do it, hm?”
Now
And now, here they were on their knees in the freezing snow, hands behind their heads, guns trained on them. Raiden wanted to say I told you so. No, probably shouldn’t, he thought. He looked out the corner of his eye and caught Dara’s attention. “Told you so,” he whispered smugly.
“Tiihuh,” she whispered through gritted teeth.
“Hm?”
“Tiihuh,” she repeated, keeping her jaw clenched.
“What?”
“Hnh hn tiihuh.”
“Oh, for goodness sake, will you just say whatever it is you’re trying to say?”
“I said, throw the timebomb!”
Raiden’s words caught in his throat.
“Throw it, Raiden!” shouted Dara, eyes urging. Around them, Geahek’s guards were shouting and bellowing orders.
“I, uh… I don’t have it.”
“What?”
“I don’t… I don’t have it. I might have, ah, used it back on Raghajiv.”
The guards were swarming around them now, a blur of black armour against the icy blueish whites of Tartrak’s wastelands.
“You what? You blithering idiot! You utter moron! You—”
And that was when one of Geahek’s guards struck him on the back of the head, and he blacked out.
Then
“I wonder what he wants it for,” pondered Raiden out loud. “Why chase down an ancient religious idol?”
“Who cares, as long as we get paid?” replied Dara, flippantly. “And don’t go off about the—” she did mock air-quotes “—significance of such an artefact. Let’s just do the work, get paid, and then go our separate ways. ‘Cause your face is already annoying me.”
“Your voice, too,” added Franky.
Dara nodded. “Yeah, and your voice.”
Now
“Lucky for you, we get to spend a lot more time together,” he said, smiling chirpily. “Silver linings, and all that, huh?”
“For God’s sake, Raiden, shut up.”
“Yeah, Raiden, shut it,” growled Franky.
From outside their cages came a tutting. Geahek stepped out from the shadows. “So much infighting, it’s a wonder you lot were able to pull of the heist at all,” he crooned, bouncing the idol in his hand.
“Why don’t you hurry up and kill us already?” snapped Dara. “Stop toying with us!” As the words tumbled out of her mouth, Raiden knew she hadn’t figured it out yet. There were the things on their legs, for a start…
“Kill you?” Geahek asked, frowning. “Why on earth would I kill you? You’re the best heist crew I’ve ever had!” he said with a boyish grin that bordered on the maniacal. “No, no. I’m not going to kill you, gosh no. In fact, what I propose is an… opportunity.”
“Oh, here we go,” mumbled Raiden, fiddling with the ankle monitor that was strapped to his leg. It flashed a red light, intermittently.
A look of unadulterated rage flashed across Geahek’s face, but he maintained composure. “I propose you continue working for me. And when I say ‘work’, I do not mean that you will be getting paid.” His eyes crawled over Raiden. “And please stop playing with that. It’s not a toy, and you won’t get it off.” Geahek’s voice dropped down a register: “Believe me.”
“What kinda work?” asked Dara.
“Well…” he said scrutinising the idol. “This wasn’t the only religious artefact I am after. And you weren’t the only crew I hired. The problem is that the others… they, ah, suffered casualties. In fact, you are the only crew that returned alive.”
“Oh…”
“I want you to go and retrieve the other artefacts.”
“Which others?” asked Raiden, an awful feeling rising in his chest.
“I think you know,” said Geahek with a wicked grin. “But here’s a hint for job number one: Quowiduw.” The exotic word rolled off his tongue perfectly.
Raiden closed his eyes and swore.
Dara looked confused. “What? What?”
“I’ll leave you to… discuss the proposition,” said Geahek, ignoring her. “Of course, it’s either ‘yes’ or it’s death, you must realise. Any who…” he said, and then swaggered through the doors, whistling a jaunty tune.
“What did he say?” said Dara, turning in her narrow cage.
Raiden sighed. “Basically, we either get killed by his cronies… or, we get killed by religious nuts. Or by mother nature.” He looked from Franky to Dara, in the cramped confines of their prisons. “Guys… we’re going to Muxel.”
Franky and Dara swore simultaneously.
At what point did you realize no one cares about you?
Yesterday, in fact.
Yesterday I turned 40 years old. Not a single damn person, including my friends and even my parents. Not one person, save for God the Father; wished me a Happy Birthday.
I do all the shopping and housekeeping for my parent’s, twice a week. Which means I leave my life, to go to their house and clean it for them. I do their grocery shopping too. My other siblings? Nowhere to be found, or even care. So, you’d think that I might matter to them. Right? You’d think a 40th birthday would be a big one.
I take care of church and help maintain their storehouse, and do all their shopping, bills, etc. I serve as a Worship Leader at my church. None of my team, none of my fellow church members, none of them wished me a happy birthday. These are people I see every week and who keep calendars on people’s birthdays.
No one threw me a party or sent me some money or remembered to say two simple words. No one, but God. That’s when I realized that I am far too kind and giving and generous for my own good and I need to set stronger and tighter boundaries. If ALL the people that I care about and value in my life, can completely forget about me on my 40th, what is considered a Milestone by most people. Not one person. It shows that I care more for them, then they do for me.
That cut me real deep. It really makes me question why I go out of my way to serve and help people, when no one even notices me. Pretty messed up. I sat in my truck with a chocolate cupcake and a Puppacino for my pooch and sang myself Happy Birthday with my dog howling next to me.
People suck. Especially the ones that you’re supposed to matter to.
EDIT 12/29/24 – Just in the last 2 days; I am amazed, humbled and completely taken aback by the level of outpouring love, support and belated birthday wishes, from complete strangers. The same love that I should have been given by the ones that matter most to me, instead I got it from the world; the one place I didn’t expect it. I’ve never written or done anything that went viral. I wrote this 2 days ago out of frustrating and venting and its had more attention and views than any other article I’ve written. And I write a lot. I just want to say to all the people that took the time to read this and sympathize with me and especially the ones who took the time to write a comment or a belated birthday wish. Thank you from the bottom of my 40 year old heart. I value this so much and it was so needed. Thank you, all of you!
Women Have Ruined Dating for Everyone ….
Felix
Once upon a time, in a lush forest, there lived a clever fox named Felix. Felix was known far and wide for his quick wit and cunning ways. He could outsmart any creature in the forest, from the craftiest raccoon to the most elusive hare. But Felix had one problem: he was always in a hurry. He dashed from one place to another, never taking the time to enjoy the beauty around him. His motto was, “Why walk when you can run?”
One sunny morning, Felix was trotting along the forest path when he spotted a turtle named Theo. Theo was the complete opposite of Felix. He moved at a glacial pace, taking each step with deliberate care. While Felix was always rushing, Theo believed in savoring every moment. He would stop to admire a flower, listen to the birdsong, or feel the warmth of the sun on his shell. His motto was, “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Felix, ever the trickster, decided to have a little fun with Theo. “Hey, Theo!” he called out. “How about a race? I bet I can reach the big oak tree before you even take ten steps!” Theo, unfazed by Felix’s taunting, smiled and said, “Sure, Felix. But remember, it’s not always about who gets there first.” Felix laughed, confident in his speed, and the race began.
Felix bolted off like a shot, leaving Theo in the dust. But as he ran, he couldn’t resist stopping to investigate a shiny object he spotted in the bushes. It turned out to be a discarded soda can, but Felix spent a good five minutes trying to figure out if it was treasure. Meanwhile, Theo plodded along, steadily making his way toward the oak tree. He didn’t get distracted; he just kept moving forward.
By the time Felix realized he’d been sidetracked, Theo was already halfway to the oak tree. Felix sprinted as fast as he could, but he kept getting distracted—by a butterfly, by a berry bush, by his own reflection in a pond. When he finally reached the oak tree, panting and exhausted, he found Theo calmly waiting for him, munching on a leaf. “Told you,” Theo said with a wink. “Slow and steady wins the race.”
The moral of the story? Life isn’t just about speed and shortcuts. Sometimes, taking your time and staying focused on your goals will get you further than rushing and getting distracted. And who knows? You might even enjoy the journey along the way.
What if your husband of 22 years left and said he didn’t want you anymore? After being with his ex for three weeks, he came back home. Should l forgive him?
My goodness that happened to me. He was the love of my life. I was devastated . It wasn’t an ex but someone he knew through his job. They were both studying for a state engineering licensing exam. At the library in the evenings. One night he wasn’t home by 9:15 as expected. I drove to the library. There they were , steamed up windows in his van. I was so upset. Not long after. I came home and the house felt weird. I opened his drawers, they were empty. I knew then he just left without being asked and without telling me. It was a kick in the gut. I loved him so much. Several weeks later, he knocked on my door with two bags of groceries. “I thought I’d come back home, I brought dinner. We sat and talked. I said “you want to come back? “. Yes, he said, I said “wait, I’ll be right back”. I went into my room and grabbed my wedding rings. I opened his had and placed the rings in his palm, then I held out my left hand. I said , when you put these rings on my finger, again, you are promising me that my heart will never be broken, you want our marriage forever, and you will never do what you did again, I love you , if you know in your heart that you love me and are committing to be with me , you will put them on my finger”, he reached out and took my hand, I looked at him. His eyes were down he turned my hand placed the ring in my palm, folded my fingers over them and said I’m sorry , I cannot make that promise. Then he got up and walked out the door. “Thank for the groceries” I said. I wasn’t surprised. At least he was honest this time! Two months later he came back to announce that he was going to Arizona where he grew up, with a girl he met who had a son. We spoke to each other several times over the years. He called me, I never called him. I was invited to his daughters wedding. Her and I were pretty close since I married her dad. He came alone, he sat with me and his daughters mother joined us later. He was the same charming man I always loved and knew I would love forever. He died after a major stroke a couple of years ago. I was devastated. I still love him with all my heart. I could have just said yes, come home, but I didn’t. He married three times after he left me and was divorced when he died. I made the right decision that day to bait him. My advice to you is to say no life cannot be happily lived backwards. It’s too late. Once they don’t love you and say so, they only come back because there is no one else. That’s not enough to rebuilt on. I’m sorry, I know how you feel. I feel your pain and understand your mixed feelings well.
What would you do if you found out that your fiancée let a guy climb in her bedroom after she put me on the couch?
There’s your answer. She put somebody else in her bed and put you on the couch. That means you need to walk away. Cause there is nothing there. I’m sorry to say and it might hurt. If there is a better future ahead of you, if there’s always a reason that something happens because when one door closes another, 1 will open
What was the lie that you let someone live with without correcting them?
My neighbor’s daughter died young and her boyfriend would stop in to look after her elderly mother weekly for the rest of my neighbor’s life. It was very kind.
I moved into the neighborhood a couple years before she died, and she was a porch-sitter and I’m a talker, so I would come talk to her on the regular and lend a hand if she needed something. Nothing heroic, just a little neighboly hanging out.
She passed and he turned up that Christmas with a gift and said “hey thanks for being a great neighbor to her,” and I said, “oh that’s so sweet of you, I LOVE chocolate!” What I did not say, because I thought it would never matter, was, “that’s so sweet of you, but in fact I am viciously allergic to nuts of all sorts, so thanks but no thanks!”
It is now five years later, and a man whose name I do not know, never see, and does not live in the area, is still leaving expensive, nutty assortments of chocolate on my doorstep every year. My kiddo is gleeful and I am resigned. It’s far too late to fess up even if I were to catch him in the act, plus I will be moving next year. Best to just let him enjoy his seasonal gesture.
Andrew Tate Explains Why Men Should NEVER Get Married
M28. How do I tell my mother she made a mistake birthing me? Her selfishness forced me into a world and gave me no knowledge of it. She is beyond stupid. How can I express, that I hate her for having “fun” and to tell her she should have aborted?
You know nothing about your mother. Maybe she considered abortion but decided she couldn’t kill a baby, because a fetus is a baby. You sound depressed otherwise you would not consider that you were forced to come into this world. Your words indicate to me that your mother might have raised you without a father, would it have been better if you had a normal upbringing with both parents? But really you are angry and depressed and you want to blame it on your mom. The last thing you should tell her is that you hate her. If you want to tell someone how angry you are, tell it to God. He know all things anyway. He knows every thought before it comes to your mind. He knows every word before it comes to your tongue. Since He already knows, you should talk to Him instead of blaming your mom.
My head was ringing, my jaw clenched. It was a cold windy night, the alley not any kinder. I pulled my coat tighter around myself. My body was fighting the cold, but the fear coursing through seemed to warm it enough to make my clenched fists sweat. I wanted to put my hand into my pocket but knew that won’t do me any good at this point.
“Arrrrthhhurrrr!”
I kept seeing him out of the corner of my eyes, grinning, his eyes lit up like he’s happy right where he is. He looked better than the last time I saw him, more alive. He didn’t look a day over how he looked then, brown eyes, caramel skinned, his clothes the same as that day. I suppose that’s just what happens when you go through something like that. It is what it is.
It was quiet, the stillness almost suffocating. I wanted to get it over with, but time seemed frozen just like the air around me. Some stragglers went past us, but other than the odd look now and then, they didn’t seem to suspect anything. So we waited, him and I, paused in that moment, feeling every breath leave my body, every whisper of wind through my hair, afraid to make any movement that might break this trance. But even as my eyes were wide open, I could see that day play out.
It was about a year ago.
“There has been a mistake. The officer will be punished suitably. We are truly sorry.”
He stood beside me, an officer hat in his hands. I couldn’t meet his eyes. Nor hers. I couldn’t imagine that this day will end like this. And the worst part is, it was all my fault.
Why did this happen?
I don’t remember who, I just remember a voice asking those words. The sweat in my clenched fists almost felt like his blood on my hands.
“We can’t begin to say how sorry we are. We got a distress call from someone passing through that there seemed to be a suspicious individual in the neighbourhood. Our officers on call were closeby and responded to it and it just so happened that he fit the description.”
“Arrrrthhhuurrrr!”
Have you heard a gunshot?
I have. I think its sharp, like a clap maybe? No, no, its dull, slipping past like a breeze. Honestly, you can’t really describe it. It is just a sound that rings around your head. It feels like it has a life of its own, and when it is through with you, all you are left with is wondering what ghosts it left behind.
I thought I’d never pick up something again that could make that sound. Never feel the cool metal beneath my fingertips.
“Noooo!!!”
Her voice rang in my head. It did ever since that day. The wailing of an inconsolable mother. A mother who lost her world in what to some was a split second instinct.
What could console her? Was there any punishment that would feel just in this world? Was there any in the universe? Her cries made me wonder every day.
A mandatory leave of absence sure doesn’t. Why else would I find myself here?
“What could you possibly have imagined a 10 year old capable of committing? Enough to warrant him a fatal wound?” The voice choked out the words. “He’s a child! H-He was …”
The words just buzzed in my ears. My throat felt clogged, like I couldn’t speak despite desperately wanting to.
It continued. “I was just there. I had asked him to wait out on the lawn for me, for just a moment. To wait, on OUR LAWN!” Eyes squeezed shut, fingers pressed tightly to stop the tears. “Why would you think my boy standing on our lawn made him the first suspicious individual huh? A 10 YEAR OLD! He listened to his father and simply stood there, and he was killed at his own house! What world are you protecting us from if you are the ones going around killing us?!”
I could stay silent no more.
“Now listen here, mister, that is no way to talk to an officer…”
“Jerry, shut up. Sir, again, as we explained, he made a sudden turn which was why the officer had to act quickly. We can’t discriminate between criminals based on age …”
“But you can based on colour. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”
Her voice rang out.
The man looked like he wanted to speak out. He then looked at me in the eyes, hazy with the need to defend his comrade but he could see that in the depths of this day, nothing else could explain why it happened. Nothing else could say why an innocent boy with a brown eyed smile had to die. Nothing but the caramel of his skin.
“We were just going to the park. My wife had gone ahead earlier to get the birthday picnic set up but she texted me about some things she forgot. I didn’t want him to see, that’s why I told him to wait out in the lawn. It would have barely been a couple of minutes. Just a couple of minutes.”
Hopelessness rimmed that voice. It crawled over my skin, making me want to throw up my insides.
“He turned around because he heard me close our door. He saw your guns and understood the danger it posed. He was scared and he looked for his father to protect him. Was that so wrong? In the end, though, it got him killed.”
It sounded like someone who had lost all purpose. Someone who just wanted to give up. But that was a year ago.
“You remember me, don’t you?”
This voice no longer belonged to the helpless father from a year ago. This was one that knew what its sole purpose in life is, and would do anything to get to it.
And it’s hands held clenched in the pocket of its coat the one tool that help it get to it.
I could see the recognition etched in his eyes, the face that came to me every night in my sleep, eyes that then seemed so hateful now filled with something I couldn’t quite understand. He was frozen, just like I, the midnight air speaking the words we couldn’t.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget a face from that day.”
His voice, I wanted to say, sounded smug. But there was something off about it, like my appearance after disappearing for a year didn’t affect him at all. And that bothered me.
He continued. “I saw it in your eyes that day, you know.” He smiled. “I saw them burning with a desire for justice. And I remember it every time I dream of firing that shot.”
It almost seemed like he was goading me, as though he wanted me to act before even I myself desired it. My fingers tensed around the metal, wanting to pull it out yet not wanting to give him the satisfaction.
“Do you now? A murderer who remembers his victim, how ironic.” I sneered at him. It only seemed to make him grin wider. I didn’t have to imagine I heard smugness in his voice to get triggered by his smile.
My clenched fists felt colder now with the metal in them exposed to the air. He held his hands up in mockery.
“Dad?”
“Dad?”
“Shh, Arthur, the doctors will fix you right up, its okay.” I looked away, holding his hand tighter in mine. My other hand was holding pressure to his chest, but even the slightest shift felt like he life was slipping away right beneath my fingertips.
“Daddy?” I couldn’t look at his eyes. He always had a light that in them I could look towards to make any day better. But today was different.
Because today, it was fading.
“I’m scared.”
I met his brown eyes, and in that moment, I wanted to scratch away my skin till it all but bled just to see if it makes his stop. “It’s going to be okay, I promise.”
He closed his eyes. “Sleepy, daddy …”
“Arthur”, I shook him, “Arthur?”
“Arrrrthhhuurrrr!”
The fear of God struck his eyes at that moment. He looked like he was about to turn, so I held the gun with both hands. “Don’t move!”
He froze, and it gave me a moment to see where the voice came from. He stood behind him, a boy of 7, maybe 8, and he was shivering. I’d like to say it was because of the cold but I but deep down, I didn’t have to guess the reason why. I looked away from him.
“Jim.” He spoke with his hands still held up. “Jim, what are you doing here?”
The boy’s eyes started to fill with tears. “M-mom told me to come l-look for you”, his voice choked.
“Go back to mommy, Jim, its going to be okay. Just go back to mommy.”
That’s when I turned the gun to the boy. All this time, he looked unbothered, but the fear in his eyes now looked exactly what I needed.
“Don’t!” he shouted, pleading in words he didn’t say. “He’s just a boy.”
I sneered. “So was mine! Now you’ll know how that feels!”
“Kill me.”
The words rang in my ears, but it didn’t make sense. Every day for the past year I dreamt of all the ways his face would look like pleading for his life, but none of those faces matched the man before me.
He smiled sadly. “You see him still, don’t you?”
“Daddy?”
Arthur stood beside the boy now, his caramel smile nowhere to be seen. Instead his eyes were fearful, just as they were that day.
“I do too. Every day. That’s why I resigned after the leave of absence. I kept remembering I chose to fire every time I picked up the gun. I knew you were looking into me, that one day you’d come for me. I didn’t want anything to get in the way of what I deserve.”
I felt as though my brain was finally putting together the pieces from tonight. Everything I found off about his demeanour, from his voice to him smile, it all made sense. For the look in his eyes that I couldn’t understand before, it was not smugness or fear. It was acceptance.
“Why should I believe you?”
He smiled, “I can’t tell you why.” His eyes turned, “Just let the boy go, I beg you. He doesn’t deserve it just as much as Arthur didn’t.”
I finally looked into the boy’s eyes. He was more human to me than anyone’s ever been in the last year, his light no different from my son’s. As I looked on, the ocean blue of his eyes changed color slowly. Now all that stared back was a brown eyed smile that slowly died every second my gun continued to point to it.
What am I doing?
You are no different from him.
My hands shook. But the man didn’t seem keen to use my moment of weakness to escape. He stood still, like a man who had nowhere else he wished to be.
“Go.”
The light in Arthur’s eyes were no longer dying. In fact, they seemed to start glowing. I put the gun back into my pocket.
“W-what?”
“GO! Before I change my mind!”
He kept his eyes on me while walking backwards, protecting the boy from my line of fire with his body. If only I could’ve done the same that day.
They were gone and I fell to the ground defeated. Where was the justice I sought? Why do I still feel like clawing my chest out? What could I do?
I screamed out into the night, until I could no more.
It was quiet now.
My hands hung limply by my side, my coat sifting softly in the breeze, brushing every now and then against my hand. My fingers were cold, the ground freezing. I put them into my pocket but there was no more room, so my fingers clenched around the gun. I don’t know how much time passed, only that I was down on the ground waiting for something to happen.
“Sleep, daddy …”
I heard my second gunshot. I still couldn’t say what it sounded like. But it was quiet now, and so I just closed my eyes and slipped into a dreamless sleep.
Man Catches Girlfriend CHEATING On Dating App And She Can’t Handle It…
M28. How do I tell my mother she made a mistake birthing me? Her selfishness forced me into a world and gave me no knowledge of it. She is beyond stupid. How can I express, that I hate her for having “fun” and to tell her she should have aborted?
Dude, you’re 28 years old. You can’t blame your mom for your issues.
Get some therapy. get a job. Go to the gym. Have fun by joining some safe groups. Hang out with friends or make some.
don’t blame your issues on your mother birthing you, you are too old for this… grow up!
How was the Internet invented?
There were whispers of it in the Pentagon first—back in the 1960s—The military sought for a nuclear war survival communication system.
What they produced was much more than they had dreamed.
Started with ARPANET in 1969—They built it piece by piece—like a man laying bricks for a foundation he couldn’t yet see—The initial link went from UCLA to Stanford. Two computers—conversing over a phone line; But it marked the start of something massive.
The development of TCP/IP—the protocol destined to form the backbone of the internet, marked the actual breakthrough—Bob Kahn and Vint Cerf produced it in 1974. Consider it as if any computer—could converse in a universal language—Before that, different networks were like islands—cut off from one another—TCP/IP created connections between them.
NSFNET, a system linking supercomputer centers, first emerged in the 1980s—faster and more dependable than ARPANET—Schools began to plug in—then companies. Growing like a living entity—the network expanded first over the nation and then the planet.
The last piece arrived in 1989 when Tim Berners-Lew created the World-Wide-Web at CERN—He provided HTML, URLs, and HTTP—the tools that would make the internet from a playground for specialists into something everyone could use.
Early in the 1990s, the internet had moved from military and intellectual beginnings—It belonged to everyone now. Commercial suppliers began providing links to houses—The rest is history.
Valtrompia Bread
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Yield: 2 Valtrompia loaves
Ingredients
1/3 cup very warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
3 to 4 cups flour
Instructions
In measuring cup, combine warm water, sugar, and yeast. Let stand 5 minutes stirring occasionally until mixture is foamy.
In large bowl, combine milk, butter, and salt. Add yeast mixture to bowl and stir to combine. Add 2 1/2 cups flour and stir. Stir in as much of remaining flour as necessary to form soft dough. Turn onto lightly floured board and knead for 7 minutes. Shape dough into smooth ball. Put into greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with plastic wrap. Place bowl in warm, draft-free place to rise until double in bulk.
Punch dough down. Divide dough in half, roll into log 3 to 4 inches shorter than the Valtrompia Bread Tube, and insert in tube.
Cap and bake in a preheated 400 degree F oven for 60 to 70 minutes.
Remove from tube to cool.
Is there anything to stop a husband from cheating?
If your husband wants to cheat, then you can’t stop your husband from cheating. Your husband will find different ways to cheat. It all depends upon the core personality of your husband. If your husband is an emotionally unavailable, emotionally damaged man, or has high traits of narcissism, then he is more likely to cheat. Cheating is a choice and a conscious act. You can’t do anything here if your husband wants to cheat.
Only man can stop himself from cheating. If your husband is healthy and loves you, then no matter what happens, he is never going to cheat in any circumstances. If your husband loves you, cheating on you will never cross his mind. Cheaters will have 100s of reasons to cheat, and a loyal person only needs one reason to be faithful: that is love.
Is it reasonable for a wife to accept another man’s invitation for just her to go to his house for a swim at 1am, & for her to go wearing only a bikini & a totally translucent gown. Is it reasonable for a husband to get upset in such a situation? Tx!
Absolutely not, it is not unreasonable to get upset. Many things can happen riding solo at that hour. My man would NEVER let me out alone at that time of the night. Shoot he wouldn’t even let me check the mail across the street in the dark. She must not respect the fact that you care about her and a healthy future for her.
Is it reasonable for a wife to accept another man’s invitation for just her to go to his house for a swim at 1am, & for her to go wearing only a bikini & a totally translucent gown. Is it reasonable for a husband to get upset in such a situation? Tx!
Yes, be upset. It’s disrespectful and disregarding your marriage vows. The offer is with bad intentions. To do that any time of day and just her is an affair waiting to happen
Talk to your wife and ask how she would feel if a woman invited you only to go over by her at that time wearing only a Speedo??
Why Is Nobody Talking About This?
I heard a news report that tariffs on Chinese goods will not have the desired effect of bringing manufacturing back the US, although companies plan cutting back on production in China. Why won’t they return the US?
Do you want to hear the truth or do you want to hear lies.
The truth is, for the United States, if it does not want to give up its financial hegemony and the US dollar as the world currency, then financial capital absolutely does not want manufacturing to return to the United States.
Because this will reduce their voice in government decision-making, and even serve the manufacturing industry, instead of being able to quickly obtain massive amounts of funds by constantly speculating on some “high-tech” concept products in the stock market. It turned into a real-life Ponzi scheme.
After carefully looking at the U.S. dollar, U.S. bonds, and U.S. technology stocks, I
I realized that the current financial system of the United States is based on the credit endorsement of the United States as a sovereign country.
But it is obvious that as the U.S. debt approaches 37 trillion, the U.S. national credit system is about to go bankrupt.
For the United States, the reshoring of manufacturing promoted by Trump and Musk is like a self-rescue act of a terminally ill person.
But to realize this premise, the financial industry, service industry, etc. all need to serve the manufacturing industry.
Instead, I hype a high-tech concept, which is actually a laboratory product, and then I can obtain a large amount of financing in the stock market. Then a few years later, the company goes bankrupt and closes down. But the money has fallen into the hands of a few.
Isn’t this just pure money fraud?
Then, the United States needs to restart vocational education. Simply put, it means that a large number of Americans should give up their choices in law, finance, services, computers, and liberal arts, and devote themselves to science and engineering and technical training.
This process will take at least 10 years to cultivate a generation of qualified industrial workers and engineers.
Otherwise, it is just a dream to bring back the manufacturing industry.
Because the current illiteracy rate in the United States is too high, workers seriously lack high-end technical training.
In fact, I personally suggest that it is better for the United States to start major infrastructure construction again from now on, which can at least solve a large number of employment problems.
Why is Intel in a steep decline? Why did Intel decline and fall so much?
Short Answer: Intel’s main competition was AMD and for a while AMD wasn’t in the race so intel got distracted. After a while Intel decided to comeback with 2nm chip and it proved disaster because of many reasons, some of which are listed in the long answer.
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Long Answer: Intel’s $50 billion investment to lead in 2nm chip production has turned into a tale of misaligned priorities. The company focused on building cutting-edge facilities for foundaries to compete with TSMC and Samsung before resolving its existing 7nm and 10nm chip struggles, resulting in a reduced credibility in the market.
Why did only Intel had a fall while not other competitors like AMD?
AMD focused on outsourcing its chip production to TSMC, allowing it to prioritize design while leveraging TSMC’s advanced manufacturing processes.
TSMC invested steadily in cutting-edge production facilities like 7nm and 5nm, delivering consistent results and attracting customers like Apple, AMD, and Nvidia.
These companies focused on their own expertise and existing products, unlike Intel and that is the only reason for their success.
Andrew Tate Explains Why Men Should NEVER Get Married
I remember when the (musical group) the “Beatles” arrived in New York city.
It was insane. Everyone was talking about them.
The local girls painted their faces on the automobile windows, and even the nuns who taught in my elementary school were all enthralled.
After the concert, that was the only thing that my nun teacher (first grade) talked about.
We watched the news at night and all we saw were miles and miles of hysterical screaming girls. It was insane.
You all have no idea about just how crazy it was. The Beatles brought a new kind of Rock n Roll to the United States. And the entire nation was eating it up.
And it was so crazy.
My teacher (the nun) told me that she couldn’t hear the music because the screaming was just so vigorous.
Take a look…
Today…
Why does China keep trying to compete with USA when they know they are gonna lose? Most Chinese students, rich, elites crave for US citizenship after all.
A Nation isn’t built out of Rich, Elite people but by the Middle Class
Within the Mainland, the US has much less to offer than what it could two or three decades ago
Back then China had 1 World Class University necessarily meaning 40% of the brightest Chinese had to go to US or Western Universities for their education
Back then 73% of Chinese Manufacturing and Production was LOW GRADE PRODUCTS necessarily meaning 30% of the most talented workers had to work either for US / Western Owned Industries within China or migrate outside China
Today things are different
China has 26 World Class Universities, next only to the US with 41
Almost 24% of Chinese manufacturing is HIGH GRADE and ADVANCED which means 6–7 Million Jobs within the Mainland and expected to rise to 20 Million in the next decade
Add to this a fervor of Chinese Nationalism within China
The Result is clear
Emigration Agencies have reduced from more than 1000 in 2007 to 180 or so in 2024
Enrollment into Australian Universities by Mainlanders dropped 52% in the past decade
Outbound Tourism to US and Europe fell by 27% in the past 7 years while to Thailand, Maldives, Singapore & Ironically Japan rose by 66%
Domestic Tourism surged by 213% from 2009 to 2023
Anyone living in China can see the change for themselves
The US just doesn’t fascinate China anymore the way it used to
China has a thriving Capital Market
China has a very good standard of living, affordable quality healthcare and quality education
In fact in the past two years – 4,600 Doctorate holders moved back to China from the US – who were either Green Card Holders or US Citizens
Urban Life in China beats Urban life in US
Semi Urban Life in China is very good today
Salaries of Workers in High Grade or Advanced Manufacturing is very high indeed
Things are changing significantly for the Mainlanders
Can you name some places in Thailand that you think are not safe to go to alone as a tourist?
Badly lit alleys in Khlong Toei Slums? Nope! Red-light, Pattaya Soi 6 ? Nope!—- Low cost National Housing Estate in Din Daeng dubbed -slums in the air?—-Nope! Walking Street at Bangla, Phuket? Nope!
Some of those places are hidden gem for tourists and many are popular, though it’s seemed unsafe but they’re almost 100% safe if you aren’t a troublemaker yourself.
So, where, then, isn’t safe to go alone as a tourist?
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Well, nothing is wrong with going to the police station in Thailand, it’s just like going to a renowned lion den alone.
Even if you are one hell of a ‘Rambo’ you are no match with those guys in Brown in the above places.
Are you kidding me? What is wrong with going to make a police report I’m a victim, I did no wrong against the Thai law.?— Did you? And are you sure about that?
I know you will come up with that. ‘ You said you were attacked by 5 Thai security guards, you acted in self-defense, right?’
“You will be slapped with a few charges like ‘destroy public property’ ( section 360) by pulling the pipes from roadside rail to beat all 5 Thai guys up. Another charge is ‘using foul language like ‘ f-word’ to insult their mother’s ( Libel sec. 326’) plus’ Third; Walk out of the bar without paying the bills.(Fraud base:345)
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From all the 3 charges, you will get compound fines 20,000 Baht or jailed, or both. Meanwhile, locked up until you get a bailout, could also be deported if convicted…What? sigh!
The 5 guys? They, too, were fined.—500B each on ‘assault’ (section 295) with 1 year suspended sentence, doing community works for 6 weeks.
Now you know, going to the Police station ‘alone’ as a tourist is a suicidal— Bring a Thai lawyer with you, he or she knows what to do.
Putin Confirms War Has Been Declared on the Russian World Today
This statement occurred in mid-December 2024.
Beef Chimichangas
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Ingredients
1 (3 pound) roast
2 firm tomatoes, chopped
3 to 4 scallions, chopped
Garlic
Salt and pepper
Comino (cumin)
Instructions
Cook the beef in a slow cooker for 6 to 8 hours with the seasonings.
Cool and shred beef.
Cook tomatoes and scallions and add to beef.
Place meat mixture on flour tortillas and roll up. Drop into hot oil until golden brown. Drain.
Top with green chiles, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded cheese.
The metallic surface of the Cleveland Company logo glimmered faintly as the space station became slowly bathed in the dim glow of moonlight. Eileen sat in the control room chair looking straight ahead, not distracted by the sight of Umbriel passing the window; she’d seen it a thousand times. Her eyes were fixated by the 50-inch rectangle of light above her head. “He never takes me anywhere” she sighed. Prodding the remote control repeatedly at three second intervals, she continued browsing images of the inner Solar System – far off places, close to the Sun, but she knew it was hopeless. Ted hadn’t agreed to leave the space station since their honeymoon in 2159, and no matter how many light-years she spent dreaming of one last planet getaway, it came no closer to reality. Ted was just not interested; he had his mind of other things.At the opposite end of the space station, the sound of clinking and clunking would be absolutely maddening if there had been anyone else around to hear it. The only person there was Ted whose hearing had started to go a long time ago. Pieces of twisted metal and dusty electronic chips were strewn around the floor of the station’s West Wing. A screw with a worn down thread went scuttling across the metal table skimming its surface like a stone across a lake. Eventually dropping to the floor and finding its resting place through a tiny air vent under a cabinet. “Blast!” Ted exclaimed staring into his empty hands. He looked up at the calendar above the workstation and his chest started to tighten.It was November 4th 2212. The arrival of J-Boy, their beloved grandson, was imminent. The young explorer was about to make his annual call. Visitors were rare these days. So rare that they hadn’t had a visitor for 10 years, except J-Boy of course. His visits were guaranteed like Earth’s orbit around the Sun. He could arrive at any moment and yet the satellite was still not fixed. Ted just needed to re-attach a panel to cover the inner circuitry and the dish would be ready for installation. He reached into the screw box and grasped at the fresh air inside. He picked up his magnifying glass to see that the box was in fact empty. Ted slumped back into his chair, realising he would have to go to the East Wing to get a new one. That meant bumping into Eileen. He wasn’t ready to face her, especially as he hadn’t finished the job yet, but he couldn’t stay away any longer. Ted hoped she’d forgotten about the promise he made last month. It was unlikely though.Eileen peered through the small round window in the door of the East Wing. The faint sound of footsteps had interrupted her mid-afternoon daydream of exotic star trails and asteroid showers. She watched as a frail masculine figure emerged from the long dark corridor that connected the wings of the space station. As he got closer, the light from the East Wing window cast a spotlight, revealing the silhouette. There was no doubt who it was, it couldn’t have been anyone else. He was holding a shiny box.”A gift?” she wondered.“Oh, Ted …after all this time, finally he has something to offer, something to show he still cares after all these years.”Eileen excitedly pressed the big red button causing the door to slide out of view. With a childlike grin, Eileen opened her arms.
“For me? Ted, you shouldn’t have.”
Before Ted could speak Eileen reached forward, snatched the shiny box from his hands and ripped off the lid. Eileen’s cheeks were suddenly yanked down by invisible draw strings when she saw the box was empty.
“You’re a mean bloody sod, you know that? Bringing me a shiny thing, getting me all excited then smashing my dreams to pieces with a box of empty promises.”
Ted peeled back his lips to reveal his crooked gnashers.
“Give over, would ya? Screws! I need bloody screws…for the satellite.”
“Screws? I’ll give you screws! I’ll bloody screw you!” she said, waving her fist and reluctantly stepping aside to let him through the doorway.
“Chance would be a fine thing!” he chuckled.
“Wash your bloody gob out, you. J-Boy will be here tomorrow and I don’t wanna hear you opening your potty mouth in front of the lad.”
Ted carried on shuffling toward the storage hatch without saying a word.
“Anyhow, haven’t you got enough screws from all that bloomin’ junk you spend all your life scavenging from outside?”
“I keep droppin’ ’em. My hands aren’t what they once were.”
“Nowt’s what it once was. Remember when you took me to see the rings of Saturn? In the pod, just you, me and a nice bottle ginger wine, billions of stars and endless possibilities.
Now look at us. Cooped up in either ends of this station like a prison, but worse. No bloody excitement here! Just the same old orbit in the darkest, dullest end of the Solar System. We’ve been dwelling about this Uranus moon for all eternity. Saturn was a previous life…”.
Eileen continued ranting and reminiscing, but all Ted could hear was the sound of boxes crashing together as he rummaged around. He picked up a silver box and and grinned.
“I’ve told ya before, there’s a lot of good discarded satellite material on this orbit. These young uns dump it and bugger off t’ Jupiter on a jolly. Perfectly good stuff, it is.”
“You know why they dump it ‘ere, Ted? Cos there’s nowt ‘ere. Nowt but bloody junk and darkness, and that miserable moon locking us into the most awful orbit anywhere in the Universe. Round and round and round and round. I’ll tell ye Ted, if I have to…”
A sudden blast of white noise flooded the control room.
“Come in, Cleveland Company station X14, this is Cleveland Craft 0187, permission to engage”
Ted and Eileen looked at each other and froze.
“J-Boy?”
“You daft apeth, Ted! He’s already here! You’ve wasted all your time meddling with that bloody monstrosity… Oh dear! Oh dear, oh dear.”
“Put the kettle on. I’ll get the satellite.” Ted hurriedly made for the West Wing.
J-Boy felt a warm tingle in his stomach as his spacecraft neared the docking hatch of the space station. Of all the places passed Jupiter, his grandparents space station was the place he looked forward to visiting the most. A loud mechanical bang followed by a gentle hissing sound indicated that his craft and the station were locked together. When the gravity light turned green, he released the door.
“Here he is. Where’ve you been, stranger? Come ‘ere!”
J-Boy was smothered by Eileen’s warm embrace. It was here he always received the warmest welcome of anywhere in the Universe. Clevelands X14 always felt like home.
“I’m great”, J-Boy managed to say amidst the big welcome squeeze.
Over Eileen’s shoulder, he could see Ted holding a large metal dish which was covered in wires and electrician’s tape.
“I got a present for ya, lad. Here you are. What d’ya think?”
Ted handed the gift to J-Boy.
“Ooohh, thanks, Ted. Eh…wha…what is it?”
“It’s a satellite, of course. A retro type but it works a treat. You can pick up all sorts on this: Earth war documentaries, alien life programmes, sports from other galaxies…”
“Aw, sounds great. Thanks, Ted”. J-Boy said smiling warmly.
“Put that junk away, Ted”, Eileen intervened.
“What does he want that old thing for? Pay no attention to him.” Eileen said, gently nudging J-Boy down the central corridor towards the East Wing where a fresh pot of tea was brewing.
The control room was a spacious, octagon-shaped area. From the entrance, various doors and hatches could be seen around the back and sides of the room. Directly ahead was a window spreading across the entirety of the front wall, displaying the darkness of space. In front were two swivel chairs facing hundreds of dials, switches and buttons that controlled the station. Above the controls was a single 50-inch screen displaying images of a much younger looking Ted and Eileen by the window of a capsule pod, peering out at different coloured planets. Like everything in this space station, it looked like it was made at the start of the millennium. It was all fairly dated, but J-Boy liked the homely feel of it. He sat in one of the chairs with Ted and Eileen sitting directly across from him, awkwardly jammed into the opposite chair which was clearly designed for one. Between the chairs was a small table, on it a metallic teapot along with three steaming mugs.
J-Boy began recounting tales of distant galaxies and far off parts of the Universe that Eileen could only dream of visiting. Eileen had been to many places when she was younger, but nowhere as far and exotic. “ How do you communicate with people outside of the Solar System?; Isn’t is dangerous crossing the Kuiper belt?; What’s the food like on Earth?”
She could listen for hours, asking questions and imagining what could’ve been.
“I can show you some snaps if you like?” J-Boy said looking for something in his bag.
“Aye, go on then, I’ll hook ‘em up to the big screen.”
“It’s OK, Ted. I don’t use screens anymore. I’ve got holograms now.” J-Boy held up a small black cube no bigger than a matchbox.
“Holograms? Bloody marvellous! Nowt like this in our day. Us oldies can’t keep up anymore”.
The elderly couple looked like children again as they sat with their mouths and eyes wide open, staring at the hologram projection in awe. They gasped as J-Boy waved his hand in the air to call upon hundreds of spectacular images of planets they’d never heard of and galaxies they didn’t even know existed. Eileen was completely engrossed. The more pictures she saw, the more questions she asked.
Ted wasn’t quite the conversationalist that Eileen was. He would just nod and chuckle upon hearing the wondrous tales. Occasionally chipping in with “Bloody marvellous”. He enjoyed listening, but was always happier when he was busy doing something. Without saying a word, he got up from the chair and pottered over to the control room kitchen in the corner.
“What would ya fancy to eat J-Boy?”, Ted called over his shoulder.
“Oh, nothing thanks, Ted. I ate on the cruise control around gravitational pull.”
“How about some cherry tomatoes?”,
“No, I’m OK, thanks.”
“Grown with martian soil in our space garden”
“I’m good thanks, Ted.”
“Lovely and sweet they are”
“No, I don’t really like…”
“I’ll go get them now.”
“But…”
“Eileen! What’s the key code for the space garden? J-Boy wants some cherry tomatoes, he’s starving!
“Eh? No…I’m fi…”
Eileen frowned and looked up from the projection looking deeply concerned.
“Oh poor lad! What are we like, eh? Here I am gabbing away and you’re starving to death. I’ll get ’em J-Boy. Hold on to your rockets, kidda.”
“Don’t be daft. He wants me to get them.”
“Not with your grubby hands. You’ve had them all over that dirty dish and God knows where else.” Eileen gently elbowed Ted’s forearm away from the keypad and prodded the numbers on the glass, saying them aloud as she did. “3 1 7 5 2”.
Eileen entered the space garden and quickly picked up a bucket full of cherry tomatoes that had been freshly picked a few hours earlier. The bucket was overflowing. Eileen groaned and stumbled, but regained her footing and waved Ted out of her path.
“Give it ‘ere”, Ted demanded.
“Don’t be daft. I’ll take it”
“No you won’t”
J-Boy rushed into the garden behind Ted and Eileen.
“I’m alright. Really! I’m not hungry.”
Despite J-Boy’s pleas, Ted and Eileen continued to struggle. Both had one hand on the bucket handle, fiercely insisting they should be the one to offer the tomatoes to their indifferent guest.
Eileen grabbed the handle with her free hand. Now with a two-hand grip, she pulled the bucket towards her, causing both bodies to lurch further into the garden. With one emphatic tug, she pulled the bucket free from Ted’s withering hand. The force of her pull was so great, she let go. The bucket looped over her head for what seemed like an eternity before it landed in the sink behind.
Like a set of lottery balls, the tomatoes bounced around before being rapidly sucked down the sink hole. The sink was in fact a funnel attached to a waste pipe. The three of them stood silently with their mouths open as, through the window, they watched hundreds of cherry tomatoes implode and explode in the vacuum of space. The Cleveland Company logo turned red as tomato juice plastered to the side of the station.
Of course, Ted and Eileen blamed one another for the tomato incident. From where J-Boy was standing, they were both at fault, but it was Ted who agreed to go outside the station clean up the juice. Meanwhile, not to be seen making less effort than Ted, Eileen insisted on inspecting J-Boy’s craft to check it was safe and sufficiently re-fuelled for the onward journey. Guests always left Cleveland X14 with a full tank.
J-Boy watched on from the control room window as two spacesuits attached to the station by an umbilical cable floated out into the alien atmosphere. Eileen could be seen inserting a fuel rod into the J-Boy’s craft which was docked on the right of the window, and Ted could be seen on the left rigorously wiping.
Without warning, a cigar shaped object collided with the door of J-Boy’s craft, but left no mark.
“Bloody space junk! What nuisance!”, Eileen muttered into her radio which J-Boy could hear in the control room.
Suddenly a cluster of antennas, tubes, rocket motor shells followed, relentlessly pelting the space station. A solar panel spinning like coin cut through Eileen’s umbilical cable sending her suited body into a spin.
“Teeeeed!”
Ted could see Eileen was untethered and drifting. Without any hesitation, he leapt from the safety of the station into the infinite space. Their spacesuits collided. Ted’s umbilical cable pulled taut as it wrenched the spacesuits back. The relief of catching his wife was short lived when he realised they only had a few minutes before Eileen’s suit’s backup oxygen supply would run out.
The silent onslaught of satellite debris continued to shower down near the entrance; it was too dangerous to go back in just yet. Holding Eileen in one hand, Ted used his free hand to pull his umbilical cable causing them both to float in the direction of the capsule pod.
“Quick, get inside.”
In the pod, Eileen removed her helmet and immediately drew in one huge breath.
“Bloody space junk” she exhaled.
In the safety of the pod with oxygen and protection from the junk cloud outside, Eileen and Ted watched as J-Boy’s craft took a battering. The space station was a giant. It could withstand a severe assault from any decommissioned satellite cluster, but J-Boy’s craft was tiny and in danger of catastrophic damage.
“We have to do something” Ted said as he climbed into the driver’s seat. He hadn’t used the pod since he was courting Eileen in another lifetime.
“Where’s the wha’d’ya me call it?”
“The what?”
“The wha’d’ya me call it”
“The wha’d’ya me what? The ignition?”
“That’s it!”
“There! Bloody ‘ell, Ted – it’s not rocket science.”
“I think it bloody well is!”
Ted flipped a switch and the wall of controls sprung to life.
“Ere we go!”
The propulsion rockets launched the capsule pod up and away from the under fire space station. Ted hauled a lever to change the direction of the rocket boosters. A blast of flames spluttered from under the pod, propelling it in front of J-Boy’s craft and into the path of the debris.
“Come in Cleveland ex, one, four. This is Cleveland CapPod.
“Ted, Eileen, What happened? Are you alright?”
“J-Boy, d’you hear me, lad?”
“Yes, Ted.”
“Listen, we took a hit from some bloody debris. The door’s knackered and so is Eileen’s suit. We’re not going to be able to connect to the docking hatch.”
“I can come out and help!”
Eileen abruptly leaned into the radio
“No, you won’t, you stay right there. It’s too dangerous.”
“But…”
Ted held Eileen’s hand and a sudden calmness came over both of them.
“We’ve had our time. A great life! We’re gonna get out of this dark end of the Solar System as far as this little pod will take us. We’re going to find a place in the Sun. I made a promise”
J-Boy eyes filled with tears. He was devastated but somehow, he understood. He always knew this time would come.
“Ol’ Cleveland X14 is all yours, lad. Take her anywhere you want. She a bit dated but she’s a good one. A bit like, Eileen”
“Oi!”
Ted chuckled.
Eileen fought the tears, “I’ll miss you, J-Boy. We love you.”
The pod lifted up over the space station and accelerated out in the opposite direction of the Umbriel moon for the first time that century.
J-boy sobbed into his left forearm resting on the space station control panel. His eyes were red and sore. He lifted up his head and with his right hand, reached out to switch off the radio. His hand stopped and hovered over the button.
“It’s this way. I’m sure of it.”
“We should’ve left this orbit half an hour ago, where are we going? You daft apeth, Ted. You’ve got the map upside down!
J-Boy smiled and laughed through the tears. He knew everything was going to be just fine.
“Andrew, God, I can actually hear your sulking,” Becky said across the hull to the large man sitting with his head hanging and his back facing her. “It’s like I have the endangered, sniveling vagina bug crawling in my ear, right now.”
“I am not sulking!” Andrew informed her angrily as he lifted his head and stared ferociously at the corner. “As a matter of fact, I was just now having a soliloquyial discussion on the selfish disregard of ingratitude and how Princesses only crap on other people’s property!” He screamed at her from his walled in position and Becky rolled her eyes in return.
“Look, man, the alfredo sauce was too salty, I don’t know what to tell yah,” she replied with a guiltless shrug. “Maybe, next time, I don’t know, don’t add the entire salt lick to the pot.”
“That is a reward winning recipe!” Andrew bellowed and turned his purpling face towards her. “And I’ll let you know that having all of the culinary delicacy of a frozen lake, does not excuse, nor forgive, straight rudeness.”
“Whatever,” Becky grumbled and returned her attention to the blinking lights of the ship’s internal computer.
“Fine,” Andrew agreed to her resolution and sent out a cold silence across the room.
“I don’t think that, “soliloquyial,” is even really a word.” Becky poked and to her delight, the bear stood-up and stomped out into the hallway.
“There are rules of engagement!” Andrew roared and jabbed his pudgy finger into the chest of no one as he clomped down the hallway. “Once an argument is clearly at the point of appropriate silence,” he said while gesturing wildly with his hands. “I mean, that’s it, you just shut-up. But no, not her, she always has to get that last little…” He paused, too angry to finish the sentence and, instead, bit down hard onto his knuckle. “I want my GD dog back!” he finally screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Becky! Becky!” Andrew yelled desperately as the terrified animal clawed free and leapt from his grasping arms. “No, no, bad dog!” he scolded the Pomeranian, but another crack of lightning from the newest freak storm put her tail between her legs and sent her scampering into the throngs of the many on-lookers and partiers across the barricade.
“Japan…swallowed…unprecedented tsunamis,” Andrew heard the radio from the nearest booze and food tent scream in between its static and he helplessly turned and looked at his escape vessel.
“Becky?” He whimpered with his whole body moving in feeble motions and the tears choking out his breathing. For the briefest of moments, he considered leaving without his precious Becky, but then he remembered all of the hard work and strings that he had to pull to gain passage to the new world and procure his own personal carriage. Failure was not an option.
“You sir!” Andrew pointed and yelled with newly found determination as he marched across his lot towards the security at the gate. “I will have a moment with you,” he said and pushed his impressive mass in between a small helmeted guard and the rest of the world. “Do you know who I am?” Andrew more demanded than asked.
“Yes sir, mister Chizka, sir,” the guard said with what he thought was machismo. “I am assigned to your post, sir, I’m, I’m your takeoff guy” he added lamely and immediately regretted it.
“Good,” Andrew replied with zero satisfaction as he assumed his own notoriety. “Then you know that I am never, EVER, without my Becky!” he blustered as the guard tried to catalogue every piece of information that he had on the man and a wife Becky seemed to ring a bell.
“Yes sir, mister Chizka, that is well known,” he decided to answer in the positive.
“Well?” Andrew asked as he looked around himself incredulously. “Do you see my Becky with me?”
“Oh, oh, no sir,” the former shoe salesman caught the drift and put his two weeks of military training into action. “Where was the last place you seen her, sir?”
“She ran off into that damnable ruffian tent,” Andrew answered with distaste. “She is very likely right at the entrance, trust me, she won’t wander far from a constant source of sausage.”
As the guard struggled with a reply, he was spared by the sudden upheaval of the earth’s crust, causing all to stumble and cheers to erupt from the tent dwellers.
“Listen,” Andrew said in a sudden rush, trying to quickly compensate for the earthquakes two-day early arrival. “What’s your name son?” he asked the guard.
“Thomas Jensen,” Thomas Jensen answered astutely.
“And now, Thomas,” Andrew said in his straight business voice. “I can assume that you’re not one of these tent cretins, right? That you plan on leaving this degenerate planet and make a fresh start on the new world? Yes?”
“Good Thomas, I’m relieved to hear that,” Andrew said while putting his meat hooks onto the guard’s slender shoulders and drawing paternal serenity onto his face. “Thomas, I need someone to march into that Hell pit and get me my Becky,” he said while pointing at the tent. “And whoever that person is, well, let’s just say that they will be very well rewarded in the new world,” he stated and then paused for dramatic affect. “Do you think that you could be that person, mister Jensen?”
“Yes sir! Absolutely sir!” Ole’ Thomas was pretty sure of himself.
“Excellent!” Andrew applauded. “Bring her to my sleeping quarters, get us off this God forsaken planet and I assure you that the goose will be splendid.”
Andrew stared out the bedroom window as the world deteriorated around him. “Where are you?” he whispered harshly and took his third pill in less than ten minutes. “I do not feel calm!” he screamed at the window and shook the pill bottle angrily. “Stupid—useless…,” he mumbled softly as his chin dropped down into his chest and time slowed down around him.
“Who the Hell is this?” the drunken slur of a tiny, blonde woman and the sound of a locking door caused Andrew’s eyes to flutter open.
“Becky,” he pleaded unconsciously as the engines started to rumble and the planet Earth began its long series of chain explosions.
“I want my GD dog back!” Becky heard Andrew yell from across the ship and she immediately felt a twinge of regret for that last jab.
“Ah, the big lug,” she said as she drew her legs up onto the chair to hug her knees, thinking about their first conversation.
The world, she believed, was gone. The navigational system, fried on take-off. We could be the last two human beings alive in the Universe and dude couldn’t stop blubbering about his stupid dog.
“Cute little shit,” she said with a sigh and grabbed her rubber ball to squeeze.
The mix-up, she supposed, was favorable to her. She should be dead and at one point and time, it was all that she had expected, wanted, maybe. She was in a weird place at the time. Still though and in retrospect, she made out pretty good. The vessel was equipped to accommodate and feed eight people for no less than ten years. There were like a zillion different movies and video games to play and the regurgitating ventilation system provided a lifetime of low-quality, but breathable air.
The dog, she felt, would have been very happy here.
Words can’t really describe the awkwardness of getting to know the last remaining member of your species. The last real face that you would see in your entire lifetime. Uncomfortable, she guessed. Discomfited? But, after a long mourning and bonding period, it took them all of fifteen seconds to realize that they were trapped in space with a complete and utter moron. He was a proclaimed dog person and she held firm that Becky was really more of a cat. He was a staunch Republican and she didn’t really care what you called a crook. How was it possible that she got stuck with the one person who could witness the explosion of their planet and still continue to deny global warming?
It was the absolute worst possible case scenario for the both of them.
Becky smiled and gave the ball two quick compressions.
“No, no, you’re doing that all wrong,” Andrew said as he watched her gaming in the family center and grabbed the controller out of her hands.
“Oh, really?” she asked, a little shocked at his playfulness, as they had been on a, as needed, communication schedule for the previous three months. “You know how to play Super Mario Brothers?”
“Oh yeah, my brothers and I ate up the classics,” Andrew answered as he deftly moved the courageous plumber across the screen. “I saw Zelda in the game catalogue,” he said while pausing and smiling over at her. “Have you ever played it?” he asked with a school boy innocence that would eventually charm his way into both her pants and their first marriage.
Andrew had considered all four of their marriages as a silly waste of time, but, Becky, although far removed from her deflowering, was a traditionalist. Not so much the religious stuff, but a commitment was needed if you wanted the long-term, personal attention sex. She was, after all, a lady.
Initially they had the children conversation, you know, the old, save the homo sapien rally, but ultimately decided against it. Their little family, alone in the middle of outer space, trying to maintain the human race was, well, just gross, once you ran the numbers and, besides, neither one of the them were exactly, kid people, anyhow. So, they kept rugrats out of their tumultuous and mostly predictable cycle. Right now, as far as Becky saw it, they were within four months to their next marriage. This was clearly a make-up fight. Right now, he’s standing in the master bedroom, staring out the window, waiting for me to come and apologize.
“And apologize I will,” she thought happily as she stood-up and bounced the ball off of the floor and back into her hand. The truth was that over the last six years, she had really grown to love the big ape and she knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he loved her. Only love can make a person as crazy as she made him.
Besides, she had put a lot of effort into making him a suitable partner, the, sometimes, aggressive tips and hints on how to be a better lover, alone, claimed her ownership. She wasn’t about to give up her man and her apologizing for hurting his delicate nature had also become part of their cycle.
“Hey Andrew,” she yelled as she bounced her ball down the hall towards the bedroom. “About the alfredo sauce, you know that I was just being a bitch, right?” She asked, taking the low road and hoping for a quick make-up.
“Becky, get in here,” Andrew yelled back at her in a dazed and far away voice and Becky quickened her pace.
“Holy…” she stood frozen in the entryway, staring through the window at the last thing that she ever thought that she would see again. “Andrew, it’s a planet!” she exclaimed and Andrew turned in his standing position to nod absently.
“You said that the odds were astronomically against this,” she said as Andrew, the human fun sponge, had calculated its chances to being exactly impossible.
“They, they are,” he stammered and returned his gaze to the looming planet.
“Well, is it, you know, liveable?” Becky asked with excitement growing in her voice.
“Yes, perfectly, its atmosphere doesn’t appear to be much different than earths,” he answered.
“It’s unbelievable,” Becky marveled as she walked to stand next to Mark. “What about other creatures? Is there anything alive down there?”
“Affirmative, be it food, friend or foe, the imager shows plenty of animal activity at the surface.”
Awestruck in silence and as they slowly absorbed the colossal potential floating before them, Andrew and Becky’s fingers gingerly touched together and gently entwined.
“Take us home, Captain Chizka,” she said while looking up at her future fifth husband and Andrew set the thrusters to manual.
Should a 73-year-old man move from the United States of America to Bélgium?
If you can afford it, and you can do so legally, I would say go for it.
I too am 73. My wife left me 20+ years ago, the best thing she ever did for me.
Some time in the next 10 or 15 years I shall die. In the meantime tho, I plan to experience as much of life as I can. So despite meagre resources I travel extensively.
After covid was managed I sold a car and spent 3 months riding trains and exploring France. Then I did a 3 months stint working on a goat farm in Wakayama Japan. I learned two things. 1. It is much cooler in Japan during Australia’s hot summer and 2. Farmers in Japan cannot attract workers. So they are very glad to provide food and board in exchange for 20 hours of light work a week.
I have just returned from working on a pig and sheep farm in Hokkaido Japan. I was there for three months and was able to watch that country change from full leafed summer glory, to a -10º winterscape. Then home to a 44º Australian summer.
I am currently looking for a volunteer position on a European canal barge. Any takers?
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You are going to die soon, so if you are able, get busy and go learn something. Once you do you will find that everybody in the world is basically similar. There are two discernible groups of humans. The vast majority of the worlds people want to work, to love, to play, to raise up their kids and worship their gods in peace. These are the people you meet when you travel.
And then there are the rulers, who simply want to fuck things up for everybody else for their own aggrandisement and profit. These are the people who inhabit the media and government and business. The 1%.
What are the top emerging technologies that will change the way we live in the next 5 years?
Chinese robot maids will clean , cook, serve most middle income homes of the world over. 90% of vehicles will be China made EVs. 90% of gardens will be tended by Chinese robot gardener. 50% of lonely singles will have regular sex with Chinese made robot partners. Almost zero bars will be without Chinese robot servers that dish out cocktails and serve beers with precise foam and clean and wipe glasses too! Almost all lorry and buses drivers will need to find a new career. 10 years old now and younger will no longer need to learn how to drive by teenage years anymore. And 95% of cars world wide will be autonomous driving vehicles. 95% of there are using Chinese technologies!
Only USA will there be people who still carry wallets and purse! The only market left for ICE vehicles is the USA. By 2030 194/195 nations on earth has China as their biggest trading partner on earth. The only one not is USA whose Inflation hit 200% for the 10 years running. Thanks to the trade war! USA is a good place to bring your families to see what the world used to be!
Chimichangas de Pollo
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Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
Chimichangas
1 (3 1/2 pound) whole chicken
6 cups water
1 medium onion, studded with 2 whole cloves
2 stalks celery
2 large whole garlic cloves, peeled
1 bay leaf
2 tablespoons shortening
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 large tomato, cored and diced
1 jalapeño chile, chopped
1/4 teaspoon crushed leaf basil
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon crushed leaf oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
8 flour tortillas, warmed
Garnish
2 cups sour cream
1 cup guacamole
2 cups grated Cheddar cheese
Shredded lettuce (optional)
Tomato wedges (optional)
Instructions
Place the chicken, water, onion, celery, 2 garlic cloves and bay leaf in a medium size stewing pot. Cook chicken at medium heat for approximately 1 1/2 hours, or until the chicken is tender.
Allow chicken to cool, remove meat from bones, and chop.
Place shortening, sliced onion, and 1 minced garlic clove in a medium size skillet and sauté mixture over medium heat until onion is tender.
Add the chopped chicken, tomato, jalapeño chile, and remaining seasonings and simmer at low heat for 10 to 15 minutes.
Place approximately1/2 cup of chicken mixture horizontally across the bottom half of each tortilla. Do not extend the mixture beyond 1 1/2 inches at the sides and bottom. Fold the sides in over the filling and roll the tortilla jellyroll style. Secure each roll with a wooden pick.
Heat 2 inches of shortening in a heavy pan over medium high heat.
Fry each rolled tortilla in hot shortening until crisp and lightly browned. Drain on absorbent towels.
Assemble the chimichangas by placing each rolled tortilla on a plate and garnish with 1/4 cup of sour cream, 2 tablespoons of guacamole,1/3 cup of Cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato wedges.
My paleography teacher told me that the Voynich Manuscript (Beinecke MS 408) is where your career goes to die. If you claim to be able to decipher it — no, you can’t. Literally every paleographer, cryptographer, code-breaker, linguist, etc. has taken a crack at it by now, and if none of them could decipher it, you definitely have not. If you claim to, you won’t be taken seriously.
We know basically nothing about its contexts beyond what we can see. It’s clearly an herbal of some kind, but the plants do not exist, and there are lots of other extremely strange images, like naked people bathing in a plant? Or being swallowed by it?
These are photos I took of a facsimile. They don’t let you see the real deal anymore unless you really have to, because so many people have touched it, it’s starting to damage the manuscript. The facsimiles are perfect reproductions.
The writing definitely looks like text, but it’s not in any known language or alphabet. Looking at it makes you feel like you suddenly forgot how to read. It looks so much like letters that you feel like you should be able to read it, but it’s just off:
All we know for sure is that it’s a real early modern manuscript, not a modern hoax. There’s a reference to it in the seventeenth century, so it’s at least that old, and the vellum is dated to the fifteenth century.
There’s lots of theories about what it could be, but none of them prevail, because we can’t rule any of them out. If it’s encoded, it doesn’t match any code-breaking technique that’s been used against it so far. If it’s a hoax, it’s an elaborate and expensive one. It honestly might be fiction, written in a conlang. That’s the only explanation that makes sense to me so far, because it would explain why the pictures are of imaginary plants and why the text doesn’t map to any known language. But Tolkienesque works of fiction with their own conlangs weren’t exactly common at the time; fantasy as we know it hadn’t been invented yet. Maybe it just dropped out of fairyland one day, I dunno.
An unreadable book in an unknown language with cryptic drawings of unreal plants and astrological charts sounds so fantastical, it’s hard to believe it’s real. Whether the Voynich Manuscript itself is fiction or not, it makes for some excellent fodder for modern fiction.
Investor Alert: Revolutionary ironmaking method will nullify tariffs and scramble iron ore markets
And yeah. I kind of miss the meals that I used to have growing up as a boy.
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This is an American meal, made from ground beef, eggs, bread and some spices.
It is usually served with mashed potatoes.
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Usually a side of peas, corn or carrots were the norm.
And of course, my folks ALWAYS had a salad.
I used to take the bread that my mother would put on the table, and make a meatloaf sandwich from it.
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I’d then take the slice of meatloaf and then get the lettuce, the tomato, and the onions from my salad, and coat it with the salad dressing that was always on the table.
Very good eatin’.
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Here’s the basic idea; you get a slice of meatloaf on your plate with two or three sides…
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Another thing that I haven’t had in years is American-style pork chops.
Now I eat pork commonly in China, and my wife has some great pork ribs and meals that she makes for me.
But the American style chips is what I grew up with.
We would eat “stuffed pork chops”, “breaded pork chops”, and “fried pork chops”. Always with a side of apple sauce and some peas or corn.
Maybe a mashed potato side.
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American style meals pretty much ended in the 1980’s.
Oh there were hold outs, but the entire American culture seemed to eat out all the time. Yet when I grew up, we rarely ate out.
Maybe a few times a year. Yeah. No kidding.
We always ate in the dining room. Never in the television room.
We would lay a tablecloth down, and then once the meal was done, it would either be folded up or thrown into the laundry.
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Staples were always a salad, a loaf of sliced bread (right out of the plastic bag no less), and a set up table settings.
Everyone got a glass for their beverage, and a glass of ice water. Mostly us kids drank milk, with our water.
Our parents drank wine, and had an after dinner coffee.
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We always had a dessert. Monday through Friday, we usually had either a ice cream, or a cake or pie for dessert, with ice cream being the most common, and the pies the most desirable.
Blueberry pie!
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A dessert with every meal.
This was a normal household meal.
Eating a family made meal is of great importance, and that is one of the reasons why I insist on it at home in my household.
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Sometimes the meals are really simple, and other times more elaborate.
And no, my wife is not an expert chef, but she tries and some of her food preparations are great. And some just so-so.
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Whatever you do. Enjoy what you have and treasure the moments together.
Memories.
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Memories.
Great memories.
Who knows, one day, when you are older you will be as wistful as MM dreaming of the “good old days” in the living room.
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Today…
As a nurse, what is the most tragic discovery you have made while treating a patient?
Thanks Amy Potter for asking me to answer this question. A mother brought her son into the Emergency Department. I was triaging him. She said that he just started choking suddenly,no trigger. That child was so scared, looking at me with big dark eyes. My gut was screaming that something was wrong. I was not going to miss it, whatever it was. Then – I saw it. Faint bruising developing on that toddler’s throat. In a distinct shape of a hand. I made myself say calmly, “did he hit something? Why is throat bruising up?” Then all hell broke loose. The mother cried that her boyfriend tried to choke the child in front of her but she she pulled the child away and rushed him to the nearby hospital.. So, I got them in a room by themselves, told the doctor what was up and got security to be outside the room until the police came. I remember getting upset that the mother did not want the boyfriend in trouble. I told the police that I would testify if needed about all that I saw and heard. I did not have to do that. I know the boyfriend was arrested that night, but could not follow up after that. The fear that child had in his eyes haunts me.
What impact has the rejection of Chinese trade by western countries had on China’s economy?
It has little to no effect. Don’t be so full of yourself, the US and EU is no longer the biggest market nor is it the richest market. China his the biggest trading partner of 170/195 nations on earth and US market is now at best 10% or so of the world’s demand. If the US chooses to import inflation instead of deflation that is the US own funeral. China will let the US have a long rope to hang itself! So is Europe! And so are the US slave nations!
Life battles
How will China secure its semiconductor supply without Taiwan?
Sheer Innovation
The Chinese working with AI use a method called Stack Hierarchy
In the US – A ML / Transformer AI model is trained with an average of 650 Servers each with 32 GPUs
The Chinese don’t have access to as many servers
So they first create a smaller AI Model and then use that Smaller AI Model to train and create another Smaller AI Model and in the process through Supervised Learning, evolve itself
So each smaller Model evolves into larger models and teaches other models guided by researchers
This way you can do with 70 Servers with 20 -30 GPUs each
And Guess what?
These Models work perfectly
Chinese company trained GPT-4 rival with just 2,000 GPUs — 01.ai spent $3M compared to OpenAI’s $80M to $100M
With fewer resources, you have to maximize their efficiency.
SMIC for instance could only manage 23% high quality yield for the 9010 Threaded 7 nm Chips for the Mate 60 compared to TSMC
This limited Huawei to produce only 1/3 of their intended output
However for the Mate 70 – SMIC reported a 56% high quality yield for the 9010 with single threaded 7 nm Chips and 19% high quality yield for the 9020 with double threaded high quality chips
So Huawei can produce almost 2/3 of their Intended output
Using DUV Machines rather than EUV Machines used by TSMC
My Son for instance can run a simulation only Sixteen times a week
That’s because they use a Fully Indigenous System with an Indigenous Processor so that tomorrow US can’t sanction and stop research
A Western System can make you run 1000 simulations easily
Sixty Times More
Yet Chinese Researchers are attuned to ensure they achieve all their objectives in 16 simulations and thus they use their brains in a way Americans can never imagine
Every Saturday the Engineers of the Indigenous System come and take feedback for improvements
And both sides benefit and evolve
So China manages High Quality Research without Taiwanese Input
China gets full access to Taiwanese Chips like Snapdragon for all commercial applications and for buyers like Xiaomi or Oppo
US has no objections to any of that
It’s only Chips related to high quality research that are being throttled
China responds by innovation of the type the US hasn’t seen in at least 30–40 years
This takes me back…
Not Hollywood, is what we marched to.
What are things to avoid when it comes to anti-aging?
Eating. Eating is a good thing to avoid if you are fighting aging and death.
I have read how great blueberries and strawberries are for you. I began to eat them. Till I came across an article saying that blueberries and strawberries are among the “dirtiest” foods out there. By dirty, they mean among the most heavily sprayed with pesticides. Pesticides are cancer threats. I quit eating blueberries and strawberries.
I’d read of how healthy salmon is for you. Salmon reduces cholesterol, fights inflammation, lowers blood pressure. So then I started eating salmon. Till I learned that they contain large amounts of mercury, something that can give you cancer.
I’d read recently of the wonderful benefits of watermelon. So I figured I would go the whole hog on watermelon by buying the Ocean Spray watermelon juice. I began to drink gallons of it. Good, too. Then I learned how heavily watermelon is sprayed with insecticide. Cancer again. So I threw all my watermelon juice away.
Lucky for me, I’d found an article touting the incredible benefits of olives and olive oil, one of the great Mediterranean foods, so I began eating 50 olives a day. I saw immediate results. My digestion began to improve, I felt more energetic than ever. Then I read an article yesterday saying that tests have shown that olives have the strange effect of metastasizing cancer quickly. That electrified me with fear. I was so terrified that I wanted to take an emetic to rid myself of every trace of olives and olive oil.
So here I sit with a fine pre-Thanksgiving pecan pie that my wife was good enough to make today. No fears on THIS food. After all, all the pecans in it fell from my very own trees. And I’m adding a huge shovelful of ice cream, now melting rapidly into the pie’s warm surface. Nothing wrong with ice cream. It’s the All-American treat! Now don’t ruin it for me by telling me how many calories and how much fat it has or what it will do to my cholesterol. I have found the one food I’ve read nothing carcinogenic about. And anyway, if all the fat and calories and sugar kill me, I’ll die a profoundly happy man. Much better way to go than eating olives or guzzling olive oil.
Little Black Devil Turns To A Little Black Angel After Adoption
Mississippi Delta Tamales
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Yield: 7 to 8 dozen
Ingredients
Filling
6 to 8 pounds boneless meat (pork shoulder, chuck roast or chicken)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Wrappers
Corn husks
Corn Meal Dough
8 cups yellow cornmeal or masa mix (available in most grocery stores)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 2/3 cups lard or vegetable shortening
6 to 8 cups warm meat broth (from cooking the meat)
Instructions
Filling
Cut meat into large chunks and place in a large, heavy pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until meat is very tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove meat and reserve cooking liquid.
When meat is cool enough to handle, remove and discard any skin and large chunks of fat. Shred or dice meat into small pieces. There should be about 14 to 16 cups of meat.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Stir in chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder and cumin. Add meat and stir to coat with oil and spices. Cook, stirring often, until meat is thoroughly heated, 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside.
Wrappers: While meat is cooking, soak husks in a large bowl of very warm water, until softened and pliable, about 2 hours. Gently separate husks into single leaves, trying not to tear them. Wash off any dust and discard any corn silks. Keep any shucks that split to the side, since two small pieces can be overlapped and used as one.
Corn Meal Dough
Stir cornmeal, baking powder, salt and lard together in a large bowl until well blended. Gradually stir in enough warm meat broth to make soft, spongy dough the consistency of thick mashed potatoes. The dough should be quite moist, but not wet. Cover with a damp cloth.
To assemble the tamales, remove a corn husk from water and pat it dry. Lay husk on a work surface. Spread about 1/4 cup of the dough in an even layer across the wide end of husk to within 1 inch of edges. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture in a line down the center of dough. Roll husk so that dough surrounds filling and forms a cylinder or package. Fold bottom under to close. Place tamales in a single layer on a baking sheet. Repeat until all dough and filling is used.
Stand tamales upright, closed side down, in a large pot. Place enough tamales in the pot so that they do not fall over or unroll. Carefully fill pot with enough water to come just to the top of the tamales, trying not to pour water directly into the tamales. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily and cleanly, about 1 hour.
If you prefer to steam tamales, stand tamales upright, closed side down, in a large steamer basket. Cover with a damp towel or additional husks. Steam tamales over simmering water until dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily and cleanly, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
Serve tamales warm, in their husks. Remove husks to eat.
Cassie Swenson had always struggled with her weight. She had come to terms with it, and her group of friends were supportive. But moving to a new town and starting at a new school filled her with a dread she hadn’t felt for a long time. She recognized and remembered the fear of meeting an entirely new group of students.
She stood looking up at the school building, dreading walking inside. She forced a smile and began to walk up the stairs. You can do this, she said to herself as she reached for the handle of the door and hesitated.
When she was inside, she went to the principal’s office to get her class assignment and then walked slowly towards the room indicated on the list where her history class was located. She looked through the small pane of glass and saw the class was deep in discussion already.
With a deep sigh she opened the door and the entire class turned and looked at her. She walked up to the teacher and handed him the paper. Mr. Wilkins looked at the paper then at her and smiled slightly.
“Ok class, we have a new student. This is Cassandra Swenson,” he said almost too happily. She leaned in and whispered in his ear that she preferred Cassie. He smiled back and stood back up. “This is Cassie Swenson, please welcome her and make her feel at home.”
“Hello Cassie,” the entire class replied with much less enthusiasm.
“Hmm, very good,” Mr. Wilkins said blandly. “Umm ok, Cassie, please take a seat and feel free to join in anytime.”
She walked down the aisle to the only seat available towards the middle of the classroom as everyone watched her. She felt instantly like she was on display and hated it.
“Ok we were discussing the possible theories regarding the disappearance of the Jamestown Settlement, who has any new ideas that haven’t been addressed yet?” Mr. Wilkins asked brightly.
Debbie looked at Cassie and raised her hand. “Maybe they got eaten,” she said coldly. Everyone in the class laughed when they realized what she meant. Cassie turned away from her and shrank further in her chair.
Later in the cafeteria, she waited online when Stacy Beacham waved her over as she stood with Debbie closer to the front. “Here,” she said slyly, “you look like you need food more than we do, just try to save some for the rest of us.” Everyone on the line laughed as Cassie turned and walked away feeling totally humiliated.
After the day was over Cassie went straight home and ran up to her room. What a horrible day, she thought as she collapsed in her chair and looked at the blank screen. She quickly logged in and looked up ways to deal with bullies at school.
As she looked at the various websites that came up on the list, one stood out from the others. She hadn’t ever seen a web address like this before and the difference intrigued her. She hesitated for only a moment and clicked on the link. Her screen blinked and crackled for a moment. A warning came up on her screen from her virus protection. You are about to enter the dark web. Please be careful what information you share.
She thought for a moment and was about to click the button to close the website when her phone vibrated. She picked it up and looked at the message. There was a new posting on the school’s website.
Since the school is looking for a new mascot, it began, we have a proposal. There was a link to a picture underneath, and she instinctively clicked on it. The pic was very familiar. She recognized the features immediately. The shoulder-length brown hair, the glasses. The face was hers, but the body had been photoshopped into a pig’s body. We will name the new mascot Swineson, the caption under the picture read.
Her heart sank and her eyes welled up. She knew a new school would be hard, but she never expected this after just one day. She tossed her phone down and held her face in her hands trying to fight back the emotions.
As she removed her hands from her eyes, she glanced back at her computer screen. The warning was still flashing on the screen but behind it she saw the words, tired of being bullied? We can help. Without caring about the virus threat any longer she closed her security warning and clicked enter on the website.
Welcome to Bullyproof appeared on her screen in bold red letters. She entered her information to sign up as a member. As usual, she skipped over the fine print agreement. Those things are all the same, she scoffed as she clicked next.
A new screen came up asking her to choose her level of protection. A circle with a red line through it labeled standard, asked if she wanted to simply monitor any references to her name. Under that was a lightning bolt with the words next to it, delete any references to your name as soon as they are identified.
That’s better she thought to herself, but I don’t know. She continued to read and at the very bottom was a skull with the words next to it, Delete Posters.
Hmmm, she thought. Deleting the poster from my social media is probably the best way to deal with it. She clicked on the skull.
Her phone vibrated almost instantly. She picked it up and looked at it. The new app icon was right there in the middle of her main screen.
Bullyproof, you have selected maximum protection click to activate. She clicked on the icon and a scanning bar appeared. It began to fill up very slowly as the app scanned the internet for what it was looking for. It moved very slowly and underneath were the words, this may take a while.
After about an hour, she decided the day had caught up with her and she went to bed.
The clock next to her bed read 1:18 am, when her phone buzzed. The app has finished its scan. Preparing to initiate safety measures, the screen flashed. Instantly the signal from her phone contacted the satellites in orbit and bounced all over the town reaching out to any device that had a connection to any posting about Cassie. It found only two and accessed their information.
She woke in the morning and had almost forgotten that her phone was still searching when she grabbed it to check for any messages. The app indicated it had one match identified. She clicked on it and the picture of the pig came up and her heart sank again. Under the picture was a name. Posted by Deborah Stratton.
She thought for a moment, that was one of the girls in my history class. The name glared out at her and made her angry just seeing it. Click apply to delete poster, the app read under the name.
Without even thinking she clicked on the button and the skull’s eyes lit up bright red. Poster scheduled for deletion. It reached out across the electronic connections all over town and linked with Debbie’s phone.
Debbie stood in front of the principal’s desk waiting for him to say something as he read the report Mrs. Applewhite had filled out. “Well Miss Stratton,” he said with a sigh. “Since you like having fun in the cafeteria, you can help Mrs. Applewhite restock the freezer after school today,” Principal Lewis said stamping the paper on the desk in front of him and smiling
“Umm, it’s Friday,” Debbie snapped defensively.
“Very good, Miss Stratton, now that you know the days of the week, we’ll have you up to months of the year in no time,” Mr. Lewis said sarcastically as he handed her the paper.
“Ughh” she sighed. “My dad’s gonna hear about this,” she snapped and snatched the paper out of his hand. She quickly turned and stomped out of the office, slamming the door behind her. Mr. Lewis shook his head disappointedly as he watched her leave.
In the cafeteria, Debbie was watching Mrs. Applewhite stack the boxes on the shelf in the freezer. Suddenly the door closed causing Debbie to jump slightly.
“Don’t worry about that, it’s programmed to do that, so the cold doesn’t get out. But don’t worry, it won’t lock,” Mrs. Applewhite smiled. “This is a new state-of-the-art freezing unit, best in the district.”
“Ughh, I’m sure it’s the greatest if you have nothing else going on in your life,” Debbie sighed and rolled her eyes.
Mrs. Applewhite’s smile disappeared. “I know you’re young and think you’re very hot Miss Stratton, but that’s no reason to be so cold to people,” she said as she pushed the door open to get more food.
Debbie followed her out. “Can we please skip the ethics lesson and get this done so I can get out of here?” She asked impatiently.
“I have a better idea,” Mrs. Applewhite said with a smile returning to her face. “Why don’t you finish this, I’m going to go start my weekend. I don’t have to waste time on this kind of thing with a person like you. Finish this and then you can go,” she said grabbing her purse and walking out in a bit of a huff.
After about 20 minutes she looked at her watch, “Ughh, 6:30?” she sighed. She grabbed more of the boxes and walked into the freezer and was stacking them on the shelf when she heard the door close again making her jump again just a little and drop the boxes. “Stupid machine,” she said angrily as she picked them up and placed them on the shelf.
Her cellphone sprang to life on the counter outside and connected with the freezer unit. The lock was easy to access and was reprogrammed so it activated.
Inside the freezer, Debbie finished stacking the boxes and rubbed her arms to get some warmth back, it felt colder for some reason. She pushed on the door handle and expected it to open just as it had done so many times before, but it didn’t budge. She pushed again this time harder but still nothing.
Outside the freezer, the digital temperature reading was accessed by her phone and began to lower. It was now 0 degrees and was rapidly going down. It passed -10, then -20, then -30.
Inside the freezer, Debbie was pounding on the door but there was no one left in the cafeteria to hear. She was screaming as the temperature got colder and colder. She grabbed anything she could find to try to break the glass, but it was too thick. She saw ice crystals forming all along it and they began to obscure the view to the outside.
By the time the temperature reached -60, her hair and skin began to get covered with frost and the temperature still fell. She sat down getting very tired from the cold and before long fell asleep.
Within minutes the temperature reached -90 and her internal body began to freeze.
Saturday morning, Mrs. Applewhite walked in and found the rest of the boxes stacked on the counter. She shook her head and cursed as she saw Debbie’s cellphone on the counter. “Stupid girl,” she said grabbing the boxes. She pulled open the freezer door, which had previously returned to its original setting, and walked into the freezer.
She screamed as soon as she saw Debbie’s frozen body in the corner.
Cassie came down in the morning and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. It was 10:30 and she’d slept late since it was Saturday, and it was such a rough week. When she walked in her mother immediately hugged her tightly. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry,” she said with her voice trembling.
Cassie looked confused for a moment when she noticed the news on the laptop on the table. A picture of her school surrounded by ambulances and police cars filled the screen. “What happened?” she asked pulling away from her mother and getting closer to hear what was being said.
“Police still aren’t sure how the girl became trapped in the freezer, but it is being called a tragic accident,” the reporter said. “The unit was installed a few months ago and appears to be working fine at this time but it will be shut down until more extensive tests can be done. A candlelight vigil is being scheduled for this evening at the school. Once again repeating 16-year-old Deborah Stratton was found this morning frozen to death in a freezer at…”
“Oh my god,” Cassie shrieked and backed away from the screen. “I knew her, she’s in my history class and..” she caught herself when she remembered the app on her phone.
She raced upstairs and grabbed her phone and opened the app. User Deleted came up on the screen. She tossed the phone down and covered her mouth to hold in a scream. Oh my god, that’s impossible, she thought frantically. It must just be a coincidence.
Most of the school turned out for the vigil that evening. Cassie walked through the crowd, who largely ignored her now with everything that had happened. She noticed Stacy at the front of the line with tears running down her face.
“Stacy, I’m so sorry,” Cassie said as she reached out her arms to hug her for support.
“Ugh, get away,” Stacy said bitterly as she recoiled. “How can someone like you get to live and a beautiful person like Debbie dies so horribly.”
Cassie listened and couldn’t help feeling totally rejected. Inside her pocket, her phone sprang to life as the microphone picked up every word Stacy had said. Cassie turned and walked away slowly with her head hung. Maybe she was hurt and just lashing out, but maybe she was just always a mean person she thought to herself as she pulled out her phone to text her mother that she was on her way home.
She instantly noticed the 1 on the corner of the bullyproof app and clicked on it. The screen lit up with the display and played the recording of Stacy’s voice. One post discovered, the app read. Press apply for deletion.
She looked at it long and hard and listened to the recording again. The words stung more than before, but what if this app did have something to do with Debbie’s death, she thought.
She closed the app and shoved the phone back in her pocket and continued walking. After a few minutes, the phone chimed again and the 1 appeared back on the app. She opened it.
You are tired of being treated so badly, you do not have to stand for it, press apply for deletion, The app wrote.
Cassie thought about it and said “no, no one deserves to die just because of what they say”, she said aloud to the phone.
It will not stop, she will continue, press apply for deletion, the app responded and played the recording again.
Cassie’s blood began to boil. “It would be nice to not have to deal with it anymore,” she said softly.
Press apply for deletion, the app displayed.
She clicked on the skull and the eyes glowed red again as the app reached out and contacted Stacy’s phone. Cassie smiled slightly and shoved the phone back in her pocket and continued home.
Stacy left the vigil and climbed into her car and began driving home. As she approached the railroad crossing, she stopped as the lights flashed indicating that a train was coming. She sighed and waited impatiently.
Her phone sprang to life and connected with her car’s onboard computer. It quickly bypassed the braking system, and the car began to slowly roll forward. In a fit of panic, Stacy reached for the door handle just as the locks went down and sealed her inside. The car continued to roll onto the tracks as she struggled to get out.
She looked out the passenger window and noticed the train lights approaching from around the bend as she struggled to break the glass to get out. The engineer tried to apply the brakes as quickly as he could, but he had no time to stop by the time he had seen her car on the tracks.
The train slammed into her car at 50 MPH dragging it along the tracks in front of it before it finally burst into flames.
Cassie woke in the morning and came down for breakfast only to notice her mother white as a sheet. “I just can’t believe it,” she said as she looked up at Cassie. “Another girl from your school died last night after that candlelight vigil.”
“Once again,” the reporter on the screen said, “another girl, 17-year-old Stacy Beacham was killed last night when her car apparently stalled on the train tracks at Madison Street, this just after 16-year-old Deborah Stratton’s body was discovered at the town’s high school frozen to death in a freezer. Both are being called tragic accidents.”
Cassie looked at her mother, “oh it’s so horrible,” she said. She turned to go back upstairs and smiled a slight smile as she patted the phone in her pocket.
The Beverly Hillbillies – Special Part 27 | Classic Hollywood TV Series
https://youtu.be/TZuE9St9sYs
DOGE Finds Complete Corruption in U.S. Treasury – CANNOT TRACK PAYMENTS
The Department of Government Efficiency has begun its audit of the United States Treasury and the level of institutionalized corruption is staggering: $4.7 TRILLION.
In the Treasury computer payment system, there is a field called the Treasury Access Symbol (TAS). It is an identification code linking a Treasury payment to a budget line item (standard financial process).
In the Federal Government, the TAS field was optional for ~$4.7 Trillion in payments and was often . . . left blank, making traceability almost impossible.
As a result of this field being left blank, a Treasury person could go into the computer, have it issue a check or Wire Transfer for almost any amount, payable to literally anyone, anywhere, or anything – or nothing – and there is no way to trace the budget item or agency that is supposed to authorize and pay for it.
Just one HUGE pile of money going wherever they tell it to go, with no way to trace why.
As of Saturday, this is now a required field, increasing insight into where money is actually going.
INTERVIEW: Cruising for a severe bruising
Is China really as terrible as BBC says it is?
BBC is known as British Bullshit Channel the world over! I have a confession to make Up to a decade ago I would tuned on to BBC world service channel when I travel down south from Kuala lumpur towards Singapore without fail. I am an English Educated person who graduated in UK umpteenth years ago and I still feel comfortable with the British accents and loved to hear some creative journalism!
Yes you may want to know about the BBC world service? It was meant to quell communism and indoctrinate Singaporean and Southern Malayan peninsular people from the colonial days. Somehow Singapore allowed them to function till today. As I began searching for truths and facts I find it hilarious that every single word coming out from BBC on China is a hateful narrative is nothing but an outright lie and it is twisted to suite the Anglo Saxon narrative. Some decades ago I totally turned and tuned off from BBC.
It is really shameful and pathetic attempt to slur and demonised China and the Chinese race! I am sure I am not the only one who feels that way about BBC reporting. Last week I saw a podcast that exposed a BBC reporter intentionally baiting relatives of the victim of a disgruntled man due to his divorce proceedings at the time when many people were grieving. It is so heartbreaking to see the man calling him and his videographer from reporting and filming being turned by BBC into a purported police officer hiding truths.
The world must stop BBC doing shit against innocent people worldwide and throw their reporters to 30 years imprisonment each to teach them a lesson. L laws should be passed to sentence them to death for their crimes against humanity.
«Look, I understand… yes… yes… but I don’t have any money right now… Yes, I understand… Look, let’s discuss it in person, it’s not convenient over the phone…»
Henry didn’t have time to finish the sentence, the phone slipped out of his wet hands and fell right down the drain.
«Wonderful… beautiful rain. How I love this rain!»
***
“Mom, I’m home,” Henry said.
“Hey, how was your day?”
“It was a good day, but I drowned my phone.”
“What did you say? What are you going to do now? How are you going to live without it?”
“I don’t know, but I think I’ll be fine.”
“Are you going somewhere with your friends tomorrow, aren’t you? How are you going to keep in touch with me and the others?” my mom asked.
“I’ll text them on the computer, but I don’t know, I don’t have the money for a new phone.”
“All people are like people, except you” Mom concluded.
***
It was a sunny afternoon when Henry met up with his friends. They were going to visit one of the ancient World War II fortresses.
“That’s funny, and how are you going to be without a phone now?”
“Look, I don’t know, people lived somehow, so I’m gonna try.”
“Henry, for God sake, do not get lost, because the fortress is big, a lot of museums, halls and places. How are we going to find you?”
“All right, do not worry, mates” Henry replied.
“If you get lost, you know where our car is,” concluded one of the friends.
The fortress was truly unique and rich in historical events. Ancient fortress walls with bullet marks, traces from former trenches, memorials and monuments. The old bunker attracted the most Henry’s attention. Henry reached into his pocket automatically for his phone. Missed.
“Oh, right… Okay, there will be no photos..damn” thought Henry.
The first museum, the second, the crowds of tourists with cameras, phones, headphones, one thing led to another, and Henry did not notice how he lost his friends in the crowd. Attempts to find them were unsuccessful and Henry continued to explore the fortress alone.
As he walked out of one enclosure onto the street, Henry smiled at the sunny day and clear weather and then decided to walk to the most important place of this fortress. The place was popular because it had the most beautiful view of the main entrance to the fortress, with a large square and a memorial to the fallen defenders.
Today, the place was a welcome sight for everyone. Everyone but Henry. Lost in the crowd of friends, he stood in despair, watching all the people who came up, posed, took pictures, laughed and left. Henry lost track of time, his thoughts drifting off into that universe where he probably has a phone at this point to call his friends, find them, and then take a photo together. This effect lasted until the most beautiful voice, comparable to that of Lana Del Rey in the song “Summertime Sadness” called out to him and then tapped him on the back.
Henry turned around.
“Excuse me, aren’t you busy, can you take a picture of me?”
Henry froze, as did everything inside him. All feelings, emotions, thoughts, and heartbeats froze and stopped responding in an instant. There was a dead silence. But in a second, they were all waking up again at an accelerated pace. The most frantic pace of Henry’s life. The moment stretched for him like an eternity of the universe.
“Hey, are you here?” a girl asked.
Standing in front of him was a girl his age, bright as an angel, a little shorter than him, with a beautiful smile. This kind of smile we have of remembering the kindest and the coziest stories of our lives.
“You sleep standing up, don’t you?” she asked and laughed.
“No, no, no, who am I? Not at all! Just wondering…” suddenly came back to life Henry
“Will you take a picture of me?” she asked again, smiling.
“Yeah, sure, no problem.”
“Then here you go,” she handed him the phone.
“Are you ready?” asked Henry.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
He took a few pictures after that she walked quickly over to him and took the phone.
“Thank you,” she said.
“You’re welcome, why not selfies?”
“I don’t like selfies. Who isn’t sick of them yet?”
“That’s right,” Henry pointed out.
For a moment there might have seemed to be an awkward pause between them, but the girl quickly cleared it with a question:
“Why are you standing here alone? Let’s take your picture too” she said and smiled.
Henry was embarrassed.
“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea, but I don’t have anything.”
“What do you mean?” she asked
“I mean…I don’t have-”
She interrupted him.
“Oh, I see, you don’t have a phone or a camera?”
“Yeah, I’m empty.”
“Well that’s weird, he’s standing in the middle of a museum where crowds of tourists come, but he doesn’t have a phone or even a camera. How did this even happen?” she thought to herself
“Life. This is life. It’s just my fun life. Yes, Henry, that’s how it happens. You show up at a museum without your phone, and it’s the kind of day a story happens to you that no one would believe. It’s just embarrassing, what will she think of me? How embarrassing,” Henry thought to himself.
“Look, it’s nothing, let’s take pictures on my phone and then I’ll send them to you, okay? Don’t you have a profile somewhere?” she said.
“Oh…that would be great! Yeah, sure, I have a profile.”
After taking a couple of pictures, Henry walked over to her.
“What’s your name by the way? My name is Henry.”
“Alice” she smiled, moving her glance from the phone screen to Henry.
“Nice to meet you.” Henry smiled
“Me too.” She laughed
Both looked at each other with a smile, and then Henry told her the name of his profile where she could send him pictures.
***
Henry spent more than four hours that day in the fortress, walking from one enclosure to the next, researching all the details and historical references. All this, unfortunately for him, could not be said of Henry’s friends. They had finished their tour of the fortress much earlier and were each beginning to wonder:
Where is Henry?
The boys spent about two hours looking for Henry, they broke up one by one and then walked together again conducting a search for their friend. They had no chance of finding Henry, but their conscience would not allow them to leave him here and go away on their own.
After a while they simply gave up and went back to the car, where Henry was supposed to go in case he was lost. It was early evening and the crowds of people were changing one by one, and they all sat and waited until Henry appeared on the horizon:
“Henry!” shouted one of the friends.
“Coming,” retorted Henry.
“And you think that’s okay?” inquired the friend.
“I’m sorry, guys, for what happened.”
“We had plans today and besides this fortress, and you’ve been there all day, you think that’s okay, don’t you?”
“I understand, it’s my fault. But-”
“No buts, you’re an egotist who thinks only of himself. We’ve been all over the place, where have you been?” insisted one of the friends.
“I’ve been everywhere,” said Henry.
“I have no words, we just wasted a day on that fortress because of you. What was there to look at for so long? Say what?!”
“I’m really sorry,” replied Henry sadly.
“You don’t have a phone, how did you imagine we’d find you? Tell me, how?”
“I don’t know…”
“If you had your phone with you, things would be different, you know? We’ve spent so much time looking for you, you only think of yourself. You could have called us, told us you still wanted to walk around here, we would have come back for you later. It would have been so easy if you had a phone,” one of the friends concluded angrily.
***
Thus ended Henry’s first day without a phone. The first day and already such a ridiculous situation. The thought crawled deeper and deeper into his head that it was impossible to live without a phone nowadays. The only problem was that no one asked him, he just didn’t have a phone anymore. And he didn’t have one in the plans either.
The only bright spot was his introduction to Alice. In a moment of conflict with his friends, he didn’t find a moment to tell them all about it. A couple or three days passed, and Henry was actively chatting with Alice by his computer. The days were approaching Friday, and Henry wanted to see her again, so he decided to ask Alice to meet with him.
***
For several days he thought the idea over. He chose the right words, chose the best day to meet, and finally gathered the strength to ask Alice out. It wasn’t an easy task for a guy like Henry. He was afraid. Especially afraid of getting rejected. Pulling himself together, he opened the chat and wrote to her.
“Hey, Alice, wanna ask something. What are you doing tonight?” asked Henry.
“Busy right now, not at home, but I’ll be free tonight, why are u asking that?”
“I’m going out tonight, will you come with me?” inquired Henry
“Good idea, I’m in” she replied
Henry was incredibly happy that things were working out so well. He was not the kind of guy who found new acquaintances easily, so at this moment he was overwhelmed with a feeling of happiness, and his lungs were even more greedily absorbing the air filled with joy.
“What time would be convenient for you and where?” asked Henry
“I dunno, up to you.”
“How about 10 p.m. at the cinema?” suggested Henry.
“Fine, that’s fine.”
This Friday was going to be legendary in his life. The happiness of spending an evening with a girl he liked had not visited him in a long time in his life.
“Oh, wait, Henry, are you still without your phone?” asked Alice.
“Well yeah, I’m without it.”
“And how are we going to meet up? And what happened with your phone?”
“Look, I’ll just come to the movie theater at 10 p.m., and then I’ll tell you why I don’t have my phone.”
“Okay, but how will I see u there?” she kept asking.
“I’ll be standing right in front, you’ll see me, it’s okay” reassured her Henry
“But if I get there and you’re not there… I don’t know what I’ll do to you!” wrote Alice.
Such a message surprised Henry. A girl who writes in that style is hardly going to not come.
“Do not worry, I won’t screw it up”
Evening was beginning to creep closer and closer to the city. The big red and tired sun reflected in the windows of the high-rise buildings, and the streets were filled with the Friday atmosphere and the people who breathed it. Most of them had made their way to their homes to begin the long-awaited weekend, others had left their apartments in hopes of spending this Friday night at its best. Such was Henry this time.
The pillars called “evening” had been over the city for several hours and night with darkness were stretched on them.
At that moment, anyone who wanted to see farther than the windows of the house across the street could see Henry, who had foreseen all his excitement and had left the house beforehand, so as not to be late in any way.
He bought a bus ticket, which he usually never did in his life, and went to the cinema.
He managed to get there thirty minutes early. During the ride, he stopped worrying perceptibly and got his thoughts together.
Everything was perfect.
The back of the movie theater was hidden in the night and only its facade was illuminated by lanterns under which one could see posters. Henry asked someone what time is it and began to wait.
On the door of the movie theater was written, “Open from 10 a.m to 10 p.m”
That was his reference point.
When the movie theater would close – Alice would have to come.
Time passed, and Henry walked from side to side down the lonely street. People were watching a movie at the cinema, so there were no people outside the cinema, except for one guy besides Henry.
After a while he turned to Henry.
“Listen, do you have Internet on your phone? I really need it.”
Henry turned around.
“Nope, sorry.”
It was ten o’clock and the movie theater closed. The lights that illuminated the posters turned off.
Alice was running late.
It was at this point that Henry’s sense of longing overwhelmed him. From standing around like a fool for more than thirty minutes to the fact that he had no phone.
“Why don’t I have a phone at such an important time? Why?! This life is full of surprises. How wonderful it is. I have no words. If I had my phone, I’d text or call her right now. Find out why she’s late, maybe she’s not coming at all. I mean, she was going to come. I was sure of it. What went wrong? How much longer would I have to stand? Maybe she took my invitation as a joke. Is she just laughing at me? I still don’t believe she’s not coming. I’ll keep waiting.” pondered Henry to himself.
In the toothless darkness he could only see the light from the phone held by the guy who had asked Henry about the Internet.
Henry, on the other hand, stood without any light in the dead silence.
That same legendary Friday was almost ruined.
“Look, are you waiting for someone or what?” the guy suddenly asked Henry.
To say that Henry was surprised by the question is to say nothing.
He tried to answer something.
“Yeah…you could say that.”
“Can I give you the phone? You can call to.” the guy suggested.
That’s certainly a good suggestion. Especially if you have a number. Her number.
“Thanks, but I don’t remember the number,” replied Henry.
The guy didn’t give up. Something moved him to help Henry. Something unknown. Maybe it was Lady Luck.
“I caught some internet, maybe you’ll write then?” the guy didn’t back down.
“No, thank you very much, but that won’t help.”
Henry couldn’t remember the address of her social networking page. It was a failure.
“What time is it?” asked Henry.
“10:24,” replied the guy.
“Thank you,” said Henry.
Henry looked around the street and realized: Alice was not coming.
This was the end. A sense of sadness and longing drowned not only this Friday night, but also Henry’s heart and feelings. All the organs inside clenched in horror at the sadness that filled Henry’s entire body.
He doesn’t care anymore about all these decorations and colors of such a beautiful evening. All he wanted now was to disappear. Disappear into the world.
Early the next morning Henry left the city and went to the village to visit his grandmother for a few days. To go somewhere where life without a telephone might not have the consequences that had happened to him during that week.
***
Returning home a couple of days later, still without his phone, Henry turned on his computer and saw a message from Alice.
“I am so sorry, Henry, but I overslept! Forgive me.”
He smiled.
Machine Guns vs.Tanks Full Battle Scene | Fury
Donald Trump has no legal authority whatsoever to impose a 25% tariff on anyone, let alone our closest trading partners. So, why is Trump saying he’s going to impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico the day he enters office?
Understand why Trump 2.0 imposes tariff.
The big picture: US economy is “in trouble”. Its debts is skyrocket high at #36 tn as of 2024/11. Just paying interest on the debts already costs USA $882 billion in 2024 ie $3 bn per DAY (source: US Treasury Dept). Its debt increases by $8.7 bn per 24 hours.
USA makes tons of $$$ from wars. But wars only benefit MIC & Wall Street. Not USA the country because the rich dont pay tax. Hence USA must rob others, regardless allies or not.
Below is my earlier post.
Trump 2.0’s crazily high tariff on ALL foreign countries = rob & force them to feed USA.
Have you seen a mafia in movies such as God Father?
Inside USA, tariff on foreign country = tax increase on Americans because foreign sellers will add (part of) the tariff to the sale price of their exported goods to USA.
In Trump 1.0, 90% of tariff was added to the sale price by foreign sellers. That is 1 reason why there was inflation in USA in Trump 1.0 & Biden era.
In both Trump 1.0 & 2.0, Trump has & will decrease tax to attract votes. How to recover the loss of revenue incurred from tax decrease? Use tariff to cause inflation so that all Americans pay a bit ie use tariff to disguise tax increase.
Analysts suggest countries to fight back & break even. Trump tariffs on imports to USA; countries tariffs on exports to USA with the same amount. Dont feed the robber-mafia.
We must understand: 60% tariff on Chinese imports & 20% on smaller countries is crazily unreasonable. Not many firms can make 60% of profit. Not even 20% for small firms/countries. Nobody will do business with no profit. Thus, decouple & stop/reduce sale to USA is the only option.
In fact, decoupling may be the plan of Trump 2.0. Trump may want USA to start all over again by manufacturing its own products from toilet paper to Trump’s campaign cap to washer etc. Trump wants everything to be made in USA.
US wage is higher than southeast Asia. That is Made-in-USA is more expensive. Trouble is whether USA will increase the wage to catch up with the inflated consumer products. Otherwise Americans will become poorer.
Trump 1.0 failed to attract US investors back to USA. Some still stayed in China. Some moved from China to, say, Thailand to do a finish touch on the Chinese products. This disguise of made-in-Thailand products also pushes up the American consumer price.
Let us watch Trump 2.0 to roll out.
Some picture from my archives
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Isn’t it a bluff that Trump can exclude trade with China and India from the US ‘wonderful’ market? If there are going to be trade in a currency other than USD in BRICS, they are already being done
Trump’s statements are made for Americans to hear; they are the only constituency he cares about because they are the only ones who can vote for him and hold him accountable.
The truth is that outside the US, markets in Asia, Africa and central and south America and Mexico are all growing. This means that the US market is becoming a small pie slice of the overall global trade market.
In Trump’s first term, he decided to use tariffs as a weapon to limit Chinese imports into the US. Even though they have not been effective in limiting Chinese imports into the US, both Trump and Biden kept them in place. Trump has said that in his second term, he will raise the import tariffs. In effect, he is doubling down on a policy which doesn’t work. This strongly suggests that the US has no effective tools to counter Chinese imports into the US.
In order to counter US trade policy, China is aggressively working to grow domestic consumer spending and to diversify to other growing markets outside of the NATO/EU nations and the US and Canada.
While Americans have an obsession with “bluffing” as a negotiation strategy, it does not work well with Chinese because Chinese will inevitably call the bluff. I assume the only reason Americans embrace bluffing so much is because it is widely used in American culture and in some other cultures.
But it does not work well with Chinese because they are willing to wait out the party doing the bluffing before they move in for the final dispatch. The Chinese always take the long view on disputes and have the patience to see something through to the end, which is a strategy Americans do not have experience dealing with in the past.
This is one reason why Americans get so frustrated that their tactics don’t work with the Chinese. The US political leadership has not yet figured out that the only way to counter the Chinese long view is to also adopt an American long view, but they are too internally divided to reach any consensus on what an American long view would look like.
The Mask | Love In This Club
TOP SOCIAL SECURITY CHIEF OUSTED AFTER BLOCKING DOGE FRAUD INVESTIGATION
Acting Commissioner Michelle King exits the Social Security Administration after refusing to give the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to agency records needed to investigate potential fraud.
She’s replaced by Leland Dudek, who previously praised DOGE’s efficiency efforts.
This follows similar departures at Treasury and IRS as career bureaucrats resist fraud investigations.
King had been at the agency since 1994 — until now.
Who are the winners and losers in the U.S.-China trade war? Will everyone ultimately lose, and if so, who will suffer the most and why?
China don’t and won’t lose if the US carries on the trade war!
If the trade war reduce China’s growth form 6.5% to 5.0% It is only making Growth more sustainable and more manageable.
But while it may do that it is also cutting US growth by 2.5% to 1% and that for a nation with debts of 36 trillion dollars growing at 1 trillion dollars every quarter very unsustainable and it will destroy the USA!
So bring it on any day!
The world will have a market without the US overconsumption and that is a good thing not a bad proposition.
But your homelessness will grow so will unemployment and poverty!
Real income will come crashing down!
Inflation will hit 25% per annum at least!
You will waste resources producing stuffs you are not good at while wasting opportunities doing stuffs you ought to focus on!
Who is the loser, you can answer it yourself!
Why is Donald Trump continuously slamming high tariff rates on China? Does it benefit the USA in any way?
Driven by a staunch belief that a trade war is beneficial for America, Donald Trump’s strategy of imposing high tariffs on China arises from a deep misunderstanding of the complexities of global economic dynamics. By applying his notorious tough negotiation tactics—historically used in his business dealings to pressure smaller contractors—Trump now applies the same brute force in the sphere of international trade. Unfortunately, this approach dramatically oversimplifies the intricate nature of international relations and economic interdependence.
Trump’s tariff strategy is essentially his attempt to leverage what he perceives as America’s superior economic position to force China into submission. During his business career, Trump often bullied his way through negotiations, betting on the other party’s weaker position to secure a favorable outcome. He seems to believe that a similar approach will work on the global stage with a nation like China. However, this strategy fails to account for China’s significant economic capabilities and its political leadership’s resolve to not bend under U.S. pressure.
The ongoing imposition of high tariffs by Trump reflects his misjudgment of the situation—treating international trade like a zero-sum game where one country’s gain is inherently another’s loss. Unlike the small businesses he dealt with in New York, China has considerable economic clout and political strategies at its disposal. This includes the ability to impose retaliatory tariffs that deeply affect both economies, exemplified by disruptions witnessed in sectors ranging from agriculture to manufacturing within the U.S.
Moreover, tariffs, which are effectively taxes, not only affect the targeted foreign industries but also hurt domestic consumers and businesses. American consumers face higher prices, and businesses dealing with increased costs for imported goods find themselves less competitive, both domestically and globally. The retaliatory measures from China have also targeted critical segments of the American economy, from soybean farmers to electronics, illustrating a ripple effect that spans vast economic landscapes.
The truth is, while Trump aims to display unwavering strength and decisiveness, his tariff tactics could ultimately weaken the U.S. economy and degrade its political stature on the global stage. Navigating this tariff war requires more than bluster and intimidation—it needs a strategic understanding of global economic relationships and a more diplomatic approach to resolve conflicts in ways that mutually benefit all involved parties. The approach should prioritize long-term global stability over short-term political gains, a strategy that would genuinely reflect strength and wise leadership.
Cast Away – ending
For those of you Navy pilots who flew both the F-14 and F-18, which one did you like better, and why?
I have over 1,000 hours in the Tomcat and perhaps 450 hours in the Hornet. My Tomcat time was largely operational. My Hornet time was all in flight test. Some days I would fly one bird in the morning and another one if the afternoon or evening.
The Hornet was newer, and newer is often better. I could only pull 6.5g in the Tomcat, but in the Hornet when I burnt my fuel down a bit, I could go to 7.5g. The F404 engine in the Hornet was far better than the TF-30 that we had in the Tomcat and I never had to worry about a compressor stall with the F404. I should know as I did a lot of the initial out-of-control flight test on the 2 seat Hornet where I would intentionally depart the airplane from controlled flight.
The engines never even hiccupped at all. The Hornet was far more nimble than the Tomcat, but the Hornet did not have the range, endurance or speed of a Tomcat. Each was designed for a different mission.
I would often say to colleagues that in peacetime, I loved the agile Hornet. But were I to go into combat, I would much rather be in the Tomcat. My RIO and I were a great team. Having that extra set of eyes was invaluable.
One afternoon, my wingman and I engaged a pair of Libyan MIG23s. During the engagement, I lost sight of one of the MIGs. While I kept my eyes on the Libyan in front of me, I knew my RIO could help me to get my eyes on the other MIG. That extra set of eyes is invaluable when all hell breaks loose.
If China is near collapse, why has Congress allocated 1.6B for anti-China propaganda?
That is a very good question for asking. Why stop Huawei when China is not innovative and backward in innovation and steal technology? Why containing China if China is truly dying from Lack of child birth and slowing population? Why badmouth China using monies you bare have! if they are real bad, won’t the truth hurts?
US behaviour don’t add up! If it says US is an exceptional nation why do you need to badmouth China and knee cap it? If China’s product is so inferior why do you need to put tariffs on them? If China is weak why do you need to spend like a drunken sailor on weapons and why patrol South China seas? If you say Taiwan hate China why do you need to encourage them to be independent?
If the US really believed in Chinese doing genocide on the Muslims in China why worry about their influence in the Middle East? If you really thinks Hong Kongers are protesting on their own why pay hard cas at protest street corners using CIA and M16 monies? If the US says it is still the head honcho why bother about China?
If USD is so great why worry about BRICS? Why are your senators talking about Dedollarisation? They got nothing better to do? If you think India is really your friend and you include them in QUAD why are you upset they buy Russian weapons and energy? If Vietnam is really your friend why is your media trouble making and war mongering in Vietnamese people over China? If Russia is just a gas station masquerading as a nation why do you need long range missile? If Russia is losing as you say why do you need to send 50 billion every other months to Ukraine?
If you say Europe is all in at confronting Russia, why bad mouth Hungary? If Mexicans are rapist and robbers why threaten Mexicans? If China is so weak and you are so strong why bother with Chinese artificial islands and its power projections?
Heartbreak Ridge | We’re Going To War, Men
What screams “I can fight”?
I was sitting in a bar, with a kind of bad rep, having a beer with a couple of guys from work. Across the room are 3 guys standing at the bar. One them is big, about 6′4″ & 260/270. They’re a little boisterous.
Guy comes out of the men’s room in the back. He’s wearing work clothes & looks like he used them hard that day. He’s kind of “chunky.” I don’t mean he’s fat, though there’s a bit there. He looks like he’s put together with chunks & blocks & slabs. He’s about 5′ 9or10″ & 180. (Probably more, this guy works hard.) He has a little shuffle in his walk it’s been a hard day. He heads for the door.
Big guy steps back & bumps into smaller guy. Smaller guy steps aside & excuses himself & tries to continue. Big guy grabs his shoulder & spins him around.
There’s no hesitation. Little guy steps inside, grabs big guy’s lapels & slams their faces together twice. HARD!
Blood flows. Little guy turns, grabs a handful of napkins off the bar & goes out the door. Nobody follows him.
Could he fight? Oh hell yeah! How did I know it wasn’t his first rodeo? That handful of napkins.
How did the Chinese advance so much in software development in such a short time leaving the Indians behind?
I believe LANGUAGE was the primary reason
The Chinese had a 1.4 Billion consumer market for software including a 200 Million Middle Class in 2010 of whom almost 80% couldn’t understand or converse in English
Apart from a few major players , Western Software players couldn’t write or sell software packaged to interact with the end users in Mandarin
So there were two options for the Mainlanders
A. Learn English rapidly across 200–250 Million people OR
B. Create your own Software products packaged to interact in Chinese & Mandarin
So China created it’s own range of software products packaged in Chinese for its population
Initially they used the same layout formatting and designs of Western Products and produced “RIP OFFS” as the West called them
Then they found that writing code in English also needed a lot of graduates who had to speak the language
So they decided to start developing their own High Level Languages using Chinese to write the code rather than English
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First they wrote their own Editors
Then they created their own languages in programming and ecosystems
As Aravind Varier says – Once you go into your language, innovation is more rapid and more faster
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Added to Chinas Digital Revolution & the 5G wave – it was inevitable that Chinese Developers became among the best in the world
Plus Chinese aren’t Indians
Rather than calling themselves Silicon Valley, they are still on a learning curve
They aim for 65% of Codes for Software Products to be written in Chinese Developed Languages by 2030
Today it’s only 22%
Almost 78% Code is still written in Java or Python or other Western Languages with Chinese Editors developed by Chinese Players
To summarize
A. They had the market
B. They needed Software in their own language to keep up with the modern world
C. They had a State run system that subsidized all development
D. They had enough money
India didn’t have that demand that China had
It was easier to ensure every Middle Class Indian learnt English than to start investing heavily in developing software products capable of interacting in Tamil or Telugu or Bengali
So we simply purchased Western products than develop our own
There was no need to
The Chinese needed to develop their own products because THEIR CONSUMERS DIDN’T KNOW ENGLISH
Our Consumers knew English pretty well
So the burning demand to develop Indian Software Products was not there
We didn’t have a unique market like the Chinese did where there would be NO COMPETITION from Microsoft or other players
If we created a software product, it had to compete with a Western equivalent and they had more money and a full ecosystem
Plus of course we had a poorer form of Government and that didn’t help
It began at the local variety store.Overnight, someone or some company installed a portable ATM on the front stoop of Michael’s Convenience Store. Old Man Michael, who only opened the store on weekdays, did not see what happened on the previous weekend. He did not remember placing a call to have it put there, and he knew that there was still a local bank that had their machines “well up and robbing us” (as he said to any of the familiar customers who asked about it). There was no phone or serial number on it (he looked around it twice), but he could see that it was connected to the main power grid – not taking power from his store and raising his bills, he thought – and he left it there, untouched and he was unimpressed. Let them charge whatever they want if people are that dumb. He opened his store and waited to see if he would have to explain what was going on outside.It took a few days before anyone noticed what was going on. A local trucker, Matt, decided to not use “those damn debit cards all the time, if he didn’t haveta,” and took out some money for cigarettes. After he got his $20 – with no service fee; nice, he thought – the machine gave him his card…and an extra $100. He looked over the slip that popped out. No, not from his account. That was all the machine. A beautiful hundred dollar bill was resting on the tray. Guess I got lucky. He did not bother to go in for the cigarettes that night. He could hit a liquor store later and maybe see if there was a good place to eat on his route.Matt did not share his good luck, but others soon figured out what the machine could do. A group of kids, right out of school and waiting to see if there were any adults around to buy them cigarettes noticed the machine right away. One of them started to press a couple of buttons while they were trying to hide from Old Man Michael and his curiosity. That was David, the son of a local carpenter who was having trouble with his bills. And, without a card of any kind, the machine gave him a clean and unwrinkled $50. Pretty soon, they all took their turn on it, grabbing $20s and $10s and a few more $50 before the owner came out with his dog, a really nasty old terrier, and threatened to “rip them a new one” if they did not leave. But they were done. The machine hummed in the soft light of the store and street lamps.A week after the machine was installed, it became the talk of the small town. Kids knew that they could get money out of it without using a card, a secret that worked out well for the local schools until one girl snitched when her mother found her new cell phone and demanded to know how she paid for it. Soon, it was declared off limits to anyone “under the age of 18”. At a town hall meeting held after this law was passed, many wanted to know how they would enforce the law if the machine was plugged in and ran all day. No one wanted to argue about this, and Old Man Michael did not want to lose any business provided by the new machine. They all adjourned and wondered if there was some reason why this was happening in their small town.It was easy to see what some of the problems would be with a machine that spat out money every time you needed some (or did not really need any of it). After a month of the machine in their town, it was impossible to ignore certain signs. One thing that a few store owners did not like was the fact that the local teens did not want to work part-time for what they paid. It was at the end of the school term for both elementary and secondary schools. Some of the local college kids would also stay on, but they only did so if they could find work. Or money. Parents knew that their kids were taking money from the machine and were upset. At least, most of them were. A few were relieved not to have to let their sons and daughters out there looking for jobs cleaning out homes of certain people (there were a few stories about the Pattersons, especially that uncle who was always around for the holidays, staring at the local girls from the high school). Others were just glad that they would not have to hand over allowances for late nights of missing cars, calls from the local police or neighbours who had very familiar scenes on their front lawns and backyards. Mrs. Murray had a son away at school and when she revealed what happened in the town, he told her that he would be at home that summer and maybe for few other summers, too. The mayor decided to let the machine stay running, but it was growing into a problem. It was a problem that he was hearing more and more about.At the bank, tellers noticed that they were busier than ever before. It seemed that people did not want to use any of the other local banking machines. A rumour began to spread that the money would not be accepted in the ATMs provided for the community (all three of the machines left for the town). The companies that built the machines contacted the bank manager, Mr. Dennison, who in turned told his staff that they would be on reduced hours until the machines were in use again (a few people threatened to quit; some had already made quite a bit of money from the new machine). Mr. Dennison, in the middle of a bad breakup and looking at his tax return, decided to call the mayor. They had been friends since grade school, sharing the same bus when they went to the high school and even dating each other siblings (Maura was the one breaking Mr. Dennison’s heart; why didn’t Martin tell me what she was really like, he thought). The mayor had a moment to himself before he decided what to do.
*
It was another town meeting, but reserved for certain people who had a vested interest in putting things back to normal. The mayor invited the chief of police (his brother, another Patterson, kept an eye on who entered the office), Mr. Dennison (of course), certain vice-principals and principals (strange to see them at this time of day), certain business owners (including Old Man Michael, who never showed up), and a few others that could be trusted. It was not official. It was not on the record. And it was not held at city hall.
It was a very private meeting.
They waited for the weekend and then set out late on a Friday night to finally fix things. They all decided to walk in the darkness to the store and see if there were any potential witnesses before they began. In the dim street lights, they could see no traffic. Matt complained that they could have done all of this with his truck if they had just listened to him (he wanted to show off the new vehicle he had bought that month). They ignored him, as they ignored the chief of police’s calling for them to do it quickly before he had to arrest them (the other Pattersons in the group laughed out loud).
The lights were out over the store. Had Old Man Michael left without anyone noticing? That did not seem possible, and as they got closer, they had to agree that even if it was impossible, it had happened. There was no car in his yard (he never seemed to use the money for buying a new one or repairing what he had). Even the lights in front of the store were off (where were his security lights, thought Mr. Dennison out loud; he always had them working). If they had been on, they would have noticed what they could not see from a distance.
The ATM was gone.
The mayor ran ahead of the group, sweating with the effort and dropping his wire cutters as he saw the scratches on the wooden boardwalk. Everyone noticed that the cable that hooked up the machine to the city grid was cut through and left as a reminder of what was once there. They walked around the store property, looking through some of the nearby forest where they could see no trace of any struggle with such an awkward machine. The best guess was that Michael had taken the machine and decided to skip out of town with “his own personal moneymaker” (the mayor really did not like Matt, but he admitted he must have been right). They noted the time, went home, and decided to not talk about what they had done that night.
The summer ended, kids went back to school, and Old Man Michael’s store stayed closed. It was later taken over by a well-known discount chain store. If they had been paying attention, they would have known that this was the real problem that they should have been concerned about, not a machine handing out money. But they shopped there all the same, wondering what happened to the machine that they now missed. And also Old Man Michael, who had taken his share of money, decided to leave, and was almost forgotten by the town. It was just fortunate that the ATM was forgotten by the company, despite being listed as “a brave experiment in money distribution” by certain executives testing the water in various small towns in the country. They would have found the whole process quite fascinating.
Chicken and Dressing Casserole
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Ingredients
1 cup thinly chopped celery
1 large onion, thinly chopped
1/2 stick butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can chicken broth
4 chicken breasts
2 to 3 teaspoons sage
Salt and pepper
Instructions
Make one 8 inch square pan of cornbread the day before.
Cook chicken pieces in water with salt and pepper until done. Cool, then cut into small pieces.
Cook celery and onion in butter until tender. Crumble cornbread into large bowl.
Mix celery and onion and chicken pieces all together with cornbread.
Mix all 3 soups into the mixture.
Add up to 3 teaspoons sage, salt and pepper to taste. Pour into large baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees F until done, about 30 minutes, until lightly browned on top.
Serve with chicken gravy ladled over servings, with cranberry sauce on the side.
This is a must watch video!
This video is in its original quality: 1080p.
What happens when AI turns Elon Musk into a Kung Fu master from the Ming Dynasty? 🥋⚔️
You get THIS wild viral sensation that’s got Chinese social media buzzing! 🎤
“I’ll sack those the government fears to sack. I’ll handle what they can’t—and even what they won’t!”
This AI-generated masterpiece blends tech, history, and humor into one unforgettable video.
The internet can’t stop talking about Musk’s “department of government efficiency” energy in this hilarious parody.
Which is the most admired country now that the USA has become such a laughingstock to the world?
China.
China is admired and respected by most countries, especially in the Global South. (The Global South represents more than 85% of humanity.)
Why is China so admired? Five principal reasons:
China underwent the most amazing economic miracle in human history. It grew from total impoverishment to become the world’s largest economy (by PPP) in only 35 years!
China is the most peaceful world power. It has fought no wars since 1979.
China is helping most of the countries in the world through the Belt and Road Initiative. They are extremely grateful for China’s assistance.
China’s unique form of democracy garners the highest level of support from the Chinese people. It works much better than Western liberal democracy.
China is the most technologically advanced nation on earth. It leads the world in 57 out of 64 critical technology fields. It is granted more patents than the USA and Japan combined!
Prosperity. Peace. Benevolence. Democracy. Technology. China ticks all the boxes for the most admired country.
China is a better country than the USA by every measure.
I have written about my one sister who was always, and relentlessly, picking on me and calling me “stupid”. I mention it now, as an older man. One who has a few hundred miles under my belt. I see things as they were, and where everyone failed.
Oh, for her, it was automatic. If she saw me do something, she would set out to destroy it. If she saw me she called me “stupid”. If I had homework, she would take and hide it. If I made something, she would destroy it. If I had a chance to go out and make new friends, she would pollute and disparage my efforts. And so on and so forth.
My parents did nothing.
So without corrective behavior, her actions got worse and worse over time.
Now, and take note; without corrections, the real evil came out. Especially when she hit her early teens. The “nightmare” years for young girls.
Her picking and tormenting me was always present in school. But the teachers just overlooked it, or assumed that it was just “sibling rivalry”, which I heard on more than one occasion.
Boys fighting; “Break it up. Break it up.”
Girl – Boy conflict; “Oh, it’s nothing. Just sibling rivalry”.
In middle school, a number of my teachers mentioned this to my parents. But nothing came of it. At least none that I know of, and she never did change her behaviors.
However, sometime around 7th grade, the teachers were starting to get fed up of her antics. (Well, to me they were antics. Perhaps to the teachers they saw this a budding problem.) People outside of the family were starting to notice the “trickle down” effect, as well as blatant instances.
She would start these actions, like chants. When I was being picked for teams in gym, she would start screaming at the top of her lungs “don’t pick him. He’s so stoooopid. Only idiots pick losers“. And all the other girls joined in.
Hive mind I guess.
And soon the entire class would join in. Everyone picking on me and making fun of me. You are in a class of sixty kids and all of the kids start ganging up on one kid in a offensive manner.
Eventually the teacher would stroll by and tell everyone to “shut up” and to “stop it”. But that was the best that I could ever expect.
Anyways, that was typical.
As always, no fatherly guidance, no big brothers or uncles to set me right and help me though boyhood. I lived in the USA. “Be a man and take it“.
The USA.
*spit on the ground*
And of course, my father always chimed in with the tired old narrative “You’re the oldest son, you have to take the hits”.
*collecting spittle in my throat and honking out a big splatter on the sidewalk*
It came to a head when my sister actively ratted on me for something innocent, and tried to make a big deal about it.
This time.
Oh, this time…
The teacher, called her out on it.
Surprised me.
In fact it was so unusual, I was stunned. Totally unexpected.
And we had a trial in the class over it.
The teacher organized everything. There was a judge, a jury, a prosecutor, and a defense attorney.
Of course, all the girls all tried to stick together but they had no arguments, as they were basing everything on their feelings. Which were, by default, against me.
He’s stupid.
Look at him. What a loser.
You can’t listen to him, he’s a nothing.
Eventually, she lost and was punished by losing some kind of social status that was important to her. I don’t remember what. As I just did my best to keep the hell out of it and was intentionally being as neutral as possible.
It didn’t change her behavior, however.
She just became smarter and sneaker in what she did. And some of the (revised) actions that she took were actually dangerous. From trying to starve me with minute portions of leftovers, to actually physically attacking me; breaking my nose (she threw a full jar of pickles at me, and hit me straight on my face) and sending me to the hospital.
*sigh*
I won’t bore you all with the details.
The point here is that the “damage” that my sister caused to my ego as I was growing up, could have been mitigated, or eliminated completely if I had parents who were actively aware of the situation, and took steps to correct it. Rather than telling a five year old child to “act like a man and take it“, as well as “don’t fight back“, and “don’t stoop to their level“.
The blue pill feminism really fucked up boys of my generation, and that caused the complete collapse of American society. It’s in free-fall now.
How’s it going for you all.
This is what happens when you allow deranged people to do things without consequence.
*sheech*
Today…
What are your thoughts on the trend of Americans labeling themselves as “TikTok refugees” and migrating to the Chinese social media platform RedNote (Xiaohongshu)?
In retrospect, the US government’s hostility towards TikTok is one of the biggest political blunders of theirs in recent years. Late stage capitalism is barely held together by bread and circus; when bread becomes unaffordable and the circus is banned due to “antisemitism/threatening US national security”, people seek alternatives.
And what better alternative is there than China? Thus, the exodus of “TikTok refugees” to Xiaohongshu.
The great thing about cultural exchanges of this sort is that both sides benefit from deeper understanding. Interacting with “TikTok refugees” has only made Chinese people more sympathetic towards American millennials and gen z – just as Americans are becoming better informed on, and more willing to humanise the Chinese.
For decades, liberals in China have been telling people that America is a paradise where you can easily strike it rich, you can be free, and your rights as an individuals are protected…you know, typical 20th century “American Dream” rhetoric. But while Chinese youngsters these days no longer hold any illusions that the grass is greener on the other side, most of them have never been to America or met any Americans, which meant they have no way of knowing what things are really like over there.
The recent influx of American users on Xiaohongshu has been an eye-opener, to say the least. For instance, one of the most popular questions Chinese users like to ask American newcomers – besides “I’m your designated Chinese spy, have you paid your ‘cat tax’ today (i.e. shared a picture of your cats)?” – is “how many hours do you work per week?”. This is no surprise, as class consciousness is observably rising among both Chinese and American youngsters, and Chinese youths have been disgruntled with the conditions of the Chinese labour market for years.
What is surprising, however, are the responses given by the Yanks.
Contrary to popular belief in China that Americans have it “easier” than the Chinese do, the reality is that most American youths are working two or more jobs to make ends meet, with one viral comment from an American user stating they were working up to 84 hours per week (for reference, Chinese tech companies’ notorious “996 system” is only 72 hours per week).
No wonder American gen z’ers are the least patriotic generation on record. If you had to work 84 hours a week just to afford food and rent (and we still haven’t factored in the ridiculous costs of education and healthcare in the US that made them so supportive of a man like Luigi Mangione), you’d find it challenging to feel patriotic too.
Speaking of patriotism, there is a popular liberal narrative in China that depicts Americans as having better “critical thinking” skills due to “more individualism/freedom” and “less nationalistic propaganda”. Likewise in the US, there is a deep-rooted perception that the Chinese are “brainwashed” and “unable to think for themselves”.
But when the youths of these two nations actually talked to each other on the same platform, the myths were debunked instantly. The truth is that in American schools, students pledge allegiance to the flag every single morning; whereas in China, students only raise the national flag and sing the national anthem once per week.
↑“For those of you who didn’t know, every morning American children aged 5 and above must stand up and place their right hands over their hearts, and recite the pledge of allegiance to the American flag. At every sporting event (professional or even children’s), before the national anthem is played, we would cover our hearts and stand up.“
“That’s shocking, when I was 5 all I could recite were textbook passages or something…”
Here in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region – where westerners constantly tell me I’ve been “oppressed” by big bad China all my life – in all my years as a schoolboy, not once did I ever have to pledge allegiance to any flag or nation (the only entity my school required me to praise was God).
Which of the two regimes is more “nationalistic” and “brainwashing”? Should be pretty obvious.
China isn’t perfect, but even as a developing country, it has done extraordinarily well for itself. Most people have a stable job, a roof over their heads, plenty of good food to enjoy, free/subsidised healthcare and education, a relatively healthy environment for dating and raising a family, and some of the safest streets in the world. This is the kind of normalcy that young Americans crave, and what their Chinese counterparts take for granted.
Even the stereotype of “oppression” is questionable. There are plenty of things you can talk about on Chinese social media that would have you censored or even arrested in America – things like the aforementioned case of Luigi Mangione, and Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinians. Which is just one more reason why so many “TikTok refugees” find Chinese social media so refreshing. Unlike Americans climbing over the Great Firewall in search of freedom of speech, and as a gesture of protest against the US government, most Chinese people only use a VPN for porn, not anti-government activities.
Chinese people are incredibly tolerant to different opinions – this is necessary in a nation of 1.4 billion. “Cancel culture” isn’t a thing, in fact there is no decent Chinese translation of this western concept. You can be pro- or anti-Israel/Palestine, you can be pro- or anti-Russia/Ukraine, you can be pro- or anti-LGBT…and even when people disagree, they tend to be more forgiving about it – maybe it’s because Chinese people aren’t naturally confrontational, or perhaps they know that life is hard enough without bringing internet beef into it. This is completely unlike Reddit, Twitter or even here on Quora.
Right now most of the American youngsters on Xiaohongshu tend to be left-leaning, but I believe Chinese internet has a place for you regardless of your beliefs or interests. China has plenty of weeaboos, wehraboos, furries, gooners and all kinds of subcultures, whatever suits your tastes.
By the way this phenomenon is quickly going global. Rednote/Xiaohongshu isn’t just the most downloaded app in the US, it’s also topping the charts in Europe and Africa. Might be too early to be sure, but this unprecedented “east-meets-west” social experiment is really starting to look promising.
American TikTok Refugees Joining Chinese Social Media App REDnote
This is a MUST watch! This is happening RIGHT NOW!
GOD!
What an amazing time to be living!!!!!
How much control do we have over our lifespan through healthy behaviors and whether our genes set a strict limit.?
As a 71 year old and a hospice volunteer, I have a huge list of people whose lifespan did not conform to what we are told to expect from healthy living, making it easy to see that heredity or something else has a lot to do with life span. But you will have trouble finding that in a PubMed paper, because the illusion of control sells medical care, whole foods, and gym memberships.
Probably like everyone my age, I can list a number of people who smoked and drank and never exercised, but lived well into their nineties, and way too many who lived the recommended lifestyle and dropped dead at 52. My own mother died at 91 and never stopped smoking or living on coffee, steak and butter. Her son, my brother (same genes), lived the clean life and died of cardio vascular disease at 52, the week after he aced his annual physical.
And as a volunteer in long term care facilities, one of my often-repeated parlor tricks is to have young CNAs and nurses gathered in the common area with the elderly patients, who include some who are 90 and 100 years old and then I ask the patients whether they ever smoked. Without fail they will say they did smoke, and the younger medical staff is slack-jawed. In the 1950s through 1970s most people smoked, and plenty lived to be 100, but the risks have been so over-stated since then that the younger generation believes that anyone who smokes will die young.
Don’t get it wrong: I don’t smoke and I don’t advise it, but I do prefer reality to fantasy, at least in terms of health and longevity.
As you’ve gotten older, do you regret getting tattoos, and do you warn young people of your regrets?
I don’t actually have any tattoos, but I remember a conversation I had about 25 years ago with a cosmetic doctor. I happened to ask him, “Do you like tattoos?” To which he replied, “Yes, I really like them.” Surprised, I said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you had any.” He responded, “I don’t, but they’re going to be my retirement. I’ll spend all my time lasering them off.”
As we continued the discussion, he pointed out that tattoos can be problematic because they often reveal a person’s age. For example, in a country like the UK, if someone has “love” and “hate” tattooed on their knuckles along with swallows, it’s likely they’re elderly e.g 70s or 80s. If they have a Celtic band, they’re probably in their 50s now. And with the full sleeves that are so popular today, who knows what that will signify in the future?
Personally, I think the main issue with tattoos is that many people believe they’re expressing their individuality, when in reality, they’re just following a trend.
Why are Chinese living standards so much lower than American living standards?
Fed up with the narrative that China’s living standards are inferior? Here’s a blunt reality check. Chinese living standards are often seen as lower than those in the United States, but this perception doesn’t tell the whole story. China has experienced remarkable growth and development, making life here in many ways comparable to, and sometimes even better than, life in America.
China has undergone an incredible transformation under the Communist Party’s leadership. The country has moved from being war-torn and agrarian to a global economic powerhouse. The focus has been on lifting hundreds of millions out of poverty, building world-class infrastructure, and providing accessible healthcare and education. These improvements are part of a concerted effort to modernize China along the lines of socialism with Chinese characteristics.
When it comes to affordability, China’s got a clear advantage. The cost of living is much lower. For instance, you can get a meal at McDonald’s for significantly less here than in the U.S. Renting a decent home is far more affordable in China, and property taxes are practically non-existent. Healthcare is another area where China shines. Medical care is affordable and doesn’t lead to crushing medical debts. For example, complete cancer treatment can cost around $3000 out of pocket—no insurance needed. Compare that to the U.S., where healthcare costs can be sky-high, and you see how the Chinese system offers real peace of mind.
Quality of life in China also benefits from fewer GMOs, hormones, and pesticides in food, leading to generally healthier eating options. The air quality, while improving, generally lacks the chem-trails you often see in the U.S. The social environment here is notably friendlier and quieter, with fewer gasoline engines resulting in a peaceful urban existence. The crime rates are relatively low too, so you can walk around at night without fearing for your safety.
Education and taxes? Hard to beat in China. Educational opportunities are almost free, making a huge difference for families. Low taxes mean you keep more of your income. These elements make life in China not just affordable but also secure and convenient.
From a government perspective, China has done an excellent job of safeguarding national independence and security while promoting national development. This adds another layer of stability to daily life. High crime rates, erratic healthcare costs, and unstable job markets aren’t major concerns here. Unlike in the U.S., you don’t have to worry about losing your medical insurance if you quit your job.
While the U.S. has a higher GDP per capita, this metric doesn’t capture the full picture of living standards. In the U.S., costs for medication, housing, and healthcare can be prohibitively high for many, reducing overall quality of life. By these measures, China offers a different but competitive quality of life.
So, the next time you hear someone claim that Chinese living standards are inferior, realize that the reality is more nuanced. In many critical areas, China not only holds its own but sometimes even surpasses the U.S. It’s time to challenge those outdated narratives and see the full picture.
Why has China not responded with a full scale trade war with the US?
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The Chinese government understands just how interconnected global economies are. A full-on trade war would hurt everyone involved and disrupt the market in a way that could take years to recover from. Look at how the US has been behaving under leaders like Trump—it’s all about quick, aggressive hits that make headlines but leave a trail of chaos. China knows that such rash decisions often lead to collateral damage, and who needs that?
China’s all about long-term stability and growth. Alienating trade partners with harsh retaliations just doesn’t fit into their big-picture thinking. By keeping their responses more measured, China shows its commitment to being a stable and reliable partner in international trade, which is crucial for its long-term goals. This way, China can keep growing its economic influence without burning bridges.
Let’s talk about perception. In international relations, how you’re seen by other countries matters a lot. Acting recklessly in a trade war could really mess up China’s image globally. By showing restraint, China positions itself as the rational, dependable player on the global stage. This helps build trust and stronger economic ties with other nations, making them more likely to choose China as a trading partner over the US.
History has shown that China’s approach to dealing with international challenges is innovative and strategic rather than confrontational. When the US tried to shut China out of systems like the International Space Station or the global GPS network, China didn’t throw a tantrum. Instead, it created and deployed its own superior systems. This shows a consistent strategy of long-term thinking and resilience rather than knee-jerk reactions.
In the end, China’s moderation in this trade spat with the US underscores its broader ambitions. By not getting sucked into a destructive trade war, China remains focused on its long-term goals of economic prosperity and international cooperation. Meanwhile, the US seems more preoccupied with short-term wins and aggressive posturing. This difference in approach is clear and shows exactly why China hasn’t gone nuclear in the trade war.
So, when you look at the bigger picture, it’s clear: China is playing the long game, thinking about the future, while the US is caught up in the here and now. It’s a strategy that might not make the most noise, but it’s probably the smartest move in the long run.
What is the bravest thing you have ever seen someone do?
This is Kendrick Castillo.
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He was born on March 14, 2001, in Denver, Colorado (USA). He was in his senior year at STEM School Highlands Ranch, just a few days from graduation.
It was an ordinary Tuesday afternoon; Kendrick was watching The Princess Bride in his British literature class. An 18 year-old-male, Devon Erickson, entered the classroom and pulled out a gun demanding everyone “not to move”.
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(Devon Erickson in court. He was one of the suspected gunmen.)
Kendrick was about a foot away from Devon so he immediately lunged at the shooter to try and subdue him so everyone else could get to safety. Kendrick was shot afterwards and three other students also tackled Devon trying to subdue him while everyone else fled the classroom. Bialy, one of the other students who tackled the shooter, checked up on Kendrick after they subdued Devon. Unfortunately, Kendrick wasn’t moving. Other students tried to stop the bleeding by applying pressure on the wound.
“He cared enough about people that he would do something like that, even though it’s against my better judgment,” John Castillo (Kendrick’s father) told the newspaper. “I wish he had gone and hid, but that’s not his character. His character is about protecting people, helping people.”
“Kendrick Castillo died a legend. He died a trooper,” Brendan Bialy (One of the other students that tackled the shooter) said. “I know he will be with me for the rest of my life.”
“Be selfless, that’s what my son was, and it got him killed, but he saved others,” John Castillo said.
“I know that because of what he did, others are alive, and I thank God for that. I love him. And he is a hero and he always will be,” his dad, John Castillo, said.
In a time of desperation and fear, Kendrick Castillo acted quickly trying to protect the people around him. He risked his own life to even give his fellow peers a chance of running away to safety. Sadly, he did not make it; however, who knows what could’ve happened if he hadn’t lunged forward. Perhaps there would’ve been more casualties. In that time, Kendrick gave his own life for others.
Rest in Peace, Kendrick Castillo (2001–2019).
You will be remembered and honored as a hero by millions around the world.
What would happen to the value of the US dollar if China stopped accepting it for their goods? Would they switch to another form of payment, such as gold?
China is already using other currencies in its foreign trade. About 3 years ago, the share of dollar in its foreign trade settlement was 70%. This has fallen to less than 40%. The major share is yuan at over 50%, and about 10% in other currencies, notable ruble.
If you exclude China’s trade with the US, the share of yuan rises to about 60%.
The China-Russia trade is done without the dollar. This was worth $240 billion last year, and growing at double-digit. China has many bilateral agreements that exclude the dollar. PBOC has scores of currency swap arrangements with other central banks.
China would not refuse to accept the dollar in its trade with the US. It would be fool-hardy. US is an important trade partner. China has use for the dollar even though it is not accumulating it, such as to invest in US Treasuries.
The use of the dollar in international transactions has been declining. This is not just China, other countries also. US misused of the dollar as an instrument of sanctions is one reason. Another one is the easy use of other currencies facilitated by electronics, such as blockchain and 5G. This trend is likely to intensify when a BRICS payment/settlement system is in placed. This will speed up the development of the multi-currency system.
There is no need to have a one-for-one replacement of international payment/settlement system. The new BRICS system will function alongside the dollar system. Neither one will dominate. Countries will chose the system most suitable to their needs in particular transactions.
How The Chinese See The U.S. In 2024 | Asmongold Reacts
This dream was strange, even for a dream it was strange. What was stranger was that Mo remembered the dream. Mo knew he dreamt, everyone did, but seldom did he have any recollection of where his mind wandered to at night. Of the dreams that did make themselves known to him, most were those that occurred between his alarm and the small window of snoozing. He didn’t trust those dreams as they were impossibly long for the seven minute window he had available in which to drift off. Maybe they were dreams of dreams. He hoped not, because there was a darkness therein that shamed him. A cruelty and a cynicism that made him wonder just what kind of person his subconscious thought he was.This dream was as different as it got, and now as he lay there in a state between sleep and consciousness, he held onto it for a little while longer, turning it this way and that, so he could see what it was he’d caught in his net.He shivered as he realised that it wasn’t even his dream. He’d plagiarised his nocturnal story and stolen the costume he wore as he met talking animals who were all on drugs as far as he could tell. Unless of course, it was him who was on drugs. That would make more sense. But he doubted drugs would make animals talk. And if they did talk, why in the hell would they speak the same language as Mo? He smiled to himself at that. He wasn’t as stupid as he acted. Not all of the time at least.The costume he’d donned concerned him. Was there a message there? He wasn’t a fan of dressing up, but to be wearing a dress was a bridge too far. He was sure that he hadn’t needed to adhere to that detail for the dream to work, but there he was, in a dress and he was wearing it like he really meant it. He was looking good. The best he’d ever looked and that made him wonder who the hell he really was.His dream was a dream of a story that was a dream in itself. The narrative was ladened with meaning. It was a kid’s story, but one that kids would never fully understand until they were well into adulthood and life had roughed them up plenty. There was something cruel about that. The story hung around and watched the pain train of life smash a person into something they no longer recognised, and then it stood there with a smarmy look on its face and said I told you so. It was all there in this story, if only a person took the time to think. But Mo knew that thinking was a rich man’s game. The poor and the listless were not meant to think. Not if they knew what was good for them.He lingered some more in the state between sleep and awakening, he hung around there for longer than he had any right to, and as he came back into the world of the consciously living, he thought he knew why. And it wasn’t only because his head pulsed with the pain of an injury he could not remember being in receipt of.Groaning, he wanted to scrunch his eyes shut in an abortive attempt at banishing the pain, but his eyes were fixed on something that he now could not unsee. Before him floated water droplets and arrayed around those droplets were tiny bubbles. Something caught in his chest, or in his throat, he could not be sure, as in that moment he could not be sure of anything, even what he was anymore. A fish out of water was no longer a fish. Not as a fish knew it anyway. Once it had left the reality of its existence, it was transformed into something so very different from what had once been of use, and it was that uselessness that smothered and confused it so totally that it could not find a way to be anymore.Water, thought Mo, in a distracted, spiralling state of affairs that he wanted to exaggerate and perpetuate, but could not. In his peripheral vision he saw two anaemic eels swaying in invisible currents. It took him a while to understand that these where his arms. Or rather, they had been his arms in another life. He left them there and blinked two more droplets of liquid into existence. They floated upwards and stared back at him. Two disembodied, accusatory eyes. Their accusations were a shopping list of questions, all of them barbed and coated with the poison of his own shame.Not for the first time did Mo feel like he should not be here. He’d never managed to be comfortable in his own skin. There’d been a mix up when he was made and he’d been given the wrong skin. It just didn’t fit right and it made him stand out for all the wrong reasons. Sometimes he felt people looking at him and wondering why he was infecting their view, mostly he felt the absence of any gaze. That was people mostly did. They ignored the irrelevant whilst they sought anything of value to them. Mo’s destiny was to be overlooked. He doubted he’d make it beyond this current, tawdry existence. He was in a last chance saloon and there was no destination beyond this. No reincarnation. No further credit that would send him back to the first level of the game. Never had been, but definitely not now. Not here. He was beyond hope, and he was certainly beyond reckoning.“Merv…” he’d wanted to say more. He’d wanted to curse his so called friend, but the sound of his voice was all wrong. It was the same voice he’d heard a thousand times, only now he couldn’t miss the false quality of it. This was a voice that had become unaccustomed to speaking the truth. Returning to silence was a blessed relief from an army of lies intent on storming the world.
Only this wasn’t the world, not as Mo knew it anyway. This was instead exile. Exile in a permanent dream state. That thought made Mo shudder. There was no permanency here. Any tendency towards a perpetual state of affairs was reliant upon the weakest of links and that link was Mo himself. He knew he was out of his depth. He was out of place with no notion as to how he could swim to safer and more recognisable shores.
The fact of his incompetence and weakness was exemplified by his remaining in his seat. There was no movement barring the two lifeless fronds that extended out from each side of him. His arms swaying this way and that, not wanting to be a part of this endeavour, but anchored in it all the same.
Eventually, Mo brought himself to speech once again, “Merv, what did you do?” he asked the empty space before him, for there was no Merv here. Merv was a million miles from here.
Of all the questions he could ask, this was the one that he knew the answer to. He repossessed his right arm and brought it slowly into his reality. Taking his time in case his wayward limb attempted to rebel, he touched the back of his head. Wincing, he confirmed that which he already knew. Bringing his hand around to his eyes, he saw a smear of his own blood.
Merv had really gone and done it. Mo chuckled mirthlessly and the sound of it hurt his soul. It wasn’t like Merv hadn’t told him, but Mo had chosen not to heed the truth of Merv’s warnings, using an oft used shield of rationalisation; why would he do such a thing?
Mo shook his head despite the pain it caused him. Just because he himself wouldn’t do a thing. Just because he could find no reason to do that thing. That didn’t mean that it would not occur. Sometimes people did things just because they could. More often than not, they did things because they could. Mo knew that if you could freeze time and ask a person why they’d done something self-evidently stupid, ignorant or downright dangerous, they’d stare into the void that was the mirror of their own with the eyes of a brain damaged sheep and give the only answer possible; nothing.
There was nothing.
And that was where Mo was now. He had nothing and he had plenty of time to contemplate the void that was at constant odds with meaning. The human race had been at war throughout its time in this reality. A conflict without end. They sought meaning, but the truth was that all they could really do was create meaning. But as fast as people built meaning, the void fed upon it, and the void was always hungry.
All the same, despite this philosophy of Mo’s, he reached back into his past and grasped at the offal of his time with Merv. Raising it aloft in his mind’s eye he could not help but see how diseased it had always been. The liver was shrivelled and hard. The guts pulsed with a grim, parasitic life. The cursed vision of his hindsight pained him further. Merv had not been joking around. Turned out that Merv had never been joking around. Merv was about as dangerous as it got and the punchline Mo was now living had about it a dark inevitability.
“Ignorant is, as ignorant does,” Mo whispered the words and that whisper took him back to a time and a place he had not visited in a long while. The ghost that now haunted him chilled his bones. He saw his Aunt Maud’s cruel angular face in every detail. That woman was constructed from cold metal. There was not one thing that was soft about Aunt Maud, and as though to prove Mo’s point, here he was, reliving the final words she ever spoke to him. Leaning forward as though she were bestowing a kiss upon her little nephew, she’d slipped those words to Mo, before the big man from the orphanage had tugged him away from everything he knew. An impossibly large hand wrapping itself around his upper arm to exert a sudden force powerful enough to snap the umbilical cord to a life that had died when Mo’s mother had taken her own life.
Now here he was. History had a bad habit of repeating itself. He’d yet again been torn away from the semblance of life he’d managed to achieve. The allotment of meaning he’d secretly tended to all on his own had been concreted over in the night and he was left with nothing. Worse than nothing, because all he had was himself and there was no currency there, only a debt that could never be repaid.
Without thinking about it, his hands did their work in freeing him from his seat. Mo barely marked this petty betrayal, his existence had been marred by a litany of betrayal until it had become a part of the air that he breathed. He took no morsel of joy in making his way to the window. He understood that happiness and joy were possibilities, but he’d been surrounded by such possibilities all his life and eventually he’d stopped daring to hope that he’d be gifted even one of them. Hope was not for the likes of Mo, let alone the pretty promises that it made.
Having reached the window, Mo stared out at the unreal sight of his new reality. He was oblivious to his making a little slice of history. A part of that history was that he was the first person to see Earth from space and not marvel at an overwhelming significance and meaning that could only be experienced in this moment. All Mo felt was loss, and even that loss had a hollow quality to it. Mo had lost to Merv, and Merv was just another in a long line of bullies and users queuing up to take a piece of Mo even when Mo doubted there was anything worth taking anymore.
Mo stared dispassionately out at the end of his life, and what he felt was the enormity of the void he now dwelt in. He felt the void’s inexorable and hypnotic pull and he knew in that moment that try as he might, he could not avoid gazing into it and allowing it to take what remained of him however worthless that may be.
In a stubborn act of defiance, he turned his back on the window and looked into the cramped space of his new home. He yelled with shock and surprise as a lifeless form lunged at him. Throwing his hands up instinctively to protect his face, scrunching his eyes up in a feeble act of cowardice that he’d never been able to prevent. Body language that marked him as a forever-victim deserving of each and every beating life had doled out.
As his heart rate dropped from the spike of his panic, he realised what it was that he’d been confronted by. Still he kept his eyes closed. Mo had been wrong far too many times to trust his own judgement. Gently he patted the air clumsily before him, catching something solid, he felt it float away. Now he could open his eyes. The mop hung in the air, moving across the cabin of the spaceship.
Instinctively, Mo scanned around for the bucket that the mop belonged to. Of that, there was no sign. A mop with no bucket. He sighed a sigh that juddered through his body and threatened to break it apart. His head went down. Where it belonged. Always looking down to where he was headed. Staring into the void that would consume him come what may.
There, the floor was a story that mirrored his own. Half-arsed. A clean portion and a dusty and dirty portion. He glanced up at the mop, with a mind to address the question of a job half done, but then thought better of it. Why change the habit of a life time?
Like the now pointless mop, Mo hung there, suspended in the nothingness of his own life. In that absurdly ridiculous state, he gave himself over to his emotions. Unclear as to whether he was laughing or crying. He abandoned himself to the act of giving up. His back to the world that had rejected him from such an early age. Rejecting the reality that he was now presented with.
Then Mo was laughing as he understood the meaning of his banishment from a world he had failed to be a part of. Understood why it was that Merv had done what he had done. At last he accepted his own meaning; that he was a waste of space.
Fine spreads
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What was the most brutal military tactic in history?
It would have to be the Mongols population “thinning” tactic to subdue a regions ability to resist. It was literally a Genocidal action where they would murder (with much rape) 80–90% of an areas people. Especially men but also women and children. In some cities they even killed the pets.
One nasty trick they used was once a city was stormed and they had their little rape party followed by killing spree they would saunter out of the town and make a big show of leisurely packing their stuff and leaving. Once the dirty SOBs got a decent distance from the city they would encamp behind a ridge or forest and just quietly wait a day or two. Meanwhile all the little kids who wedged themselves between crevices in walls, women who went with their babies into dry wells, men in attics etc. would start getting hungry and come out to find sustenance and mourn their loved ones. On a planned signal the Mongol light Cavalry would mount their little ponies (tough animals that could literally run all day, some units could travel 120 miles from dawn to dusk! Edit: not routinely, in exceptional cases) and gallop the 5 miles or so straight back into the city. Likely a majority of the people would be caught out in the open, suffering from emotional shock etc., and the Mongols could have a second little orgy or rape and murder although sadly for them on a much less grand scale.
Genghis liked to leave about 10% of a subdued population (that was resisting) alive for tax and administration purposes and apparently his descendants followed his example for generations at least to some degree.
It amazes me how everyone likes to go on and on about the various “isms” of WW2. Hitler and Stalin were Putzers compared to the Mongol leaders in terms of barbarism.
“The greatest joy for a man is to defeat his enemies, to drive them before him, to take from them all they possess, to see those they love in tears, to ride their horses, and to hold their wives and daughters in his arms.” A flowery way of Genghis Kahn saying he really likes to rape hot women after killing their father/husband/BF.
When the Mongols butchered the people of Baghdad, the stench was SO bad, they had to move their camp not once, but TWICE as the first move wasn’t far enough from the odors of decay. Warhistory online gives the lowest estimate I’ve ever seen of 90,000 killed. Western sources traditionally give the number as 200,000 to 1,000,000 while Islamic sources quote about 2,000,000 slaughtered! That’s in ONE city! Also mind you this is when the ENTIRE world’s population was well and easily under a 1/2 billion.
Finally this last one is tragically amazing and new to me. They have discovered actual victims of Mongol genocide. In Russia an entire family was found in a burial pit, 15 in all ranging from a dear Grandmother to a Grandchild . 780 years ago, their bodies were thrown in the pit after the entire family was murdered by Mongols.
Most of my knowledge on this subject came from an excellent book titled The Devil’s Horsemen.
Here is a link to the murdered family in Russia: Gruesome burial pit from ‘city drowned in blood’ reveals how Mongols butchered entire families during European invasion
– Luna, we need to go. Do you hear me? Luna?A small girl stood at the big round window, looking into the distance. The sun was going down slowly, making the red sand bright and lighting it with golden sparks. She was amazed at how the wind was swirling the sand grains, whooshing them up and down. She put her palm on the window and moved closer. Her nose almost touched the glass, which became wet from her breath. She was staring at how the wind became stronger and stronger as the sun went down. It was almost dark when somebody placed their hand on her shoulder.- Luna, your class started two minutes ago.Luna startled. She looked at the woman.- Oh dear, you are so pale. Do you think you are feeling alright? I think we need to get you to the doctor.Luna crumpled, lowered to her knees, and started to throw up. The woman helped her by holding her shoulders tightly. She whispered to her:- You are OK. Just breathe.Luna was exhausted when her mom brought her to the doctor. They checked her blood pressure, temperature, did some regular tests, and imaging this time. Luna wasn’t scared at all. She was reading a book, then the next one, and the next. The woman was sitting near her bed and looking at her. She was silent. Her eyes were full of tears, but she didn’t say any words. Luna was pretending that she didn’t see what was going on with her mom. She was calm.- You know, mom, this book is my favorite.- Why? – the woman moved closer to the bed and peeked inside the book.- Because this little bee was free. She made her way go anywhere she liked. She found some good friends, then she lost them. But she kept moving forward, towards her dream. – she suddenly stopped.- What was her dream?- She wanted to see the world even if it was impossible for such a little insect. She wanted to learn more about herself, to find her purpose.The woman hugged the girl. She kissed her head and lay down with her.- Have you ever thought about traveling anywhere? – the girl’s body felt weak. She looked into the woman’s eyes and rested her head on her hand. – There must be something amazing in this world, like that swirling sand out there. I don’t believe what they are saying, our teachers. Have you ever been there?- No, darling. I have not.
The woman hugged her tighter and tucked in the throw to make her a bit more comfortable. Her hands and feet started warming up.
– Have you ever wanted to go there?
– No, darling. I have lived here my whole life, learning that our survival depends on what we do. We can only survive by staying together. But if somebody decides to leave the flock, they will not be able to make it.
– Who said that? Do you really believe in it?
The woman closed her eyes, sliding under the throw. Luna felt warm and toasty. It was a good sign that the situation was under control now. They were silent for a few minutes. Luna turned to her mom and closed her eyes too.
– I feel trapped here. I do not belong in this place. You know that.
– No, darling. I think we are all here because we have to be here. We have a purpose.
– We don’t have a purpose. We live, we die. We do nothing while we are alive.
– That’s not true.
Luna has always been a bit skeptical. She was smart, the smartest girl in her class. She liked sitting in front of the window, staring into the distance and thinking about something for hours. Sometimes it seemed she was a statue. She didn’t blink, she didn’t move, she didn’t even say anything. She was traveling in her head. She pretended that the stories from her book were alive and she was the main character traveling through the pages of these books. She was a great scientist today, and an explorer tomorrow. Luna was very creative and she started writing her own book. She didn’t show it to her mom, not because she didn’t want to, but because she wasn’t sure her mom would approve. They were just different but she loved her.
– You know, you are a terrible liar. Our daddy was a traveler. I know that. And they punished him for it. That’s why you pretend that you are just nothing in this world. You live your simple life without him because… because you are afraid. Afraid to lose me.
– Luna, please stop.- The woman stood up. She burst into tears, covering her face with her hands. Luna didn’t make a move. She was still, with her eyes closed.
The woman was surprised by this dialogue with her daughter. It was something that came up unexpectedly. She lost her husband many years ago when Luna was 2 years old. It’s been 5 years since they lived without him.
– You will lose me anyway, so why lose your dream. Do you think they can dictate what you can do and what not? Who are they?
– You’re too smart, girl.
Luna didn’t answer. She took a deep breath and her heart rate dropped. The doctors came into the room quickly, made an injection. Luna started breathing a bit faster but heavily.
– It’s happening. Sorry. Unfortunately, we can’t do anything. She is dying.
Luna was lying on the bed in a star pose, giving a good look at her almost transparent skin through which you could see the ribs.
– Thank you, doctor.
The woman asked him to leave and give them some time together. He nodded, agreeing to return in ten minutes, and left the room quietly.
– Luna, stand up. Can you hear me? Stand up. We don’t have time.
She held her under the arm, another hand hugged her waist. The woman was trying to pull her to the outside of the room.
– We have just 10 minutes, Luna. That should be enough.
– Enough for what? – the girl couldn’t speak clearly. She opened her eyes and closed them again. Her legs were very weak and she hung on her mother like a bag. They were rushing through the corridors to the stairs, moving as fast as the woman could.
– To set you free like that little bee. You are free, my girl. In your mind, in your soul, in your thoughts. You can travel as far as you want. You can be whatever you dream about. And you are right, nobody can tell you what to do. I was scared. I am scared now. But I love you. Love you so much.
The woman was struggling. Her hands were tired but she kept pulling Luna. They hastened through the corridor. Stairs loomed ahead. Ten minutes. Only ten minutes left. They made it up two staircases already, one more left.
They were standing in front of the door. Just one move and they are outside. The door is unlocked because if you leave, you leave. You can’t come back anymore. You are just out of the flock. You are on your own.
Her husband is somewhere there. Maybe he found a better life, maybe he died. Maybe he is waiting for them.
The woman took a small step forward and placed her hand on the handle.
– Do not do this, mom. I am dying but you are not. Your life is here.
– No darling. My life is with you. I want to set you free because you want this. And I want to be by your side until the very end. And then…
– What then?
The woman paused:
– Then, I don’t know. But I will find out, right? I will join you when my time comes.
– I love you, mom.
The women unlocked the door, knowing once opened, there’s no return. The air was dense and stuffy. Sand made it impossible to see where they were going. Luna was weak. She was moving slowly, mostly pulled by her mom. Luna’s legs trembled with each step, her breaths short and sharp against the stuffy, sand-filled air, making each moment outside seem surreal and distant. They both were tired. But they kept moving. Luna was a little brave girl and the woman tried to be like her.
– I love you, darling.
The darkness ended. The wind disappeared. They were sitting somewhere in the middle of the desert. Luna was lying in the woman’s arms with her eyes closed. She didn’t breathe.
– We are free, Luna. We made it. This sunrise is amazing. I can tell. You were absolutely right.
She started crying, patting Luna on the head.
– I am here with you, my little brave girl. Love you, sweetheart.
If a foreigner gets a speeding ticket in the USA, what happens if they just go back to their country without paying it?
Exactly this happened to me in the early 1990s. I was visiting California from the Netherlands for business and on a deserted road, early Sunday morning, I got a ticket and a directive from the cop that I should go to court to deal with it the next day,
As it happens I had a flight back to the Netherlands the next morning which I had no intention of delaying and I asked the local secretary to sort it out and tell me what I owed.
She made a few calls without coming to a conclusion and then forgot to follow up. I heard nothing more. Until …
Fast forward about five years and I had just moved to California to live. Applied to the DMV for a driver’s license and was told “no can do, there’s a warrant out for your arrest”!
My options were (a) pay a total of about $500 in fines for the speeding ticket PLUS a failure-to-appear in court, or (b) appear in court.
Fortunately, I chose (b). The judge seemed to be in a very good mood and he waived the failure-to-appear altogether and reduced the speeding ticket since “it was an inappropriate speed limit for the road, much too low, and they later increased it”.
Moral of the story: The US legal system can sometimes do the humane and right thing, though don’t expect they will ever forget! And, oh yes – pay the ticket or don’t come back!
On the flip side:
I then later, about 10 years ago, got a speeding ticket, while driving a rental car, during a visit back to the Netherlands. When it comes to money, the Dutch are VERY efficient. Within a couple of weeks they sent me an invoice in the mail, with a photo from the camera that had taken me at speed. In this case, I forgot to pay and when visiting the Netherlands a couple of years later I was stopped at the airport and told I had three options: (a) pay the fine + late fee, (b) spend the weekend in jail and go to court on Monday, or (c) turn right around and go back to the US, cancelling my visit.
I’ll let you guess which option I chose.
BREAKING: A Nuclear Mini Explosion Took Place in ODESSA after an ISKANDER Missile Struck a NATO Ship
On the night of October 13, the Russian armed forces launched another missile and bomb attack on military facilities located in the territory of Ukraine. This time, Russia attacked strategically important military installations in regions such as Sumy, Donetsk, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, and Odessa.
At the same time, it is worth noting that yesterday’s missile attack on Odessa may go down in history as a turning point in the current conflict that led to the outbreak of World War III.
The fact is that, unlike other regions of Ukraine, a really powerful explosion occurred in Odessa, the negative consequences of which have already begun to be felt not only by citizens of Ukraine but also by citizens of neighboring NATO countries…
As you’ve gotten older, do you regret getting tattoos, and do you warn young people of your regrets?
I don’t actually have any tattoos, but I remember a conversation I had about 25 years ago with a cosmetic doctor. I happened to ask him, “Do you like tattoos?” To which he replied, “Yes, I really like them.” Surprised, I said, “Oh, I didn’t realize you had any.” He responded, “I don’t, but they’re going to be my retirement. I’ll spend all my time lasering them off.”
As we continued the discussion, he pointed out that tattoos can be problematic because they often reveal a person’s age. For example, in a country like the UK, if someone has “love” and “hate” tattooed on their knuckles along with swallows, it’s likely they’re elderly e.g 70s or 80s. If they have a Celtic band, they’re probably in their 50s now. And with the full sleeves that are so popular today, who knows what that will signify in the future?
Personally, I think the main issue with tattoos is that many people believe they’re expressing their individuality, when in reality, they’re just following a trend.
Shorpy
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China has long been portrayed by the media as a bully in the South China Sea. Why, at the recently concluded ASEAN summit, did none of the nine ASEAN countries support the Philippines’ claims? Why they are unwilling to condemn China?
Typical media cognitive bias
Many people are surrounded by media representing Western interests. The media in many countries do not have independent investigation capabilities and tend to retell the content of Western media.
This creates a cognitive bias.
This is what many people think of ASEAN and the South China Sea:
main qimg c14b5426ceff6477f097261d86dfaab0
China is trying to occupy the entire South China Sea with a red tongue, bullying other ASEAN countries with warships and coast guard ships. Use violence to oppress them and force them to give up the sea and islands. China is the bully in the South China Sea. All countries are trying to resist China’s atrocities!
This is the narrative from Western media and the cognition of most people.
At the just-concluded ASEAN summit, none of the 10 ASEAN countries was willing to condemn China’s position on the South China Sea conflict. The only countries that wanted to write the condemnation into the joint statement were the Philippines and the extraterritorial countries that supported him (the United States, Japan, India, and Australia)
Isn’t it a big contrast? The media narrative cannot explain this contradiction.
This is the real South China Sea:
main qimg 522f9b4985e65836ba1d40e58a34efeb
Almost all coastal countries have declared their own sphere of influence in this area, and these broken lines are intertwined with each other, and everyone claims that they have legitimate reasons.
China-Vietnam
Vietnam-Malaysia
Malaysia-Philippines
China-Philippines
Vietnam-Indonesia
Brunei-Vietnam
Indonesia-Malaysia
There is no region in the world where territorial/maritime disputes are more complicated than here. What’s more interesting is that Taiwan (ROC) is also involved in these disputes on behalf of China, and they are consistent with the mainland (PRC).
This is the actual control of the islands in the South China Sea:
main qimg 2522ff740a4ac4872407a35a07938518
China is not the largest controller. In fact, Vietnam occupies the most islands, and the Philippines also performs well.
China is not the only country to build artificial islands. Vietnam has implemented such projects earlier and more than China.
There are so many disputes and conflicts, but this sea area has actually remained calm. Only occasionally some fishing boats cross the border and cause security conflicts. There has never been a war or armed conflict since the 21st century. Compared with other regions, it is actually very peaceful.
This is not the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea at work. In fact, this law is almost useless here. Most of the disputes were born before the promulgation of this law.
The peace in the South China Sea is maintained by the China-led Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which was signed by ASEAN countries and China.
This declaration actually elaborates on several key points
1. Countries can continue to maintain their sovereignty claims.
But don’t blame other countries
2. Don’t exploit oil and minerals in disputed areas.
No business unless the disputing parties reach a consensus
3. Allow fishermen to fish in disputed areas
Both parties can fish and avoid conflicts. Military and violence cannot be used to manage illegal fishermen
4. Ensure freedom of navigation and flight
All commercial ships and commercial aircraft are not affected here
5. Protect the ocean
Jointly implement fishing bans, coral protection and other protection measures
6. Prohibit unilateral actions
No more unilateral new military deployments and attempts to change the actual control of islands and reefs
This declaration was signed in November 2002, and the actual implementation plan was formulated in 2011, which brought long-term peace and stability.
This is actually a very clever agreement. It does not try to “completely resolve” the territorial disputes between countries. Instead, it maintains peace, maintains the status quo, and conducts economic cooperation on the basis of recognizing disputes.
This is much smarter than some Western thinking.
About the Philippines:
Aquino III (2010-2016)
Did not recognize the existence of the disputed Scarborough Shoal, believing that the area belongs to the Philippines, which triggered the Sino-Philippine conflict.
Initiated the famous South China Sea arbitration case through a court not recognized by the United Nations.
China responded to the Philippines’ actions by increasing coast guard patrols and expelling Filipino fishermen.
Duterte (2016-2022)
Returned to the framework of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and negotiated with China. Recognized the existence of the dispute in the area.
China no longer sent marine police patrols, and fishermen from both sides resumed fishing. The Philippines’ scrapped warship maintained its normal presence there, but promised not to reinforce it. Both sides promised to work hard to find a final solution to the ship.
Both sides restored peace
Marcos Jr. (2023-present)
Returned to Aquino III’s proposition, transported construction materials to reinforce the scrapped warship, and politically no longer recognized the dispute between the two sides, seeking US intervention.
China once again launched a confrontation, sending coast guard ships to expel fishermen and interfered with the Philippines’ delivery of materials to the scrapped warship.
Outside of China and the Philippines, all disputes remain calm. For example, the recent conflict between Chinese marine police and Vietnamese fishermen was quickly resolved through the visit of the Chinese Premier and consultations between the two countries.
Therefore, the 9 ASEAN countries are satisfied with the current situation in the South China Sea. After all, none of them can defeat other neighbors, let alone China.
Since China is willing to maintain peace and recognize disputes between all parties. Since there is no way to have a better result. Then all external interference becomes a negative factor.
If the dispute between China and the Philippines is limited to the conflict between the marine police between the two countries. ASEAN countries will maintain a “none of my business” mentality.
But when the Philippines tried to introduce external forces such as the United States, Japan, and Australia into the region and deploy foreign military forces in the region, the 9 ASEAN countries immediately became nervous.
They all agreed that the interference of external forces would threaten the long-term peace and stability of the region and affect the interests of various countries. Especially the introduction of military forces (such as the US medium-range missiles) has the risk of bringing war here (see Ukraine)
From the perspective of ASEAN countries:
China = maintain the status quo;
Philippines/US = change the status quo;
This makes all 9 ASEAN countries stand on the side of China, which is a bit contrary to Western media propaganda and common sense, but this is the reality.
Do cops just laugh inside when someone says “You work for me. I pay your salary”?
Yep.
As of several days ago I’m no longer in law enforcement. I worked as a tactical medic alongside a SWAT team, and though I loved my job (most days anyway) I left due to moving and soon I will no longer be living full time in the state I used to work in.
But over my 5 years of working in law enforcement, I was told “I pay your salary” many times. Sometimes during an arrest, other times settling arguments, and there’s one time that sticks out like a sore thumb.
I was working in the office, and I got called downstairs because someone wanted to talk to a member of my time. Well, she wasn’t very happy. She told me “your performance is lacking, I want to see your office and what you and SWAT does all day.” I told her sorry, we don’t typically give public tours, and when we do I get to say who goes into our upstairs office area. When you start off by telling me my performance is lacking, yet you have no evidence to back yourself up, I’ll show you where the door is.
So I told her that I couldn’t. I told her our offices were off limits, which was a valid excuse. We have information that is limited to law enforcement only, as well as things that can’t be screwed with. It was just the team I worked for in that area. We’ve got weapons, sensitive information, very expensive gear, and a k9. It was not a good time for anyone other than members of the team to be going upstairs. That was my explanation when she asked again.
Then of course the words “I pay your salary” came out of her mouth.
Technically she does not, and if she thinks just because she pays taxes she pays my salary, than I guess so do I. I pay taxes. Lots of them. I pay my own taxes as well as taxes on the business I own. Last I checked, the government gets that money and distributes it into many ways. So as life would have it, I paid my own salary, as well as the salary of other members of the team I worked with.
Thank you for paying my salary, but just because you don’t get your way doesn’t mean I don’t get paid.
Jason Bourne Ultimate TACTICAL MOVES Compilation ⚡ 4K
Has anyone done something so bad you cut them out of your life completely?
Yes, my brother and his family. I had an accident with a table saw on a Sunday afternoon in November. I looked at the mangled fingers on my left hand and knew that I would lose the top joint of 2 fingers. I put up my dogs while /I waited for the ambulance. I wrapped my hand, clenched it in a fist and kept it above my heart. The Drs in the ER said I would have to have a specialist, who was not available until Thursday, to do the surgery. The gave me multiple pain shots, cleaned the wounds, and wrapped up my hand. I called a friend to drive me home. I called my brother, who lives half an hour away, to ask him if he could help me before my surgery. He is a retired corporate lawyer who had a part time job as a bag and cart boy at a grocery store to get put of the house and get a little exercise . His wife, like me, is a retired school teacher. My brother asked me what I would do if no one came over, he has 2 young adult children, including an unemployed 25 year old son. I told him I would get cold as I need firewood to heat much of my house. The Drs did not want me carrying anything or going uo and down steps. My brother said ‘What will you do if I do not come over? ‘ I said I would be cold and in increased pain. He never came over and I did not hear from him, or his son again. This is the same brother who had asked me 2 years prior for a loan of $15,000 because the IRS had frozen all of their financial accounts. I told him I did not have that kind of cash, but I would access my home equity loan, and I drove the check over to him the next day. He eventually paid me back in full, but not including the interest I paid on the loan. This happened in 2015. We have not had any contact since then. kt
Do you think American society is becoming dumber?
I start every school year with a survey of students, asking how many books they’ve read for fun. When I first started teaching high school science, most students had read at least one book. When there was down time in class, the brighter students would pull out the newest Harry Potter or Hunger Games and lose themselves in the story.
Even the kids who didn’t like books got in the act. I can’t count how many times a student was supposed to be working from a textbook, and I caught them secretly reading Thrasher Magazine.
The last time that happened was years ago. Now, the average student has never read one entire chapter book in their entire life. It’s not just that they haven’t read a book for pleasure. It’s that many have never read a single book with chapters, even one assigned by teachers, in their life.
It’s been recently noted that many of the students being funneled into elite universities are mentally incapable of reading an entire book.
According Rose Horowitz of the Atlantic…
“College kids have never read everything they’re assigned, of course, but this feels different. Dames’s students now seem bewildered by the thought of finishing multiple books a semester. His colleagues have noticed the same problem. Many students no longer arrive at college—even at highly selective, elite colleges—prepared to read books.”
She continues…
“No comprehensive data exist on this trend, but the majority of the 33 professors I spoke with relayed similar experiences. Many had discussed the change at faculty meetings and in conversations with fellow instructors. Anthony Grafton, a Princeton historian, said his students arrive on campus with a narrower vocabulary and less understanding of language than they used to have. There are always students who “read insightfully and easily and write beautifully,” he said, “but they are now more exceptions.” Jack Chen, a Chinese-literature professor at the University of Virginia, finds his students “shutting down” when confronted with ideas they don’t understand; they’re less able to persist through a challenging text than they used to be. Daniel Shore, the chair of Georgetown’s English department, told me that his students have trouble staying focused on even a sonnet.”
Again, Ms. Horowitz is describing many of the students who get accepted to schools like Harvard, Yale and Columbia.
So what caused this situation?
Most of the students in college have never known any moment of being disconnected. Most have had highly addictive smart phones for most of their lives.
Many of them grew up not knowing a moment where entertaining stimulation isn’t coming from some outside sources.
If their parents took them to a restaurant, rather than expecting them to behave without distraction, they were handed devices to pacify them.
And the ages at which their addiction to data-driven-stimulation began is getting lower and lower.
While smart phones and tablets were a great way to give mom and dad a break from entertaining and disciplining the child, electronic pacifiers have been depriving them of the opportunity to develop the habits and skills they would need to learn.
So yes, people are getting dumber. It’s the phones, tablets and access to social media that’s making them dumber.
What is your best “one time my dad … ” story?
My Dad felt like he should go see his In-laws. They were 4 to 5 hours away, so he worked with my mother to clear a long weekend. Obviously, she was delighted for the chance to visit her mother. When Friday came, everything worked out so he was able to get off prior to lunch, instead of having to wait 4 more hours. He did not know why, but decided to take the leave instead of getting paid to get caught up in silence. He headed home and surprised everyone that they were heading out. My mother loves schedules and wanted him to wait a few hours. He agreed, but kept bugging her every few minutes that he really felt the need to get down there NOW. She finally relented and they headed down far ahead of schedule. My father was not prone to speeding at all. Decades in the military had conditioned him to precisely follow the speed limits. But this time, he kept finding himself unconsciously speeding, the only time in the entire time I knew him. They made incredible time and were greeted by confused In-laws that had not expected them for hours and hours.
As they greeted each other, a scream from next door rang out. My dad rushed to see what was going on as his miliary instincts kicked. He ended up in the neighbor’s backyard where they had a swimming pool. Floating unresponsive was a very young kid and his frozen mother. In seconds, he dove fully dressed into the water and retrieved the kid. His years as a Boy Scout swim instructor now paid off, as did his CPR training. By the time emergency services arrived, he had already resuscitated the child who had been turning blue (parents took a picture).
My father was invited and attended each of that child’s graduations up through college.
4K HDR Mice Playtime for Cats: Irresistible Hide and Seek Fun | Catflix
TW: Shades of abuse and control issues, swearingAuthor’s note: Written after an eczema flare-up. Hahaha !**Tonight, my baby Allison had me blocked again. It has been exactly the ninth time in her thirty-four years of existence she has jumped in that beat-up cobalt blue Honda Accord (safety alert!) in the middle of the night (safety alert!) and drove almost at the speed limit (GAAAAH !) to the harshly-lit emergency room of her nearest hospital.Believe you me; I tried to stop her, to protest another instance of my girl distancing herself from the shield of my protection. I bellowed to the tiny veins and capillaries around her face, commanding them to swell even more. I saw her delicate, undulating throat and gripped on it tighter, shutting off more of her respiratory tract. However, as if she were hooked on some intravenous line to a bag of determination, she marched into the bright fluorescent lights, to those ridiculous minions in scrubs coloured a disgusting mucus green, to a syringe filled with epinephrine formulated to wrestle an invisible straitjacket on me, to tranquilise me until I’m powerless.I don’t get it. I, Allison’s immune system, am just trying to look out for her, just want to ensure her safety. Apparently, though, if you were to ask her and those stupid doctors, — those twats who cannot heal her as much as I can — I should have never attacked those greasy peanuts on her dessert brownie. According to them, I’m overreacting by forcing her tissues to go on red alert against “food”, am the cause of disease as much as the one tasked to prevent it (Can you believe the audacity to say that?!). No, they don’t understand that like anyone giving life to a child, I take my job of protecting her as a matter of life and death, and that, well, Mother knows best.They don’t understand that the day Allison’s chromosomes coded me to existence inside a uterus; I was given marching orders to defend the chubby cheeked, blue-eyed life I was encased in. The day I was formed inside my baby, I took up arms, vowing to shoot any microbe, any germ that threatened to invade her organs. The day she came out onto the world, I watched her like a sniper through the viewfinder on the top half of her head and couldn’t help smiling. She looked so peaceful, so docile, and so dependent on me. It was the most perfect time knowing this pink-skinned, gurgling organism wanted me to be its bodyguard, to take care of her like the woman who gave birth to her, and well, Mother knows best.They don’t understand the sadness I felt the day of my little girl’s third birthday. As she broke into a smile when she blew those purple candles on her chocolate birthday cake, -– her choice (Ugh! I’d have preferred vanilla.)— I throbbed as if some inexperienced surgical intern were performing a coronary bypass on me without anaesthesia. As she ran across the playground with all the power in her toddler hamstrings to the large sandbox (Eww! Germs!), I wanted to yell at Allison for choosing the risk of getting ill, for not choosing me. I couldn’t help pushing her skin to break out in scarlet bumps, to try with everything I am to get her to notice me.To my surprise, once my baby girl’s birth giver saw the hives, she tsk-ed and blamed me, ME! Hey, Mama Immune System is just trying to do her job, and well, Mother knows best.They don’t understand the needle-like sting of my Allison’s betrayal two months after she turned 11. Her birth giver (I know. How could she instigate this?) had asked my baby if she wanted to see some Dr. Pell. As my baby and the woman she called “Mum” got into their car, I had high hopes, to be honest. I thought that, obviously, someone who spent more than a decade learning about the human body would firmly explain to the pair that they need to let me be, to do my job of protecting my Allison. Oh no, instead, that quack demonised me and told my baby she will try to get me under control.
Immunotherapy! That twat in the white coat suggested therapy! Before I could even protest, Dr. Pell asked my Allison to stretch her arm out and scratched my baby with a tiny lancet to see how I attack, and then, scheduled the first session of what they called “desensitisation”. They wanted to weaken me, stop me from fully protecting that child I vowed to defend from the world; that doctor wanted my girl to forget that Mother knows best.
They don’t understand the desperation pumping in me whenever I’m supressed. The round of shots that quack injected into my Allison had stripped me of my ability to pounce on pollen and dust (NO!). Her puberty hormones had further rendered my efforts futile by nullifying my attacks on eggs (NO!). Through the viewfinder on her head, I saw her paint her lips a tacky crimson, ingest those barbecued prawns that disgusted me – observed her drift further and further away from what I wanted for my baby. Any tingle on her lips, any bump on her skin I pushed into her bloodstream, she combatted with bitter pills called antihistamines and a shrug of her delicate shoulders.
I had no choice but to become stricter, more ferocious. I wasn’t content anymore with commanding the production of red rashes; oh no, I started to grip her airway shut with all my might so that in her breathlessness, she’d come home to Mama. I spun furious circles around her to raise her blood pressure, to make her remember her heart is mine. Unfortunately, all it got me was staring at her through her head viewfinder as she employed more doctors to come between us, as she took stronger drugs, as she spat at me whenever I tried to convince her that Mother knows best.
Most of all, they don’t understand how much I love my Allison, that I want to protect my baby girl more than anything, that I desperately want her to comprehend that she’s mine…even if I have to resort to drastic measures, to “Anaphylaxis” (What a terrible name. Why does it sounds so…disease like?). It will always go over those quacks’ heads that when I pull her throat shut, it’s me pulling on her heartstrings; that when I quicken her pulse, it’s me attempting to unite our heartbeats.
Then again, Allison doesn’t need to understand, does she? After all, I’m in her, she never escape me. She can block me all she wants and get as many doctors involved. She can put me in a corticortsoid straitjacket for all I care. I will always know best.
Russian Marines Ambushed and Destroyed Eight U.S. Army RANGERS Along With The ‘STRYKER’ ICV In KURSK
Were the Japanese soldiers as cruel in World War II as depicted in American movies?
The Japanese soldiers were so cruel during WWII that it beggers belief.
There is a tendency in fiction of authors trying to be impartial when depicting historic conflicts. In the 2007 film Letters from Iwo Jima we follow a sympathetic group of Japanese soldiers trying to survive in the final days of the war. They’re caught between an oppressive government, insane officers, and American soldiers more than willing to commit war crimes.
It’s a great film. And a lot of it is historically accurate. But it leaves out a lot of context in order to make its protagonists sympathetic.
It leaves out the “comfort women”, the countless women forced into sexual slavery by the Japaneae military. It leaves out the beheading contest held among officers that ran in public newspapers. It leaves out the abuse of prisoners. The crimes of Unit 731. The 50,000 Chinese killed each day in the lead up to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, most of whom were civilians.
We use the Axis powers of WWII as a visual shortcut for evil. We depict them as cartoonist, mustache twirling villains who kick puppies for fun.
And at first glance you might think that this is a bit unfair. An exaggeration made by the winners of the conflict against the lovers.
But you have to understand, they were worse. In real life they were an evil almost beyond our comprehension. An evil that has to be censored in media because the truth is so extreme that few can believe it.
But it is the truth.
Why Don’t Men “Catcall” Us Anymore?
I see many rankings of Chinese technology always ranked below the US, Japan, and Korea. Why do many people think they are leading in technology?
The Best of Chinese Technology stays on the Mainland and rarely is displayed outside the Mainland or maybe HK at the most
You have to go to the Mainland to see the extent to which the Chinese have progressed when it comes to Software Applications
We Indians have to give our Aadhar Card Or Passport every time we check into a Hotel but in China you just have to look at the camera and in seconds you can check in without needing to even open your bag
In 2023 the Facial Integrated Network was only operational in Beijing and Shanghai but now it works in 55 Cities
And it’s companies most people haven’t heard of
Iflytek for instance
Cambricon for instance
Hesai, Huobi, Horizon for instance
Likewise you have lock systems that can store upto 30 facial prints and ensure that nobody else can enter your flat or even your room
You have Lifts in high security buildings that have facial recognition systems where if you aren’t approved, the lift won’t move for you
Didi in its Chinese form is so much better than Uber or any other taxi application including an option to flag the taxi in a busy parking lot by sending a loud beep
China keeps all it’s technology within the mainland
Their English Language Apps are certainly one or two levels below the equivalent western apps
Didi English is slower and often a bit inaccurate
Likewise Iflytek Translators are superb when it comes to speaking Chinese from English and Russian and Japanese
My son uses them and they are fabulous.
You just speak into them upto 400 words like I want to find a Hotel and the translator will convert your text into perfect Chinese
When someone replies in Chinese, the words are captured and translated back in English Text
Near perfect unless some Cantonese or Hokkien words are used
So why is Chinese Technology ranked below US, Japan and Korea
Simply because for the General world – Chinese Technology they see and experience is second level or third level to what they have on the mainland
Just ride a Huawei EV in Wuhan or Hangzhou and the Chinese software is far superior to Tesla
Problem is the Best Software is banned in Europe because the Best Software Companies in China are on a US Blacklist
So as a result much of the Software in Chinese EVs is from Mediocre yet Safe Chinese Software companies
It isn’t new
When Japan was undergoing it’s miracle – the best electronics sold in Japan and the exports were always one or two levels below
Should I marry someone that I don’t love?
I did exactly that. Married someone I didn’t love.
I was coming out of a bad relationship with my ex when I met him. I used him to get over my ex. (My ex was cheating on me with multiple women and had gotten someone pregnant, he also raped and physically hit me).
I didn’t love the man i married, but he was text book perfect. He had a great job. He was a family man. He cooked. He cleaned. Respected me. Treated me right. Family loved him. And above all else he was loyal.
He was in love with me. He said to give him a chance. I will never forget his words. “I want to look after you and give you all the good things in life”.
I said yes to him with my heart aching over my Ex.
Over the years I forced myself to love him. I forced myself to stop thinking of my ex. I put all my energy into seeing the positive things that my husband was doing in my life.
And now I love him. We’ve been married 10 years. Sometimes I find myself day dreaming about him when I’m at work. Or checking him out when he’s nearby. Thinking what a handsome sexy man I married. What a wonderful father he is to my children. What a great provider. What a great helper. We have a wonderful relationship. He’s literally my best friend.
And no- I no longer think about that toxic ex. I’m glad I didn’t run with my heart.
Sometimes, your heart can deceive you. Use your mind to think through your decisions and use it to guide your heart.
What was the scariest moment you experienced in combat?
There was a friend of mine who lived in a village a couple of miles away from our mountain base. He was a guerrilla fighter like we were, but not in our unit. From time to time, he came to our base to help us and this is how we knew each other.
One afternoon, he called us over the radio and asked if anyone wanted to come to his village. There were some problems with the enemy, he stated.
I thought “why not?” and left with a group of soldiers. On our way to the village, we got updates about the situation there. They were bad news and two of the soldiers in our group stopped and said they didn’t want to continue.
There was nothing we could do as this was a purely voluntary mission and we had no orders from anyone to go there. We continued our way without them.
We came to a wooded hill where we could see our friend’s place; it was situated on another hill and all we had to do was to cross a small valley to get there.
When we descended into the valley, we left another soldier behind. We were only two now and I was in the lead. When I came out of the woods into the open, I could see our friend at the entry of the village. He waved at us.
I saw that there were plenty of other soldiers higher up on the village’s main street and started wondering: “Why is he calling us for help when there are plenty of his own soldiers around?”
I got an answer very quickly. I was now only 200 meters away from the first houses when a bullet zipped over my head. Then another one and then many more.
A machine gun was taking aim at us. We stopped and ran back. We were completely in the open and there was no cover in both directions. While I ran, hundreds of more bullets were coming in my direction.
It dawned on me: The other soldiers I had seen in the village were the enemy! Unable to fight them off alone, my friend had been gone into hiding and had called us for help. His waving at me had been a way to get my attention and to warn me! I had misunderstood the whole situation.
There was at least a complete infantry company of Serbs in the village and more and more of them started shooting at us.
I saw a small manure pile and hid behind it. This wasn’t the best cover, but there was absolutely nothing else out there.
While I lay flat on the ground the bullets kept flying towards me. They must have had a lot of ammunition! I heard how the bullets struck the manure pile and I just hoped that it was thick enough to protect me.
I looked at the grass in front of my eyes and I literally wished I was a mouse and could just hide in a tiny hole in the ground.
Meanwhile, the other soldier who had come with me made it to safety. He had run a little faster and had reached the woods of the hill. He was calling me, but I didn’t dare to move.
I was waiting for a break in the enemy’s fire to make a jump for cover. After what seemed like an eternity to me, but was maybe only a minute, I stood up and raced towards the woods.
Bullets were everywhere and I heard dozens of nasty ‘zip’ sounds while I crashed into underbrush. There was a very low stone wall where my buddy was hiding. We were safe, but we still had to wait for another five minutes until the enemy ceased fire.
Miraculously, we were unharmed. I lost my ‘Bugs Bunny’ baseball cap which I had gotten as a present from some kids just a few days ago, but that was all.
The next days, I wondered a lot about the fate of the friend we had seen in his village. Did he make it out alive?
I saw him a week later, when he came to our base as if nothing had happened. He thanked me for my good will on that day and told everyone: “I called you all for help, but the only person who came to my assistance was the German!”
I was thinking: “Yeah, but the German only came, because he didn’t know what was going on.” Instead, I smiled and said: “Anytime!”
What conversations have you overheard in a language they assumed you don’t know?
At 20 years old, I had just finished up doing a year of study abroad in France, when my father came out to travel around Europe with me. Being a (very) poor student and traveling with a very frugal father, we were dressed about as “American” as they come.
It just so happened that as this was before 9/11, it was possible to store your luggage (temporarily) in lockers at the main train station in Paris (though by just looking through an image search there may still be some available nowadays, but I haven’t seen any in person for a long time). We went to go store our luggage so that we could do sightseeing during a 10-hour stopover.
The lockers were all pre-pay, and had signs all over the place to that effect (in French – this was before the country had multi-lingual signs as de rigeur). We paid our fee, and went walking around the city.
Upon return, there were two new guys on shift, and as we came up to the desk to get our bags retrieved, I heard one guy say to the other, in French, “Watch this. This will be fun.”
He proceeded to tell us, in English, that we had to pay for the return of our bags. I explained (in English), that we had already paid, and that I had the receipt to prove it. It was very clear that he was trying to scam us and was going to pocket the money.
(As a side note, my frugal father didn’t want to spend the $50 equivalency to store the luggage. He would rather save the money and take the bags – huge suitcases designed for 2 weeks travel – around Paris, and I had to fight with him to store the bags. I was concerned that this was going to reinforce his idea that we should have taken the bags with us).
I pointed to the sign, and said that it would have been impossible for us to leave the bags without pre-payment. The guy was completely shocked that I could read the sign, and said that it was “an old sign.”
I was getting angrier at this guy, and we were getting pressed for time as we were going to miss our train (which he probably guessed). I started pointing to the other signs around the room. “Are these all old, too?” I asked
His friend behind him, realized this wasn’t going so well. “Just get the bags,” he said (in French).
The guy waved him off, and said (in French), “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got this.”
I lost it, and shot back (in French). “You’ve got what? What do you have?”
The look on his face was absolutely priceless. He was absolutely shocked, and began to stutter. “Is this the part where you’re going to have ‘fun’,” I asked, sarcastically.
“Look, I heard you talking to your friend over there behind my back, and I know what you’re trying to do.” (In French, the equivalency of “talking behind someone’s back” is an idiomatic expression that very few Americans would know, which clued him in that I was completely fluent.) “You think that just because I’m an American, that I’m stupid, don’t you?”
“Non, non…”
“I suggest that you get our bags before I contact the gendarme and tell them that you were trying to rob us.”
In the background, his friend was nearly convulsing from holding in his laughter at the other guy being busted.
When I was in middle school and high school, I had numerous girl friends. Not Girl friends, just friends that happened to be girls. So around 7th grade through 9th grade, I would hang out with these girls.
One of these friends was a country girl named Lisa.
She had a couple of horses. And we would sometimes go on rides with them through the farms and countryside. One was a full horse, and the other a nice pony.
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One day we were riding on a hill path, and it was a wonderful sunny weekend, and it was a wonderful fall afternoon. Yellow and red leaves on the trees, and we were having a good time together.
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It was a great day. And I was following Lisa in single file. She was on the horse, and I was on the pony. There was a vine in front of us, and Lisa adroitly avoided it by sliding to the side of the saddle, and then sat upright.
Now it was my turn.
But, uh oh.
I didn’t miss the vine, and it got caught on my neck.
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Now, that stupid pony kept on going forward, and I was caught up on the vine and it rubbed my poor neck completely raw. Oh man, damn it hurt.
So we finished up and went home…
…then the jokes about getting a hickey began.
I tried to cover up my neck with a turtle neck sweater at school, and then a high collared shit with a tie at work. Nope. Everyone could see the red marks they weren’t very well hidden.
And they came to conclusions…
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First at home. Hickey. Endless “ribbings”.
Then at school. Hickey and then laughter.
And then finally at work. Ugh!
Oh Lordy! Oh, it’s not a real meaningful story, but it illustrates how people love to take misunderstandings and make jokes about it. It was uncomfortable for me. But that’s life. Don’t you know.
The Bozo [Trump] Doctrine, the Bibi [Netanyahoo] Doctrine, and the Tayyip [Erdogan] Doctrine, are all converging on a new post-Westphalian world disorder of imperialism gone nuts.For the cucked vassals of the old order this means either grow a pair and resist or lose every shred of sovereignty, dignity, and material comfort you have left. Cucks like the EU, Australia, Japan, South Korea and wounded weak states like Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq are all suffering the torment of being raped and ravaged by powerful rogue states.
Bozo didn’t lose a minute to join the melée. He looked at the economic train wreck he was inheriting and decided it was now or never to hoist the Jolly Roger over his big but old and rusty military machine and what’s left of the once mighty dollar’s hegemony.
His first victims would be the weak and cucked vassals who poured their sorry excuse for a military and their treasure into the Ukraine black hole. Bozo knows that his unfurling of the black banner will automatically dissolve those BS “alliances” with weak vassals that were never but a frilly negligée concealing America’s naked imperialism, as revealed by the the lonely squeak of the French chihuahua protesting Bozo’s Greenland grab and threatening to resist.
The cucked chihuahuas of the Rules Based Order are suddenly up against Judgement Day, naked and defenseless between two raging behemoths, Amerisrael and Russia, while an even bigger and scarier one, China, looms over everybody else.
It’s the 19th century with nukes and hypersonics and space jets, which would normally be followed by the world wars of the 20th. But with 21st century speed, it shouldn’t take longer than a decade if that.
The incoming administration seems to have a more realistic image of the state of American hegemonial decline and wants to take proactive steps to try to counteract and reverse it, breathing new life into the American Global Empire.
…
The world that existed in 1991-2022 does not exist anymore. It’s not coming back. You can just invade your neighbor. You can just fire missiles at international shipping lanes. You can just threaten to annex members of your military alliance. “You can just do things”, as the techbros like to say. The mirage of a post-historical order that only has to be policed from time to time but is never seriously challenged has disappeared. What did you think canceling the End of History meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays?
…
America’s vassals WILL have to confront this state of things and make hard decisions about their future. This means reckoning with their geopolitical impotence and either embracing dependency with open eyes or seeking pathways to autonomy that will inevitably involve risk, sacrifice, and a recalibration of their national priorities.The era of coasting on borrowed security and ideological rhetoric is over. What lies ahead is a world where historical agency must be reclaimed or forever relinquished, and for many, the question may not be whether they are ready to make that leap, but whether they even remember how. America has now understood this — and is mentally preparing to switch back to the cold logic that comes with actual History. The times, they are a-changin’.
The unilateral moment has ended. Russia, India and China have become too rich and too powerful to be looted. U.S. vassals are now by far the easier target.
Trump’s ideas of taking from the ‘allies’ is not knew. The U.S. plundering of its vassals has been ongoing for some time.
The instigation of the war in Ukraine can be interpreted as a large U.S. looting operation of its European ‘allies’.
The weaklings in the German and EU government did not even dare protest. They instead condemned their people to pay horrendous prices for U.S. fracking gas. On top of that they were pressed to buy U.S. weapons to feed the war in Ukraine.
Things did not go as well as planned with the war in Ukraine but the U.S. is still winning from it.
Posted by b on January 10, 2025 at 15:49 UTC | Permalink
Comments
The US Empire is eating its own tail (vassals) and its own homeland (the US) because it can no longer extract vast wealth from outside its imperial core with ease. Happening on a smaller level with respect to France with respect to its African ex-colonies. Its going to be a rough time from here for the populations of the West, en route to a Soylent Green world (perhaps it will be made of bugs not people).
Better to leave the West, or at least give it some distance. Georgia, Hungary, Slovakia, and now possibly Austria see the light. As do all of Asia, much of Latin America and most of Africa. Spain has also shown some independent orientation. Also, perhaps Romania.
The French, Germans, Italians, British, Canadians, Australians (their elites not the general population) will keep themselves in the bowl as they get made into broth.
The dotard and his populist pied pipers are in the process of normalizing hostile takeovers of low hanging sovereign countries. It’s ugly and repulsive. The way I see Americans now is as the disobedient dog that roams around the world lifting it’s leg on whoever will allow it.
capitalism has no where else to go, so it now wants to feed on it’s own vassals… exploitation can’t stop according to these folks..
i think the idea of the greenland grab is over energy and mineral resources.. trump is looking after the energy corporation.. as for panama, i guess he wants to cut costs.. with canada – just a basis resource rip off is in the cards..
the unipolar world has come and gone and left the usa trio ( banking, energy and military) in an awkward position..
Greetings. Trump’s ‘politics of distraction’ is certainly the greatest show on earth at the moment. In one stroke/press conference he captures a new paradigm. I didn’t think he was up to that. Meanwhile, I’ve been waiting to see the link made between Biden’s Afghan volte face, and the NATO-inspired SMO, with just six months of separation. This is smoking-gun evidence of premeditation. And I’m waiting for Trump to create a sobriquet for the civil war in Ukraine – how about ‘Biden’s Folly.’
What people continue to gloss over is that America is a hollowed out husk of its former self just like the EU countries.
Trump is the face of the cult of dying empire, not America. The Shock Doctrine applied to South America is now being applied to all Western countries by the God Of Mammon cult who expected to have infected China by now and taken over their core pieces of finance……that has not happened and so the God Of Mammon cult has nowhere to go except maybe the City of London or Rome….Hi Pope Frank, how is that usury hypocrisy going for you?
The question is whether the zombies of the West can understand what I wrote above and take back the levers of finance for more public focus.
thanks… i didn’t go down into the details, but i thank you for doing that for me in your post.. it remains to be seen that this is going to be an easy go of it.. i think it will be just the opposite.. it’s over for the west, but it might take a while for the west to acknowledge this… i continue to wait for one big financial explosion.. this is the slow version at present..
Posted by: John Gilberts | Jan 10 2025 16:44 utc | 16
Perhaps the Trumpeting Elephant in the room is exercising his bombastical rhetoric as an advanced iteration of his “art of the deal”. He starts his rodomontade with a roar something like an elephantine mating call, getting his targets into a state of nerves and then he gradually encourages them to agree to some not quite so odious terms.
It is highly improbable, yet conceivable, that the Prexy in Waiting to actually resort to military adventurism. After all, however, the U$$A “Defense” department is but a shadow of it’s puissance even some twenty years ago. Those 5,000 manned aircraft carriers have become somewhat of a laughing stock amongst geopolitical analysts. Note how the most recent incursion into the outer vicinity of Ansar Allah (Houthi) missilry has sent yet another carrier-group scooting out of Dodge and having to halt their aggressive bomber raids on Yemen.
Three days before the Inauguration Iran is likely to receive its protection contract with the R.U. Purport of the probable fact that Russian technicians have mostly finished their training missions aimed at familiarization of Iranian forces to achieve levels of mastery of S400 and even S500 game changing anti-aircraft missiles to the point where Izzy piratical assault aircraft pilots will be sweating in their jockstraps at the threat of being ejected from their F-15’s and then becoming a form of trained seals as they confess on video their crimes against humanity.
An object lesson for the entire world.
Downed attack aircraft and confessions extracted from those previously untouchable pilots would send shivers and shockwaves throughout the Izzy Entity. The pro-Zionist administrative bureaucraps within the Deep $tate would scratch their heads and demand that the Rand Corporation re-write their aggression planning doctrines. Mass Media of misinformation and mind-control would do their damndest to keep those boobtoob noose addicts still believing in the unstoppable powers of Uncle $hmuel.
Meanwhile in Moscow, the exceedingly cautious coterie in the Kremlin will hold off on funning it up on video, while trying to keep those grins muted like Mona Lisa’s subtle smilette. China will maintain their new policy of not allowing certain vital rare minerals out of the hands of the aggressors.
Imagine the looks on the sweaty countenances of Nuts n’ Yahoos, Snot-Rich and Bennie the Grinch. We will never witness those moments as videos and even still shots would be strictly “verboten”.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 10 2025 16:45 utc | 17
Posted by b on January 10, 2025 at 15:49 UTC
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Thank you, B. I was stunned when I read your post: Reality is returning to MoA, and the world should take note; welcome to the 21st. Century Fascism. Trump has declared openly what Biden’s neo-cons were hiding under the rug: “If we can’t eat our peers and near peers, then we will eat our “allies,” because we are hungry like a wolf.
The US proxy war was never about Ukrainian sovereignty; it was always about extracting wealth from European “allies” for the benefit of the MIC, who needed a big meal to prepare for future imperial fascist wars with peers like China, Russia, India, and Iran.
IMO, Bozo’s imperialist declarations were trial balloons that have shaken up the vassal jar and the Empire’s neighbors in what initially appear to be positive ways. EU/NATO that’s always followed US diktat will further its dissolution if it does so now. The Anti-NATO/EU Romanian presidential candidate who won the election the EU overturned will now win by an even larger margin. Armenians will have an even better view of the folly Pashinyan is pushing regarding integrating with EU and spurning the economic growth EAEU membership has brought. How Germans will react given Musk’s interference after what Team Biden did to German livelihood remains to be seen. IMO, Georgians will also see the folly of EU membership and return to the Russian fold. And more happenings are a certainty.
On the Ukraine thread, I linked the ideas within Crooke’s essay with Trump’s bluster as a psy op aimed at the Empire’s public since the reality that the Empire was defeated by Russia is Ukraine will need to be faced. The clear reality of the Outlaw US Empire being in a state of decline has yet to be admitted by those “on high” yet has reached the point where that truth can no longer be kicked down the road. IMO, Trump’s insistence on further Imperialism will only hasten the Empire’s decline, and I’m not the only one having that POV.
Why do many foreigners who come to China think what they saw is so much different from what they heard at home?
After US, I came to my home country and told my ex-boss that I got a job in China, in Shanghai. Her response was what will you do there??? Ants crawl on the walls, dirty and so on… I even thought like that.
But that’s what our western media (propaganda) is doing. If you rely on Hollywood you will believe that USA won in Vietnam because of Rambo, life is wonderful, everyone has unrealistic beauty standard, money grow on the trees and so on.
If you see Latin soap shows you would believe that life in Mexico and other S. American countries is beyond wonderful. Plus you might have some rich parent that you don’t know off till you are grown up to run the business.
Haha. The thing is that China doesn’t advertise her potential and the western media has the chance to provide and imagine of China according to the needs of their bosses. If you see the news, the only news shown from China are that of earthquake deaths, poverty, ghost cities, people eating dogs or bugs and miners dying in poor conditions.
And this creates an image that here is so bad. And than BAM!!! You came to China, trains travel with the speed of 300 km/h, cars not older then 5 years, highways, industry etc… you can do your research. Enjoy China!!!
Trump’s revived interest in buying Greenland is drawing sharp reactions from Russia and Denmark.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned that the Arctic is a “zone of strategic interest” for Russia as it beefed up its military presence in the region.
Trump refused to rule out force to acquire Greenland, threatening tariffs on Denmark if it resists.
Denmark’s PM Mette Frederiksen firmly responded: “Greenland is not for sale.”
MM Video; Please do not fear the changes.
Klara commented;
This is a great video, and I appreciate that you put it together. I have personal experience from 1990 when the government collapsed in Albania. It was true anarchy. Tirana, once a beautiful and clean city, was engulfed in smoke. After some days, people began to move on, and life slowly started again. I don’t believe I experienced fear. Family and friends united, and we all hoped for better days.
My mom will always say to me: you don’t worry about things you can’t control. I’m writing this from the perspective of a simple person. People involved in politics may have seen the collapse and transformation with fear. My parents lost all their savings. Were they upset? Of course, for a few days they were, but I didn’t see fear in their eyes. They accepted it and moved on. One thing that was valuable was family support. We supported each other. Love and care for each other were the top priority.
I’m now in America, trying to live without fear. But fear is induced here. Fear is like a force that pulls you in. I think this is because you’re often alone here. Your kids are in another state, your cousins in a different state. Your family is scattered, and you become a solitary object. I don’t watch the news or follow politics, but the fear remains. Fear of getting sick, fear of going to the doctor, fear that your kids might making some stupid mistakes and effect their life and more…
One things I hate is fear, but I am not fear free.
As a surgeon, what is the most dangerous thing you have found inside a patient?
I was operating on a patient to remove his kidney.
The patient had had multiple surgeries in the past on his kidney and at this point was just a continuous source of infection- it no longer functioned.
The patient wanted me to remove it.
I removed the kidney laparoscopically and opened it to see what was inside.
I found this:
main qimg 8846156f667227d8784b098f14e0b5c9 lq
I was shocked.
It was a laser fiber that had broken inside the patient while being operated on by another surgeon 18 years prior. It had been left to form a stone and caused endless infections.
After the surgery, I informed the patient as to what I had discovered- he knew right away who the surgeon had been.
It is very sad to have your kidney damaged and your life affected because of a bad surgeon who didn’t have the appropriate ethical guidelines.
He could have referred the patient to someone else so the problem could be fixed before the damage became permanent.
Spiritual Meanings When A Stray Cat Comes To Your House
What are some ways to handle a spouse who no longer wants to be in the marriage?
About 12 years ago, I was the spouse that no longer wanted to be in the marriage. Resentments had built up in my heart over time, and I thought our relationship could never be what I needed. I told my husband I wanted a divorce. He was distraught.
He tried talking with me to see if he could change my mind, but my mind was made up. He conceded and we got our own places to live. We paid a lawyer to start the paperwork. I saw our relationship start to change as he pulled away to protect himself and have boundaries around our newly defined relationship.
As he pulled away more and more, he continued to treat me with respect and was still the upstanding guy he had always been. But I began to see what a life without him would be like. I didn’t like being separated from him, and when I heard he had met a girl during a night out, I could feel in my heart that I actually did still care about him.
Fortunately for me, he was willing to do marriage counseling when I asked. He could have told me no, but he didn’t. Until I saw what life would be like without him, I didn’t realize I still wanted to be with him.
There is a lot more to this story, and it wasn’t as easy and straightforward as that. We had to do months of counseling before we knew we could make our marriage work. It was very touch and go, and we had to work through a lot of things. People were praying for us, and we each grew in our relationships with God individually during that time. But the key was that we continued to turn toward each other to try and work together to fight for our marriage and fix what was wrong. We were both willing to look at ourselves and how we had contributed to where we were at.
My husband couldn’t have forced me to stay in the relationship. He asked if he could fix what was wrong, and accepted what I had to say when I told him there wasn’t anything to be done. He was sad, but he didn’t beg me to stay with him. He tried to move forward and re-define our relationship by creating boundaries that were appropriate for people that were no longer in a relationship. He treated me with respect, but he moved forward with life, and that helped me understand that I wasn’t ready to be without him.
You can’t make someone want to be with you. But you can show them what life will be like without you. Hopefully, if you have been a good spouse like my husband had been, they will realize what they will be living without, and will have a change of heart.
Steaks with Mushrooms, Blue Cheese and Frizzled Shallots
steaks mushrooms blue cheese
Prep: 10 min | Cook: 30 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 (8 ounce) beef round sirloin tip center steaks, cut 1 inch thick
4 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 small shallots, thinly sliced, separated into rings
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, diced
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves, finely chopped
Instructions
Cook bacon in a nonstick skillet over medium heat until crisp.
Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to paper towels, reserving 2 to 3 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Set aside.
Meanwhile combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in small bowl. Add shallots; toss to coat.
Heat bacon drippings over medium high heat until hot. Add shallots. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until well browned, stirring occasionally.
Remove from skillet with a slotted spoon to paper towels. Set aside.
Reduce heat to medium. Season beef steaks evenly with remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper.
Place steaks in the same skillet; cook for 14 to 15 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally. Do not overcook.
Remove to a serving platter; season with remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Keep warm.
Add mushrooms and water to skillet. Cook and stir for 3 to 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.
Add cream. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until cream is almost absorbed. Stir in cheese and bacon.
Spoon mushroom mixture over steaks. Top with shallots. Sprinkle with parsley.
227 months, 14 days, three hours, 72 minutes, and 88 seconds; I wake up on the 15th day with my breath lingering over my lips as ice crystals, and my limbs devoid of most of their feeling. I use my shivering hands to grab my bed sheets, big, puffy, and electrically heated, and fumble them around my body. The next few minutes I spend curled up, shivering in my blanket trying to get warm before I even attempt to get out of my bed. The floor, like I thought, is ice cold to the touch. I wince the first few times I make contact with it, and, failing to muster up the grit to actually step on it, sit at the edge of my bed while still shaking in my blanket.“E-E-El?” I say, the room lighting up at the sound of my voice. El must already be up. It’s a damn shame that we don’t share the same sleep schedule, even though it’s normally useful for him to be up when I’m not. I turn around to look at the sleep info screen on the wall next to the bed; I overslept a bit at five hours, but my REM and non-REM sleep cycles seem pretty standard. El, it looks like, was up another two hours after I fell asleep before falling asleep himself for two hours and then getting back up, which coincidentally corresponds to a dip in my body temperature.“S-Shit” I say, knowing damn well that El must’ve lowered the temperature in the cabin before leaving.I turn back around to look at the cabin data screen near the door to see if he left any messages on it. Unfortunately, my eyes are too blurred and crusted from just waking up for me to make anything out, which means I have to walk over the ice cold floor to see what’s on it. U-Hay could tell me what’s on it but I always turn her offline before sleeping and it takes about 15 minutes for her to come back online and fully integrate into my systems. So, with no choice, I tip-toe very carefully over to the screen and take a look at it. Janus, day 15, hour three, minute 86. Day 15 means El and I have to go get a physical exam taken; not looking forward to that. Location: Star S2, near the galactic core; it should be interesting to see it up close, as close as possible anyway. Temperature: 29 F.“29 degrees!? WHAT THE-”At that moment U-Hay bwoms into my head, which tells me that she’s back online.“Hello Master Bel, did-”“Sh-shut up, U-Hay” I say, still too cold to even think straight.“W-w-why the hell is it so c-cold?”“Master El thought it prudent to lower the ambient temperature of the ship, in order to focus the remaining power on shielding the hull from the harmful radiation emanating from the galactic core.”“Ugh” I forgot U-Hay likes to explain everything in as detailed and redundant a way as possible. It’s useful at times but dammit if it isn’t annoying.“J-just raise the temperature. P-please.”“Bel, I must advise-”“NOW, U-Hay! 80 degrees starting from the floor, dim the lights if you have to.”The cabin lights flicker, then dim as the floor mercifully heats up. I drop down on the floor, still wrapped in my blanket, so that I can finally feel some warmth. The white metal floor, warm as it is, feels nice pressed against my cheek, and I’d probably take a micro nap right there if it weren’t for U-Hay’s annoying notification.“Bel, please be advised that you have an appointment at hour four this morning for your monthly physical examination. As this is a required checkup, it is imperative that you are in attendance.”Cheek squished against the floor I look up at the time on the screen. Hour three, minute 92.“Shit.”Not wanting to hear U-Hay hound me for being late, I promptly leave the cabin into the wide corridors of the ship. I don’t bother dressing up since it’s only El and myself in this sector, or at least that’s how it’s supposed to be. I only have on a t-shirt and shorts, along with the blanket still enveloping me. The air is still cold and I’m still barefoot but the floor’s heat makes it comfortable for my feet and helps raise the ambient temperature somewhat. The hallways are dark with the lights turned down, but U-Hay’s integration into my nervous system lets her fiddle with my eyes so they can see better in low lighting. If there were windows in this part of the ship, lights would be a moot point, especially near the galactic center.“The tram is just down the hallway to your right, Master Bel. Master El is making his way there as well, and will meet you shortly.”
“What was he doing out there?”
“Only a few maintenance checks, system scans, reports on hull integrity, navigational course corrections.”
“Isn’t that hard if you’re offline?” I think as I turn down the hallway towards the tram. Because U-Hay is based in my head, I don’t have to physically talk to her when we’re alone. I only have to think of the words.
“Indeed, Master Bel. As you’re well aware, Master, I am unable to affect onboard systems while offline, and so was unable to assist Master El beyond verbal instruction. He was therefore unable to accomplish his goals to the desired effect. However, he did not wish to disturb your slumber.”
“Well that’s a load of bull. 29 degrees? Psh.” I say, approaching the tram platform.
The platform is a wide open space with the tracks for the tram in a cut on the other side. There are four pillars holding up the room, on one of which has a screen showing a map of the ship with destinations to choose from. I’m making my way towards this pillar when, from my right, I see El walking up to me in a heavy coat, gloves, boots, and cargo pants. He’s got on the smarmiest grin I’ve ever seen in my life. He has to know that I’m pissed.
“There you are, Bel.” He says raising his hand in welcome. I of course don’t return the gesture.
He stands right next to me, still grinning his smarmy grin, and teases:
“I thought I was going to have to tell Vera that you were going to be late for another checkup. Wouldn’t that have been something?”
The sly bastard’s trying to dodge the issue, so I pointedly ask him:
“Why the hell did you lower the temperature down to 29 degrees? I almost froze, El.”
“Well…” he says leaning whimsically back and forth, “…if you want to be bombarded by harmful radiation, I could have left it at the balmy 80 that you’re accustomed to.”
“Or you could’ve just cut power from the lights and heated up the floors, like I did.”
“Hm.” He assumes a pensive gesture; he has a smartass comment ready, I just know it.
“I could’ve done that, had U-Hay not been offline at the time, and given your distaste for being awoken I had significant pause towards that recourse.”
He shrugs, “So, my apologies.”
Like I have so many time before, I find myself flustered at his strategic non-accusation.
“You know what, I-! You-! Dammit, where’s the tram!”
We’d been standing around for seven minutes and the tram isn’t usually this late. There’s only one person to blame for this:
“El?”
“Well, I did try to call the tram half an hour ago, but it seems to have been preoccupied.”
“So you were just going to leave me here!?”
“Of course not, I was simply-”
“Y’know what…” I say, moving up to the screen on the pillar, “Never mind.”
I raise my hand to the screen and it begins to interface with the subdermal network of electronic nodes that gather at my finger-tips. It allows me, with U-Hay’s help, to control the tram network.
“Our tram’s all the way on the other side of the ship. is there a closer one we can use?”
“Affirmative. Retrieving transport vehicle.”
In the flash of an instant the tram whirs up in front of us and opens its doors.
“Welcome. Please watch your step as you embark the vehicle.”
“Come on, El. We’re going to be late.” I say, rushing onto the tram.
“Right behind you.”
The ride to the physician’s office, or station since it seems like she has a whole damn lab to herself, takes us through the interior of the ship to one of the exterior most portions of it. As a result, we’re taken through vast stretches of darkness, with only the light of the tram for illumination, to the outer windowed areas of the ship where the galactic core and the surrounding star systems light up the interior. El tries to put his arm around me, mistakenly thinking I’d forgotten that I almost turned into an icicle because of him.
“Don’t even fucking think about it.” I growl before he can even touch me. He wisely aborts.
The tram pulls up to the physician’s station and opens its doors. In this case there isn’t even a platform, just a single opening that leads into the office. It’s a small and clean little room, with a desk in the far corner and a door leading to the rest of the station adjacent to it. As we walk into the office and as the tram whirs away we don’t bother sitting in the chairs and waiting since we already have an appointment. We walk through the back door and into the lab where Vera stands waiting for us alongside some scanning equipment. The lab is wide and spacious; the floors are sterile white, and there are screens for displaying information seemingly everywhere, mounted on stands that swivel and turn on robotic arms. The most noticeable feature of the lab is the back wall, which isn’t a wall but rather a single curving pane of glass than spans the entire room and arches up 30 feet to include part of the ceiling. Because of this, the few artificial lights in the lab are usually turned off, and today is no exception; the brilliant center of the Milky Way, swirling with dust and spangled by stars, is more than adequate to light up the entire room. As late as I always am, if it weren’t for this view I probably wouldn’t bother coming at all.
Vera, a diminutive, red-haired android in lab fatigues, directs us toward the scanning pads on the floor.
“Come, come! Please stand here!”
We take our places on the scanning pads, which are right next to each other, but Vera, who is looking us up and down, looks perplexed.
“You no take off clothes?” She says, in a strong accent that I can’t place but that El tells me is East Slavic.
We look at each other and I tell her,
“No, I think we’re good”
Because I’ve always been late to these examinations, El and I have never actually taken one together. By the time I arrive, he’s usually sitting in the waiting room; that or he’s sitting near the window and leaves before the undressing starts. The cold doesn’t help things, either.
Vera walks over to me and pulls at my blanket.
“I insist. Will only take moment.”
“No, Vera. It’s 284 K and it’s cold. I’m not taking them off.” I say, pulling back my blanket.
“You sure? Invasive scans go through clothes but very unpleasant.”
“I’m. Not. Taking. Off. My. Clothes. Vera. Just do the scan and get it over with.”
She looks at El, who’s literally been twiddling his thumbs the whole time, with a questioning glance, and he responds:
“Oh! Uh, I would also like to keep my clothes on for, uh, similar reasons, thank you.”
Vera, thinking nothing else of it, cracks a cheerful smile and slams the lever with tremendous force. The scan begins at our feet, and the intense buzzing sensation that it elicits causes us both to jump at the sensation. When it finishes at the top of our heads, I can already feel a headache coming on.
Along with the usual information, like muscle mass, brain activity, and skeletal integrity, the results screen also shows our personal information. This being our first time taking the exam together like this, neither of us have seen the other’s personal info. The info went something like this:
Name: Belakoro Hosomichi Miyazawa
Sex: Female
DOB: Febus, Day 12, 2776
Place: New Sakhalin, Ligeia Mare, Titan
Father: Takashi Miyazawa
Mother: N/A
Clone #: 89
Surviving Clones of Sequence: 0
Ship Assignment: [Classified]
Date of Assignment to Ship: [Classified]
Ship Occupation: [Classified]
Name: Elio Aleksandrovich Gergiev
Sex: Male
DOB: Octos, Day 29, 2775
Place: Ares Station, Mars Orbit
Father: Aleksandr Gergiev
Mother: N/A; Missing since 10/30/2775
Child #: 1
Siblings: 0
Ship Assignment: [Classified]
Date of Assignment to Ship: [Classified]
Ship Occupation: [Classified]
The rest of the exam went relatively smooth, save for Vera doing additional checkups for muscle stiffness and any signs of hypothermia (aside from the mild ones I experienced earlier). The examination over and done with, and Vera finally bouncing off to tend to whatever other business she has, El and I take a seat on the heated floor close to the enormous window of the lab and contemplate.
“I guess neither of us has led a charmed life, hm?” El says.
“Heh. No, I guess not. Your mom’s missing and I’m a clone who never had one to start with.”
“May I ask what it is you’re holding?” El says, pointing to my palm.
It’s an odd statuette that I found in a box hidden away in our room. It’s supposed to look like a woman but looks more like an odd shaped tuber. U-Hay says it’s a “Venus Figure” carved about 26,000 years ago back on Earth. An indelible mark to the longevity of human creativity, she said.
After telling El all of this, I stare into the galactic core, and an odd thought comes to me.
“Y’know the center of the galaxy is 26,000 light years away from Earth.” I say, holding the figurine up to the bright bulge cloaked by dust.
“So if we looked back on it, we’d technically be seeing the same people who made this thing.”
“So, what?” El says, “A missive sent 26,000 years after the fact? What would you write, pray tell?”
I have to hand it to El for being equal parts smugly sarcastic and genuinely curious. He may think I don’t know it, but he’s actually quite fragile underneath all of his snark. I answer his question.
“I don’t have a clue. You?”
“Hmm.” He pauses for a moment, and then with a smirk says:
“To Mom, in 26,000 years”
He looks up at all the stars, dust and gas circling the bright nexus of the galaxy.
“Do you think she knows how beautiful all of this is, the stars, the nebulae, the planets…” He turns to me, “…you?”
I was planning to not dignify that last one with a response, but I judge that now is not the time for vitriol. I rock back and forth and fumble with the figure.
“I don’t know. Maybe? There’s a good chance”
He wraps his arm around my shoulder, and this time I don’t object. When he leans in for a kiss, however, I throw him wide grin that says a thousand words, all of them ending in pain for him. So he’s thwarted in that attempt, but we do cuddle, mostly because he’s warm and I’m still cold but also because he’s just nice to be around, sometimes. I still wish he had just asked me to redistribute the power for him; he should know by now that I love him too much to ignore him. 26,000 years to send a message, but it’s still too soon for that one I guess.
Do attorneys who get a guilty client acquitted feel guilty themselves?
No.
Recently, I defended a policeman accused of taking a bribe. He had, in fact, taken multiple bribes prior to this case. He was simply ratted on by gentleman he detained. Dead serious. The gentleman in question had narcotics in his car, on the center console. My client, let’s call him Bob, after arresting this man, alters his arrest affidavit, to say that it was found under the seat. Why did he do this? Well, after the gentleman’s attorney showed up, he sees counsel and Bob talking, and an exchange of cash.
At the preliminary hearing, Bob testifies, “yeah, found it under the seat…” “no, I didn’t have his permission to search his car,” “no, I pulled him over for failing to signal at a stop sign.” The search was illegal, in essence, and the case dismissed.
A few weeks later, he comes to the State Attorney’s office (the prosecutor) and tells her what happened, thinking it odd. She investigates. He is subsequently fired, about a week before the charges are filed, counsel is granted transactional immunity, [I had a LOT of fun with that on cross], and his former partner wants to testify as a character witness.
He had taken bribes to do this before. Not a lot of money, either. But, he’d done it for some time. I did not want to take the case, at first; I don’t care much for many policemen. But, I spent time getting to know him, his wife, and his former partner. He was a good man, who, unfortunately, needed some extra money. That does not justify it, but it explains it.
The ASA, the prosecutor, wanted the maximum—seven years. I tried working her down to a plea to a misdemeanor. I usually never want to take a plea, but, in this case, I was willing to. I knew a misdemeanor wouldn’t be great, but, if he was convicted, a felony conviction would mean de-certification and seven years in prison is obscene. Bob was willing to take a plea as well; counsel would not budge. She was upset, understandably, that he’d done this many times. He did. But, his actions resulted in possession cases being tossed. So what? He did not steal from anyone, he did not rob anyone, he did not hurt anyone. Didn’t matter to her. Fair enough.
I had no defense . . . except one: the state’s own witnesses. Two of them in particular: one is a lawyer who offered bribes, the other is a drug user. I had a lot of fun with the lawyer. I hammered the fact that he took an oath, an oath to uphold the law, etcetera, etcetera, that he was given immunity.
“You haven’t suffered at all for this, Sir?”
“No.”
“You were given transactional immunity?”
“Yes.”
“You’re an attorney?”
“Yes.”
First open-ended question of the cross: “Tell the jury what that is, please.”
Then, I made him explain use immunity, and how he got the best of the two. I took chunks out of his credibility. My tone was . . . fairly indignant. The last question I ask, and I’m dead serious, was: “And aren’t you ashamed of yourself?”
Counsel objects as to relevance; it was sustained. I withdrew the question and ended the cross. I didn’t care how he answered that question.
Jury took about twenty-five minutes . . . not guilty. I’m always terrified of losing . . . I was terrified then too.
Jeffrey Sachs Interviews – Here’s Why They Won’t Lose!
What’s something you can’t believe you had to explain to another adult?
Oh I have several….
As someone from Iceland, I had to explain to a United States border police officer that my passport was not fake and that Iceland is a real country.
This took surprisingly long time and he needed to confirm this with his colleagues. Santa Claus was mentioned. His colleague then proceeded to doubt that I was coming for a Science conference as “Iceland doesn’t have any university”.
Explaining to a professor that I in fact do not live in a snow house. He was so adamant that we lived in snow houses that I just said in the end that yes we live now in modern snow houses with jacuzzis and elevators. Still not sure if he got my sarcasm.
Also…
Explaining to an American Gas station worker in the Deep South that I was in fact speaking English to her and not French after I mentioned I was coming all the way from France. She was amazed how well she understood French. She was a lovely person though.
(Added) When I started my PhD in France I went to lunch with coworkers. We got very nice salad with a sauce I liked a lot so I asked if this was a French specialty. One of my coworkers was very surprised by my question and then said “ah of course, you don’t have any vegetables in Iceland, it’s too cold. You know, you really should eat a lot of vegetables because they are very good for you”.
Edit: wow this got more attention than I expected! I want to say that as someone from a very small country I have learned to have a laugh or two about the misconceptions and not take myself too seriously. I’m very curious where people get ideas about Iceland from and enjoyed the comments as well. Thank you all very much.
Shorpy
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Austin Powers – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
Bush Adviser’s Warning About Trump’s Tariff Policy
A former White House official argues that the foundation of Donald Trump’s tariff policy “overlooks much of history,” cautioning that the former president’s tax proposals jeopardize America’s access to international markets.On the campaign trail, Trump has consistently promoted tariffs as a key component of his economic strategy, claiming that imposing significant taxes on imported goods will protect U.S. industries from foreign competition. Despite Trump’s strong advocacy for this “America First” trade approach, it has drawn significant criticism from both sides of the political aisle.
In a column published in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, Karl Rove criticized Trump’s tariff policy, particularly his attempt to align himself with former President William McKinley, who served from 1897 to 1901, to justify his stance.
“He calls for a return to this 19th-century practice, while misrepresenting McKinley’s role in it,” Rove asserted. Trump has repeatedly referenced McKinley’s economic strategies, telling a crowd in Michigan in late September that “in the 1890s, our country was probably the wealthiest it ever was because it was a system of tariffs.”
Trump further stated in a Fox News interview that McKinley was “a big tariff guy,” but Rove, who was an adviser to Trump’s 2020 campaign, disagrees with this portrayal, labeling it an “incomplete and superficial” understanding of economic history.
Rove noted that following 1893, the U.S. experienced a prolonged depression lasting nearly four years, which only ended after McKinley won the presidency against William Jennings Bryan, who advocated for an inflationary silver currency. According to Rove, it was McKinley’s endorsement of the gold standard that restored business confidence—not tariffs—that ultimately revitalized the economy.
As a senior adviser and acting chief of staff during the George W. Bush administration, Rove also pointed out that while McKinley’s tariffs were “proportional to those of other countries,” Trump’s approach has taken protectionist policies to an extreme.
He contrasted McKinley’s 1890 Tariff Act, which raised average import duties from 38% to 49.5%, with Trump’s pledge to impose a 200% tariff on John Deere products if the agricultural equipment manufacturer moved some of its production to Mexico.
“These represent fundamentally different trade strategies,” Rove explained, noting that McKinley’s tariff policy was based on an ideology of “reciprocity,” which aimed to levy tariffs in proportion to those of other countries and negotiate for reductions whenever possible.
“What was true in the 1890s remains true today: America needs foreign markets,” Rove concluded. “McKinley used tariff policy to facilitate trade. If elected, will Mr. Trump do the same?”
Aging
What benefit is there for men to get married?
Modern marriage is a living death for men. If you’re a young single man reading this, heed the warnings of legions of older men like me and never, EVER get married under the current family law system in the west.
I loved my ex wife for a while. We both have advanced degrees. We took our time getting to know each other. I thought we had values and goals in common. I also thought we could compromise and work together as a team. This was before MGTOW and the red pill. Naive 30-year-old me didn’t understand that, at age 27, she was at the wall. Like virtually all women at that age, she was only mimicking what I wanted her to be to trap me into marrying her as her SMV began plummeting like a stone dropped in the ocean. I do think she loved me back, but only in the opportunistic, extractive, manipulative, predatory manner that women “love” men.
Right on cue, it quickly descended into tedious, grinding, soul-crushing misery. Endless nagging, constant complaints, ungratefulness, unrealistic expectations, squandering money, walking back promises about shared goals, cheating, selfishness, vicious and deranged behavior, everything every man tries to avoid. Our marriage began to unravel the day of our wedding. When I observed her and her mother’s behavior in those fateful days leading up to the event I knew in the back of my mind it was a mistake. Our marriage finally imploded after 8 years of soul-crushing misery when she commenced a legal battle that cost us over $50,000 (ETA $70,000, ETAA $100,000) in attorney fees. Our children are scarred for life. We despise each other with a red hot hatred that I never would have thought possible. The real kicker? I thought I had gotten lucky up until the day I married her.
Here is awful truth no one teaches young men:
There is no such thing as a happy marriage, there are only happy families and happy childhoods and stable societies. Voluntary, love-based marriage simply doesn’t work. Evolution favors variety. Deep in our unconscious brains we are programmed by evolution to repel each other. Marriage, at its core, was never about love or emotional connection. It was about survival and social stability and gender-based division of labor in a pre-modem era when the lives of everyone, especially children, depended on maintaining that bond and restraining our sexual behaviors. Marriage is a cultural adaptation, not a biological adaptation. Men are polygamous, women are hypergamous. We come from an alpha male/harem of females evolutionary dynamic, as do the vast majority (if not all) of the social species in the mammalian family. Geneticists have proven we have several times more female ancestors than male ancestors. Such societies are inherently unstable however. Just watch any BBC documentary about lions or gorillas or elk or any other social species and its non-stop internecine conflict and violence over territory and mating privileges. Prior to the 1970s, enforced marriage was the solution to this problem that restrained our primitive sexual behaviors and allowed Homo sapiens to escape a Pleistocene Era existence and create civilization by diverting this energy toward more productive means.
Today, the practical origins of marriage are utterly lost on modern women (and a lot of men to be honest). We have replaced it with an imbecilic, feminized model based on romantic love and voluntary commitment WHICH SIMPLY DOES NOT WORK! The current model is biologically absurd. Worse still, we have a family court system that punishes men for participating and rewards women for withdrawing. Marriage is still an effective check on men’s polygamous instincts, but it REWARDS women for following their hypergamous instincts. Women are never satisfied. It’s in their DNA. Women don’t really love men. They are biologically incapable of it. Women only love what they can GAIN from men. This is the essential lesson of Briffault’s Law. Every man needs to understand this. Marriage must be externally enforced (law, church, custom, etc) for it to survive in the VAST majority of cases. Women are, by nature, materialistic, solipsistic, duplicitous, erratic, irrational, malcontented, and manipulative. When it comes to men, a woman’s “love” is opportunistic, extractive, and conditional. Women have absolutely zero sense of duty or loyalty or purpose or deed-based reciprocity the way men do. The wiring simply isn’t there.
A wife is a hole in the ground with no bottom that you pour your soul into. No matter how much attention or money you give her it will never be enough. Just ask Will Smith or BIll Gates or Jeff Bezos or Brad Pitt (ETA: or Sylvester Stallone or Tom Brady or Kevin Costner). I’ve come to believe it is biology impossible for women to be content in a peaceful, committed relationship in the long run no matter who she is with. Committing to women conveys weakness and a lack of optionality. As a man, you’ll get infinitely better results with women when they know they are disposable to you and you treat them as such. Although it’s a difficult pill to swallow, all this makes perfect sense from an evolutionary perspective.
Men simply cannot afford to have any legal or financial ties to ANY women given the current family court system and modern women’s ridiculous expectations and women’s underlying nature. When divorce became an option for every woman, at any time, for any reason, marriage and children and family became risk prohibitive for every man no matter his wealth or status or physical attributes or virtues. No sane man would sign a modern marriage contract if he really knew what he was getting into.
Women, if they remain unchecked, will ultimately destroy western civilization. It’s happening in slow motion before our very eyes. This may sound bombastic and “misogynistic” to anyone conditioned by modern feminism until you consider the fact that virtually EVERY civilization we have knowledge of from the dawn of recorded history confined men and women to more or less the same roles with similar, gender-specific expectations.
This pattern arose over and over and over again. Throughout the millennia. Across oceans and continents. Among people who had no contact with and no knowledge of each other’s existence. If there was a viable alternative it would be prominent in the historical record. It’s is not.
Let that sink in for a moment.
Modern marriage ruins men’s lives. A wife will feed on your soul until you are nothing but a hallow, empty shell. Being legally and financially at the mercy of a woman is an exhausting, grinding, slow-motion horror I cannot even begin to describe. Marriage is nothing but a loaded gun pointed at a man’s head and the woman gets cash and prizes for pulling the trigger.
I’ve had cancer and I’ve been married to a highly educated, once beautiful woman who loved me and having cancer was better. At least cancer didn’t scream at me for failing to make it happy. At least I didn’t have to pretend to love the cancer as it was slowly killing me. At least cancer went about it in silence. Cancer didn’t try to bankrupt me and take my children away.
Until the laws change and society reverts back to a rational model for marriage that is enforceable, NEVER, EVER, GET F-ING MARRIED IF YOU’RE A MAN!! It’s absolute dogshit. It’s a living death.
RoboCop – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
What is the most disrespectful thing someone did to you while you were on an airplane?
Air France crew are the rudest people I’ve ever met.
I was in business class flying out of Paris to New York a few years ago. I was seated as the passenger next to me got more and more drunk with every round they served him. After an hour his hands began to wander. He grabbed at my chest, but I caught his hand, reefed his fingers back and told him if he wanted to arrive home with the same amount of fingers he left with, he’d better behave himself.
His response was to yell loudly until the crew placated him with more drinks.
Luckily he fell asleep at this point, unlucky he wet himself. With the prospect of sitting next to this pile of filth for 5 more hours, I insisted on moving. The Air France crew would not let me. So I sat there furious.
The saving grace was a lovely French lady who was behind us and heard the whole thing. She leaned over and asked if I would like some help? I was so furious I happily agreed. So the lady pulled out of her husbands bag a mini cigar, lit it and stuck it in the drunks unconscious mouth.
She rang the bell and swore in French. The crew got in a huddle and woke him up. More yelling in French. Drunk was removed to the back of economy, completely unaware of what was going on.
The lady explained to me that because he was only harassing me, it must be my fault but because his cigar was harassing everyone, he got removed.
Now, while I hate drunks, he was being who he is, a pig. I do however hold the crew to account because if this had happened to someone with less gall than me, he would have kept at it the whole flight.
Air France crew are the worst people in the world.
Is China really as terrible as BBC says it is?
I went to China just last week. I had been to other parts of China since the last few years so I guess I can share some insights as to what I saw and observed while I was there:-
China is not a terrible country. Far from it. It’s one of the most advanced country in the world. For example to board a train or to check in into a hotel I no longer need to show my tickets or booking slips. They are all integrated into some kind of a network linked to the immigration system. I just needed to scan my passport. The best thing about it is that there are special lanes in every train station in China for foreign visitors to allow them to scan their passports. I went to China during the golden week holiday where the train stations were packed to the brim. While others were queuing for 10–40 minutes ,as a visitor it only took me less than 5 minutes to get pass through the gate;
It also boasts one of the friendliest, polite, warmest and humblest people I have ever seen. While it’s on par with the western world, South Korea and Japan technologically, many of its people still retain the village mentality. After I dined at a local restaurant, my friend asked for permission from the owner to perform daily prayers. Not only he permitted him to pray in his living quarters, he even made an effort to provide him with a jug of hot water and and a bowl so that he could mix the super cold tap water with hot water while he was cleansing himself;
The price of goods and services are unbelievably low. Perhaps it’s the currency and my country’s currency does not sit at the top of the forex market alongside the USD, the GBP or even the AUD, but most of the stuffs I found in China are 40% cheaper than I can get in my own country. I bought 2 decent long pants for only USD30 whereas it is going to cost me USD50 at home. In contrast the costs for a set of magic pen in the UK is almost on par with the costs of a long pants in China;
Where Apple failed, Huawei thrives. Down below is the latest Huawei car using the Harmony OS. It was delightful to see Chinese from all walks of life went to see and experience first hand how it feels like to sit inside a luxurious EV. There was no salesmen making sales pitch. Huawei simply put the car for display for all to see and experience; and
I went to Kunming, Yunnan last week for a fairly cheap USD120 flight within just under 4 hours. It has the Shangri-La, UNESCO heritage sites of the Tiger Leaping Gorge, ancient cities of Lijiang as well as the stone forest of Yunnan. There are 5 UNESCO sites in the province of Yunnan alone…not to mention China as a country.
What are the reasons for most countries preferring a friendship with America over China, despite China’s rise and dominance in geopolitics?
Most countries? Are you blind, deaf ot dumb? Or have been in a coma for 40 years? The US support is with only 20 countries out of the world’s 195 nations. These are their fellow natives slaughterers world wide namely Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Spain and Belgium, their fellow despicable colonial masters Portugal, UK, Netherlands, Italy then there are some nations such as former USSR break out nations that has resign to poking Russia in the eye and then hiding under the US skirt under the US payroll such as Romania, Poland, Ukraine, and finally, US slaves such as Isreal, Japan, Germany and South Korea and some fair weather beneficiaries such as Singapore, Switzerland, The Philippines and Argentina!
These countries represents only 12% of world’s population and 5% of world’s nation they are a very small minority! 175 out of 195 nation are siding with China, supporting China or prefers to work closely with China! Sure there are a few nations that wants to suck the wealth away from the US such as India who strongly favours Russia and benefits from Ukraine war! But collectively they add up too 88% of humanity and 95% of world’s nation! That is called dominance!
Of course this is not what the US and western media says! The use words like global majority, most of the world, coalition of the willing, US allies! To fool themselves and fooled their allies! These groupings has dwindled down from around 60–70 nations as late as 1980! So you are dead wrong! True these nations are the richer nations but they are also the fading and slower growth nations on earth!
The root cause
What have you accidentally trained your pet to do?
Here is a post that I sent to the makers of WD-40:
Dear WD-40 Company:
As a teacher, I often use the summer to catch up on maintenance that I deferred during the school year. Today, I used your fine product, WD-40 Protective White Lithium Grease, to stop some doors from squeaking. However, I was unaware that the squeaky doors were actually part of an elaborate B.F. Skinner-style training regimen for my dog, Watney. Apparently, when the dog hears the pantry door squeak, he knows it is time to come out of the bedroom for breakfast. And when he hears the back door squeak, he knows it is time to come inside.
Now, truth be told, I have deferred this particular maintenance for a number of years, since before we had the dog. So it is possible the training was accidental, making it more Pavlovian conditioning than true behaviorism, though I suppose that isn’t really relevant here. My question is, do you manufacture a product that restores squeaks to their previous level?
Sincerely,
Mark Lesmeister
Here is their response:
Mark Lesmeister thanks for your question – you’re right, WD-40® Specialist® Protective White Lithium Grease is incredibly effective at removing squeaks & creaks. To re-establish the cringe in your hinge, you’ll want to first procure a well-functioning degreaser. In fact, we do have just such a product: WD-40® Specialist® Industrial-Strength Cleaner & Degreaser. The heavy duty protective qualities of our white lithium grease may resist your initial cleaning attempts unless you remove the hinges from the door and wall to thoroughly remove the grease. This may be more work than you wish to commit to the task, however, so you might also try adding sand to the hinges or bending them at an angle that imposes difficulty in the opening and closing actions. If the easy opening persists, perhaps add a squeaky toy to your doorstop so the door hits it upon opening to alert Watney of the breakfast hour. Hope this helps!
-The WD-40 Team
Legacy story
Have you ever received a scam phone call and played along with the scammer only for them to hang up?
My wife does this all the time.
Scammy: We need to repair the operating system on your computer.
Wife: Ok, I don’t know anything about computers so you will have to help me.
Scammy: Go to your computer.
Wife: I am there
Scammy: Go into your windows.
WIfe: Ok but I thought we were fixing my computer?
Scammy: We are:
Wife: Ok I have my window open.
Scammy: Go to your start button.
Wife: You want me go back to my computer? I am looking out my window like you told me to.
Scammy: I mean your computer windows.
Wife: You did not explain that to me
Scammy: Are you in front of your computer now?
Wife: Yes
Scammy: do you see a box called xxx
Wife: No, there is nothing like that .
Scammy: Look to the left and see the icons, tell me what you see.
Wife: Nothing
Scammy: Do you see and runs through a list
Wife: No, my screen is just black
Scammy: Is your computer turned on?
Wife: You never told me that… you want me to turn it on?
Scammy Irritated now) : Yes Tell me when it is up
Wife: Ok.. (She goes and gets coffee and looks at me laughing because she bet me she can keep him online for 10 minutes at least)
Wife: (Nowhere near her computer) Ok I am back at my computer, what do you want
Scammy: Do you see a list of icons like this?
Wife: Yes I see them now.
Scammy: I want you to open a dialogue box by this method. (Gives her directions)
Wife: I am writing this down, can you repeat step 3?
Scammy: Repeats the steps
Wife: Ok, I think I wrote it down correctly, let me read it back to you (as she has written nothing, she misses some.)
Scammy: No You missed step 4
Wife: Ok, lets start over, hang on I have to get a fresh piece of paper,,, She gets scammy to run through the entire process again
Wife: Ok, I think I have it now, just one question?
Scammy: What ?
Wife; Do you honestly think I am going to have someone call me out of the blue to tell me my operating system needs repaired and I am just going to be gullible enough t allow you to do whatever you want? Does your mother know you try to steal for a living? She must be so disappointed in you.
Actually she sometimes gets a full lecture in before they hang up.
My wife, my son and I have contests to see who can keep a scammer going the longest. Especially if we have guests when a scammer calls, we use scammers as part of our entertainment.
What truth has your bitter life taught you?
The older you get, the harder you have to work for love.
When you’re in high school and feel butterflies for the first time, love seems to be in infinite supply.
The only people in the world you know are those in your microcosm of 7th grade, but everyone is sorta crushing on everyone, there’s always a bit of drama, and your network of relationships feels huge – because it’s your first time experiencing the complexity of human connections.
Maybe you’ll walk out of it marrying your high school sweetheart. Maybe not.
In college, you start over. New network, new people, new game to play.
But there’s a little less drama, everyone’s not quite crushing on everyone, and you pick the people you hang out with more deliberately.
We’re growing up. We sort people into categories before we even start the relationship.
That person’s a business contact. He can help me with my career. She’s an acquaintance. He’s a friend.
Suddenly, there’s less wiggle room. You can’t ask out everyone. Your feelings aren’t all over the place. You have a better idea of what you want but less time to look for it.
Maybe you’ll graduate college with a girl on your arm or some husband material.
Maybe not.
After college, you might do a Master’s. Or a PhD. Or start a job that takes a lot of time.
New network, new people, new game to play. Except now it won’t reset again so soon.
Six months pass and you realize: “Hmm, there’s this one girl I kind of like at the office, but, other than that…”
What happened?
Life.
Not just to you, to everyone. We had to grow up. We had to focus. We didn’t capitalize on the time we had to sort out our emotions. Or it just didn’t work out.
Now, we’re 28 and 35 and 41 and it’s tough out there. No more have-at-its and here’s-some-free-romance.
Suddenly, love requires this very delicate balance and it’s hard work to maintain it.
You can’t find it by looking for it, but you can’t just stop either. There’s no prince charming coming and no awkward-cute incident in the elevator.
You have to work for love, but not try too hard. You have to love yourself and live your life. Make time to be authentic, but not desperately cling to every shred of romance.
It’s very easy to lose this balance. To get lost in a co-dependent relationship. Or slip up when you have a good one. Or focus on work and have no love life at all.
Our lives are puzzles. When we’re young, it’s easy to find new, fitting pieces. A lot of them are bright red. But the more your puzzle takes shape, the harder it is to find empty spaces where those red pieces still fit.
You have to make room for them. Breathe. Look at the big picture. Because if you don’t, you might one day complete the puzzle, only to realize you forgot adding love.
Spreads
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What is the process for obtaining citizenship in Thailand for foreigners who are not marrying a Thai citizen or making an investment? Is it a difficult process?
You still have a chance to come up alive after going down under to the wreckage of the Titanic. But your chances to obtain citizenship in Thailand is like you keep punching the air until you get knocked out.
Becoming a Thai citizen as a foreigner without any family ties to a Thai citizen is a lengthy and complex process.
Let’s get serious. (can’t be a short answer, guys!)
Yes, you need to have what it takes to be as persevere as ants in the ‘Sahara Desert’ and be adaptable like a Chameleon, and most of as Holy as a Saint who withstands a load of nonsense (still smile) from the moment you send in the application.
Nothing is easy doing anything in Thailand… that everyone knows.
First: To begin with, you need to apply for a “Long term visa”
For that, you will need to stay in Thailand legally on a very long time first. The procedure is as complicated and tedious as applying to be as astronaut at NASA.
Second: You, then apply for permanent residency (PR) in Thailand.
PR is a crucial step toward citizenship. How are you gonna get it and how long does it take? Only God knows.
Let’s look at documents alone— Paperwork is hell of a lot! : You’ll need to provide extensive documentation, including —-proof of financial status,——employment records, —-a police clearance certificate, —-and medical certificates.
Interview and Approval: After submitting the application, you’ll undergo an interview by the conservative Thai elite class. You may prayer beforehand for God to have mercy on you as the interview is in THAI.
The processing time can take several months or years. But once you get a permanent resident- then you stay on at least for 10 years—the next step is to apply for citizenship… here we go again.
What steps to be taken for application for citizenship?
All I know is the same as you apply for a PR but with more stringent with more things, like “Good conduct” and proficiency in Thai, stable income, your evidence of contributions to the society, paperwork, and another interview.
Time line:- It’s not gonna be shot.
From a Long Term Visa, your could be in your 30s by the time you get ‘citizenship’ you will be in the late 50s… No joke, guys!
But with a Thai friend’s backing if he or she has a ‘surname’ that rings the bell— your task to get citizenship is a breeze with 10 years shorter than any Peter, Paul, and Mary who applies through a proper channel… This is Thailand.
On American expansionism.
The incoming administration seems to have a more realistic image of the state of American hegemonial decline and wants to take proactive steps to try to counteract and reverse it, breathing new life into the American Global Empire.
In this context, it makes perfect sense for the US to increase pressure on its vassals. I am not using the term in a pejorative sense.
The US does not have “allies” in the traditional meaning of the word. It has vassals with different levels of feudal obligations and elite integration, and different tasks.
Extracting more value from vassals — whether through tariffs, increased NATO budgets, meddling in local politics or potential territorial concessions — is an absolutely logical step in cementing and renewing America’s position as overlord of its sphere.
There are three ways America’s European vassals can react to this: look for protection outside of the sphere, try to make themselves more useful/necessary & advance integration, or take it on the face.
Were we in, I don’t know, the 19th century, Denmark would just ask Russia for military support in Greenland in exchange for mild economic concessions and never worry again.
As it is, the Royal Danish Army does not have any artillery anymore because they gave it all away for the purpose of firing cluster ammunition at Russian children in Donetsk.
They did not receive anything in return for that and it did not help any Danish purpose.
They cannot defend themselves if push comes to shove and they can’t ask anybody to help because most of their fellow vassals have done the same. The most likely option is that they’ll just take it on the face.
Not just for pragmatic reasons, but also because they genuinely enjoy being dommed geopolitically.
America has no obligation to treat its vassals better. I’ve seen Danish people complain on here about supporting the US after 9/11, participating in the American wars in the Middle East, etc.
That’s ridiculous.
You know how a colony is rewarded for sending troops to its overlord’s wars? It doesn’t get beaten.
That’s the reward for a lackey. Any person who takes any of the NATO democracy liberalism pilpul seriously is just not a serious person, it was never real, it was always just voluntary submission to be absolved from existing in History.
The world that existed in 1991-2022 does not exist anymore.
It’s not coming back. Y
ou can just invade your neighbor. You can just fire missiles at international shipping lanes. You can just threaten to annex members of your military alliance. “You can just do things”, as the techbros like to say.
The mirage of a post-historical order that only has to be policed from time to time but is never seriously challenged has disappeared.
What did you think canceling the End of History meant? Vibes? Papers? Essays? It’s not pleasant to be suddenly confronted with all of the above.
It’s not pleasant to have to admit to yourself that your existence was a coddled theme park that is existentially dependent on the relative position of someone else and how he feels about that relative position.
America’s vassals WILL have to confront this state of things and make hard decisions about their future.
This means reckoning with their geopolitical impotence and either embracing dependency with open eyes or seeking pathways to autonomy that will inevitably involve risk, sacrifice, and a recalibration of their national priorities.
The era of coasting on borrowed security and ideological rhetoric is over.
What lies ahead is a world where historical agency must be reclaimed or forever relinquished, and for many, the question may not be whether they are ready to make that leap, but whether they even remember how.
America has now understood this — and is mentally preparing to switch back to the cold logic that comes with actual History.
I rubbed my chilly thighs with my palms after spending so much time kneeling on wet, dewy grass; even the smallest movement of my legs hurt.
“Where are you, Lena?” I brushed the branches away to have a clear view of Hangar 2. I felt a thrill of warmth rush through my body as I saw the silhouette of the small, two-seat Robinson R22 Helicopter through the path lights.
A short distance away, there was a rustling sound that made my pulse skip a beat. I crouched even lower, nearly lying on the ground. The sound approached gently. I paused my breathing and glanced in that direction. The dense network of barberry and European bladdernut branches prevented a clear view. It rustled more and more. A black snout poked through the foliage, and then I stared into two enormous brown eyes. It froze. The deer nearly did a backflip as I made a slight hand movement that frightened it. I exhaled deeply and looked down at my fingers.
I stroked with my fingers along the ridge between my thumb and the index finger on the other hand. The GACHIP chip program, known as ‘Sound of Freedom’, was established by the government to protect children from human trafficking. That’s what my parents and grandparents thought. The government fooled everyone with their promotion.
There are now cameras installed everywhere that can scan the microchip embedded under the skin. As my grandmother described to me in my childhood years, “We all thought that was just a surveillance camera without any database information,” she said with a guilty look on her face.
During my grandparents’ era, Europe remained mostly democratic, with a few significant outliers. But as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine erupted in the early 21st century, everything—including my homeland of Austria, which had sworn neutrality—started to tilt toward an authoritarian administration.
I once questioned Grandma, while we were sitting in our favorite spot—the airfield. “Did the people never understand that the government was trying to take control of everyone?” She touched my face while glancing at me. “Yes, Rena, we were. A number of us were arguing and demonstrating, but then this happened. ” A 20-cm-long scar showed up where she had pulled her pullover over her belly. “I did have a family and prioritize things.” Her soft eyes surveyed the area. “I never felt bad about this choice.”
Someone tapped my shoulder, jolting me out of my thoughts. I grabbed the nearest branch and turned around. The woman ducked, lost her footing, and flew backward into the undergrowth.
She bellowed, “Cruzefix no amoi,” in Pinzgau dialect which means ‘Damned’.
My parents’ native language was Pinzgauer, a German dialect before the government suppressed it. They had to learn Surschyk, a Russian-German hybrid language. I was not even born by then.
I extended my hand to her. She looked at me with a smile and I pulled her with a strong tug that propelled her to her feet.
She gave me a ‘Tell me’ look and widened her eyes.
“Yes, he did phone me. Do you have mind-reading skills?”
“You’re not hard to read,” Lena said as I touched the ring with my finger, and she gestured toward it.
“He is not that bad. Even he has nice days.”
“Come on, let’s explore the world beyond the borders and kick some asses.” She grasped my arm forcefully.
We ducked down and made our way to the hangar. Everything appeared to be quiet. I gave her a hand signal where to find the rolls. Lena and I spent a lot of time observing how the helicopter was transported, so we knew the whereabouts and handling of the rollers.
I grabbed the rollers, placed them on the back ends of the skids, and pressed the lever down. I went to the tail rotor end and pushed the tail boom down. I signaled her to move forward and position herself behind the helicopter cabin.
I nodded in response to Lena’s expression. As I went, I could hear the rollers squeaking slightly. Lena looked from left to right, and I noticed she was smirking mischievously. We rolled the helicopter approximately 10 meters out of the hangar. We disassembled the rollers and placed them slightly apart in the grass; we then checked our watches and began timing. 30 minutes.
Laughter! We got down on our knees. Three men holding bottles walked past the path outside the flying area. There were jokes and chuckling, and a man glanced at us. He stopped and called after the others. The two men also paused and looked in our direction. My heart stopped, and I sank to the ground. I looked at Lena, who hid deep in the helicopter’s shadow. We heard laughter and slurred speech again. I did not understand a word. After another round of laughter, they left.
I let out a long breath and got to my feet, but then I had dizziness. I had to sit down for a little while. I inhaled and exhaled calmly, then glanced back at my ring. Does my husband expose me to the government to receive the reward? The reward aims to minimize resistance by the public. It was no longer possible to have the right to travel throughout Europe or freedom of speech. Individuals who held opposing views were “permanently removed” according to the government representatives’ argument. Nobody heard from them anymore. We do not know their fate.
I looked around for Lena, but she was gone; she sat already on the copilot’s side. I dashed over to the pilot’s side, opened the door, and took my seat. I felt my heart race as I pressed the pedals, and touched with the fingers the collective, and cyclic control. I let out my breath. We both turned to look at the clock simultaneously.
15 minutes.
“Lena. Tell me just the points from starting the engine and running up procedure; let out the pre-flight checklist” I gestured to her on the list.
“Battery, strobe switches – on,” said Lena, and had trouble reading the writing, her fingers were shaking a lot.
“Ignition switch – start and then both.” She continued.
“Ahh, what does it mean ‘then both’”.
“It stays here. How do I know,” said Lena and her tone was a nuance louder. She looked at me and I turned the key first left and then right.
“Set engine RPM 50 to 60% and switch the clutch.” she continued as I started the engine.
I carefully adjusted the throttle to 50 to 60%, just like I was taught in my grandmother’s secret simulator room. The helicopter’s 4-cylinder air-cooled Lycoming O-320-A2B piston engine powered up and the entire aircraft started to quiver. I grinned as I remembered my grandmother’s words about her years of helicopter training: “Fixed-wing pilots have traditionally said that helicopter pilots are crazy because they shut down their engines and land without power..”
I watched as the blades started to spin, first gently, then rapidly. We put our headsets on. Meanwhile, the helicopter is now running much more smoothly, reaching 97% RPM.
I gave Lena a thumbs-up. She breathed and also gave a thumbs up. We gazed outside. The ambiance is amazing. The fields and meadows are covered in a thin layer of dense fog. The sun rises like a fireball, bathing everything in a warm crimson light. A few trees away is the shape of a massive, antique wooden farmhouse.
I lifted the Collective with my left hand, and I felt the chopper hover. After two seconds, the helicopter began to swerve to the right, and I steered cyclic against it. It then reversed, and I steered against it again. I had the impression we were on a ghost train, going up and down, right and left, back to front.
Lena gripped with her hands to anything she could grip. The flight system steadied after a few bouts of boxing with the machine. It was dimly lit, but I could still see Lena’s pale face with her wide open eyes. I could feel the perspiration trickling down my brow—not only on it. Or did… I glance a bit downward. No, everything was in order.
After giving Lena another glance, I moved the cyclic forward, forcing the chopper to accelerate slightly above the ground and dive nose down. 20, 30, 40, and then, at 60 knots, we experienced the lift-over-drag moment that propelled us quickly into the air.
Lena screamed as if her entire body had frozen. She glanced then sideways at the mountains. She screamed again, but this time it was pure excitement. Her entire body exuded enthusiasm as she began speaking, even though I couldn’t comprehend a word she said. She talked pretty fast and was spitting sometimes. I simply grinned and nodded.
I checked my watch; it was beyond time, and they would soon come for us.
What is the most depressing thing a student has said to you?
I had a student who would not aknowledge my presence at all. He was absolutely silent, so I guess what depressed me was his lack of engagement—untilI found out why.
I had a boy in my English 10 Honors (sophomore level) class several years ago. He was quiet and chose to sit with his back to me every single day. I tried to get him to talk to me a few times, but he was so shy and withdrawn I stopped because I didn’t want to make him feel more awkward and uncomfortable than he obviously already did. He was a middle-of-the-road student: when he turned in homework it was often half done. His class work was sloppy and I usually sensed he wasn’t paying attention at all. That year, I had a rough group of classes: student fights breaking out, a girl was beat up by her boyfriend and almost killed, a very tall male student threatened me—and my admin wasn’t very supportive—so I was hanging on by the skin of my teeth. I allowed the young man to sit quietly in the back of the class because he wasn’t causing any problems.
When we got to the essay unit, I was completely gobsmacked by his paper. It was the most well-written and analytical essay I had seen in a long time. I wrote him some sort of encouraging comment and started to pay closer attention to him in a very low-key way. Well, fast-forward: his junior year, I asked if he would join the school newspaper (I was the advisor). He did and over the course over the next two years, I watched him change and develop into a leader in the class: he came out of his shell and got really involved in the paper—learning how to program and do layouts, etc. When he graduated, he wrote in my yearbook how when he was a a sophomore he was being jumped into a gang and it was my encouragement that gave him the courage to get out of that lifestyle. He joined the Navy and is currently in the PhD program at Duke University. I still talk to him once in a while and he doing amazing: married and happy.
Texas Grilled Cocoa Chile Steak
Bored with burgers and hot dogs? Offer seasoned steak slices in flour tortillas at your next backyard cookout.
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Prep: 5 min | Refrigerate: 2 hr | Cook: 16 min | Yield: 6 servings
In this most brilliant video, the commentator elaborates on the subtle “message” that China sent to the United States.
This message SHATTERED all the preconceptions that RAND, the Pentagon and the American government had about China’s ability to destroy the USA through nuclear fire.
The missile was a DF-31AG upgrade.
Where the range, speed, and payload was demonstrated to be much better than the RAND report assumptions.
Range covers all of the United States.
Can carry three nuclear warheads
Fielded in large numbers with warheads in place.
MACH 23, cannot be intercepted.
Further, the number of deployed missiles with armed warheads is also much larger than the mere 500 “threats” that RAND assumes.
The video takes the time to parse what the demonstrated aspects indicate, and what their significance are.
The arguments are sound and valid, and the short video (7:40 minutes long) is a must watch.
Are inmates allowed to spend the entire day sleeping?
This answer is from a guy who served Fed time in 4 different prisons. State, county, city, etc May be different.
First, understand that not long after the fear subsides, you come to understand the true reality of your situation. You are facing years, decades inside of 4 walls. You don’t get out unless you are transferred or in a box. So your whole life comes down to to a few acres, surrounded by 20’ walls protected by piles of razor wire. You can count on your fingers the things you can do to keep busy.
Everyone had an assigned job. It usually starts after the morning count and ends before the afternoon count. You get weekend off. For me, I’d have rather worked 7 days. Days off tended to be long. Very long.
To your question, are inmates allowed to sleep all day? On days off, you are mostly free to entertain yourself in any non threatening way. Wanna sleep? Sure! All day and night if you like. Just be in position to be counted as they don’t fuck around with counts. Wanna sleep all day? Get sent to the SHU! You can sleep 24/7/365. That is if you don’t loose little pieces of your sanity. But why sleep all day? I think it sounds good! I think it carry’s a semi fun connotation, but can you really sleep all night then all day and then sleep the next night? Nights are pretty calm but at lights out, you are expected to STFU. And understand there are another 750 inmates that want to sleep at night so if you are up all night because you aren’t tired, you best not be waking up Bubba in the next cell or there’ll be hell to pay the next morning.
I slept about 5 hours a night. I’d go down about 7:30–8:00pm. Obviously I was up early. While I was in Tucson FCI, about a year before release, I was moved to the camp next door. I ended up with 2 jobs. Morning breakfast cafeteria, opened it at 4:30am and closing it by 9:00 am count and then headed to my day job. I don’t watch TV so there was a lot of time to fill and the truth is, there were about 100 paperback books with about 1/2 being romance novels. I wanted to stay busy. For me it worked.
Americans are like members of a quarrelsome family, so intent on arguing their petty grievances around the kitchen table that they don’t smell the rising smoke from the oven. As our nation fumes and the world burns, neither major party presidential candidate is addressing the lapping flames around us.
Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are not simply ignoring our frightening national debt – both vow to ramp it up. Neither candidate has a serious plan to respond to the threats posed by China, Russia, or Iran.
The strangling costs of health care, the sharp decline in mental health, the disintegration of our public schools – which is sharply tied to the breakdown in the family – are all ignored in a race marked by gauzy references to policy and sharp personal attacks.
It’s not just Harris and Trump – our leadership in Washington has long refused to face up to the growing threats to our republic. Their empty promise is that everything is the other side’s fault. Help us annihilate the other guy and everything will be peaches and cream.
A third-grader wouldn’t fall for this nonsense. Neither side can vanquish the other. A Harris victory will not be the death knell of Trump’s populist message; Trump’s win will not defang progressivism’s leftward lurch. Whatever the outcome, we will continue to be a divided, angry nation. And yet, seemingly thoughtful Americans have bought this line hook, line, and sinker.
More importantly, even if one side did seize absolute power, they have no legitimate plan to right the ship of state. Sixty years of Great Society programs have shown us we can’t spend our way out of problems. The 44 years since the Reagan Revolution show us that tax cuts can only set the stage for reforms that have never come – a task that nears the impossible as ever more Americans become dependent on government aid.
America is in a second Age of Nero – our leaders fiddle as the country burns.
In past crises, the strength, resilience, and ingenuity of the American people have saved us from the depths of want and war. It is not clear we retain that grit.
Instead of demanding leadership, we seem content with the bread and circuses of mindless politics more akin to the gladiatorial battle of Rome than the edifying debates of ancient Greece. The broad embrace of victimhood and grievance on both sides has replaced any question of sacrifice for the common good with the desire to demonize our imagined tormentors. If anything, we savor the fight. It makes us feel important, alive – it gives our lives meaning.
Although we have serious problems, we are no longer a serious people. Hence our choice between Donald J. Trump and Kamala Harris.
They are not the disease, however, but a symptom. The first step toward a treatment, if not cure, is obvious: we must reject our empty politics of diversion in order to identify and address our urgent crisis. Honesty really would make a difference. It might also make us happier as we re-channel our energies from angry partisanship into thoughtful partnership.
Still, that would only get us so far. Life teaches that identifying one’s problems is the relatively easy part of change – we all know what’s wrong with the other guy and, sometimes, ourselves. Finding the will and discipline to do something about it is far harder.
We are sinking before that challenge because it still seems possible to ignore the building fire. Many of us have it pretty good; our fears are mitigated by our confidence in escape. It won’t get me.
Ironically, the fact that much of the rest of the world is crumbling imparts a false sense of security. Instead of seeing those problems as canaries in the coal mine, we think, Hey, we’re still doing okay.
It’s true that history confutes the doomsayers. The world does get better in the long run. But that is little consolation to those whose one short life is spent during the ebbing flow.
History also teaches that judgment for past failure often comes with sudden swiftness, like a thief in the night. As we think about the immense problems we are allowing to smolder, recall Ernest Hemingway’s pithy warning from “The Sun Also Rises.”
“How did you go bankrupt?” one character asks a friend.
“Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
J. Peder Zane is a RealClearInvestigations editor and columnist. He previously worked as a book review editor and book columnist for the News & Observer (Raleigh), where his writing won several national honors. Zane has also worked at the New York Times and taught writing at Duke University and Saint Augustine’s University.
Why is there so much fear among many Westerners about the rise of China?
Meet Virgin and Chad.
Virgin was an introverted, nerdy kid, who preferred keeping to himself and doing his own thing.
Chad‘s an extrovert. He’s muscular, charismatic, popular, and a bully.
He tried to get Virgin hooked on some really dank shit. One day, Virgin said, “No Chad, I don’t need your drugs anymore, it’s fucking me up real bad, I gots to clean up my act, for reals.”
Chad was desperate for Virgin’s money. So he called his posse over, broke Virgin’s legs, and made him his bitch.
Virgin survived the ordeal somehow, and vowed to become strong, so that he will never be picked on again.
Time flies. While Virgin focused on bettering himself through discipline and sheer will, Chad completely let himself go. When they met again, Virgin became what Chad used to look like, while Chad became an obese, drugged-up drunkard who’s suffering from gender dysphoria.
The two looked at each other in awkward silence. Chad decided to break the ice. “Hey dude…how you been?”
“I’m alright”, Virgin replied calmly.
“That’s great man, I’m happy for you! I mean, wow, just look at you! Dem abs, nigga!” said Chad. “Listen, about that stuff that happened a while ago…”
“Don’t worry about it.” interjected Virgin. “That was a long time ago, I’m wiling to let it go, if you’re willing to do the same.”
Chad was speechless. “I…well…of course man, we cool dude?”
“Yeah we cool, no hard feelings. Look I gotta get back to my calligraphy and shit, you wanna see my work?”
“Nah it’s okay bro, you do you man, you do you. Laters.”
But Chad was not reassured by Virgin’s words. It only made him more anxious and paranoid.
“How is this possible?”, he thought. “No, he’s way too calm and forgiving. Almost as if….as if…he’s plotting something big.”
“He’s gonna get me….oh god, he’s gonna get me…payback for everything I’ve done to him….oh god, no…”
The Imperialist West has much to fear from China, because they themselves are well aware of what they have done, to China, to the rest of the developing world. How could they not worry that China will turn out to be a conqueror, a slaver, a destroyer of civilisations, as they themselves used to be (and still are)?
No amount of good faith, isolation and passiveness on China’s part will convince them that China is simply not like them. A thief will always live in fear of being burgled, a bully in fear of being bullied.
What made you realize your life will never be the same?
In November of 2021, shortly after I turned 67, my husband and I went for a vacation in Maui. I was still working, doing consulting on a big project and wanted a break before things got really intense.
We went snorkeling in the morning, but it was a bit windy so we didn’t stay long. My husband wanted to go boogie boarding, so we stopped at another beach we liked. I wasn’t going to go in but decided I should do a few. We’d been boogie boarding for 30 years so I should have known what I was doing. I walked out and the first wave looked good. As I jumped on it, I realized it was rolling down but I’d already committed. I hit my head on the bottom and felt like a lightning bolt went through me. Once I got back to the top of the water I tried to put my hands down to push myself up and realized I couldn’t move my arms. Luckily, some first responders (who happened to live in the same province as me in Canada) were at the beach and saw what happened. They came and pulled me out and had me covered up with an umbrella until the ambulance got there. I had no movement in my arms and legs although I could move my fingers and toes slightly. Ten days later I was airlifted back to BC and a week after that had surgery to fuse my neck. I spent a total of 4 months in hospital, 3 months of it in our regional rehabilitation hospital.
I am lucky enough that I got most of my movement back and am slightly impaired on my right side. When I was in the hospital there were many others who weren’t so lucky.
I’m now at the point that I can travel again and I’m trying to make the most of my life as I come to my 70th birthday.
Hero Cat Suddenly Rushes Toward Accident Scene – Does Something No One Has Ever Seen!
During our “van days”; that period of time in between the discharge from the US Navy and when I was picked up with MAJestic…
…we were living in a van, working as a cook in San Louis Obispo, California and just doing the best we could with the little that we had.
And during that time, we lived in a broken down van; inoperable, dead, and even the door locks didn’t work. We climbed in and out though the sunroof. It was parked in a the tail end of the church parking lot. And so life moved on. We would exit the van, walk to work and walk back. It was tough, but we managed.
It was a time of great frustration, but of greater hope.
THis was years before the mass layoffs that gave all of America a taste of what a layoff actually was. And so, we were surrounded by “know it alls” who had no sympathy for us, as we plodded on.
One day, as we were walking to and from the van, we noticed another overloaded station wagon (late model and older) with tons of gear piled on its roof. So we kept on our walk and some of the guys offered us some marijuana.
Normally we wouldn’t take, but they looked like they were from Jamaica (they were) and so we chatted and hit some of their ganja. The group was The Wailers. Though, at that time, Bob Marley wasn’t with them.
Jamminh
They were fine and we had many a rambling and insightful conversation; that unfortunately I have long forgotten. *sigh*
They gave us free tickets to their concert, but we were too stoned. We thanked them, as they were starting to set up at the pavilion. Instead, we just smiled and just walked back to our van.
And that is the story of how my wife and I met The Wailers. Just some travelers just like us. When you get off the beaten track you will meet all kinds of people. And you will have all kinds of experiences.
Today…
Bob Marley & The Wailers – Jamming
Why do Hong Kong people not fight back when they are discriminated against in the UK?
Hong Kong separatists suffer racial discrimination in the UK, but for them, the nightmare does not come from Anglo-Saxon racism, but from the actions of the Tiandihui (also known as the Hongmen) to punish Chinese traitors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiandihui
Chinese abroad often rely on 3 kinds of civil society organizations for help: clan associations, hometown associations, and the Tiandihui.
Chinese embassies and consulates abroad are official institutions of the Chinese government overseas. They usually coordinate with government departments in the host countries through diplomatic means and are unlikely to intervene in private affairs.
Without the help of civil society organizations, overseas Chinese would not be able to gain a foothold in Chinatown.
The Tiandihui was founded by Ming loyalists in the early Qing dynasty to resist the Manchu invasion of China. This is an ancient organization that is still in operation today and it has become a multinational organization that also has branches in the UK.
Tiandihui members worldwide continue to observe certain common traditions: they all stress their patriotic origin; they all revere Lord Guan, a deified historic Chinese figure who embodies righteousness, patriotism, and loyalty; and they all share certain rituals and traditions such as the concept of brotherhood and a secret handshake.
Chinese Traitors in the UK are also divided into different levels:
Taiwan separatists have higher emotional intelligence. Although they are Chinese traitors, they will not show it on the surface.
Hong Kong separatists are 100% slaves of Anglo-Saxons. Even if Anglo-Saxons fart, they think it smells good.
Of course, Taiwan independence elements and Hong Kong independence elements are of no use. They only dare to be rebellious at home and remain calm abroad.
Tiandihui is a secret civil organization with many branches and complex structure, and does not conduct public activities.
Don’t expect the inefficient British police to protect Chinese traitors; they just need to accept their punishment honestly.
Dried Beef Casserole
3fa933ede33ee29541830983f81b288f
Ingredients
2 cups dry macaroni, uncooked
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 cups milk
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
6 tablespoons Durkee’s French fried onions
10 ounces dried beef, chopped
5 hard boiled eggs, sliced
Instructions
Combine soup and milk and stir until creamy, then add remaining ingredients except eggs. Mix well, then fold in eggs.
Cover tightly, and refrigerate overnight.
Bake uncovered for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.
If desired, add more onion rings to top ten minutes before removing from oven.
BREAKING NEWS: ISRAEL SEIZES CRYPTO-CURRENCIES OF **ALL** PALESTINIANS – – – TERRORISM
Israel has ORDERED the crypto-exchange “Binance” to SEIZE the crypto-currencies of all Palestinians pursuant to Israeli Terrorism Law!!!!!
Israel did this by declaring the Dubai Exchange Company in the Gaza Strip, which is the only lawful crypto-currency entity allowed to operate in the Gaza Strip, to be a “terrorist organization.”
All Palestinians were required to use the Dubai Exchange Company for all their crypto-currency transactions.
Since the Israeli government declared the Dubai Exchange itself to be a “terrorist organization” all the money transferred by or through that company is then considered to be the property of the “terrorist organization” and thus subject to being seized!
Palestinians have APPEALED this mass seizure. Those Appeals are ALL being denied.
The DENIAL letter appears below in original Hebrew language, which has been machine-translated as follows:
BEGIN MACHINE TRANSLATION:
“In accordance with the authority delegated to me by the Minister of Defense, according to Section 61(a) of the Law on Combating Terrorism, 556- 2016 (hereinafter: “The Law on the Fight against Terrorism”) and further to your application as a reference, I would like to inform you that your claims against Seizure of property by virtue of an administrative seizure order (T56/23) signed by the Minister of Defense on November 1, 2023, by virtue of his authority according to the law, were examined by and rejected for the following reasons:
1. Section 56(b) of the Anti-Terrorism Law states, among other things, that the Minister of Defense may issue an order on Temporary seizure of property of a declared terrorist organization, as well as seizure of property that was used to commit a crime Serious terrorism or property where a serious terrorist offense was committed.
2. At the basis of the administrative seizure order (Tt56/23) is reliable intelligence information that teaches that wallets of cryptocurrencies, including one that is registered in your name, funds have been transferred by an organization — the declared terrorism of the Dubai Exchange Company in the Gaza Strip (declared on March 7, 2022, published in the 10084 p. 2505 on 4.4.2022.
3. According to the anti-terrorism law, cryptographic currencies that have been transferred by a declared terrorist organization constitute property of a declared terrorist organization and cryptocurrency wallets to which it has been transferred. Said property constitutes property that was directly used to commit a serious terrorist offense of providing a service or Establishing measures for a terrorist organization, as defined in the Law on Combating Terrorism, and therefore in accordance with the instructions The law allows the Minister of Defense to order their seizure by administrative order in preparation for their confiscation.
4. In light of the above, and if nothing is found in your claims to contradict the information that formed the basis of issuing an order The seizure, I intend to recommend to the Minister of Defense to order the confiscation of the property for which the seizure order was issued, In accordance with the authority of the Minister of Defense according to section 66(a) of the law.
5. According to the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Law, an appeal against this decision will be submitted as a petition to the Court of Matters administrative.
END MACHINE TRANSLATION —–
So the Israelis are considering ALL Palestinian crypto-currencies to be “terrorism” because they all went through the only lawful crypto exchange in the Gaza Strip, and Israel has now seized all that crypto-currency from the wallets of the people who sent it or received it. Whether that person was a “terrorist” or not, does not matter because the crypto-exchange itself was declared a “terrorist organization.”
Any of you who have Crypto-currencies, being held in a wallet that can be accessed by any exchange, should dump that crypto-currency absolutely immediately and get your money. What Israel has just shown is that they (or any other government) can simply make a declaration that the Exchange itself is a “terrorist organization” then grab all the crypto wallets that have ever been used via that exchange!
You would lose all your crypto, and automatically be considered to be “related to terrorist activities” with the stroke of a pen by some government lackey.
Remember this, too, when they start trying to get you to use “Central Bank Digital Currency.” They could do the exact same thing with that! You would find yourself cut off from all money. Try “appealing” anything when all the cash (you no longer have) is only “digital” and they just grabbed it all!
Today, as you scan your regular “news” sources, see if there is any reporting at all about this?
The TRAGIC TRUE Story Of The $280M Lottery Winner
A nightmare.
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Parenting Gone Wrong: Spoiled Child Leads Family to Deadly Consequences At A Hotpot Restaurant
Have you ever caught a mechanic lying about a repair they claimed to have done to your car? What happened?
We recently bought out my wife’s company car, a Subaru Legacy, which we got a great deal on. Shortly before, while the car was still owned by fleet, we had taken the car in to the dealership for an oil change. This was before it got warm enough to need the air conditioner. Along comes summer and we notice the AC isn’t putting out cold air. I pop the hood and notice the wires to the compressor have been cut. I took a number of pictures from various angles and took the car back to the dealership and acted stupid, as if I had no idea why the AC was suddenly not working. An hour later they called to let me know they discovered that the wires had been chewed through, probably by a rat and said the entire wiring harness needed to be replaced at a cost of somewhere around $400–600. I lost my cool and told them they were lying to me and said it was obvious the wires had been cut. The service manager then told me they had found evidence of a rat’s nest under the hood. I told him I had taken a number of pictures of the engine compartment and that I had not seen any evidence of any rodent and said the wires were cut far too clean for them to have been chewed through and that it was pretty obvious this had been done when the car had last been in for service.
Thankfully my wife had a good relationship with the fleet manager and called him and asked for advice. He said to give us an hour and he’d get back to us. The dealership reached out shortly afterward and said they would be taking care of the damage at no charge to us. Apparently the fleet manager told them it seemed as though they were trying to take advantage of the fact that it was a fleet car (as it would have been had we not bought it out), had likely cut the wires expecting the fleet would be covering the repair bill (as they would have done had the car still been a fleet vehicle) and he was prepared to recommend blacklisting Subaru over their actions.
We will never take our car back to Carter Subaru in Shoreline (Seattle) again. Clearly they’re not to be trusted.
** Update: This answer must’ve recently been included in a digest email because it’s received a lot of attention. I figured I should probably update it with a couple of pictures I took before bringing the car in to the dealership. It clearly shows evidence of the “rat” that chewed, err, sliced through the wiring harness.
Which country has better fighters than the US? Are Russia or China known for having strong fighters?
Regarding the gap between fighter jets of China, the United States and Russia, the most appropriate objects of comparison are the three heavy stealth fighters: J-20, F22 and Su-57.
If we rank the number of the three types of heavy aircraft: J-20>F22>Su-57.
J-20, 100 new aircraft are produced every year
F22 has been discontinued for a long time, with only about 180 in total.
Su-57, no more than 10 are produced every year.
The combat effectiveness of the three heavy aircraft is ranked as follows: J-20>F22>Su-57.
The performance indicators of the fifth-generation fighter jets should be in order of importance:
Super perception (including informationization and intelligence): The maximum detection range of the F22 airborne radar is 250 kilometers, and the maximum detection range of the J-20 airborne radar is 300 kilometers.
Stealth: The J20 is more delicate than the F22. The J20 can adapt to various environments, whether it is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau or the western desert. The J20 only needs an ordinary hangar to be deployed, unlike the F22, which needs a constant temperature hangar for maintenance. Finally, regarding the Su-57, I think if the Su-57 is optimized, the stealth performance still has a lot of room for improvement.
Supercruise and supersonic maneuverability: The F22 should be the one with the best supercruise capability at present because of its engine advantage, but the J-20’s supersonic optimization is the most thorough. After replacing the new engine, its supercruise and supersonic maneuverability will far surpass the F22.
Multi-purpose performance (including payload range): Theoretically, the multi-purpose performance of Su-57 should be the strongest, its bomb bay is deeper, and the front and rear columns are also convenient for arranging large missiles. Compared with the F22, the J-20 has a longer fuselage, larger fuel capacity, and a larger bomb bay, so its range and multi-purpose performance are greater than those of the F22. The comprehensive comparison is Su-57>J-20>F 22.
Subsonic maneuverability (including supersonic maneuverability, also known as super-stall maneuverability): This is the most controversial issue at present. The domestically produced Taihang improved engine currently installed on the J-20 is only a transitional version of the WS-15 engine. Its thrust is barely enough for the J-20, so its over-stall maneuverability is definitely not as good as that of the F22 and Su-57. However, with the advent and deployment of the WS-15 engine, these problems will be solved.
The US military itself knows very well that they are losing their air superiority!
Young Connecticut Man Will Only Give His GF A “Symbolic Wedding” To Safeguard His Hard Earned Wealth
Interesting. Phew! What a crazy life.
Good Job
One day, while I was working upstairs in my office, my German Shepherd came upstairs, stood in my office doorway barking at me.
Then he walked over to the top of the staircase barking as he looked down the stairs. He lifted his head, looked towards me and continued barking.
He walked back and stood in the office doorway again looking at me, barking.
He did this repeatedly for a few minutes while I worked. It became obvious he wanted me to follow him downstairs. I got up and asked him, “What’s the matter?”
As soon as I asked this our house began to shake.
Everything on my walls and shelves were rattling.
I did not understand exactly what was happening, but we both ran down the stairs while I yelled, “Let’s get the hell out of here!”
We got outside and I felt the ground moving.
Then it stopped.
We had just experienced an earthquake. They are practically nonexistent in our region. Somehow, my boy knew it was coming and came upstairs to warn me.
He did many intelligent things in his lifetime, but that was the most amazing.
Suspects That LOSE IT During Interrogations
Brutal.
Ukraine Develops ‘Its Own’ Cruise Missile
On the Ukrainian independence day former President Zelenski announced that Ukraine’s forces would soon use a “rocket driven drone”:
On 24 August, during the Saturday ceremonies for Ukraine’s Independence Day, Volodymyr Zelensky stated that today, Ukrainian forces for the first time targeted enemy troops with a new long-range drone.- This is our new method of retaliating against the aggressor. The enemy was hit. Thank you to everyone who made this possible. All the developers, manufacturers, and our soldiers. I am proud of you, Zelensky said during his speech, quoted by the Ukrainska Pravda portal.
The rocket-drone system, produced indigenously by Ukraine and gracefully named “Paljanica” (like the traditional Ukrainian wheat flour bread, which symbolizes hospitality and happiness), is a military innovation. During the official ceremonies, Zelensky stressed that it is a weapon of a “completely new class”. He emphasized that “it is difficult to counteract it, but very easy to understand why.”
The work on the rocket-drone was carried out in secrecy.
Zelenski published a video that shows a second of the cruise missile in flight.
This is not a drone but a turbojet driven cruise missile. Ukraine announced that it has been tested and could be used soon:
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov promised Monday the weapon would be used again soon in response to the overnight attack on Ukraine.“Ukraine is preparing its response. Weapons of its own production,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “This once again proves that for victory, we need long-range capabilities and the lifting of restrictions on strikes on the enemy’s military facilities.”
A Ukrainian military video hinted that its range is up to 700 kilometers (430 miles) — on par with the U.S.-supplied ATACMS. It showed a map with various airfields, including Russia’s Savasleyka air base, which lies within that range, adding that the Palianytsia can reach at least 20 Russian airfields.
Russia has expected longer range missile strikes for some time and its defenses are positioned appropriately. Another Ukrainian ‘wonder weapon’ will not impress it. Ukraine claims that the cruise missile was developed by itself:
One of the specialists involved in the long-range missile project said it was “a completely new development, from scratch” that began about 18 months ago.“This is not an extension of an old Soviet project,” said the specialist, speaking on condition of anonymity to safeguard the project’s secrecy. The missile has a solid-fuel booster that accelerates it, followed by a jet engine, the specialist said.
…
The specialist and Fedorov said each missile costs less than $1 million, and the military is turning to the private sector to bring down production costs further. “The private market generates solutions incredibly quickly,” the minister said.
I doubt that Ukraine has created its own cruise missile. There are too many parts of such systems, especially the navigation and targeting modules, that need high end solutions to be able to counter Russian electronic warfare measures and to deceive Russian air defenses. It expect that these will be derivatives from western projects.
Aside from that all Ukraine’s weapon and especially missile manufacturing facilities have been hit several times by Russian missiles. This morning a new large missile and drone attack again hit “the critical power infrastructure of Ukrainian defence industry”. Next to other infrastructure today’s strike damaged three irreplaceable 750 kilovolt transformer stations and several 330 kv stations.
The new Ukrainian cruise missile was probably designed by the U.S. or UK and its various modules will likely be assembled in Poland instead of Ukraine. Still, it will be a hassle to produce many of these. That is likely the reason why the Ukrainian leadership is begging daily to allow it to use long range missiles produced by the U.S. or Britain to hit targets within Russia.
So far the U.S. has blocked such moves because it fears retaliation by Russia. Russia has threatened to deliver such weapons from Russian production to U.S. enemies should the U.S. proceed and allow Ukraine to hit with U.S. weapons within Russia.
A “Ukrainian” cruise missile would of course eliminate that problem.
What happened in your office that became the stuff of legend?
We were getting calls from a lot of vendors about past due invoices – for MONTHS. This was so weird as our branch was doing very well and we just could not figure out why our vendors weren’t being paid. Invoices were posted in the AP and this should not have been happening. It got so bad that one of our major suppliers wouldn’t provide any more material until they were paid. This was bad – we had a MAJOR project going that we could not not have material.
We had what was called an Imprest Checking Account. We had a checkbook and could write checks for things like permits, licenses, etc. The cap per check was $500.00 with a monthly “allowance of around $3,000.00 per branch.
To avoid credit hold that month, our Branch Manager told the office manager to write a check for $30,000.00. Done and delivered, material is on the job site. Got a call from HQ/Co. President telling us we did a bad thing and not to do it again because overdraft fees.
Our AP admin decided to do some investigating. Holy carp – we were going gangbusters and collecting a lot of money every month but almost ALL of our AP was aging towards or past 120 days. So she looked in to the HQ office. Gee, all of their bills were being paid on time. So she took this info to the BM who called HQ and read them the riot act.
Next month, same drill – no material from the vendor for the project until they were paid. BM directed AP admin to write a check for $60,000.00.
A week later, same phone call from HQ President. BM invited us admins in to his office and put him on speaker so we could listen. Pres. was yelling and screaming at BM who just sat, calmly, nodding and listening. Pres ended his tirade with “What do you have to say?!” BM, very calmly, replied “Pay our fuickin’ bills.” Silence on the other end followed by unintelligible grumbling and a click. BM just sat there and smiled at the phone and the three of us were in awe. That man, our Branch Manager, was a legend.
After that, our bills were paid on time. I still tell that story and am still in awe of, perhaps, the best boss I ever had.
Wife Spent 5 Months On OnlyFans Before Confessing To Husband & The Reddit Army WENT CRAZY When He…
The term “relationship” has taken on new meaning these days. Not judging, but it is a bit of a shock to my 1960 era sensibilities.
How do you view the popularity of “Black Myth: Wukong” and the spread of Chinese culture?
Black Myth: Wukong” has shattered multiple global gaming records on its first day of release. As of 10 PM last night, it reached over 2.22 million concurrent players on Steam, topping the Steam concurrent player chart and setting a new record for single-player games. Additionally, “Black Myth: Wukong” has been the best-selling game on Steam globally for the past week, sweeping the charts in 12 regions including the United States, Singapore, Canada, and Italy.
“Black Myth: Wukong” sold over 3 million copies on Steam alone yesterday, and with sales on Epic, WeGame, and PS5 combined, the total surpasses 4.5 million copies, generating over 1.5 billion yuan in revenue. This figure is hundreds of times higher than the pre-sales of previous domestic single-player games (which typically reached around 100.
To be honest, no domestic single-player game has ever demonstrated such a terrifying dominance. Changcheng Securities even predicts that “Black Myth: Wukong” could catch up with top-tier games like “Elden Ring” and “Dark Souls” in terms of sales.
This is not blind optimism. With over 4.5 million copies sold in a single day and total sales exceeding 1.5 billion yuan, “Black Myth: Wukong” has set a new benchmark. For comparison, “Cyberpunk 2077” had 8 million pre-orders upon its release in 2020, and “The Last of Us Part II,” the 2020 TGA Game of the Year, sold 4 million copies in its first week. Moreover, “Black Myth: Wukong” reached 1 million concurrent players within 60 minutes, surpassing “Cyberpunk 2077.
“Black Myth: Wukong” is rich in traditional Chinese cultural elements, even featuring傩面 (nuò miàn,傩 masks).
Black Myth: Wukong” represents a significant milestone in the global dissemination of Chinese culture, offering a visually stunning and culturally rich gaming experience that has captured the attention of audiences worldwide. By examining the game’s portrayal of Chinese mythology, its impact on the global gaming industry, and its potential to foster cultural exchange, we can gain a deeper understanding of the role of video games in shaping cultural perceptions.
How will I survive prison being a 48-year-old male? I am awaiting sentencing in less than 23 days and I am facing up to 9 years in total in feds. How will I survived having ever been in prison before?
All right, sit down and listen. Jim Van Derlin wrote 10 things. do not forget any of it. Great stuff. Now, I was like 58 going into a Fed prison. I did time in 4 prisons including the Penitentiary at Victorville, CA and finished out my time at FCI Tucson, a medium-high that was rated as High due to it being a transfer point/holding site. Os some shit like that.
So, 9 years. Make amends. Payoff any debts you can. Say goodbye. Sell your car, cancel everything you can, your family won’t need it. If you have family, you will need to connect like never before because IF you get visits, they are hard. I didn’t even want my family coming to fucking prison. The penitentiary is surrounded by a 40′ wall lined with piles of razor wire. The inmates all look like they would eat your face just to stay busy. So you don’t think I’m insulting anyone, a big dude once asked me why I looked so mean, while we were in the visiting room. I think his daughter got scared. I was like ‘bro, you’re 6’9″, 325 pounds and have a face only a mother could love and you think I’m mean looking?
Before this fiasco, a speeding ticket ruined my month. I was not from the hood, I was not connected nor was I a fighting machine. So to reiterate a few comments from Jim, unless you want your asshole the size of a cucumber, DO NOT DO ANYTHING that causes you to owe money. $5 past due, a few homies come by, you no gots??? You trade for sex. It won’t necessarily be your choice. If Someone wants to give you a hit on a smoke, or a joint, DO NOT take it. Do not be surprised that the hit you took went on your tab. Yeah, the tab you didn’t know you had.
Respect others. Expect it back. If something goes sideways and nasty talk starts, you have about 10–12 seconds. If the other dude calms, let it rest. If he ain’t calm, expect an attack immediately. You will never argue more than 15 seconds before the shit flies! Be ready and swing back.
Carry yourself with confidence, but not arrogance. you can nod or a small half smile of acknowledgement to peeps you know from other races but do NOT think you can walk up and join a convo with another race. you’ll be sorry with a quick lesson.
My advice, do not be friends with the first guys that approach you. They will be conning you out of something. Hopefully, your bunkie or a guy from a close cell walks you down to the chow hall. Listen, answer questions honestly, and do not try to be someone you are not. Take it slowly. Be friend-LY with people but it takes months before you should trust or rely on others.
After the mental meltdown of the admitting process and the first few days of living in a parallel universe, you will start to go through your life. There is little you can do inside. I’m still married, somehow. Don’t expect to be. If you are and she waits, you are blessed.
I made it through my whole sentence until the last year. Something happened, I had years of being fed up. I started yelling about something. There were a couple of COs close by. The boys I was pissed at didn’t like being barked at in front of others. An hour later I got a visit at my locker. 5 dudes. A little talking, a little pushing. I counted and got to 11. I knew this was it. Early on in my sentence, I had decided that if I ever got hit by a group, it was gonna hurt. So I figured, I’m going to concentrate my “love and attention” on 1 guy. I wanted at least one dude besides me to walk with a limp, or a hanging arm, or a fucked up face! You’ll be in pain, but make 1 guy remember you. Word gets around.
China Threatens EU Dairy Economy, Argentina Gold In London, Major Bank “USD Big Crash Bets”
Tit 4 tat.
A HK story
So I rung my uncle in Hong Kong because I heard he had a fall recently.
He has to sit in a wheelchair for a while but he was in good spirits.
He was almost gleeful to share about Nathan Law’s recent travails.
Apparently, the white masters are cutting him loose and he is in a bit of a bind financially. His family and supporters are in trouble for sending him money. His mum even lost the subsidized housing unit due to rent arrears.
He wants Nathan to come back and face the music so the family don’t have to.
But he knows that is wishful thinking, because the man is a “chickenshit coward”. His original description is a little too colorful to print here.
He hates the leaders of the 2019 riots because his little side business went under during the mayhem, and incurred a tidy loss.
I don’t blame him.
I wish him a speedy recovery.
Why is China lagging behind India while its GDP is higher than India’s?
It’s commonly believed that India’s potential could soon eclipse China’s, but the real story is quite the opposite. While India’s GDP figures are catching eyes, China’s strategic investments in high-value sectors show that it is leagues ahead in sustainable economic growth.
You see, China isn’t just about huge GDP numbers. It’s about how they’ve managed to turn those numbers into substantial value through smart, forward-thinking strategies. Decades ago, China’s economy heavily relied on exporting low-margin goods. But today, the game has changed. China now focuses on high-tech manufacturing and mastering key technologies, earning significantly more per unit of export. For instance, a Tesla made in Shanghai leaves a big chunk of profit within Chinese borders, which wasn’t the case with the lower-margin goods they made years ago. The same goes for Huawei smartphones, which now rake in higher profits compared to the earlier contracts with Western brands.
Meanwhile, India’s economic landscape is in a different phase, more focused on assembly and service-based tasks. Even though India’s exports are expected to rise, the value they add to the economy pales in comparison to China’s high-tech exports. India finds itself deeply engaged in refining oil, assembling electronics, and providing software services. These sectors don’t bring significant value back home; most of the profits end up with the foreign owners of these technologies.
Another big part of the story is how each country invests in its people. China has poured resources into its education system, subsidizing costs and providing numerous scholarships, creating a skilled workforce geared toward innovation. On the flip side, Indian education remains expensive, burdening graduates and their families and making it challenging to cultivate a wide pool of talent needed for a tech-driven economy.
China’s economic prowess also stems from continuous investment in infrastructure and technology. The nation has heavily invested in electric vehicle batteries, solar panels, and wind energy, sectors that promise not just jobs but also position China as a future leader in these critical industries. India’s investment in high-tech sectors and infrastructure has yet to meet the same level of effectiveness.
Social factors can’t be ignored either. China has nurtured a meritocratic environment with a focus on achieving technological advancements. Meanwhile, India’s societal focus on celebrity culture and ongoing brain drain diverts attention from the systematic nurturing of its economic potential.
So, if you’re asking why China’s GDP doesn’t tell the whole story of its economic superiority, it’s because of these deep, structural investments and strategic choices. Despite China’s substantially higher GDP, it’s the focus on high-value, technology-driven sectors, education, and infrastructure that sets it apart. For India to bridge this gap, there would need to be a massive shift in educational policies, a serious dedication to infrastructure, and a move away from traditional economic activities toward more innovative sectors.
In essence, while India’s GDP growth might look promising at a glance, China’s underlying economic strategies make it a more formidable force on the global stage. This difference in developmental focus and investment is why China, despite what headlines might suggest, continues to pave the way for a more stable and prosperous future.
American’s can’t comprehend living like Chinese..
So interesting, making fun of Americans. Actually a really good video pointing out the importance of LIVABILITY where you live.
What is the craziest sale you’ve ever made?
I bought a Jeep for $250, drove it a half mile, and sold it for $2,500…unintentionally.
My roommate blew an axle out of his truck, so as I was taxiing him around, he had me take a shortcut. On that back road, I saw this Jeep next to someone’s house. A real Jeep, a 1986 CJ-7, the year before Chrysler took the company over and ruined it. Since I learned the shortcut, I kept going that way, and kept seeing that Jeep, for probably 3 months, although it had clearly been there for years.
It was the homeowner’s son’s Jeep, and he’d moved across the country. He abandoned the Jeep there and ended up sending his father the title to get rid of it. Since I convinced the father I wasn’t a junk car guy or planning on scrapping it, I gave it a good hard closeup look and asked for a price. He said the scrap car guys belittled it and said it was only worth $250 max. Since I genuinely wanted to fix it up for myself, I could have it for that price, which I had on me.
I paid for the Jeep, jump started it, and surprisingly it ran. The brakes were crap, and this Jeep looked horrible, but I saw potential. I stopped at a gas station, and the guy there was mesmerized by this rusty hunk of a Jeep covered in tree crap. He asked me if I would sell it, to which I said I doubt he’s make it worth my while. He then offered me $2,500. I almost crapped my pants. I drove it about a half mile and made 10 times what I paid for it. My plan was just to make sure it had enough gas to get home since the gauge read empty, but instead I made it home with a lot more than I planned on.
After I thought, if he shot me $2,500 right away, he may have been willing to pay more, but I was so shocked I didn’t think of it until later. Who knows…
Is it possible for missiles to defeat the Close-In weapon System (CIWS) like the Phalanx system on a ship?
Yes. The Phalanx fires at 3,000 rounds per minute to 4,500 rounds depending on model.
These are designed to shoot down sub-sonic missiles.
Chinese research shows that in order to shoot down high supersonic missiles (missiles traveling at Mach3 – Mach 5) you need a CIWS that fires at 10,000 rounds per minute.
Also if the missile is maneuvering in terminal phase then the faster the firing rate the better. You also need better radars and powerful computers to predict the missile trajectory and get there first with the gun.
Current Chinese CIWS fires at 11,000 rounds per minute.
Everything in in-place. What event – or false-flag – will be used to trigger Actual WW3?
Ukraine has lost 5,500 troops, 71 tanks, 30 Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 57 Armored Personnel Carriers, and 372 Armored Combat Vehicles in their two week long misadventure into Russia’s Kursk Region.
The staggering losses in such a short time reveal the complete idiocy of this maneuver by Ukraine, or the factual realization that any NATO planners involved, were utterly incompetent.
Medellin: The Sex Tourism Capital Of Colombia | Is This A Passport Bro Paradise Or Nightmare?
The war on “passport bros” has entered a new cycle; as a sexpat.
A friend of mine was born to rich (not billionaire) parents. His Grandad had started a company with nothing, his dad had taken it on and made it bigger and more profitable. He was the eldest son.
I met him when he was 22. He was a graduate from an elite university, and had a got a lucrative government sponsorship to study accounting, and I’d got sponsorship at 18, to do the same. Which is where I met him. I’m from a more typical background, 2 parents, working 9–5 jobs to pay the mortgage and put food on the table.
We talked about the differences between us, on and off, over the next year or two.
Most of us have to go to work to earn money, support our family, and we keep turning up because if we don’t, we might get sacked. Those who don’t put the effort in, don’t get the bigger, better jobs. None of this applies to “daddy’s boy”. He knew if he wanted it, he would be MD of the family company. If not, the family would appoint a manager or sell the business, and he could live off the profits.
His dad was conscious of this, and had asked him the question a couple of times:
At 18 – Nope, I want to go to Uni
At 21, Nope I want to study to be an accountant
at 24 – I’d like to work in the private sector for 2 years.
Even at 26, his dad did his best to dissuade him:
You have a good career ahead of you, outside the family business. You can do well. You don’t need to take this on if you don’t want to. I can get a Professional manager.
You know, whatever you do, people will say you were “given it”. You will never get any credit.
It won’t be easy. I won’t give it to you, I will give you a couple of jobs, and if you goof around, I will leave you there. People’s jobs and their families depend on this company, and if you become MD, you need to take that responsibility seriously.
Once you come in, you will struggle to get a job outside the company again, as companies will always look at your CV and say “No point taking him on. All we’ll be doing is training him up for when he goes back to the family company.”
If you make a mistake here, people won’t let you forget. You can’t move jobs, and leave it behind.
You are giving up a lot of (government) benefits, if you come here, more than I can give you, and without the responsibility.
When you are MD, it’s pretty lonely. It’s not like being one of the workforce. It’s just you. People will give you advice, but they have their own agenda, and it’s only you who has to live with the consequences.
There’s always the risk that the company will fail, despite your best efforts. Then you’ll be stuck.
It was during this time that I started to realize that there were downside was well as upsides to being born in to his family.
When he did take it on, his dad was as good as his word. He gave him proper jobs. He made him make the decisions, stand behind them, and if he made mistakes had to own them. Sadly, his dad passed away when he was only 56, so my friend became MD at 30, which was earlier and sooner than his dad and him expected or planned.
He enjoyed it, and did very well. Took the business on to the next level. Increased sales, increased profits, added new product lines, won new customers, put a new computer system in place, trained up the senior team, introduced new production technology, and moved the factory to a new site double the size of the last one, but it was a very demanding role. He was the only family member working in the business, and the wider family seemed to add to his stress, not share the burden. I did some benchmarking on pay rates, and was surprised by his remuneration despite his stellar performance. I advised him that he well below market rates. The family were very reliant on him, but didn’t seem to recognise his performance. In his 40s, he developed some stress related health issues, and stepped away from the business.
After a couple of years sabbatical, he opted not to go back, and took a less stressful and more supportive, and appreciated career, and the company did get a locum manager, and still has it to this day.
Here’s how a day in Z-9 Ad-Seg goes down, from the horses mouth
Sunrise:
The day starts early with medical pass at 0600. We kick things off getting the medicals handled first. By 0620, it’s chow time, and in Ad-Seg, that means meals served straight in the cells. The sergeant handles this personally, making sure it’s all by the book. Food goes through the tray slots, no face-to-face interactions. If it’s Ramadan, we’ve got specific procedures to follow, but the routine stays locked down tight.
After breakfast, inmates get their cleaning supplies through the slot. They’re expected to keep their cells up to standard—no exceptions. Hygiene checks happen regularly, and if someone’s slipping, it gets dealt with. Sometimes, it’s hard to see what’s going on in the cell because inmates like to put cardboard on their windows. That’s only allowed if the inmate’s an IEX’r (indecent exposure), otherwise, we’re not having it.
Mid-Morning:
Around 0800, it’s shower time. In Ad-Seg, showers are solo—no exceptions. Inmates get cuffed and escorted to the shower, where they have about 10 minutes. Then it’s straight back to the cell, still cuffed. No free movement here—everything’s on lockdown. If there’s a medical appointment or legal visit, it’s the same routine: cuffed, escorted, and back to their cell.
Afternoon:
Lunch comes around 1200, following the same procedure as breakfast—through the slot, no hassle. After they eat, they get a bit of in-cell time. Inmates might read, write, or get in some exercises. It’s a small break in the day, but they know the rules. If there’s any legal business or visits, it’s handled individually, under strict supervision.
Yard Time:
Yard is limited in Ad-Seg—only three hours a week. When it’s their time, they’re cuffed and escorted to the yard. It’s the only chance they get to stretch out a bit, but it’s still tightly controlled, with eyes on them at all times.
Evening:
Dinner rolls around at 1700. By now, everyone’s in the routine—food through the slot, no drama. After dinner, the day starts winding down. Mail gets handed out, and if they’re lucky enough to have a TV, they catch a bit of programming before lights out.
Night:
By 2100, it’s lights out. We lock down the unit for the night, making sure everyone’s where they should be. There’s no movement unless it’s an emergency. We do our rounds, checking cells, making sure everything’s in order. The night settles in, and it’s quiet—just the hum of the unit.
In Z-9 Ad-Seg, everything’s about routine and control. Medical at 0600, chow at 0620, showers, meals, and the limited yard time all follow a strict schedule. Whether it’s dealing with cardboard on the windows or getting the yard in, it’s all about maintaining order—tight, controlled, and always by the book.
My father was often not around when I was a young child.
But I remember an argument one dinner time with the 4 (my dad, mum, myself and my younger brother) of us sat around the dinner table, I would be around 8/9 my brother 5.
Things had been strained most of the day. Something was said and that led to an argument, I remember dinner plates being thrown, food going all over the place, i slid under the table and grabbed my brother and held my hands over his ears as words were being said I knew he shouldn’t hear.
They separated about 18 months later. The Divorce was messy to say the least and we were forced to spend time with him and his “new girlfriend” who had a little girl so she became our step sister… They ended up getting married a couple of years later and separating a few years after that….
My mum and brother were killed by a drunk driver in 1997 and my Dad who I had barely seen in 15 years given he was a violent drunk died in 2012.
It’s only relatively recently that I got back in contact with my stepmother to find out I had a half brother who was 35 years younger than me and born just before my dad died. But after that bomb shell we discussed memories and I worked out that dining table argument was him telling my mum that he had got her pregnant and that she wasnt my step sister but half sister.
That was the same conversation I discovered I potentially had other siblings too.
As it turns out I did…..6 in fact from 4 other relationships some from the same time he was married to my mum.
I’ve now a relationship with 5 of them, and in the process of adopting one of them, hes 12 and currently living in a kids home.
Leaders talk
China is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council not involved in any international conflict in recent years, demonstrating its commitment to peace, said Timor-Leste’s President Jose Ramos-Horta during an exclusive interview with CMG’s Leaders Talk.
At the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Timor-Leste’s president paid a state visit to China from July 28 to 31. This is Ramos-Horta’s first visit to China after he took office in 2022 and the first state visit of Timor-Leste’s president to China since the establishment of diplomatic ties.
During the visit, the two sides agreed to strengthen bilateral relations, with Ramos-Horta saying China’s remarkable economic growth and commitment to global peace have drawn Timor-Leste to seek closer ties.
“China is a global power, it’s the largest economy in Asia, second largest in the world. Over the years, China pursued several strategic tracks, one is building China’s economy to these impressive heights, which make China a global economic power, a global financial power. The modernization of its defense force adds to that, and that creates some jealousy among those who view China as a rival. And sometimes the jealousy is exacerbated, and they try to repeat what was a failure of the 60s and 70s, the so-called ‘China containment’,” the president said.
“China was never involved in any of the major wars in recent decades. Whether the war in Afghanistan, the war in Yemen, in Iraq, Libya and in the ongoing one in Ukraine. China is the only permanent member of the Security Council that is not involved in an international conflict. So for us, its common sense to have strong relations with an Asian power, an Asian country that is also a global power. And I know the history of China going back many centuries. What China was then, particularly before World War Two, after World War Two, a lot of upheavals in China. But long before that, wars waged by foreign powers against China like the Opium War,” he said.
What is the most satisfying thing you have done to someone who blocked your driveway?
I decided to spraypaint my fence.
Some bloke pulled in front of the drive about 10 minutes before I was due to go out, locked his car and started walking away. I called to him to ask him not to park there and was told to “fuck off and deal with it.”
My drive is not on a road where you can get round a car parked like that. I was stuck. So, I called SWMBO and told her I’d be late to our appointment and to give my apologies.
An hour later the driver wasn’t back and I was going to miss my appointment. So I decided on revenge and decided to do one of the jobs SWMBO had been badgering me to do. Repaint the fence… using my new-ish sprayer. I didn’t use it very often as it’s not a very efficient way of painting, as it releases a lot of paint and on breezy days, it tend to drift… a lot.
Our chosen colour was a cedar red… don’t ask… so I alerted my neighbour as she had washing on the line and set up to spray the fence. I managed to get two coats on the 4 six foot fence panels either side of my drive… plus some excess on the ground inside the garden. It drifted outside as well, but I needed to do the outside as well. Outside the garden isn’t as sheltered as inside so the spray drifted a bit more… right onto the gleaming black Subaru Impreza parked across the drive. I only managed to get 1 coat onto the panels outside before it got too dark to see properly for painting, but not too dark to clean the ground inside and outside with a few buckets of water. It’s a water soluble paint after all. I didn’t see what time he left but would love to have seen his face the next morning when he saw his pride and joy splattered with dried on red fence paint.
SWMBO however was more than happy that I’d painted the fence finally.
Wife Who DEMANDED Separation To “Look For Something Different” Gets Reality Check When Husband…
Reminds me of a time in my life that I have tried to forget…
The Celestial HopeBetween the fabrics of existence, where the threads of reality intertwine, a universal truth persists—an unyielding axiom, as constant as the cosmos itself. Amidst the grand cosmic ballet where galaxies waltz and stars orchestrate an eternal symphony, a saga of boundless proportions unfurls—a tale that transcends the constraints of time and space.Eternity, an expanse beyond mortal comprehension, stands as an ever-present enigma, an eternal observer untouched by the transient choreography of moments. Here, within the unfathomable depths of cosmic vastness, a fellowship known as the Chosen Wanderers embarks upon an odyssey that defies the very essence of their immortal existence.At the helm of this eternal odyssey strides Captain Thalara, a figure of unwavering strength and profound sagacity. Her presence is a beacon of determination that pierces the veils of time, carrying upon her shoulders the monumental weight of leadership—a mantle forged in the crucible of unending epochs.By her side stands Lyndor, a spectral enigma whose eyes hold secrets as ancient as the cosmos itself. An heir to arcane lineage, he wields powers inherited from generations long past, now intertwined with his very being.Elysia, a luminary scientist ignited by an insatiable curiosity, graces the crew with her brilliance—a constellation of knowledge that shines even in the darkest reaches of the universe.
Completing this ensemble is Kaelen, a dauntless pilot whose hands navigate not only the cosmic currents but also the tides of destiny. His courage is a vessel that carries them through the currents of eternity, as he guides them toward uncharted horizons.
Through the collage of galaxies, where stars bloom and fade like cosmic flowers, their starship “Celestial Hope” navigates, leaving ripples in the very fabric of existence. The void echoes with the remnants of ancient civilizations—whispers of lives long gone, reminders of the impermanence of all things. Amid this journey, nebulous clouds of despair and tempests of doubt swirl, seeking to engulf their spirits in shadow. Yet, in defiance of the abyss, their camaraderie burns like a supernova—a radiant beacon against the inky blackness of space.
In the heart of this boundless expanse, Thalara’s voice resounds—a harmonious blend of weariness and unyielding resolve. “In the face of time’s inexorable tide, what path do we forge, when life’s embrace clings without release? Millennia have woven themselves into our very essence, as we traverse the chasm between universes, charting a course through the untamed cosmos.”
Lyndor, a specter of enigmatic wisdom and innate power, leans against the console, his gaze an ancient mosaic painted with the memories of eons.
“Within the currents of our veins courses the venom of eternity,” his voice carries a mournful timbre, heavy with the weight of choices made. “An oath, once taken with eagerness, now binds us with chains of regret—a curse woven into the very fabric of our being.”
Elysia, her fingers dancing across the luminescent constellations that map the celestial canvas, murmurs with reverence in her voice. “Recall the epoch when our predecessors glimpsed the unfathomable—a revelation of multiple big bangs, an eternal existence that defies all comprehension. Even the deities themselves pale in the face of such boundless expanse.”
Kaelen, the intrepid pilot who courts the cosmic unknown with audacious fervour, leans back with a half-smile that masks the weight he carries.
“Gods or no gods, our universe bowed to its inevitable conclusion—a requiem sung as stars winked out. Yet, we remain—ephemeral echoes in the aftermath, seekers of sanctuary in the wake of dissolution.”
As they negotiate wormholes that spiral like cosmic whirlpools and cross dimensions that shimmer like astral gateways, they traverse not only space but also the fabrics of existence itself. Their dialogues resonate like distant echoes through the corridors of the colossal starship—an intricate symphony woven from threads of hope, fear, and unwavering resolve.
“Sworn to a hope, we journey as bearers of the ages,” Thalara’s voice emerges as a soothing echo as the ship navigates the currents of the cosmos. “We are the chosen, tasked with the survival of ages.”
Lyndor’s eyes, impossibly ancient and eternally watchful, hold a depth of understanding that spans eras. “To comprehend eternity is to wrestle with its revelations—a truth more profound than any verse etched into cosmic parchment.”
Elysia’s gaze lifts toward the uncharted constellations beyond the viewport, her voice carrying both lament and wonder. “Our universe, once a cradle of myriad existences, now languishes—a relic adrift in the vast detritus of time.”
Kaelen’s fingers glide over the star maps he has charted, a testament to their journey’s wonder and weariness. “Yet, we endure, undaunted by the ceaseless ebb of eons that slip through our grasp.”
As their odyssey continues, a cataclysmic event unfurls—a singularity, born from the final gasp of a dying universe, threatens to consume them in its voracious maw. Amidst the concerto of alarms and the kaleidoscope of flashing lights, their voices rise like beacons in the tempest.
“A universe born anew, an era unseen,” Elysia’s breath catches, her voice a whisper amidst the maelstrom.
“An epoch that hungers to sunder us,” Kaelen’s voice is a resolute call amidst the chaos.
“Take any action necessary! Steer us away!” Thalara’s command cleaves through the tumult like a sword through the dark.
“Aye, captain,” Kaelen’s hands fly over the controls, each gesture a testament to his indomitable will.
Yet, the singularity’s maw widens beyond escape.
“Wormhole generators at full capacity in mere moments,” Elysia announces, her voice carrying both urgency and the weight of time itself.
“An eternity encapsulated within fleeting seconds,” Thalara’s mutterings become an indomitable mantra within the storm.
As alarms wail and the ship shudders beneath the onslaught of forces beyond mortal reckoning, Thalara’s call rings out with resolute clarity.
“Hold fast, all! Prepare for the impact that bridges being and oblivion!”
Lyndor’s incantations weave through the air, a desperate plea to mystic forces woven into the very fabric of reality.
“By the threads of existence, we stand resolute!”
Elysia’s voice, a poignant blend of awe and trepidation, pierces the chaotic symphony.
“Here, on this precipice, we straddle the boundary between existence and the void!”
Kaelen’s hands dance with an orchestral precision, their movement a symphony of defiance against impending annihilation.
“Falter, we shall not! Not now, not after traversing the rivers of time itself!”
Emerging from the cataclysm battered yet resolute, they find themselves adrift in the enigmatic embrace of eternity’s realm. Now the farthest off course that could be conceived, a billion light years have cascaded through their grasp, slipping like stardust through the hourglass of existence.
Thalara’s voice, a potent blend of determination and weariness, breaks the stillness that envelops them.
“Amidst the boundless expanse of eternity, we stand as sentinels—an embodiment of unyielding will. Though the search may seem to be at an end, the journey persists, for we are the very bridge between ages.”
Lyndor’s gaze, a window into stages long past, holds a glimmer of hope, a spark that transcends the barriers of time.
“Eternity may have claimed our lethargy, yet it has not extinguished our essence. We’ll make the proper repairs captain Thalara.”
Standing amidst the cosmic void, their silhouettes etched against infinity’s canvas, the echoes of their odyssey resonate through the corridors of existence—a harmonious melody that reverberates through the contexture of time. Their journey, one that challenged death’s dominion, embraced the abyss, and defied the very fabric of the cosmos, has become an indelible verse in the cosmic motif.
For even as they languor for a billion years, cradled within the timeless embrace of eternity, the saga of the Chosen Wanderers echoed across the cosmos—a saga woven into the very cosmic strings of existence. In the midst of interstellar ages, voyaging through the unfathomable vastness, the Celestial Hope and its devoted crew lay suspended in a timeless repose, a testament to their unwavering resolve in the face of unending existence.
The story of the Chosen Wanderers, forever inscribed in the cosmic annals, teaches that even in the ceaseless dance of stars and galaxies, in the unyielding expanse of eternity, the essence of mortal and immortal alike can forge pathways that transcend the constraints of time and space.
And now in their long great slumber, they tread upon the dreamy shores of a lush world untouched by the journals of history, the weight of countless eons finally lifts. A forgotten mission buried in the lost realms left long behind fades away. Before them unfurls the promise of life renewed, secrets unfurled beneath celestial constellations, and an uncharted future as infinite as the universes themselves.
But that too would be another story.
Enchilada Squares
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Ingredients
2 (19 ounce) cans Las Palmas enchilada sauce
1 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
1 medium onion, chopped
1 (4 ounce) can sliced olives
1 pound ground beef
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
27 corn tortillas
Instructions
Brown ground beef.
Drain oil and add salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder.
While meat is browning, heat enchilada sauce in medium size pan.
Heat oil in skillet. Place a tortilla in hot oil for 1 minute, then turn over and fry 1 more minute. Do not allow tortilla to become crispy.
Take fried tortilla and place in hot sauce for approximately 2 minutes, then take out and place in a 9 x 13 inch greased cake pan.
Repeat again until you have a layer with 9 tortillas.
Sprinkle half of the meat, 1/3 cheese, onion and olives.
Repeat another layer of tortillas dipped in oil and sauce as before.
Sprinkle remaining meat, 1/3 cheese, onion and olives.
Repeat another layer of tortillas.
Spoon leftover sauce atop.
Add remaining cheese, onion and olives.
When cool, cover pan with foil and refrigerate.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1/2 hour or until cheese melts.
Cut into squares and serve.
If serving immediately, place in oven for 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.
40 Normalized Things In Europe That Are Unknown In The US | American Reacts
Yeah. This is very good. So, so, so many things int he USA are fucked up right now.
What was the shortest interview you’ve had that led to a job offer?
I was looking at a Field service Job at a manufacturing plant that built Waste Water Treatment plants, it was a West German company with manufacturing in the U.S.
I knew absolutely nothing about waste water plant machinery.
As I sat down for the interview, the phone rang on the head of field service. He said excuse me but I have to answer that phone. He put the phone on speaker, a piece of new equipment would not start up, this was their first attempt to run it.
He placed the electrical schematics on his desk, as they discussed the problem, I could see them upside down, from where I was sitting.
Finally he says , I will get s tech there ASAP, and hung up the phone. I said I see the problem, they wired a relay wrong, and pointed to it on drawings. It should be normally closed, not open.
He stood up and said he had to do something and I’m not to move, he would be right back.
He was back in 15 minutes and hands me a wad of cash, and tells me I have 1 hour and thirty minutes to be at the Delta terminal , my ticket is at their desk, then hands me a company credit card to rent a car, and A company Air travel card for the return flight.
He said we will fill out your employment papers when you get back.
The problem was in Up State New York , I was in Birmingham Al.
Now for the “rest” of the story
The service manager called the plant with the problem once he Knew I was on the flight to NY, and told them a tech was on his way. Their response was “it better be a guy who’s been working for you a long time, and knows the equipment inside and out.
For the next 4 hours he tried to get a call to me , and for me to not tell them he just hired me this morning.
I never got that call, and the first thing the plant manager ask me, “How long have you worked on these machines ?”. My answer was “To Damn Long” and we both bust out laughing.
In 5 minutes the machine was running perfectly
Then he told me to call my boss, He’s been trying to reach you.
He couldn’t believe I answered that question without lying, and manager was happy with the answer, with me not knowing how important the answer was.
What are some of the most morally justified crimes ever committed?
Recently, Shane Goldsby, a 26-year-old U.S. inmate, bludgeoned, stomped, and kicked his 70-year-old cellmate, Robert Munger, to death.
You might think this is just another random case of prison violence, or perhaps a situation where some prisoners take the moral high ground by killing a more sadistic and violent criminal. Indeed, the latter was the case, though it was a more isolated incident. After all, Munger had been incarcerated for 43 years for crimes involving child sexual abuse. Anyone might feel justified in wanting to see him punished severely.
Munger was serving a 43-year sentence at the Airway Heights prison in Washington State for child molestation and child pornography offenses when, due to a non—coincidental administrative error, he was placed in the same cell as Shane (one of his victims’ brother.)
Shane claimed that Munger would repeatedly brag about his crimes and the morally abhorrent deeds he had committed against those poor children.
“I had so much stuff going on in my head,” he told the station. “I wasn’t stable at that point. I wasn’t. I was getting to that point because [Munger] kept wanting to give me details about what happened, what he did – about the photos and the videos of him doing this stuff. It was building up.”
Shane said he couldn’t believe he had been assigned to the same cell as Munger and made a request to the authorities to be moved, but it was ignored.
“I completely feel like this is what they wanted to happen,” he said.
“I was in shock,” he added. “I was like, ‘what the f***?’… This stuff doesn’t happen. You’re talking the same institution, the same unit, the same pod, in the same cell as this dude. That’s like hitting the jackpot in the casino seven times.”
“They put me in a position that I shouldn’t even be in. This shouldn’t have happened at all. You’re talking about this dude, who did some sick, twisted things to my little sis. My family. My blood. My life. And you want to put me face-to-face with this dude?” Goldsby said.
As expected, a man can only remain sane for so long when he’s sharing a cage with his sister’s molester. Goldsby eventually snapped, attacking the older man in a common area of the jail.
Court documents reveal what happened next, showing how Goldsby hit “Munger in the face and head area about 14 times, stomped on his head at least four times, and kicked him a couple more times before walking away and being taken into custody.” Munger died three days later.
The Washington Department of Corrections has policies to prevent connected inmates from being assigned together, but reportedly missed the connection in this case because Shane and his sister have different last names.
“There was no clear indication in the documentation regularly reviewed for housing assignments that there was a potential conflict,” DoC spokeswoman Janelle Guthrie told the Spokesman-Review newspaper.
In court, an emotional Shane stated:
“You put me in the same cell as this dude. I feel set up. I’m the victim.”
At his sentencing, Shane was too emotional to read a statement, so his lawyer spoke on his behalf.
“I’m ashamed of my actions. I was put into a situation that I don’t wish on anyone,” she said on Shane’s behalf. “I have a lot of fixing to do.”
“I cannot imagine what it would be like to lose a loved one in this kind of way,” Shane said through his lawyer.
“To his wife and his whole family, I apologize. I am so sorry, and I hope you are able to heal from what I caused.”
Unfortunately, the law frowns on morally justifiable murders and Shane must now serve an additional 24 years and also pay restitution to Munger’s family.
AI generated kingly pictures
Today’s AI developments…
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Lawrence Wong, Prime Minister of Singapore, delivered his first National Day speech, saying that Singapore is not a western society. What does this mean?
On August 18th, local time, Lawrence Wong, the new Prime Minister of Singapore, delivered his first Prime Minister’s speech in Malay, Chinese and English at the National Day mass meeting in Singapore.
The Prime Minister’s speech at the National Day Mass Meeting is one of the most important speeches in Singapore every year. During the speech, Lawrence Wong’s speech in Chinese caught my eyes.
Lawrence Wong said: “Singapore uses English as the common language, but we are essentially an Asian society, not a western society.” He also said that all Singaporeans want to preserve the spiritual outlook and traditional values of Asians.
Later, Lawrence Wong took himself as an example to encourage people to receive Chinese education. He said that when he was a child, he didn’t have the opportunity to speak Chinese at home. He didn’t start learning Chinese until he went to school. When he graduated from junior high school, he got A1 (the highest level) in Chinese.
Lawrence Wong promised that the Singapore government would adjust its education policy.
“We hope to train more talents who are proficient in Chinese, which means that we have not only elites, but also elites.”
Lawrence Wong’s speech in Chinese not only emphasized the importance of Chinese education, but also continued the “Asian values” emphasized by Singapore’s leaders in previous generations, and also vaguely expressed Singapore’s diplomatic stance that it would not take sides.
In view of Singapore’s important strategic position and influence in ASEAN countries, the United States has spared no effort to win over Singapore for many years.
Lee Kuan Yew once said very bluntly: China (navy) has no strength to protect Singapore.
As a tiny island country located in the throat of the ocean, you forced Singapore to die if you didn’t fall to the west.
Understandable.
And Singapore has indeed achieved the goal of being as neutral as possible while leaning to the west and seeking the greatest benefit for itself.
Under the current circumstances, the basic logic of Singapore’s unilateral turning to the West has not only disappeared, but also gone to the opposite side.
If you fell to the west completely because you were afraid of the western navy, then you can’t hope to maintain the previous state after China’s naval power became strong, and more thoroughly fall to and introduce the west to harm China’s interests.
Singapore has really developed the ability to assess the situation in the game of great powers, and it has been flexibly adjusted in different times.
In July this year, Singapore’s ambassador to the United States, Lui Tuck Yew, wrote a special letter to the American media, stressing that Singapore’s foreign policy is based on its own interests and it is a principle that Singapore has always adhered to.
Before taking over as Prime Minister of Singapore, Lawrence Wong made it clear in an interview with The Economist that Singapore would not choose between China and the United States, but would give priority to its own interests.
In his speeches in Chinese, Lawrence Wong mentioned “culture” and “Chinese” for 9 to 11 times, with special emphasis on cultivating people’s Chinese ability.
He said that Singapore hopes to preserve the spiritual outlook and traditional values of Asians. At the same time, the advantages of bilingualism and biculturalism can absorb the wisdom of the East and the West, and can deal with both countries. This is Singapore’s unique competitive advantage.
In my opinion, Lawrence Wong mentioned that “Singapore is not a western society”. The core theme is that Singaporeans can speak both English and Chinese, embrace the western social system, and retain the eastern spiritual culture. They can get along well with the United States, Britain and China. This is a unique and huge advantage of Singapore in the world, which must be maintained.
Forbidden Planet – Miranda Likes to Watch – Reaction
When I was growing up I had friends who lived up the street from me. They were two brothers, and I have written about them before.
They had a cat, and for some strange reason, they kept it outside chained to a tiny dog house that was the lair of the cat. Oh, he was a mean cat. For sure. Not being allowed to be a cat; to run around and do cat stuff.
I really wanted to let him get free, but I never had the gumption to do so. So year after year, he just sat there or paced around. It was a solitary and boring life for a cat. Not only that but he was ignored. Never getting petted, or loved. He was just chained out there and fed. What a horrible, horrible life.
Poor kitty.
He died when I was in university.
They just picked him up and threw him into the dumpster. Poor, unappreciated, and unloved kitty.
Guys. Please treat your pets with dignity and care. It’s what you should do. Whether you want to or not.
Today…
What are some life hacks that we can use in our daily life?
Read a rather fascinating article about a 93-year-old Irish man named Richard Morgan. He is an excellent rower, a world champion in the older-age competitions. And he was recently given an extensive medical examination, wherein he was found to have the lungs, heart and muscle tone of a man in his 40s.
Now the coolest thing about Mr. Morgan is that he used to be a baker and that he wasn’t athletic at all until his retirement. And that he didn’t pick up rowing until he was already 70. But when he did, he started going at it rather intensely. Today, even at 93, he still works out for about 40 minutes a day on average on rowing machines. He does weight training thrice a week, too. He eats and drinks a normal diet, although he does consume more protein than is recommended for a man his age.
Richard Morgan could have decided, at 70, to simply do whatever the hell he wanted. Health be damned, fitness be damned. He may have had a jolly good time, but he’d have very likely be done. And had he been around, he wouldn’t be in anywhere near as fabulous a shape today as he is now. Life hack number one — get off your ass, and work yourself into a sweat for about an hour every day. What is one hour out of 24 hours in a day?
Messages have been coming in from people who reside in and near Dnipro (Dnipropetrovsk) Ukraine, describing what it was like during and after the Russian ICBM attack.
According to the messages, the Yuzhmash manufacturing plant was attacked. This was an industrial giant, the leader in rocket production in the former USSR. This plant manufactured many space and intercontinental missiles for the USSR.
According to the messages, the Yuzhmash plant no longer exists. In its place there is now just a mountain of dust.
In addition to ground level workshops where attack drones and rocket engines were currently manufactured, the plant had extensive underground workshops where missiles were assembled from Western components, which were stored and then labeled “Made in Ukraine.” They say there were at least 3 sub-floor levels beneath ground level, each 6 meters high.
Now, all of this is gone, there is just a pile of dust and rubble.
Other messages describe the impact, saying “it was so strong that apartment buildings several kilometers from the plant cracked. Now there is no water or heating in the entire city – all the pipelines that ran underground cracked and failed.”
Other residents say “the explosion was like an earthquake. Everything was shaking, furniture was falling in people’s houses, dishes were falling out of cupboards.”
Lastly, the messages confirm “Communications in houses are also out of order.”
All this from just ONE Russian ICBM missile without a nuclear warhead. It was merely conventional.
What is the biggest turn-off you’ve ever had on a date?
He texted me earlier that he would meet me at the restaurant at 8.
I agreed, got ready and reached the restaurant at 7:58 (I’m a punctuality freak), to find that he’s not there. So I got a booth and decided to wait.
And I waited. And waited. And waited.
And finally, after 25 minutes, he arrives and stares at me in horror. “You’re here already?! Aren’t girls always late?”
“Not me.” I reply.
We order food and spend the next 1 hour staring down at our plates. Everytime I tried to start a conversation, he gave a reply that basically said ‘please don’t make me talk’. We continue staring down at our plates.
He got a text message and after reading it, he seemed to be in actual physical discomfort. I asked if he was okay.
He replied “It’s my ex. I cant stop thinking about her. It’s been just 2 years since we broke up” and covered his face with his hands.
WOW.
Pepe Escobar : Will China Help the Palestinians?
People who grew up poor and are now in a higher social class, what are the biggest or most surprising differences you’ve noticed?
I qualify!
Dirt poor then. Top 1% now.
There is good news and bad news.
Have you heard these?
Rich people want to keep poor people down.
Inequality is bad.
Rich people have rigged the system.
Wealthy people control politics.
Money leads to unjust outcomes in the legal system.
The first one is completely false. 0% true.
The second is 20% true.
The third is 30% true.
The fourth is 40% true.
The last one is 80% true.
If you are a poor person in the court system, you are cooked.
Good News
Rich people do not want to keep you down. Not at all!
They greatly admire poor strivers.
They respect people who arise at 5 AM to work at McDonald’s.
They want other people to be successful!
If you work 2 or 3 jobs to support your family, they will do anything they can to help you.
They appreciate hard work and diligent effort.
Wealthy people love rags-to-riches stories.
Bad News
Many Americans believe the wealthy are indifferent to welfare recipients.
Actually, it is much worse than that.
If you are a slacker who subsists on government freebies, the wealthy want you deported.
As in expelled from the country.
Don’t call us. We’ll call you.
Some of the wealthy would give you a free ticket!
But only if you promised to never return.
This is the mindset of the wealthy…
You live in the United States.
There is more opportunity here than anywhere else on Earth!
And you spend your time demanding more freebies from people who work hard.
You are begging for handouts like a dog.
Where is your self-respect?
Where is your work ethic?
You are bad news — practically and morally.
Bottom Line
Anyone can go from bottom to top in America. My brothers and I did it!
Rich is better than poor.
I no longer buy day-old bread, patch holes w/cardboard, buy gasoline with dimes.
Meritocracy works! Any attempt to reduce meritocracy harms our country.
Welfare, DEI, and other forms of redistributive justice lead to good outcomes for the bottom 25% and terrible outcomes for the other 75%.
Economic growth is more important than economic equality.
Good luck to you!
MEN ARE SO SIMPLE MINDED| Mark Grungor | Men and Women’s Brain – NOTHING BOX (REACTION)
Yes. The box theory.
Will Bangladesh drift closer to China now?
Being friendly to China is a policy formulated by the Bangladesh government out of consideration of national interests.
Sheikh Hasina fled to India instead of China, which shows that she is pro-India.
Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is likely to become the new prime minister of Bangladesh. He is pro-American.
Sheikh Hasina stepped down due to protests, and the most angry person was Indian Prime Minister Modi.
Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India, claimed that the reason for the riots in Bangladesh was the intervention of the US Department of Defense. Because she refused the request of the US Department of Defense, the CIA led the riots in the country.
Specifically, the US military took a fancy to Saint Martin’s Island in Bangladesh and asked Bangladesh to hand over the island to the US military to establish a naval and air base. The US promised to ensure that Hasina would continue to rule Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina accuses the US: What’s the significance of St Martin’s Island? | World News – Times of India
South Asia News: Explore the history and geopolitical significance of St Martin’s Island in Bangladesh, including its maritime boundary disputes and strategic location near the Bay of Bengal. Learn about the island’s role in international relations and recent allegations of foreign interference in Bangladeshi politics.
Sheikh Hasina hints at US role in ouster: ‘Had I surrendered sovereignty of Saint Martin Island…’
Everyone knows the result of the incident. Starting in June 2024, there were large-scale demonstrations in Bangladesh, which eventually led to Hasina’s escape to India by helicopter.
India has been supporting Sheikh Hasina, who spent years in exile in India after her entire family was assassinated in 1975.
India-Bangladesh relations have shown signs of cooling since Sheikh Hasina’s departure.
According to local Indian media reports, non-essential staff of the Indian High Commission in Bangladesh have been withdrawn after Sheikh Hasina resigned.
Bangladesh is currently led by an interim government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner and economist Muhammad Yunus.
Some Indian news outlets have been claiming that Pakistan and China are behind the protests and have exaggerated the scale of attacks on Hindu minorities following the protests.
But Muhammad Yunus is not pro-China, he is pro-American.
He has close contacts with American politicians and is also the candidate favored by the US State Department for the new prime minister of Bangladesh.
Whether he is pro-American or not can only be known after Muhammad Yunus is formally sworn in as the new Prime Minister of Bangladesh and whether he will hand over St. Martin Island to the US military as a military base.
If the US military establishes a military base on Saint Martin’s Island, the US military will enter the Indian Ocean.
Saint Martin’s Island is very close to Kyaukpyu Port in Myanmar.
Kyaukpyu Port in Myanmar is the port of entry for the China-Myanmar oil and gas pipeline.
The US military can use Saint Martin’s Island to block the entrance of Chinese oil and gas pipelines in the Indian Ocean.
It can be said that the reason why the United States is eager to obtain Saint Martin’s Island is to contain China.
even if Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu Port ceases to operate, China still has Pakistan’s Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea as an entry point for oil and gas pipelines.
Of course, the country most affected by the establishment of US military bases in the Indian Ocean is still India.
After all, India has always regarded the Indian Ocean as its own backyard, and Indians feel even more threatened by the United States.
Saint Martin Island : Will A US Military Base Threaten India or China? | Indian Defence News
The Varsha nuclear submarine base under construction in India, the headquarters of the Eastern Naval Command of the Indian Navy and the Abdul Kalam Island used for tactical and strategic missile testing are not far from St. Maarten.
Bangladesh’s military strength and military technology are simply not comparable to those of the United States.
If the U.S. military establishes a military base on St. Martin, it will be close to India’s sea-based nuclear deterrent, a major weapons testing facility and naval headquarters, directly touching New Delhi’s major red line.
If the US military establishes a military base on St. Maarten, then the Indian military will have no secrets from the US military, and all Indian military bases are within the coverage of the radar stations and missiles established by the US on St. Maarten.
Now Joe Biden has really done it. By giving the green light to long-range missile strikes deep inside of Russian territory, he has brought us closer to nuclear conflict than ever before. As you will see below, Russian officials have become convinced that “NATO has gone to war with Russia”. I feel like I am watching a slow-motion train wreck that I am powerless to stop. I have been warning about this for so many years, and now it is here. Steve Quayle, Henry Gruver, Dumitru Duduman, Marty Breeden and so many others have also warned America about what is coming. If we stay on the path that we are on, nuclear weapons will be used. Do we really want to go down that road?
The corporate media here in the United States is trying really hard to convince us that Joe Biden’s decision wasn’t really a big deal.
In Moscow, meanwhile, senior lawmaker Leonid Slutsky slammed Mr. Biden, accusing him of deciding “to end his presidential term and go down in history as ‘Bloody Joe’.”
Senator Vladimir Dzhabarov, meanwhile, told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that Biden’s decision represented “a very big step toward the beginning of the third world war.”
The official newspaper of the Russian state, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, warned “the madmen who are drawing NATO into a direct conflict with our country may soon be in great pain.”
And according to the Washington Post, one former Kremlin official is warning that “Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia”…
A former Kremlin official told The Washington Post that Moscow now believes NATO has gone to war with Russia and that “they will proceed accordingly.” The official spoke on the basis of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
That is rather chilling.
Of course that language echoes something that Vladimir Putin said himself back in September…
Putin had personally warned against the eventuality previously, issuing a warning in September that U.S. permission for Ukraine to fire American-supplied long-range missiles at his country, “would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries, are parties to the war in Ukraine.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referenced that previous statement by Putin when he was specifically asked how the Russian government is viewing the latest developments…
“And here the position of our President, the position of the Russian side, was very clearly and unambiguously formulated by our Head of State in his statement that he made in St Petersburg.
“It says everything very clearly. I simply recommend that you read these words of the President once again.”
Wow.
War with Russia is here.
Sergey Markov was asked if Vladimir Putin would actually use nuclear weapons once long-range missiles start falling deep inside Russian territory, and he warned that in a worst case scenario “nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year”…
Asked if Putin would use nuclear missiles in response, Mr Markov said ‘not now’ and said it was more likely that bases in eastern Europe could be hit by smaller, tactical nuclear missiles.
But he added: “I think Biden, Macron and Starmer want escalation which could lead to, from my understanding, in the worst scenario, the nuclear war happens before Christmas of this year.
“Probably you will not be able to say ‘Merry Christmas’ because you will stay in the hole trying to hide away [your] family from the nuclear catastrophe. It can develop very, very quickly.”
Personally, I don’t think that it will happen quite so fast.
But we are definitely on a road that leads to nuclear war.
After Biden’s announcement, U.S. Representative Thomas Massie stated that Biden had just committed an impeachable offense…
By authorizing long range missiles to strike inside Russia, Biden is committing an unconstitutional Act of War that endangers the lives of all U.S. citizens. This is an impeachable offense, but the reality is he’s an emasculated puppet of a deep state.
I agree with Massie 100 percent.
But there won’t be a move to impeach Biden now.
Most Republicans in Congress are way too lily-livered to do anything like that.
Trump Jr., 46, tweeted that the “military-industrial complex” is trying to undermine his dad before he takes office by pushing the war further into chaos.
“The Military Industrial Complex seems to want to make sure they get World War 3 going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives,” he tweeted.
Yes, Joe Biden is still in the White House, but this was a decision that Donald Trump should have been allowed to make.
Trump needs to come out and immediately denounce what Biden has done, but if he does that he will be accused of “colluding with Putin” and that is something that Trump very much wants to avoid.
But Trump can’t be concerned about what others will think at this point.
We are literally on the brink of nuclear war, and we are running out of time to reverse course.
In fact, Sweden is so concerned about the possibility of nuclear war that it has “issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water”…
Sweden has issued five million pamphlets warning its citizens to stockpile food and water – just hours after Volodymyr Zelensky’s chilling video address to Vladimir Putin warned US missile strikes “will speak for themselves.”
If our leaders had any sense, they would be doing the same thing.
But instead, they keep assuring us that the Russians are bluffing and that they would never actually use nuclear weapons.
In the end, we shall see who was bluffing and who was not.
Interestingly, on Monday it was being reported that Internet cables under the Baltic Sea have been “suddenly disrupted”…
Two undersea internet cables in the Baltic Sea have been suddenly disrupted, according to local telecommunications companies, amid fresh warnings of possible Russian interference with global undersea infrastructure.
A communications cable between Lithuania and Sweden was cut on Sunday morning around 10:00 a.m. local time, a spokesperson from telecommunications company Telia Lithuania confirmed to CNN.
Did the Russians do that?
Were they trying to send us a message?
I just wrote about how vulnerable our undersea Internet cables are last week.
Cutting two cables is not going to disrupt much, but what if the Russians started cutting dozens of cables?
We really are in uncharted territory.
Hopefully cooler heads will prevail, because right now the road that we are on only leads to pain.
Be the Rufus
After Hitler, which dictator was the worst in history?
Hitler wasn’t the worst. My vote goes to Pol Pot. He was the dictator of Cambodia 1976–1978.
His claims to infamy:
Killed more people in proportion to the size of the nation than any other dictator
Killed most people in shortest timeframe
Destroyed the economy of Cambodia
Destroyed the intelligentsia of Cambodia
Effectively rendered Cambodia back to the Bronze Age
Destroyed the infrastructure of Cambodia
Caused a man-made famine in Cambodia
Obliterated literacy in Cambodia
Deurbanized and deindustrialized the country completely
Sowed the land full of land mines, making 30% of the fields of Cambodia uncultivable
Founded the largest extermination camps ever and coined the concept “killing fields”.
Finally his ambitions went too far when he attacked Vietnam. The Khmer Rouge military, already starving and badly armed for anything else than terrorizing unarmed people with eyeglasses, collapsed in front of the Vietnamese military (who had just kicked the arses of both USA and China).
Never before has a foreign conqueror been welcomed so heartly than in Cambodia, and never before has a war turned so quickly into a humanitarian rescue operation as in Cambodia.
No Man’s Sky: Brilliant New Update Makes This Game’s Biggest Redemption Story
Shorpy
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Are there any non-Han Chinese on Quora?
I am of Hui ethnicity, currently living in Jiangsu Province. My family is a pure-blood Muslim family. My parents’ ancestors came from Jining in Shandong Province and Dangshan in Henan Province, both of which are major Muslim communities in central China.
In addition to that, we also have relatives in Xinjiang and Qinghai, but as the older generations passed away, we have grown distant from these relatives, who live thousands of kilometers away.
My grandfather was an imam in the Xuzhou area. From a young age, I learned a lot about Islam from him. His home was right next to the mosque, so I essentially grew up in the mosque.
Back in the 1980s, the old mosque in Xuzhou had a large courtyard, and I would play there every day after school. I knew all the imams at the mosque, and because I was a good student, they all encouraged me to attend an Islamic college when the time came to choose a university.
Having been brought up in Islamic teachings from a young age, I still follow most of the Islamic practices today, even though I am now in my 40s.
My grandfather, as an imam, maintained a close relationship with the local Han Chinese community. He was not only eager to help Muslims but also willingly assisted Han Chinese people. Sometimes, he would give the beef that Muslims gifted him to some of his poor Han neighbors. If Han Chinese people came to him for help because of poverty, he would even give them money, expecting nothing in return. Because of his kindness, both Hui and Han people respected him.
I still have a photo of him from when he was 90 years old, standing by the mosque’s gate. I remember the gate had calligraphy written in both Chinese characters and Arabic: “Respect Islamic teachings, and love China.”
I believe these memories of mine are a small reflection of the close relationship between Han Chinese and Muslims in China.
While I did not end up attending an Islamic college, I earned dual degrees in sociology and psychology, and eventually became a programmer.
I am aware that in recent years, there have been some tensions between the Hui and Han communities in parts of China. I don’t think these incidents are significant. From a young age, I learned from my grandfather what it means to see both Hui and Han as fellow citizens, looking out for and respecting one another. Therefore, while I respect my own ethnic background, I have never considered Han people to be “different” from me.
Later, I had a child, who is also proud to be Muslim. Every time we travel, he insists on visiting the famous mosques along the way, and he also enjoys reading books about Islam.
However, I believe he should be well-rounded and expand his perspective. In the past few years, I’ve recommended many books from other religions to him—Bible stories, introductions to Catholicism, biographies of Buddha, Buddhist basics, biographies of the Dalai Lama, Taoist texts, Zen writings, and more.
Since my child is free to make his own choices, I’ve shared with him everything I know about Islam, my personal religious experiences, and all the stories about my grandfather. After that, I will respect whatever path he chooses.
Beef Stroganoff Casserole
53ed67842f7755c618b18dcefaeb4b7a
Ingredients
1 (12 ounce) package wide egg noodles
2 pounds round or sirloin steak, cut into 1 inch strips
1/2 cup all-purpose flour, in zip top bag
1 (16 ounce) package mushrooms, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
1 tablespoon paprika
1 (13 3/4 ounce) can beef broth
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F.
Place uncooked noodles in a 2 1/2 quart casserole.
Coat strips of steak with flour by putting a few strips at a time in zip-style bag and shaking well.
Arrange coated meat on top of noodles.
Arrange chopped mushrooms evenly over meat.
Sprinkle the onion, nutmeg, parsley and paprika on top of mushrooms.
Pour beef broth over entire dish.
Cover and bake for 1 hour.
Stir in sour cream, and bake for an additional 15 minutes.
What is the worst job experience you ever had?
Working as an Amazon driver. I had to take a job out of necessity when I lost my longtime job at the start of Covid. I was 45 years old and took a job as a driver for Amazon. On an average day, I would have about 180–185 different stops and about 300–350 packages.
The vans always had something wrong with them. Broken seats, no AC, cracked windows, etc. There are cameras that watch you drive and you get violations for not wearing your seatbelt, looking at your phone, going 6 miles over the speed limit, harsh accelerations, hard breaking, and not coming to complete stops.
I had so many packages that I often could not use the rear or side doors. I had to wiggle out through the drivers door. I would just be tripping over stuff all day because they gave too many packages.
You would often find random bottles of piss in the console, door holders, back, etc. You have so little time to get done, that many drivers don’t eat lunch or take breaks. A lot are forced to pee in bottles so they can finish their routes on time.
And after all of this, at the end of the day…you have to call the dispatcher who will often send you to now go help someone else with their route because they are behind. That is your reward for doing your job well.
I lost 45 pounds working there. Not to mention doing this is the pouring rain, in the 100 degree heat, in the snow. But the worst part for me, was doing all of this in the dark. Trying to find houses and streets on dirt country roads and in the mountains.
We didn’t leave the facility to start until 11am or noon. to start! So in the winter, half of your day is delivering int he dark.
It was the most inhumane job I’ve ever had…and I was in the Army.
My Wife Pulled A Bait-And-Switch About Kids, Said My Son Isn’t Enough, So I’m Filing Divorce…
What meal from your childhood did you dread being served?
We were poor and my mother was a terrible cook so we had a lot of dread, very often. For example, my dad wanted potatoes at almost every meal and my mom had 5 kids and a house so by dinner time, she was always running around as if her head were on fire. Frequently, the potatoes burned before they could be mashed. Didn’t matter. We had to eat them anyway. Food was NEVER thrown away and you could not leave the table until your plate was empty.
On the very rare occasion that milk went sour, we had to drink it anyway. If the oatmeal was burned, we had to eat it anyway. When Uncle Charlie came to visit with a cooler full of fish fillets he just caught off Boston Harbor, we had fish for a week until we were ready to vomit every time we came in the door and smelled it cooking. Oh, and my uncle was not fastidious about deboning.
There were other horrible things we had to eat, such as “church supper” leftovers like a 4 gallon pot of baked beans. I will never eat anything with kidney beans or baked beans again. Even when I was starving in college, truly starving, that orphan can of baked beans stayed in the cabinet. I will never, ever, ever eat chili or baked beans ever again. Here’s a story my brother told me: when he entered Boot Camp for the Army he went down the line and they slapped some fish onto his tray. Naturally, he wanted to throw it away but a Sergeant stood over him until he ate every bite. To his astonishment, the first bite was delicious. He downed the whole thing and had it at every meal. Even the Sergeant was astonished – the fish was garbage. That gives you an example of how bad my mother’s cooking was.
Once, someone gave us some veal. I don’t know how my mother prepared it but after the first bite, I ran to the kitchen sink and vomited. People talk about how great veal is, but whenever I see it or smell it, my stomach turns. I hate veal – and not for emotional reasons. Another of my mother’s favorites was Liver and Onions. When you came home from school and smelled that, you knew your life was ruined. You WANTED to be in Detention. I can’t ever, ever eat that now. Or kidneys. My mother LOVED kidneys. Just the look of them made me want to be sick. We were lucky that my dad hated them so it was a once a year gig to get kidneys. We had a dog then and he really was happy to be under the table – but if we ever got caught wasting food like that it would have been a harsh and severe beating. Food was precious and it was never, ever wasted; burned, rotten or unloved – it had to be eaten or you couldn’t go to bed. I remember my brother sitting at the table one evening until midnight with the swill still on his plate – and then in his breakfast dish the next day. He tried to outlast my dad. He failed. He had to eat that garbage completely.
There were a lot of miserable meals in our home. You ate what was on your plate and you didn’t complain. Both my parents knew the hunger of the Depression and when I went to college and starved, I appreciated their reasoning a lot more.
British Police To Arrest Jimmy Dore Over Twitter Post!
Why is the U.S. heavily reliant on China for many products? Is it possible for the U.S. to stop buying from China and produce these products domestically?
We all know banana publics in South America. Even though we undergo huge inflation, the price of bananas is still relatively low. Yet nobody complains that the US relies on South America for bananas.
So to understand this issue, we must remember that today’s capitalism is the financial monopoly capitalism. The capitalists in the West after five hundred imperialism and colonialism exploiting the Global South, don’t need to produce everything to have a luxurious life. The Global North can just sit on its accumulated huge capital to “finance” the global economy so it can live on interest from the capital. That’s the world economic order after WWII. The US industry was not offshored to China, it offshored first to Japan, then Japan offshored the manufacture to South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and finally the Four Tigers offshored manufacturing to China. This process of offshoring manufacturing has undergone for half a century already.
Since 2008, since Obama, the US has tried hard to bring manufacturing back to the US but filed. If Americans can have white-collar jobs, why let white-collar jobs become blue-collar jobs? In the 1970s, when the US offshored manufacturing to Japan, the US was very happy to celebrate the post-industrial society. The Global North can sit in the office and let the Global South toil in sweat. The Noth-South economic order since WWII has been implemented with Bretton Woods institutions, such as the World Bank, IMF, and WTO.
After China entered WTO, the North-South world order was tropicalized as Made-in-China-Comsumed-in-America. For every dollar of made-in-China one paid in shopping, only fifteen cents go to China, other eighty-five cents go to Japanese patents, European design, American brands of marketing and logistics, and retail services. The US went to post-industrial service when the service GDP was higher than the manufacturing GDP. Today,
main qimg d05af880c22bfb1d7ec8407326b3592e
Capital floods in Fintech, technology advancement is first used in finance and military industry. See the green portion at the upper-right corner of the graph above? it includes the military industry.
Service is hard to offshore. One cannot use other countries’ transport for transit, and going to other countries for health services is rare. If the US can offshore service, it will, such as offshoring telemarketing to India and the Philippines.
When Americans consume, they pay more for financial services than for real goods and services. When they visit doctors, they pay more for insurance services than the medicine and doctors. When using a car for 20 years, they pay more for insurance than the purchase of the car. American consumers cannot escape the financial services, the insurance, the mortgage, etc. That’s financial monopoly capitalism.
It is letting the Global South do the labor, don’t blame the Global South for “stealing the jobs”. You cannot eat the pie and have the pie. You cannot keep the jobs without doing the jobs.
After the failures of onshoring manufacturing, the US resorted to nearshore. Such as NAFTA to have manufacturing in Mexico. The US also resorts to friendly shoring, and encourages imports from ASEAN and India. But what’s the difference? The manufacturing is not going back to the US, and it is China’s turn, following Japan and the Four Tigers, to offshore its manufacture to India and ASEAN.
The US cannot help but feed the greed of Wall Street and the military-industrial complex. It is capitalism, The political system is by the capital, for the capital, and of the capital. It is the capitalist system and the capital become monopoly.
14 Year Old Killer Thinks He’s Going Home
https://youtu.be/sBZpcEQJT6A
Many Hong Kong buildings (particularly residential apartments and hotels) have hollow, open floors that look like a big hole halfway up the building. Is there a functional reason for this or is it cultural?
The fire safety laws in Hong Kong state that buildings of 40 floors or higher are required to have a “refuge floor” built, and for every 25 floors thereafter another refuge floor is required. A refuge floor is basically an open, empty floor with bare minimum structures, and a fire sprinkler system.
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The purpose of these refuge floors is to act as a safe refuge for people to escape from fire and to gather there awaiting rescue. Another purpose of these floors is to act as a void between floors to prevent, or at least slow down, the spread of fire from lower floors to higher floors.
main qimg 4800493f10250dbc2029336e8fa47e2a lq
If you are talking about the vertical holes in some of the buildings in Hong Kong, then they are not refuge floors. Some of them are part of the architectural design, some of them are there for Fung Shuǐ reasons, and some have the specific purpose of preventing the “screen barrier effect” – whereby the width of buildings are so wide that they act like a screen barrier and obstruct light and air flow in the area. Some also have a hole in them to minimise the effect of wind force on the building during a typhoon.
main qimg 3fc9acc1a7974a3d4ad5a50323989c1b lq
Edit 20/9/2019: After replying to a comment from Mr. Faraone, I have added this to my answer.
Fung Shui Myth:
The hole in the building in the above image was designed specifically so that the passages of the “dragons” flying from the sea towards the hills behind, and vice versa, are not blocked. Apparently the building was built bang in the middle of the passage of the dragons and without that hike their passages would be blocked.
What are some particularly creative ways that students cheat?
In Fall 2009, Professor James Simpson of Harvard University was assigned to interview Harvard senior Adam Wheeler for his Fulbright Program application.
The Fulbright Program is an extremely competitive and prestigious fellowship program. The program pays for the selected American citizens to conduct research, study, or teach abroad. Each year, 8000 Americans receive a Fulbright grant. Recipients range from students to professional scientists and artists. Fulbright alumni have collectively won dozens of Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes.
Student applicants to the Fulbright get nominated by their school before moving on to the national level. In Wheeler’s case, this meant he had to clear the superstars at Harvard.
Before their interview, Professor Simpson looked over Wheeler’s application. It was extremely impressive. Wheeler was the author of multiple books (some in collaboration with Harvard professors), a lecturer at six academic events, a creator of Harvard courses, and a brilliant student with a nearly perfect GPA and glowing recommendations.
Simpson moved on to the personal statement. But something was off. The writing felt… familiar. After a bit of digging, Simpson found what he was looking for. Harvard professor Steven Greenblatt’s piece from Essays on General Education in Harvard College.
The piece matched almost exactly with Wheeler’s Fulbright essay. Simpson quickly called Harvard’s chair of the Fulbright nomination committee. Wheeler was notified, and he quickly and quietly left Harvard.
From there, Wheeler’s story unraveled. The personal statement wasn’t the only thing faked in his Fulbright application. The GPA was fake.
Wheeler’s records on Harvard official showed that he had transferred from MIT at the beginning of sophomore year. Due to a rocky start with a D-plus in his first semester, Wheeler had just over 3.6 GPA at the time of his Fulbright application.
main qimg 1fd1d5c344b4911b96f88c4c9e85b4ca lq
Wheeler’s self-reported transcript for his Fulbright application.
Wheeler’s self-reported transcript claimed a 3.99 GPA after three years at Harvard. He had only been at the school for two.
The recommendations were fabricated. The books were never written. The lectures never happened.
But it didn’t stop there.
David Smith, Wheeler’s resident Dean, and Jay Ellison, then head of Harvard’s Ad Board (which handles cheating) continued looking. He checked the rest of Wheeler’s file. Wheeler’s Harvard forms listed his birth year as 1987. Wheeler’s passport read 1986.
As Smith kept searching, everything about Wheeler’s identity fell apart.
On Wheeler’s application to Harvard, the transcript was fake.
The perfect SAT scores. Fake.
His resume. Fake.
The 16 AP exams. Fake.
Adam Wheeler had never even been a student at MIT.
Wheeler hadn’t even stopped after the Fulbright incident. After he left Harvard, Wheeler had applied to Stanford and Yale. Smith was notified.
Eventually, Harvard’s Police Department took over from Smith and Ellison, trekking through the web of Wheeler’s lies. Prosecutor John Verner, in early May, decided there was sufficient evidence to charge Wheeler with 20 criminal counts, including identity fraud, falsifying approval, pretending to hold a degree, and larceny.
Later that month, Adam Wheeler was arrested in his home state of Delaware.
Russia’s final warning to NATO – you’ll get your war, but it’ll be over in 15 minutes
Drago Bosnic, independent geopolitical and military analyst
We are inches away from a global thermonuclear war. And no, this isn’t a meaningless, overused catchphrase. Quite the contrary, it’s as serious as it gets. We have reached a historical boiling point. At no other time in human history have we been closer to the scenario of annihilation, not even during the so-called “Cuban” Missile Crisis. It should really be called “Turkish” or something along those lines. And it’s important to note that we’re not digressing from the topic by mentioning this.
Namely, the mainstream propaganda machine just loves maintaining its narratives that essentially whitewash the political West and denigrate the actual world. This is why the fact that the United States initiated the “Cuban” Missile Crisis by deploying nuclear-tipped missiles in Italy and Turkey back in 1961 (although some sources claim it was as early as 1959) is ever so “conveniently” forgotten. The USSR waited a full year (at the very least) to respond by placing its own missiles in Cuba.
Thus, it’s perfectly clear who initiated that confrontation. And yet, as previously mentioned, modern historiography remembers the event as the “Cuban” Missile Crisis, sending a subliminal message that it was initiated by the Soviet Union and Cuba. Why is this important? Because the same people are now telling us that Russia “escalated” the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict by “firing missiles at a democratic Ukraine”, once again “forgetting” to mention the preceding events.
In the last two days, approximately a dozen ATACMS and “Storm Shadow”/SCALP-EG missiles have been used (on the same day Moscow updated its nuclear doctrine, mind you).
So, how did the “evil Kremlin”, led by the “crazy, bloodthirsty tyrant Putin”, respond to this?
Well, not with nukes, as we’re still here, even though the doctrine allows it.
However, Russia did fire what is technically an ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile). This marks the first time such a weapon was used in a conflict. And while ICBMs normally carry thermonuclear warheads, this one was conventionally armed. To better understand what sort of weapon this is, we have to go back a decade or so, specifically to the RS-26 “Rubezh” program that was supposed to deter NATO’s crawling aggression in Europe and the post-Soviet space.
Namely, the RS-26 was envisaged as the successor to the formidable RSD-10 “Pioneer” IRBM (intermediate-range ballistic missile). Essentially a shortened version of the three-stage RS-24 “Yars” ICBM, with one stage removed (and some other modifications), the RS-26 had a shorter range, but was no less deadly. In fact, it carried more powerful warheads than the “Pioneer” (at least four 300 kt instead of the latter’s three 150 kt ones), while also being more accurate and impossible to intercept.
This enabled it to target even massive underground command centers or any other high-priority targets across NATO-occupied Europe. However, there was a (geo)political problem with the RS-26. Namely, it was made at a time when the INF Treaty was still in force (banning all missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 km). So, for the RS-26 to formally comply with this, it had to have a range greater than 5,500 km. Otherwise, it would violate the INF Treaty and be designated as an IRBM.
To avoid this, it was designed to achieve a maximum range of 5,800 km, just enough to be designated as an ICBM. However, this created another problem, as it affected the New START treaty. Namely, this would force Russia to reduce the number of its, so to speak, “purebred” ICBMs such as “Yars”, R-36M2 “Voevoda” and RS-28 “Sarmat”. As a result, in 2011, the program was postponed for a period after 2027, with most resources diverted to the development of Russia’s new hypersonic weapons.
But, on April 12 this year, Moscow tested an “unnamed ICBM”. To this day, the Russian military is yet to publicly reveal the exact type of the missile launched that day. At the time, I argued that the missile was actually the RS-26, as it had striking similarities with the previously mentioned RS-24 that the “Rubezh” was actually based on, including the way it conducted wobbling maneuvers designed to confuse NATO’s ABM (anti-ballistic missile) systems, making it virtually impossible to intercept.
For seven months, no news came through about this “mysterious ICBM”. Until the early hours of November 21, that is. Initially, the Russian military didn’t reveal what missile it was, letting NATO contemplate what to do next. However, the “mysterious ICBM” was soon not only uncovered, but actually named – “Oreshnik” (“Hazel” in Russian). However, solid information about the missile is extremely scant, fueling all sorts of speculation, wild guessing and outright misinformation.
For instance, the Pentagon insists the missile that hit Dnepropetrovsk was fired from Kapustin Yar, a testing site in the Astrakhan oblast (region) in southern Russia, located over 1000 km to the east. This distance is too short for an ICBM, raising questions about the veracity of the US military’s claims. Then, videos from Kazakhstan emerged, specifically over the city of Satbayev, which is 1,500 km to the east of Kapustin Yar. Even more interestingly, some 450 km to the southeast lies Sary Shagan.
This place is home to one of the largest and most important missile test sites in the former Soviet Union, with the Russian military still using it extensively, including during the aforementioned April 12 test. It’s simply impossible to see “Oreshnik” fly over Satbayev if it was fired from Kapustin Yar to Dnepropetrovsk. However, it’s certainly possible that the missile was fired from Sary Shagan. Still, NATO doesn’t want to reveal that it flew nearly 2,400 km before hitting its targets with pinpoint precision.
Even more interestingly, videos over Satbayev also show that the missile is wobbling and maneuvering just like the “mysterious ICBM” tested on April 12, further reinforcing the notion that the “Oreshnik” could actually be a conventionally armed “Rubezh”. In addition, its maximum range exceeds 5,000 km, which puts virtually all of Europe in range. And indeed, it makes little sense to get a completely new missile if you have the “Rubezh”, as it’s already a largely finished product.
Technically speaking, there are several possibilities when it comes to the “Oreshnik”. First, it doesn’t even have to be a regular missile and could be some sort of MaRV (maneuverable reentry vehicle), MIRV (multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle), HGV (hypersonic glide vehicle), etc. or perhaps even a hybrid, with the “Rubezh” being the primary missile carrier. The “Rubezh” itself can already carry the “Avangard”, so if the “Oreshnik” is an HGV, it shouldn’t be a problem for the “Rubezh” to deploy it.
Another possibility is that the “Oreshnik” is a completely new missile (not necessarily ballistic, but likely a more advanced hypersonic, maneuvering weapon) that has its own MIRV/MaRV/HGV warheads. There are no definite claims about this at present, simply because very little is publicly known about it. However, personally, I am more inclined to believe that the “Oreshnik” is a conventionally armed HGV that can be carried by nuclear-capable ICBM/IRBMs like the RS-26 “Rubezh”.
The reason is quite simple, because why would someone make something completely new when they already have a finished project that can immediately go into production (the “Rubezh” uses the same production lines as the “Yars”)? This reinforces the notion that the RS-26 is a highly modular design which can be equipped with various types of warheads, including conventional ones. It also harkens back to President Putin’s vision of Russia’s strategic preemptive strike capabilities.
One more thing that should be noted about the “Oreshnik” is that it was certainly an overkill against the Neo-Nazi junta. Russia’s more tactical and operational level missiles could’ve easily conducted this. However, given the fact that Moscow is faced with the increasingly delusional and aggressive West, it just had to demonstrate its firepower, prompting Putin to authorize the long-range strike on Dnepropetrovsk. This is a particularly important message to both the US and EU/NATO.
In terms of the functioning of the missile’s warhead, the available footage shows at least 30 smaller projectiles divided into five groups (six in each). The lack of visible detonations (although at least one was seen) suggests these are probably advanced kinetic penetrators capable of annihilating heavily defended and dug-in positions. This means that any NATO base anywhere in Europe and/or elsewhere would be in range, but Russia wouldn’t need to rely on its thermonuclear arsenal to deter aggression.
Key European NATO Bases in Reach of Russia’s Oreshnik Hypersonic Missile
In his remarks unveiling the Oreshnik missile system on Thursday, President Vladimir Putin warned that Moscow reserves the right “to use our weapons against military facilities of those countries that allow using their weapons against our facilities.”
Russia’s new Oreshnik hypersonic ballistic missile has a 2.5-3 km/s flight speed, a 1-1.2 ton payload, is equipped with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, and is designated as an intermediate-range missile, which means a firing range of up to 5,500 km. During its test combat deployment against a Ukrainian military-industrial target Thursday, the Oreshnik was thought to have traveled 1,000 km or more to Dnepropetrovsk from Russia’s Astrakhan region.
Here are some key NATO facilities within reach of the new hypersonic intermediate-range missile:
Eastern Europe
Poland
Lask Air Base (home to permanent US Air Force detachment)
Home to by far the largest US garrison in Europe and the second-largest US deployment abroad, besides Japan. Home to some 35,000 troops and support personnel.
Ramstein Air Base (largest US and NATO air base in Europe, key to US operations in the region and Middle East, including the once secret US drone program)
Another key US garrison country in Europe. Jumping off and/or transit point for US and NATO military operations in the Middle East and North Africa, including the 2011 aerial aggression against Libya, which triggered a wave of migrants and refugees flooding into Europe via Italy.
Aviano Air Base (stores US nukes)
Ghedi Air Base
Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily
Naval Support Activity Naples (HQ of US 6th Fleet)
US Army Garrison Italy
Greece
Naval Support Activity Souda Bay, Crete
UK
Royal Air Force Lakenheath
Royal Air Force Mildenhall
Royal Air Force Alconbury/Molesworth
Royal Air Force Croughton, Fairford, Welford (common stopover site for US strike and strategic bomber aircraft)
Royal Air Force High Wycombe (RAF HQ)
Portsmouth Naval Base (home to two-thirds of Royal Navy’s surface fleet)
Spain
Rota Naval Base (permanent home to six US missile destroyers). Key strategic facility for US operations in the Mediterranean Sea.
Moron Air Base
Portugal
Lajes Air Base, Azores Islands (key NATO transatlantic logistical hub, targetable if Oreshnik can be redeployed from Astrakhan region to new launch locations somewhere west of Moscow)
This is a girl in Japan going eating, and taking a public bath in Japan. I like it because it is almost like you are there and experiencing it for yourself. A nice escape and adventure. No sexual anything. Just wholesome stuff.
(If you want the “sexy stuff” you can join her fanclub. It’s a mix of Japanese kinds of stuff. Not to my liking, but you all might want to go down that rabbit hole.)
UPDATED 7:43 PM EST — EXPLOSIONS IN KURSK AND IN ROSTOV, RUSSIA . . . CLAIM: ATACMS — AGAIN
Since about 3:00 PM eastern US time today, Saturday 23 Nov 2024, reports have been coming in saying there have been numerous explosions in Kursk, Russia. Those reports **claim** American-supplied ATACMS were used by Ukraine — again.
Other reports say “it may be Drones.”
Additional reports are also coming in claiming explosions in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.
I have received video of what is purported to be a residential area of Kursk, Russia, and the video clearly shows large flashes of light and the loud boom of a significant explosion. So the reports of “explosions” in Kursk seem to be true.
There is no official verification (yet) that the weapons used were ATACMS. I am endeavoring to grab the latest Intel on this, and will report what I find out; but here we are at 5:33 PM EST and for the past two and a half hours, multiple, consistent, reports are saying it WAS American-supplied ATACMS.
It was just two days ago that Russia responded to a different ATACMS strike, by launching a brand new ORENSHNIK Intermediate-Range Missile against Ukraine’s city of Dnipro.
If, in fact, Ukraine is once against hitting Russia with ATACMS, then clearly they didn’t learn any lesson at all from being hit with an ICBM and a larger act of retribution/deterrence might have to be delivered by the Russians.
How fast that may take place is anyone’s guess.
UPDATE 7:43 PM EST —
The explosions in Kursk ARE confirmed. It was a Ukrainian attack.
According to the Governor of Kursk, 27 Ukrainian UAVs and two “missiles” were shot down over the Kursk region.
No word on what type of “missiles.”
Beef and Rice Stuffed Bell Peppers
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Ingredients
4 to 6 large bell peppers
1 pound ground beef
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 (20 ounce) can whole tomatoes
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 to 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
Instructions
Cut tops off bell peppers and remove seeds. Parboil in salted, boiling water for 4 minutes. Drain and cool.
Brown meat in skillet with onion. Drain oil.
Add tomatoes that have been mashed.
Add Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
Add rice. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat.
Add Cheddar cheese, stirring until melted and well blended.
Stuff mixture into peppers.
Top with Parmesan cheese.
Bake at 350 degrees F about 20 minutes or until hot.
Notes
If freezing peppers, do not bake. Wrap individually and place in a large freezer bag. Thaw well before baking.
When did you realize that your childhood was not normal?
I never had this big “aha” moment where it dawned on me all at once. But I’d say I first realized something really wasn’t right when I was around 9 or 10 years old. That’s about the age I started making friends on my own, spending time at other people’s houses without my parents also being around, etc. It was hard not to notice the differences between my house and most of my friends’ houses.
I saw parents who not only loved each other but openly expressed affection for one another. The fathers actually seemed to want to be home with their wives and kids. They certainly didn’t have random women in their lives that they openly dated and carried on with in front of their children.
Meanwhile, the mothers seemed to genuinely enjoy being mothers and to love their kids. They didn’t sit around all day pouting and drinking, alternating between ignoring their children and either yelling at them or criticizing every little thing about them. Instead, they were fun, and happy, and pretty, and generous. They smiled. They laughed. They had little busy things they liked to do with their spare time.
My friends’ mothers would even invite me to help them in the kitchen or sit and watch cooking shows with them in the mornings if I spent the night and happened to be up early. Their eyes would light up when they smiled at me. I had the impression that they genuinely liked me and enjoyed being with me. And when they’d tell me I was a pleasure to have in their homes and that I was welcome anytime, I could tell they meant it.
That’s also around the time I started lying and making up stories about how things were at home when asked about it by other people.
For example, we were always being given school assignments that required us to write about things like what our families liked to do together over the holidays or special things we did with each of our parents as far as quality time. I realized these were things that were supposed to be happening in family homes or else we wouldn’t be asked to write about them.
I also assumed the whole situation with my parents clearly not liking each other (or me) was somehow my fault, I was ashamed, and I didn’t want my teachers to know about it. So, I’d write about things my friends did with their parents as if it were me and my parents instead. Sometimes I’d just invent complete fictions that I thought sounded good — whatever I thought would make us seem normal.
And I lied to my friends, too. Like, I remember this one incident where I got a really high score on a big test — only one answer wrong — and my best friend at the time insisted my parents were going to buy me something or throw me a party to celebrate because that’s what her parents would do.
What actually happened when I showed my mother the test was she grilled me about the one wrong answer, demanding to know why I didn’t get all the answers right. So, I wasn’t praised for doing well. I was scolded for doing badly. But when I got back to school on Monday and my friends asked what kind of reward my parents treated me to over the weekend, I lied and said they threw me a giant pizza party and bought me a bunch of presents. I was too ashamed to tell them what had really happened.
Because before all this, I just thought my home and family were normal. I thought it was normal for parents not to love each other and to low-key hate their kids. I thought it was normal to just want to spend all your time alone in your room reading, and drawing, and writing, and retreating into your imagination because trying to connect with your family instead just made you feel… bad.
To this day, it’s still hard for me to think of parenthood as anything other than a waking nightmare to be avoided at all costs. There’s a part of me that will probably always worry that my parents were right to feel the way they did, to be so miserable, and to blame it on their kids. (I, unsurprisingly, never wanted children myself or had any. I didn’t want to wind up like my mom.)
As an adult, I naturally get that those things weren’t normal or healthy on any level. I logically know the situation at home between my parents wasn’t my fault and that it was very wrong of them to ever allow me to feel like it was. I also came to realize that my friends’ parents and families had problems and secrets of their own — huge ones, in some cases. They just weren’t airing out their dirty laundry in front of guests or anything.
But it’s still weird to think back on. That was a very confusing period in my life during which I felt pretty isolated and very confused. I thought I was literally the only kid in the world dealing with anything like that.
It was both a relief and a disappointment to find out that I wasn’t. I was relieved to know that I wasn’t alone and that I was far from the only kid who grew up in a dysfunctional home or had emotionally unavailable parents. But I missed believing in the fairytale that there was such a thing as a perfect family or a household where everyone got along 100 percent of the time.
Ever since I was little I wanted to explore space and explore my curiosity of a world unexplained. After I graduated high school I told my parents how passionate I was of going to college for astronomy and astronautics. They weren’t proud nor happy and thought little of the accomplishments of NASA and told me no. They were not even willing to help me pay my way through college. So I took the pain of rejection and I remember crying and looking at old books and exploration tapes because it was not fair.That’s when I decided that I was going to try anyways and I applied to the Emory-Riddle Aeronautical University. I waited for months and my father told me I received a letter, so I remember grabbing it happy and disappointed because I was too afraid to feel just one thing. I was accepted, I was literally accepted and I was finally happy with life.I studied astronautics for 4 years and was granted a chance after college to be apart The NASA Exhibition for a space launch. The date is set for March 06, 2041 that was eight months ago today. I have been in space now for six months exploring Mars, the fourth planet from the sun, that is red in color but dessert like with fridge temperatures makes Mars hard to explore. The exhibition is set to last for a year and a half hitting places like Europa and the Titan next. I wanted to be the first to try and manipulate the gravity of Mars. The closer The Space X spaceship gets to Mars the closer the camera set on shows me in this spaceship the features of Mars. I was already warned by NASA that the closer we get to Mars the worst it could potentially affect the spaceship.In each camera we see dessert grain red sand. I keep reporting in happy showing the team of the cameras that are landed on Mars. I know my parents are in NASA’s domain looking at me and my team. Until one of my team members noticed the hydro fuel that keeps are spaceship safe from Mars radiation is becoming low. Worried Jack runs to me telling the team that the hydro fuel was never made to get low because the kind of fuel affects the generator system of the spaceship. The whole team not knowing what Jack was talking about we start asking him again to explain further. He expresses that the closer we get to Mars the spaceship will blow up due to the level of radiation on Mars. The beeping starts to become erratic and the team starts to cry and NASA operator’s check in and start demanding we follow instructions. How can the best day of my life possibly be the last day of my life?NASA operators tell us to turn the spaceship around William with Cindy start quickly to change directional paths but are losing control over the system because the spaceship runs on hydro fuel which is running low. Mandie tells us there is a force filled around mars due to its lack of gravity and the hydro fuel is running to low to move the spaceship. Which meant we were stuck miles into Mars force filled of radioactive heat with nowhere to go. Soon as the hydro fuel runs out the spaceship will become un-functional. The spaceship starts to tremble and Luis is praying and i’m terrified. Jack tells us that NASA says with no place out the radiation we will soon be exposed to its toxicity in matter of hours and eventually die. I can’t feel anything but the tears falling down on my face. My parents are going to watch me die with my crew in less than 5 hours. My crew has family and kids and they are never going home again in less than 5 hours.It’s 3 hours in and two of my crew members have passed, Cindy and Maddie, Luis is wheezing bad and me and Jack are panting heavily. Its 4 hours in a Luis is finally pronounced dead I start trying to keep Jack up and NASA keeps checking in on us. He tells that I’ve always been like a brother to him and whenever he needed encouragement from his screwed life to become an astronaut I was there for him, motivating him. I told him I loved him like a brother and after I said this I watch my brother take his last breath at 4:45 pm. I cry and say Jack I’m not strong enough for this the minutes feel like hours my lungs feel like a truck it is repeatedly being run over and the smell of Mars radiation fills the spaceship. I cough and hear NASA operators asking me are you okay? we are checking in on you. And thats when I couldn’t breathe I see my vision cloud and hear the engine rumbling as I cough I can smell the smoke. I feel nothing and everything all at once. I try to mouth whisper my ‘parents’ to the NASA Operators the best I could. I want to tell them I love them and I wish I could explain my thoughts but I was becoming short of breathe and then my parents say “I hear I love you Michael we love you, your gonna be okay.”The fire from the engine room starts to blow up to the lower half of the spaceship and I know it’s only a matter of minutes before I’m engulfed by flames or dead. This makes the radiation harder and harder to breathe in. As I feel me slipping away the waves of heat touch my skin first and I’m starting to loose consciousness. The only thing I knew in this moment I was blessed to live out my dream. As young boy I was always playing with a spaceship, a space shuttle, reading space books and watching space movies. As the flames engulf me as I start to die I will forever know that dreams are real but only as real as you make them.
Beef and Mushroom Casserole
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Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound lean ground beef
1 (5 1/2 ounce) package risotto mix with garden vegetables
1 1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil
Instructions
Prepare risotto mix according to package directions.
Meanwhile in a large nonstick skillet, brown ground beef, mushrooms, bell pepper and garlic over medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until beef is no longer pink, breaking beef up into small crumbles.
Pour off drippings.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stir risotto into beef mixture.
Sprinkle with cheese and basil.
Is your last day as a police officer (before retirement) uneventful?
My last day as a police officer was June 10, 2010. I had been a member of the police department for 33 years.
On my last day I went to work at 8:00 AM, and soon after my arrival several officers came into my office to congratulate me on my retirement and to wish me luck and health. They were joined by some of the civilian staff, and a few sergeants and other commanders.
I didn’t get a lick of work done. You’d have thought I was giving out lottery tickets.
By about 10:00 AM the chief came in and shooed everyone out of my office. My chief (Mike) was a very large man, the very picture of an old time Irish American cop, with a heart of gold and a sense of humor the size of the solar system.
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When he chased everyone else out of the office, he closed my door, and turned around to face me. He had tears in his eyes. He gave me a big hug (he was not capable of small hugs), and he kissed me on my left cheek.
Then he said, “This will always be your house.”
And then he said, “Now get the hell out of here.”
Mike made my last day eventful. He died a year later, and I miss him terribly.
What are some of the most famous unsolved mysteries?
The mystery of Simpson’s predictions:
Simpsons predicted the famous Siegfried and Roy tiger attack.
Simpsons predicted that a friendly white tiger would attack two brothers when they perform in a show. The episode was telecast in 1993 and the Siegfried and Roy tiger attack happened in 2003 .
2. Simpsons predicted Facetime in 1995
Even before the internet became essential, The Simpsons telecasted a episode featuring Homer Simpson speaking with his wife visually. Apple introduced Facetime in 2010.
3. The Simpsons predicted faulty voter machines used in the 2012 US President elections
When Homer tries to vote for Barack Obama, the vote falls to John McCain. The incident turned out to be true in the elections of 2012 where Mitt Romney was the competitor for Barack Obama.
4. The Simpsons predicted the mass of Higgs Boson particle and thus discovered the existence of the God’s particle:
In the episode “ The Wizard of Evergreen Terrace” aired in 1998, Homer Simpson is a inventor and is shown to be solving an equation. That equation predicts the nano mass of Higgs Boson which was discovered in 2012.
5. The Simpsons predicted the NSA spying scandal:
In 2007, The Simpsons predicted that US people are being spied by the NSA. In that episode Marge Simpson says to her daughter that the government does not listen to anybody’s conversation. At that time a humanoid seems to record the information. The NSA spying scandal was revealed on 2013.
6. The Simpsons predicted the possibility of Outbreak of Ebola virus in America:
The Simpsons telecasted in 1997 about Ebola virus which was not popular till the 2013 Ebola virus Outbreak in America
7. The Simpsons predicted the FIFA corruption Scandal:
In March 2014, The Simpsons predicted the FIFA Corruption Scandal which was actually found out in 2015. They also predicted the finals of World Cup 2014 and the possibility of future world cup being held in a desert. The desert is Qatar where the 2022 world cup is going to take place.
8. The Simpsons predicted the Disney’s take over of 20th Century Fox:
Predicted in 1998 and happened in 2017
9. The Simpsons predicted the 9/11 attack:
This one might be a coincidence but the 9$ and the silhouette of the World Trade Center resembling 11 gives an eerie feel.
10. The Simpsons predicted the Syrian uprising:
The Syrian uprising was also talked about in the Simpsons way before it already happened.
The Simpsons also predicted the 3 eyed fish from the Japanese nuclear waste, Lady Gaga Superbowl show, The shard in London , Smart watches and many other events.
Thus, Matt Groening ( The creator of The Simpsons) is the ultimate and unsolved human prodigy.
Edit: Dipyaman Uzir and User-11191801878614068370 asked me about The Simpsons predicting the Trump as president in 2016 US elections. I have searched in the internet about this and here’s what I found.
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The Simpsons predicted it 50% right. I say it because,
The Simpsons predicted Trump in 2015, not in 2000 in the episode “Trumpastic Voyage” which was telecasted after Trump announced his presidential nomination.
In 2000, The Simpsons telecast an episode “Bart to the future” where a joke about Trump becoming the president in the future is mentioned. Since Donald Trump was flirting with the idea of making a presidential run in 1999, this is a solved mystery.
However the prediction about the electoral map still remains a mystery. The electoral map predicts the map for Mitt Romney but it became true for Donald Trump.
I grew up in a small town: East Brady, Pennsylvania.
Only 5000 people. Tiny.
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But you know what? In the 1960’s we even had a small movie theater. Seriously. We really did.
Small town.
We had a bank. Here’s where I had my very first bank account. Heck, I used to go up and down that side ally throughout my boyhood. It used to be “Mellon Bank”, though today it no longer exists, and sold this building. I don’t know what it is today. Maybe an antique store….
East Brady, Pennsylvania (8480954903)
And we had a pharmacy… It still exists.
East Brady, Pennsylvania (8480951841)
And we had so much…
Movie theater
Local Diner
Candy store
Local hardware store
Local garage
Elementary and High School
Library
Yeah. Here is the Library. It was combination church and library. It was the old “Captain Brady” mansion. Nice. It was just soen the street from my boyhood home.
Library
As well as One or two restaurants (with attached bar)
Yeah. It was a real small town experience.
But yeah. We had a movie theater. And throughout the 1960’s my parents would fund me with a quarter to go watch a double feature matinee to keep me out of their hair for a spell.
It was a tiny enough place. Perhaps seated maybe 120 people. Just a single theater with 1960s era seating, and a curtained stage. The curtain actually moved out of the way when the movie started. (Unlike today.)
I watched the “Green Slime”, and saw Raquel Welch there on the big screen . So many classics.
It was a memory that is now long gone.
Around the middle of the 1970’s they stopped showing G rated movies and instead showed X-rated movies. As apparently there was better business doing that. And that pretty much breathed life into that theater for another decade into the 1980’s.
Sometimes I yearn to travel back in time, but I know better. I have occasionally visited the town. It was dying a slow, slow death.
Now pictures are of the survivors.
Relatives of my old classmates, milking out a living on the tough and scrabble wastes of what once was.
Today…
We start with a reminder…
What is the most disturbing message ever left on your voicemail?
I am a police officer’s wife.
I am used to late night calls when husband is at home and ‘I have to go back’ midnight leavetakings.
I do not dwell on what COULD happen to him, but I KNOW.
My phone vibrated while I was teaching. Since it was an unknown number, I let it go to voicemail.
When I lIstened to it after class, I began shaking and frantic fear tears filled my eyes. The translation from Thai:
“Wife of police officer Xxxxxxxx, there has been an accident. Call back immediately.”
An ambulance siren sounded in the background.
I could barely hold my phone; I was trembling badly. A man answered and identified me and my husband by name, using a serious, commanding tone. I could hear the siren again.
I asked what had happened and if my husband was o.k. Then there was the longest moment of silence I have ever experienced.
The siren sound stopped, and the man said, “Everything is fine, but it might not be that way in the future. You need more protection….more insurance in case something bad really DOES happen.”
This was a sales pitch???????
I wanted to scream, rant, cry with relief, hurt this caller, but I didn’t.
I quietly asked his name and the company he represented and said I would be in touch.
I wanted to call my husband, but he had more than enough to deal with at work.
I decided to handle this myself. Checking with a former student who also is an agent for the same company, I discovered that this was not a company-sponsored sales pitch.
I called the salesman back and asked if he had a family. He connected his ‘yes’ with a further sales pitch (which I ignored). A wife, 2 young children, his parents still living (more pitch).
Then I quietly asked what his wife’s and his mother’s responses would be if they received his voicemail. What would HIS response be if HE received it?
He went silent. So did I.
He apologized, and said he hadn’t really thought it through.
He was just one of many who never consider the effect of their ‘creative’ words or self-centered actions on others.
No, I didn’t buy the insurance.
Straight to Hell – Karl’s Disco Wiener Haven
A real classic!
Would you make your company aware if you saw that they accidentally added an extra two zeros onto one of your weekly paychecks, or keep it a secret?
Guy I worked with was in financial difficulties, so the company agreed to pay him weekly, instead of monthly, as was the norm.
1st week his wage slip showed a full month’s wages; he queried it and was told they were just bringing his wages up to date (which makes no sense but…).
2nd week his wage slip showed a full month’s wages, so he went to the accounts department in person with both the wages slips; again they told him it wasn’t an error.
3rd week his wage slip showed a full month’s wages, so he talked to his foreman, the foreman talked to the manager and they ALL went to the accounts department – who STILL claimed it wasn’t an error.
4th week, the company had him arrested for fraudulently getting a month’s wages every week.
At this point he had LOTS of evidence and paperwork showing he had tried to correct the problem, as well as several witnesses, and that got him off the hook; but if he had just accepted it and said nothing…
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7 thousand up votes, and currently gaining 1,000 per day(ish).
Did you know Quora keep bugging me to add a credential for this answer?
Because apparently, if I dont, not enough people will see it!!
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Do you want to know the reason the guy was in financial difficulties?
His car skidded on ice, spun out and flipped onto its roof, he kicked his way out via the rear window, and about 20–30 seconds later it basically exploded into a ball of fire.
The shit-hole company we worked for had lied about providing us with business insurance cover, for using our cars on company business, and so his insurance company refused to pay out for his car, and the damage done by the explosion to surrounding properties.
Kay & Co, part of Great Universal Stores, remember that name and never contemplate ever working for them.
Why YOU Should LEAVE the USA and Move to Asia NOW!
Does China illegally steal U.S. technology? If so, how?
I have heard such a joke:
The Chinese took a few glances at the F22 and F35 at the air show, and they successfully stole the technology and developed their own fifth-generation fighter.
The Russians sold the complete set of design drawings of the SU30 fighter to the Indians, and they have not been able to produce this 20-year-old fighter well so far.
Conclusion: Indians are honest and respect intellectual property rights, while Chinese are cunning and ready to steal
Later, at many Western air shows and important equipment exhibitions, Chinese audiences were refused to approach and forbidden to take pictures, while Indian audiences could touch and experience them at will.
THEY want to rule over us not only to destroy our civilization. Their shaming tactics + perversions.
Did German Tiger Tanks really need to start their engines every few hours? If so, why?
This is one of those vital logistics things that designers usually don’t think of, thinking the batteries would be enough for normal use. However, the crews of Tigers and just about all other tanks would run heaters, radio sets, etc. for hours and exhaust the batteries. Radio sets then were far different to the solid state sets nowadays, and involved many tubes that needed to be warmed up and kept warm. German forces had been taught to stay in communication, so those radio sets got used a lot.
Starting up the engine then not only used a lot of gas, but also made noise, which might carry a long way, especially at night in snowy terrain. Designers started adding small engines, called Little Joes or Tiny Tims, to tanks to retrofit this problem.
They were also often scratchy and unclear. This could have fatal consequences. My dad did not ride around in a tank, but in a command vehicle (pictured) with several radio sets to keep in touch with both his trucks (pictured) and nearby units that might need gasoline or other supplies on an urgent basis. He told me of a time he was late in supplying one of Rommel’s units in the 7th Panzer division as it approached the Atlantic shore of France. Rommel chewed him out. When he got a radio message to report to a French town two days later, he wondered at it, since it was 20 km. in front of the lines. But he wasn’t about to get chewed out by Rommel again, so he told his trucks to charge forward.
As they drove down the road he thought, “Man, our guys are really getting sloppy. These French soldiers marching to the back are still carrying rifles.” He later figured out that the only thing that saved him was that his trucks were so covered with mud they had no visible markings, and none of his guys wore the distinctive German helmets. He arrived at the town to discover no other forces there. Over the radio he discovered the first message had been wrong—they had mispronounced and misspelled the name of the town, which was over 20 km. to the East. Thinking quickly, he asked who was in charge, and met up with a French colonel. He told him the rest of his forces were right behind, and used the phrase (ironically) “You know that for you and me the war is over.”
To avoid bloodshed, he asked to park his vehicles somewhere safe. There was a football field nearby, so he pulled up his trucks in a circle and got the Colonel to post a few men at the entrance to make sure there were no “misunderstandings.” Dad had the gift of gab, and spoke French like a native. He loved France, had many friends there, and decades later took me on a tour of wineries. He told me that when he got to Paris, as others were proudly marching around to celebrate the victory, he instead prayed at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (pictured) for the many who had died (his handwriting reads “Here lies a soldier who died for his country.”)
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Charging batteries with the engine is one of those things engineers often don’t think of while sitting behind desks instead of in the battlefield. Another one was track repair. My dad wondered why he had to supply so many tracks to Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division, to which he was attached as an officer in the Transportation Corps. Each tank had a few extra track segments. If one or two got damaged, the crew theoretically simply replaced them. In combat, however, when a track got hit or damaged, the driver would often jam the transmission into reverse and accelerate backwards to get to safety. This destroyed most of or even the entire track. Tracks on German WW2 tanks also got worn because they had no rubber, which was scarce.
So his trucks started carrying long sections of track, which had been unplanned, as well as extra tank batteries, wire and solder and flashlights (for nighttime repairs) and 88mm ammunition for the FLAK batteries that for Rommel were suddenly the only thing that could engage the thick-skinned British Matilda and other tanks.
There were of course no Tiger I tanks while he was in Rommel’s 7th, but later on he had the same challenges of rapidly changing conditions in the East. Because he was Transportation Command and not organic, he was attached to many units, from Leningrad all the way down to Stalingrad. Throughout, he and the Tiger commanders continued chattering on the radios, a lot, using up batteries. And from then on, he very carefully checked and re-checked over the radio the names of the towns he was supposed to drive to (!).
The Devil’s Advocate (1997) Deleted Scene #2
Have you ever had a job where you did nothing for years and nobody found out?
I worked as upper management for a tow-truck/transport company with an auto repair shop for years. Not that we needed “upper” management, but the owner was prone to extended vacations. Sometimes on vacations, sometimes in jail, and my word was law to the point that I was overruled maybe 5% of the time when he was there. Unlike some of the managers who’ve worked there, I didn’t want my name strewn all over everything, so I put all the accounts back in the owner’s name instead of my own, so only in rare occasion did anything actually show up in my name, so I was pretty much a ghost manager, which is about how it is for me today. Honestly, it was easier playing the owner than trying to explain where the owner was at the time than to just say I was him and be able to administrate whatever accounts I needed to.
When he was done with his troubles. I pointed out that while I was his friend, and now I’m a company manager, dispatcher, hirer & firer, and even a tow-truck driver, I was preparing to go into business in a technology related field.
I was asked never to leave, but I had to. My unofficial title was upheld for years. All my new job was, was simply to spend 10–15 hours a week looking at any of the truck logs I deemed suspicious, being on call for the owner and the 2 people needed to fill my job and I’d continuously get my direct deposit. I even worked in the office again for half a year when I was asked to check into money problems and theft and found both, firing the people I found responsible. Sadly none of them even denied it.
Since then whenever I was called upon, he always paid me for my time. I’d go months without ever logging in or checking any logs unless I was asked specifically to or if one of the drivers pissed me off. As of now, out of the 30+ employees I am known by 5–6 of them, and the rest have no idea until I pull in, drag them out of a truck, and send them home. It’s been at least a year since i showed up as anything but a customer on the auto repair side, but I still get the money in my account.
I do not buy Chinese products (unless disposable) because I know they will be low quality. Why does China only seem to make low end products? Why do they not mimic Germany where the standard is higher?
One of my partners is an Indonesian.
He doesn’t know Chinese very well, so he asked me to go with him to the China Canton Fair this year. He wanted to find some business. The final business was to negotiate with a factory in Zhejiang, and I served as an interpreter.
He wanted to purchase a batch of lighters, the most common type, with a plastic shell and disposable after use.
The price quoted by the Chinese was very reasonable. According to their quotation, each lighter was less than 0.2 US dollars. It can be sold to retailers in Indonesia at 0.5 US dollars each and still be profitable.
But my friend was not satisfied. He wanted to reduce the price to 8 cents each. The Chinese said that price was impossible, but of course they were still working hard to get the order.
My friend said: “My lighter is used for free gifts. It will be placed in birthday cakes as a tool for lighting candles. I need to keep the cost as low as possible.”
The Chinese representative contacted the factory engineer by phone. In the end, they gave a solution:
Replace a smaller shell. Use glue instead of a seal. The ignition of the lighter was replaced with a simpler flint, and the metal windshield was replaced with plastic. The flammable gas was replaced with a cheaper formula and the gas regulator was removed. The cost of the lighter was reduced to 8 cents each, but the Chinese told them that this lighter might only work 5 times and could not be stored for a long time.
In short, a reliable lighter became an industrial waste that could only be used a few times.
But the Indonesians were satisfied: working 5 times was enough because it was only used to light candles.
However, things were not that simple. A few months later, I found that the Indonesians put part of the inventory on TEMU and Amazon and sold it at $0.2.
I believe that people who bought these lighters will complain on various social platforms: “Made in China is garbage”, but they will not tell people that they only spent 20 cents to buy them.
“Victor Davis Hanson: Something Colossal is Happening in Europe…”
Hal Turner
Back in early August, the Hal Turner channel broadcast this…
The thinking behind it had been simple. Take two people who don’t get on, and force them to be dependent on each other for company and possibly for care.Not such a crazy idea. It has worked many a time, and no doubt will work many times more, but it didn’t appear to be working for Connor and Cameron. Rumours had spread that they had been close once, and there had been a massive fall-out (over a woman or over money or over both, depending on which version you listened to) but the one thing that might have united them was denying that there was a word of truth in it. They hadn’t even known each other when they were children, and would almost certainly have heartily disliked each other if they had. The authorities at the Interstellar Operations Technical Academy, generally known as IOTA, despaired of them at times. Both were gifted students, though in a year whose intake included the likes of Gemma the Genius and Bert the Boffin (their gifts were genuine, and not just because of the handy alliteration) they were, at most, likely to be among the best of the rest, and both got on pleasantly enough, or so it seemed, with their fellow students. But the minute they came into each other’s ambit, it was as if a damp, grey, sodden curtain came down.After passing their exams easily enough, and passing the medicals and the aptitude tests, it was time, if students wished, to go on their first mission. The vast majority DID wish. Of course, they had all been on holiday before, but this was a different matter.There were those who said that Dr Anton Markovich, the director of IOTA, was one of the most intelligent and insightful humans who ever lived, and those who said he was quite, quite mad. Possibly both opinions were correct. He made a point of consulting people before taking any decision, and then proceeding to take the one he had intended to all along, having convinced the others that they had persuaded him to.But just occasionally, some dared to raise dissenting voices, and Dr Marianne Hopgood, who was by way of being a power in the land herself, raised an eyebrow (and her eyebrows were extremely eloquent, though her mien was generally impassive) when he “suggested” sending Connor and Cameron to the Meteor Observation Spatial Substation , nicknamed the Rolling Stone for obvious reasons, and it did, indeed, resemble one a little with its rugged circular construction for a session. “Anton, are you really sure about this?” she asked. He invited everyone to call him Anton, but in practice, not many did, at least, not often. “No disrespect, but your responsibilities mean you don’t do much actual teaching and ….”“I know exactly what goes on here, Marianne,” he said, “And you have no mean to tell me that those two young men don’t get on.”“That’s the understatement of the year,” someone muttered.“And it is a two-person capsule,” Marianne pointed out.“I am well aware of that. I both helped design it and have travelled on it. But I still maintain it could be the making of them, and the end of this silly feud. Of course it will be entirely their own choice.”Which was true. But the promise of rapid promotion and remuneration well beyond the norm for a first mission helped. And somehow, you just didn’t defy Dr Markovich. With the hyperdrive rocket, even though it was now past its prime and a super-hyper-drive rocket was in preparation, they were at their destination within a couple of days, and the rocket on its way back to earth to be refurbished, calling at Mars on the way to pick up some farmers on their way home and some supplies. They passed the relatively short trip to Meteor Moor, as it was nicknamed, more or less in total silence. The capsule was remotely controlled, but as an extra precaution they took turns minding the instrument panel. A soft metallic buzzer reminded them of the changeover time, and they did so without exchanging a word. At one point Cameron made an exaggerated gesture of sweeping a hand over the seat after Connor had been sitting there, and Connor muttered, “Bo-Ring!” in a stage whisper. It was a precursor of things to come. Both men were inclined to be talkative, and complete silence, especially in the vacuum of space, can only endure for a certain period of time. This was probably the point, so Dr Markovich had probably hoped, when they would start to spark each other off, and then to confide in each other, and discover that they had more in common than they ever realised, and begin to bond. Perhaps he was not entirely wrong on the matter of them discovering they had more in common than they realised. “You are so profoundly boring,” Connor informed Cameron, casting a disdainful eye over his music of choice. “You have the same taste in music as a Plutonian Pensioner!” The care home for retired astronauts was one of those institutions that was benign and necessary, but nobody wanted to end up there. “That’s ripe coming from you. Your grandfather is a Plutonian Pensioner. But come to that he’s probably a lot more interesting than you are. Mind you, a bottle of engine cleaning fluid is more interesting than you are, and more useful, too.” Meteor Moor was a beautiful place, but a lonely one. When the interstellar wind was too strong they could not venture outside the capsule, even in their latest design space suits. They could have gazed out at the canopy of stars sending their lights from millions of years ago, and could have watched the meteor showers that came almost every evening in the red-tinged twilight and were generally regarded as one of the loveliest spectacles in the galaxy. And they did. Occasionally. “So you have nothing better to do than look out of the window,” Connor sneered. “You’re more boring than a disused heat shield.” “And exactly what do YOU have to do about make stupid remarks? You’re more boring than Martian Maize.” Now that WAS getting seriously nasty. After hiccups at the start, the terra-forming of Mars had been largely successful, and it was now more or less taken for granted that most crops folk were used to on earth, and some that had never been dreamt of, could flourish there. But for some reason, they had never quite cracked it with maize. It was, theoretically, edible, but as more than one person had said, it was curious how something could be so utterly tasteless and yet taste so disgusting at the same time. It was something of an embarrassment. As a last resort someone had suggested using it to bulk out pet food (after having been discouraged, if not actually banned for centuries, it was now allowed, though controlled, again) but discovered that even the most voracious and undiscerning mutt turned up his cold nose at Martian Maize. Scientific papers were written pondering the fact that dogs had a much stronger sense of smell and perhaps they could smell something disgusting that humans couldn’t, but that was contentious, and Martian Maize was so offensively bland it probably didn’t smell of anything in particular. “I’d eat a plateful of Martian Maize before voluntarily spending another hour with only you for company!” It’s fair to say it was not going well, and they realised this at IOTA. Allowing for storm delays, the research side of the mission was going well enough, but even reading between the lines it was plain that this was the exception that proved the rule. Dr Markovich had been wrong. That was disconcerting. That was like one of those anomalies in space-time that they still hadn’t quite managed to explain. They lived in hope of the message where Connor would say, “I had to laugh at something Cameron told me today,” or Cameron would say, “Connor has hidden depths.” It seemed, at least, that they carried out their work efficiently, if far from in harmony, and that they were likely to get home in one piece. Well, in two pieces. They were already packing up their experiments, and checking the gravity drive on the capsule when Connor fell sick. This was a highly unusual matter. Everyone was vaccinated against – well, practically everything – and though there were still hospitals and medical doctors, both on earth and in the colonies, the hospitals were often more or less empty and the doctors had little to do. Injuries still sometimes happened, but many folk could not even recall having known someone who was ill. “Swinging the lead,” Cameron said, “When there’s some actual work to do. You are as boring and predictable as a magnet, except you’d never attract anyone or anything.” “And you are as boring as rusty iron filings no self-respecting magnet would touch. But I – genuinely do feel unwell.” Either of them could have coped with the vast majority of space emergencies that might come their way, but though they theoretically had some basic medical training, this was another matter. And Cameron had to admit that Connor didn’t look right. His cheeks were too red, though the capsule hadn’t overheated, and he sometimes struggled to breathe, though there was nothing whatsoever wrong with its oxygen supply. “Bloody drama queen,” Cameron muttered, but was coming closer to panic than he cared to admit. He contacted mission control, and they hurriedly called in a doctor to advise them. The doctor, it has to be said, was not wildly helpful. But perhaps it was not entirely his fault. He muttered something about “Space Fever”. That was a vague, catch-all term for something that used to be quite a common problem, but they thought, by now, they had more or less eliminated. Sometimes, despite all the protective suits and systems that became more advanced by the second, someone’s body just began to rebel about being in space, and the progress of the illness could be terrifying. There was only one potential cure. “Get home – now –“ Dr Markovich, who had come into the control centre, said. “Put the engines on boost, and don’t make any stopovers. You’ll have to take solo control of the instrument panel.” “Typical,” he muttered, but realised Connor hadn’t heard him. He was unconscious. “Wake up, for heaven’s sake,” he said, “Or come to think of it, you’re less likely to annoy me when you’re asleep.” Calling on his basic medical training, he put out two fingers to feel the pulse in Connor’s neck. It was not hot any more, and his face was not red and flushed, and there was no pulse-beat. He tried again, and then, speaking in a curiously flat voice, he contacted Mission Control. “Connor – is dead.” The brief silence seemed to expand beyond the ions and light years of the galaxy. Dr Markovich was the first to speak. “May he rest in peace. You – know what must be done, Cameron.” Cameron knew what must be done. It was one of those lessons they were all taught, and rarely talked about. There was a ritual and a protocol to such matters, and it had been established centuries ago, and changed little. Those who died on a mission, unless they had expressly made other wishes known and these were possible, if they were still closer to the mission’s destination, were to be laid to rest there. The ceremony was brief and dignified. Wrapped in a shining silver cloth, Cameron was lowered down a slide onto the surface of a meteor. Connor dimmed the lights of the capsule, and said, as the standard formula dictated, “From stardust you came, to stardust return.” and bowed his head. There was nothing else to do now except get the capsule home and debrief them at IOTA and mission control. Cameron felt a curious and cavernous emptiness that was almost physical. It was not exactly grief, and not exactly guilt, and he had no illusions that Connor would have felt either, had their roles been reversed though he, too, would have done his duty. The lights were on again in the capsule now, and caught in the light of the full moon of a not so distant planet that had been explored, but had yielded no life, the metal walls were almost like a mirror. Cameron looked at himself in that mirror, and muttered, “You are more boring than Martian Maize.” And then he wept, and then he brought the capsule home.
Viktor Orbán on how the war has revealed the reality of the world today
Jul 31, 2024
By Thomas Fazi
A long worthwhile read; I agree with 90% of what Orban says.
I disagree with his putting hope for a U.S. revival on Trump and Vance winning. My opinion is that the U.S. cannot rebuild its industrial economy with its current form of government where state governments and Congress are strong, and the federal government is weak. The U.S. has to change to a different model with a strong federal government which can set economic policy without being vetoed by state governments and Congress. If the U.S. does not change to this model, it will shrink in power and economic influence on its own. The job of China and Russia is to let the U.S. continue to shrink while avoiding war with the U.S.
This idea of a stronger federal government to drive re-industrialization runs exactly counter to what conservative Republicans who form the Trump base support. So this will not happen.
This means that the U.S. will continue to grow weaker, and will continue trying to provoke war with China and Russia, because the U.S. government knows that it can expand its power much more in wartime than it can if the U.S. is at peace.
World War 3 is the last hope for US power and influence.
War is the only way the U.S. federal government can expand its powers and make state governments irrelevant. The greatest period of growth in the U.S. economy came in the twenty five years following the end of WW2.
China, Russia and the rest of the world also know it. That is why they are building BRICS.
This past weekend saw the delivery of what can easily be described as the most important geopolitical speech of the decade — though you’re likely to have missed it if you tend to get your news from the Western mainstream media. The reason for the media silence is easy to explain: first, it was given by Viktor Orbán, the number one enemy of the European establishment; second, the speech itself — an analysis of the state of the world, and of the West and Europe in particular — is probably the most powerful takedown yet of the dominant Western geopolitical and cultural paradigm.
It’s a masterful talk, in which Orbán covers a wide range of topics: the war in Ukraine, Europe-US relations, the demise of Western hegemony and the southward and eastward global geopolitical shift underway, the importance of the nation state, the European Union (EU) as the quintessential example of the globalist and oligarchic shift in Western politics, Donald Trump, Hungary’s role in all this, and much more.
It’s a very long speech, which is why I’ve selected what I consider to be its most important takeaways (edited for clarity), focusing on the issues of European and global relevance rather than the ones more strictly related to Hungary. It still makes for a pretty long read, but one that’s definitely worth your time. I hope you’ll find it as enlightening and refreshing as I did.
Highlights from the lecture of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the 33rd Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp, commonly known as the Tusványos Festival
On the Hungarian peace mission — and the EU’s pro-war policy:
[Brussels has] condemned the Hungarian peace mission efforts. I have tried — without success — to explain that there is such a thing as Christian duty. This means that if you see something bad in the world — especially something very bad — and you receive some instrument for its correction, then it is a Christian duty to take action, without undue contemplation or reflection. The Hungarian peace mission is about this duty. I would like to remind all of us that the EU has a founding treaty, which contains these exact words: “The Union’s aim is peace”. [Yet] Brussels is offended at our describing what they are doing as a pro-war policy.
Perhaps Orwell was right after all when he wrote that in “Newspeak” peace is war and war is peace. Despite all the criticism, let us remind ourselves that since the beginning of our peace mission the US and Russian war ministers have spoken to each other, the Swiss and Russian foreign ministers have held talks, President Zelenskyy has finally called President Trump, and the Ukrainian foreign minister has been to Beijing. So fermentation has begun, and we are slowly but surely moving from a pro-war European policy to a pro-peace policy. This is inevitable, because time is on the side of peace policy. Reality has dawned on the Ukrainians, and now it is up to the Europeans to come to their senses, before it is too late: “Trump ante portas”. If by then Europe does not switch to a policy of peace, then after Trump’s victory it will have to do so while admitting defeat, covered in shame, and admitting sole responsibility for its policy.
How the war has revealed the reality of the world today
But, ladies and gentlemen, the subject of today’s presentation is not peace. In fact, for those who are thinking about the future of the world, and of Hungarians within it, there are three big issues on the table today. The first is the war — or more precisely, an unexpected side-effect of the war. This is the fact that the war reveals the reality in which we live. This reality was not visible and could not be described earlier, but it has been illuminated by the blazing light of missiles fired in the war.
The second big issue on the table is what will happen after the war. Will a new world come into being, or will the old one continue? And if a new world is coming — and this is our third big issue — how should Hungary prepare for this new world?
So, about the reality revealed by the war. Dear friends, the war is our red pill. Think of the “Matrix” films. The hero is faced with a choice. He has two pills to choose from: if he swallows the blue pill, he can stay in the world of surface appearances; if he swallows the red pill, he can look into and descend into reality. The war is our red pill: it is what we have been given, it is what we must swallow. And now, armed with new experiences, we must talk about reality.
It is a cliché that war is the continuation of policy with other means. It is important to add that war is the continuation of policy from a different perspective. So war, in its relentlessness, takes us to a new position from which to see things, to a high vantage point. And from there it gives us a completely different — hitherto unknown — perspective. We find ourselves in new surroundings and in a new, rarefied force field. In this pure reality, ideologies lose their power; statistical sleights of hand lose their power; media distortions and politicians’ tactical dissimulation loses its power. There is no longer any relevance to widespread delusions — or even to conspiracy theories. What remains is the stark, brutal reality.
For the sake of clarity, I have made bullet points of everything we have seen since we swallowed the red pill: since the outbreak of the war in February 2022.
Why peace in Ukraine can only be brought in from the outside
Firstly, the war has seen brutal losses — numbering in the hundreds of thousands — suffered by both sides. I have recently met them, and I can say with certainty that they do not want to come to terms. Why is this? There are two reasons. The first is that each of them thinks that they can win, and wants to fight until victory. The second is that both are fuelled by their own real or perceived truth. The Ukrainians think that this is a Russian invasion, a violation of international law and territorial sovereignty, and they are in fact fighting a war of self-defence for their independence. The Russians think that there have been serious NATO military developments in Ukraine, Ukraine has been promised NATO membership, and they do not want to see NATO troops or NATO weapons on the Russian–Ukrainian border. So they say that Russia has the right to self-defence, and that in fact this war has been provoked. So everyone has some kind of truth, perceived or real, and will not give up fighting the war. This is a road leading directly to escalation; if it depends on these two sides, there will be no peace. Peace can only be brought in from outside.
Secondly: in years gone by we had got used to the United States declaring its main challenger or opponent to be China; yet now we see [the US] waging a proxy war against Russia. And China is constantly accused of covertly supporting Russia. If this is the case, then we need to answer the question of why it is sensible to corral two such large countries together into a hostile camp. This question has yet to be answered in any meaningful way.
Understanding the Ukrainian mindset
Thirdly: Ukraine’s strength, its resilience, has exceeded all expectations. After all, since 1991 eleven million people have left the country, it has been ruled by oligarchs, corruption sky-high, and the state had essentially ceased functioning. And yet now we are seeing unprecedentedly successful resistance from it. Despite the conditions described here, Ukraine is in fact a strong country. The question is what the source of this strength is. Apart from its military past and individuals’ personal heroism, there is something worth understanding here: Ukraine has found a higher purpose, it has discovered a new meaning to its existence. Because up until now, Ukraine saw itself as a buffer zone. To be a buffer zone is psychologically debilitating: there is a sense of helplessness, a feeling that one’s fate is not in one’s own hands. This is a consequence of such a doubly exposed position.
Now, however, there is the dawning prospect of belonging to the West. Ukraine’s new self-authored mission is to be the West’s eastern military frontier region. The meaning and importance of its existence has increased in its own eyes and in the eyes of the whole world. This has brought it into a state of activity and action, which we non-Ukrainians see as aggressive insistence — and there’s no denying that it is quite aggressive and insistent. It is in fact the Ukrainians’ demand for their higher purpose to be officially recognised internationally. This is what gives them the strength that makes them capable of unprecedented resistance.
The economic and political resilience of Russia
Fourthly: Russia is not what we have so far seen it to be, and Russia is not what we have so far been led to see it as. The country’s economic viability is outstanding. I remember being at European Council meetings — the prime ministers’ summits — when, with all sorts of gestures, Europe’s great leaders rather hubristically claimed that the sanctions against Russia and the exclusion of Russia from the so-called SWIFT system, the international financial clearing system, would bring Russia to its knees. They would bring the Russian economy to its knees, and through that the Russian political elite. As I watch events unfold, I am reminded of the wisdom of Mike Tyson, who once said that “Everyone has a plan, till they get punched in the mouth”. Because the reality is that the Russians have learned lessons from the sanctions imposed after the 2014 invasion of Crimea — and not only have they learned those lessons, but they have translated those lessons into action. They implemented the necessary IT and banking improvements.
So the Russian financial system is not collapsing. They have developed the ability to adapt, and after 2014 we fell victim to this, because we used to export a significant proportion of Hungarian food produce to Russia. We could not continue to do so because of the sanctions, the Russians modernised their agriculture, and today we are talking about one of the world’s largest food export markets; this is a country that used to have to rely on imports. So the way that Russia is described to us — as a rigid neo-Stalinist autocracy — is false. In fact we are talking about a country that displays technical and economic resilience — and perhaps also societal resilience, but we’ll see.
The hyper-vassalisation of Europe (and how the US blew up Nord Stream)
The fifth important new lesson from reality: European policy-making has collapsed. Europe has given up defending its own interests: all that Europe is doing today is unconditionally following the foreign policy line of the US Democrats — even at the cost of its own self-destruction. The sanctions we have imposed are damaging fundamental European interests: they are driving up energy prices and making the European economy uncompetitive.
We let the blowing up of the Nord Stream pipeline go unchallenged; Germany itself let an act of terrorism against its own property — which was obviously carried out under US direction — go unchallenged, and we are not saying a word about it, we are not investigating it, we do not want to clarify it, we do not want to raise it in a legal context. In the same way, we failed to do the right thing in the case of the phone tapping of Angela Merkel, which was carried out with the assistance of Denmark. So this is nothing but an act of submission.
The shift of the axis of power in Europe — from the West to the North-East
There is a context here which is complicated, but I will try to give you a necessarily simplified but comprehensive account of it. European policy-making has also collapsed since the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war because the core of the European power system was the Paris–Berlin axis, which used to be inescapable: it was the core and it was the axis. Since the war broke out, a different centre and a different axis of power has been established. The Berlin–Paris axis no longer exists — or if it does, it has become irrelevant and liable to be bypassed. The new power centre and axis comprises London, Warsaw, Kiev/Kyiv, the Baltics and the Scandinavians.
When, to the astonishment of Hungarians, one sees the German chancellor announcing that he is only sending helmets to the war, and then a week later he announces that he is in fact sending weapons, do not think that the man has lost his mind. Then when the same German chancellor announces that there may be sanctions, but that they must not cover energy, and then two weeks later he himself is at the head of the sanctions policy, do not think that the man has lost his mind. On the contrary, he is very much in his right mind. He is well aware that the Americans and the liberal opinion-forming vehicles they influence — universities, think tanks, research institutes, the media — are using public opinion to punish Franco–German policy that is not in line with American interests. This is why we have the phenomenon that I have been talking about, and this is why we have the German chancellor’s idiosyncratic blunders.
Poland as an American bulwark in Europe
Changing the centre of power in Europe and bypassing the Franco–German axis is not a new idea — it has simply been made possible by the war. The idea existed before, in fact being an old Polish plan to solve the problem of Poland being squeezed between a huge German state and a huge Russian state, by making Poland the number one American base in Europe. I could describe it as inviting the Americans there, between the Germans and the Russians. Five per cent of Poland’s GDP is now devoted to military expenditure, and the Polish army is the second largest in Europe after the French — we are talking about hundreds of thousands of troops. This is an old plan, to weaken Russia and outpace Germany. At first sight, outpacing the Germans seems to be a fantasy idea. But if you look at the dynamics of the development of Germany and Central Europe, of Poland, it does not seem so impossible — especially if in the meantime Germany is dismantling its own world-class industry.
This strategy caused Poland to give up cooperation with the V4 [the Visegrád Group]. The V4 meant something different: the V4 means that we recognise that there is a strong Germany and there is a strong Russia, and — working with the Central European states — we create a third entity between the two. The Poles have backed out of this and, instead of the V4 strategy of accepting the Franco–German axis, they have embarked on the alternative strategy of eliminating the Franco–German axis.
The scale of this change — of bypassing the German–French axis — can truly be grasped by older people if they perhaps think back twenty years, when the Americans attacked Iraq and called on the European countries to join in. We, for example, joined in as a member of NATO. At the time Schröder, the then German chancellor, and Chirac, the then French president, were joined by President Putin of Russia at a joint press conference called in opposition to the Iraq war. At that time there was still an independent Franco–German logic when approaching European interests.
The peace mission is not just about seeking peace, but is also about urging Europe to finally pursue an independent policy.
The isolation of the West — and why the world is siding with Russia
Up until now the West has thought and behaved as if it sees itself as a reference point, a kind of benchmark for the world. It has provided the values that the world has had to accept — for example, liberal democracy or the green transition. But most of the world has noticed this, and in the last two years there has been a 180-degree turn. Once again the West has declared its expectation, its instruction, for the world to take a moral stand against Russia and for the West. In contrast, the reality has become that, step-by-step, everyone is siding with Russia. That China and North Korea are doing so is perhaps no surprise. That Iran is doing the same — given Iran’s history and its relationship with Russia — is somewhat surprising. But the fact that India, which the Western world calls the most populous democracy, is also on the side of the Russians is astonishing. That Turkey refuses to accept the West’s morally based demands, even though it is a NATO member, is truly surprising. And the fact that the Muslim world sees Russia not as an enemy but as a partner is completely unexpected.
The irrational behaviour of the West as the greatest threat to the world today
Seventhly: the war has exposed the fact that the biggest problem the world faces today is the weakness and disintegration of the West. Of course, this is not what the Western media says: in the West they claim that the world’s greatest danger and problem is Russia and the threat it represents. This is wrong! Russia is too large for its population, and it is also under hyper-rational leadership — indeed it is a country that has leadership. There is nothing mysterious about what it does: its actions follow logically from its interests, and are therefore understandable and predictable. On the other hand, the behaviour of the West — as may be clear from what I have said so far — is not understandable and not predictable. The West is not led, its behaviour is not rational, and it cannot deal with the situation that I described in my presentation here last year: the fact that two suns have appeared in the sky. This is the challenge to the West in the form of the rise of China and Asia. We should be able to deal with this, but we are not able to.
The following passage is particularly interesting as it seems to point to the inevitability of a break between Hungary — and Central European states more in general — and the “collective West”.
The importance of the nation state
Point eight. Arising from this, for us the real challenge is to once again try to understand the West in the light of the war. Because we Central Europeans see the West as irrational. But, dear friends, what if it is behaving logically, but we do not understand its logic? If it is logical in the way it thinks and acts, then we must ask why we do not understand it. And if we could find the answer to this question, we would also understand why Hungary regularly clashes with the Western countries of the European Union on geopolitical and foreign policy issues.
My answer is the following. Let us imagine that the worldview of us Central Europeans is based on nation states. Meanwhile the West thinks that nation states no longer exist; this is unimaginable to us, but all the same this is what it thinks. The coordinate system within which we Central Europeans think is therefore completely irrelevant. In our conception, the world is made up of nation states which exercise a domestic monopoly on the use of force, thereby creating a condition of general peace. In its relations with other states the nation state is sovereign — in other words, it has the capacity to independently determine its foreign and domestic policy. In our conception, the nation state is not a legal abstraction, not a legal construct: the nation state is rooted in a particular culture. It has a shared set of values, it has anthropological and historical depth. And from this emerge shared moral imperatives based on a joint consensus. This is what we think of as the nation state.
But in complete contrast Westerners believe that nation states no longer exist. They therefore deny the existence of a shared culture and a shared morality based on it. They have no shared morality.
This is why they think differently about migration. They think that migration is not a threat or a problem, but in fact a way of escaping from the ethnic homogeneity that is the basis of a nation. This is the essence of the progressive liberal internationalist conception of space. This is why they are oblivious to the absurdity — or they do not see it as absurd — that while in the eastern half of Europe hundreds of thousands of Christians are killing one another, in the west of Europe we are letting in hundreds of thousands of people from foreign civilisations. From our Central European point of view this is the definition of absurdity. This idea is not even conceived of in the West.
In parenthesis I note that the European states lost a total of some fifty-seven million indigenous Europeans in the First and Second World Wars. If they, their children and their grandchildren had lived, today Europe would not have any demographic problems. The European Union does not simply think in the way I am describing, but it declares it. If we read the European documents carefully, it is clear that the aim is to supersede the nation. It is true that they have a strange way of writing and saying this, stating that nation states must be superseded, while some small trace of them remains. But the point is that, after all, powers and sovereignty should be transferred from the nation states to Brussels. This is the logic behind every major measure. In their minds, the nation is a historical or transitional creation, born of the 18th and 19th centuries — and as it arrived, so may it depart. For them, the western half of Europe is already post-national. This is not only a politically different situation, but what I am trying to talk about here is that this is a new mental space. If you do not look at the world from the point of view of nation states, a completely different reality opens up before you. Herein lies the problem, the reason that the countries in the western and eastern halves of Europe do not understand one another, the reason we cannot pull together.
The demise of the collective in the West
Now, if we try to understand how this Western thinking — which for the sake of simplicity we should call “post-national” thinking and condition — came about, then we have to go back to the grand illusion of the 1960s. The grand illusion of the 1960s took two forms: the first was the sexual revolution, and the second was student rebellion. In fact, it was an expression of the belief that the individual would be freer and greater if he or she were freed from any kind of collective. More than sixty years later it has since become clear that, on the contrary, the individual can only become great through and in a community, that when alone he or she can never be free, but always lonely and doomed to be shrunken. In the West bonds have been successively discarded: the metaphysical bonds that are God; the national bonds that are the homeland; and family bonds.
Now that they have managed to get rid of all that, expecting the individual to become greater, they find that they feel a sense of emptiness. They have not become great, but have become small. For in the West they no longer desire either great ideals or great, inspiring shared goals.
The West as an “aggressive dwarf”
Here we must talk about the secret of greatness. What is the secret of greatness? The secret of greatness is to be able to serve something greater than yourself. To do this, you first have to acknowledge that in the world there is something or some things that are greater than you, and then you must dedicate yourself to serving those greater things. There are not many of these. You have your God, your country and your family. But if you do not do that, but instead you focus on your own greatness, thinking that you are smarter, more beautiful, more talented than most people, if you expend your energy on that, on communicating all that to others, then what you get is not greatness, but grandiosity. And this is why today, whenever we are in talks with Western Europeans, in every gesture we feel grandiosity instead of greatness. I have to say that a situation has developed that we can call emptiness, and the feeling of superfluity that goes with it gives rise to aggression. Hence the emergence of the “aggressive dwarf” as a new type of person.
To sum up, what I want to say to you is that when we talk about Central Europe and Western Europe, we are not talking about differences of opinion, but about two different worldviews, two mentalities, two instincts, and hence two different arguments. We have a nation state, which forces us towards strategic realism. They have post-nationalist dreams that are inert to national sovereignty, do not recognise national greatness, and have no shared national goals. This is the reality we have to face.
The EU as the quintessential example of late-stage Western “democracy”: elitist, globalist, oligarchic
And finally, the last element of reality is that this post-national condition that we see in the West has a serious — and I would say dramatic — political consequence that is convulsing democracy. Because within societies there is growing resistance to migration, to gender, to war and to globalism. And this creates the political problem of the elite and the people — of elitism and populism. This is the defining phenomenon of Western politics today. If you read the texts, you do not need to understand them, and they do not always make sense anyway; but if you read the words, the following are the expressions you will find most often. They indicate that the elites are condemning the people for drifting towards the right. The feelings and ideas of the people are labelled as xenophobia, homophobia and nationalism. In response, the people accuse the elite of not caring about what is important to them, but of sinking into some kind of deranged globalism.
Consequently the elites and the people cannot agree with each other on the question of cooperation. I could mention many countries. But if the people and the elites cannot agree on cooperation, how can this produce representative democracy? Because we have an elite that does not want to represent the people, and is proud of not wanting to represent them; and we have the people, who are not represented. In fact in the Western world we are faced with a situation in which the masses of people appearing with college degrees no longer form less than 10 percent of the population, but 30 to 40 percent. And because of their views these people do not respect those who are less educated — who are typically working people, people who live from their labour. For the elites, only the values of graduates are acceptable, only they are legitimate.
This is the viewpoint from which the results of the European Parliament elections can be understood. The European People’s Party garnered the votes of “plebeians” on the right who wanted change, then took those votes to the left and made a deal with the left-wing elites who have an interest in maintaining the status quo. This has consequences for the European Union. The consequence is that Brussels remains under the occupation of a liberal oligarchy. This oligarchy has it in its grip. This left-liberal elite is in fact organising a transatlantic elite: not European, but global; not based on the nation state, but federal; and not democratic, but oligarchic. This also has consequences for us, because in Brussels the “3 Ps” are back: “prohibited, permitted and promoted”. We belong to the prohibited category. The Patriots for Europe have therefore been prohibited from receiving any positions. We live in the world of the permitted political community. Meanwhile our domestic opponents — especially the newcomers to the European People’s Party — are in the strongly promoted category.
The world’s rejection of Western “values”
And perhaps one last, tenth point, is about how Western values — which were the essence of so-called “soft power” — have become a boomerang. It has turned out that these Western values, which were thought to be universal, are demonstratively unacceptable and rejected in ever more countries around the world. It has turned out that modernity, modern development, is not Western, or at least not exclusively Western — because China is modern, India is becoming increasingly modern, and the Arabs and Turks are modernising; and they are not becoming a modern world on the basis of Western values at all. And in the meantime Western soft power has been replaced by Russian soft power, because now the key to the propagation of Western values is LGBTQ. Anyone who does not accept this is now in the “backward” category as far as the Western world is concerned. I do not know if you have been watching, but I think it is remarkable that in the last six months pro-LGBTQ laws have been passed by countries such as Ukraine, Taiwan and Japan. But the world does not agree. Consequently, today Putin’s strongest tactical weapon is the Western imposition of LGBTQ and resistance to it, opposition to it. This has become Russia’s strongest international attraction; thus what used to be Western soft power has now been transformed into Russian soft power — like a boomerang.
All in all, ladies and gentlemen, I can say that the war has helped us to understand the real state of power in the world. It is a sign that in its mission the West has shot itself in the foot, and is therefore accelerating the changes that are transforming the world.
The end of the West’s 500-year-long hegemony — and why the future belongs to Asia
We are in a change, a change is coming, that has not been seen for five hundred years. This has not been apparent to us because in the last 150 years there have been great changes in and around us, but in these changes the dominant world power has always been in the West. And our starting point is that the changes we are seeing now are likely to follow this Western logic. By contrast, this is a new situation. In the past, change was Western: the Habsburgs rose and then fell; Spain was up, and it became the centre of power; it fell, and the English rose; the First World War finished off the monarchies; the British were replaced by the Americans as world leaders; then the Russo–American Cold War was won by the Americans. But all these developments remained within our Western logic. This is not the case now, however, and this is what we must face up to; because the Western world is not challenged from within the Western world, and so the logic of change has been disrupted.
What I am talking about, and what we are facing, is actually a global system change. And this is a process that is coming from Asia. To put it succinctly and primitively, for the next many decades — or perhaps centuries, because the previous world system was in place for five hundred years — the dominant centre of the world will be in Asia: China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and I could go on. They have already created their forms, their platforms, there is this BRICS formation in which they are already present. And there is the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, in which these countries are building the new world economy. I think that this is an inevitable process, because Asia has the demographic advantage, it has the technological advantage in ever more areas, it has the capital advantage, and it is bringing its military power up to equilibrium with that of the West. Asia will have — or perhaps already has — the most money, the largest financial funds, the largest companies in the world, the best universities, the best research institutes, and the largest stock exchanges. It will have — or already has — the most advanced space research and the most advanced medical science. In addition, we in the West — even the Russians — have been well shepherded into this new entity that is taking shape.
[This process is] almost unstoppable and irreversible.
Donald Trump’s plan for America — a sensible reaction to the geopolitical shift underway?
President Trump is working on finding the American response to this situation. In fact, Donald Trump’s attempt is probably the last chance for the US to retain its world supremacy. We could say that four years is not enough, but if you look at who he has chosen as Vice President, a young and very strong man, if Donald Trump wins now, in four years his Vice President will run. He can serve two terms, and that will total twelve years. And in twelve years a national strategy can be implemented. I am convinced that many people think that if Donald Trump returns to the White House, the Americans will want to retain their world supremacy by maintaining their position in the world. I think that this is wrong. Of course, no one gives up positions of their own accord, but that will not be the most important goal.
On the contrary, the priority will be to rebuild and strengthen North America. This means not only the US, but also Canada and Mexico, because together they form an economic area. And America’s place in the world will be less important. You have to take what the President says seriously: “America First, everything here, everything will come home!”. This is why the capacity to raise capital from everywhere is being developed. We are already suffering as a result: the big European companies are not investing in Europe, but are investing in America, because the ability to attract capital seems to be on the horizon. They are going to squeeze the price of everything out of everyone. I do not know whether you have read what the President said. For example, they are not an insurance company, and if Taiwan wants security, it should pay. They will make us Europeans, NATO and China pay the price of security; and they will also achieve a trade balance with China through negotiations, and change it in favour of the US. They will trigger massive US infrastructure development, military research, and innovation. They will achieve — or perhaps have already achieved — energy self-sufficiency and raw material self-sufficiency; and finally they will improve ideologically, giving up on the export of democracy. America First. The export of democracy is at an end. This is the essence of the experiment America is conducting in response to the situation described here.
What should Europe’s response to the global geopolitical shift be?
What is the European response to global system change? We have two options. The first is what we call “the open-air museum”. This is what we have now. We are moving towards it. Europe, absorbed by the US, will be left in an underdeveloped role. It will be a continent that the world marvels at, but one which no longer has within it the dynamic for development. The second option, announced by President Macron, is strategic autonomy. In other words, we must enter the competition of global system change. After all, this is what the US does, according to its own logic. And we are indeed talking about 400 million people. It is possible to recreate Europe’s capacity to attract capital, and it is possible to bring capital back from America. It is possible to make major infrastructure developments, especially in Central Europe — the Budapest–Bucharest TGV and the Warsaw–Budapest TGV, to mention what we are involved in. We need a European military alliance with a strong European defence industry, research and innovation. We need European energy self-sufficiency, which will not be possible without nuclear energy. And after the war we need a new reconciliation with Russia. This means that the European Union must surrender its ambitions as a political project, the Union must strengthen itself as an economic project, and the Union must create itself as a defence project.
In both cases — the open-air museum or if we join the competition — what will happen is that we must be prepared for the fact that Ukraine will not be a member of NATO or the European Union, because we Europeans do not have enough money for that. Ukraine will return to the position of a buffer state. If it is lucky, this will come with international security guarantees, which will be enshrined in a US–Russia agreement, in which we Europeans may be able to participate. The Polish experiment will fail, because they do not have the resources: they will have to return to Central Europe and the V4. So let us wait for the Polish brothers and sisters to return.
The following passage is only very interesting: even though Orbán here is outlining a “grand strategy” for Hungary, it potentially offers a broad blueprint — at least in some if not all aspects — for all countries willing to achieve “strategic autonomy” in the new geopolitical context.
The opportunities offered by the current geopolitical shift
All in all, therefore, I can say that the boundary conditions exist for independent nationally-oriented policy towards America, Asia and Europe. These will define the limits of our room for manoeuvre. This space is wide — wider than it has been at any time in the last five hundred years. The next question is what we need to do to use this space to our advantage. If there is a global system change, then we need a strategy that is worthy of it.
So the essence of the grand strategy for Hungary… is connectivity. This means that we will not allow ourselves to be locked into only one of either of the two emerging hemispheres in the world economy. The world economy will not be exclusively Western or Eastern. We have to be in both, in the Western and in the Eastern. This will come with consequences. The first. We will not get involved in the war against the East. We will not join in the formation of a technological bloc opposing the East, and we will not join in the formation of a trade bloc opposing the East. We are gathering friends and partners, not economic or ideological enemies. We are not taking the intellectually much easier path of latching on to someone, but we are going our own way. This is difficult — but then there is a reason that politics is described as an art.
The second chapter in the grand strategy is about spiritual foundations. At the core of this is the defence of sovereignty. I have already said enough about foreign policy, but this strategy also describes the economic basis of national sovereignty. In recent years we have been building a pyramid. At the top of it are the “national champions”. Below them are the internationally competitive medium-sized companies, below which are companies producing for the domestic market. At the bottom are small companies and sole traders. This is the Hungarian economy that can provide the basis for sovereignty. We have national champions in banking, energy, food, the production of basic agricultural goods, IT, telecommunications, media, civil engineering, building construction, real estate development, pharmaceuticals, defence, logistics, and — to some extent, through the universities — knowledge industries. And these are our national champions. They are not just champions at home, but they are all out there in the international arena and they have proven themselves competitive.
Below these come our medium-sized companies. I would like to inform you that today Hungary has fifteen thousand medium-sized companies that are internationally active and competitive. When we came to power in 2010, the number was three thousand. Today we have fifteen thousand. And of course we need to broaden the base of small enterprises and sole traders. If by 2025 we can draw up a peace budget and not a war budget, we will launch an extensive programme for small and medium-sized enterprises. The economic basis for sovereignty also means that we must strengthen our financial independence. We need to bring our debt down not to 50 or 60 per cent, but close to 30 per cent; and we need to emerge as a regional creditor. Today we are already making attempts to do this, and Hungary is providing state loans to friendly countries in our region that are in some way important to Hungary.
It is important that, according to the strategy, we must remain a production hub: we must not switch to a service-oriented economy. The service sector is important, but we must retain the character of Hungary as a production hub, because only in this way can there be full employment in the domestic labour market. We must not repeat the West’s mistake of using guest workers to do certain production work, because over there members of host populations already consider certain types of work to be beneath them. If this were to happen in Hungary, it would induce a process of social dissolution that would be difficult to halt. And, for the defence of sovereignty, this chapter also includes the building of university and innovation centres.
The third chapter identifies the body of the grand strategy: the Hungarian society that we are talking about. If we are to be winners, this Hungarian society must be solid and resilient. It must have a solid and resilient social structure. The first prerequisite for this is halting demographic decline. We started well, but now we have stalled. A new impetus is needed. By 2035 Hungary must be demographically self-sustaining. There can be no question of population decline being compensated for by migration. The Western experience is that if there are more guests than hosts, then home is no longer home. This is a risk that must not be taken. Therefore, if after the end of the war we can draw up a peace budget, then to regain the momentum of demographic improvement the tax credit for families with children will probably need to be doubled in 2025 — in two steps not one, but within one year.
“Sluice gates” must control the inflow from Western Europe of those who want to live in a Christian national country. The number of such people will continue to grow. Nothing will be automatic, and we will be selective. Up until now they have been selective, but now we are the ones who will be selective. For society to be stable and resilient it must be based on a middle-class: families must have their own wealth and financial independence. Full employment must be preserved, and the key to this will be to maintain the current relationship between work and the Roma population. There will be work, and you cannot live without work. This is the deal and this is the essence of what is on offer.
And finally there is the crucial element of sovereignty. This is the essence of the protection of sovereignty, which is the protection of national distinctiveness. This is not assimilation, not integration, not blending in, but the maintenance of our own particular national character. This is the cultural basis of the defence of sovereignty: language preservation, and avoiding a state of “zero religion”. Zero religion is a state in which faith has long disappeared, but there has also been the loss of the capacity for Christian tradition to provide us with cultural and moral rules of behaviour that govern our relationship to work, money, family, sexual relations, and the order of priorities in how we relate to one another. This is what Westerners have lost.
Why is Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam against reservations? I understand the idea of a meritocracy but don’t we also need to provide justice to oppressed castes who have been unfairly treated for several hundred years?
Look
I believe every system has to DELIVER RESULTS
Results alone decide whether a system is a success or a failure
The Chinese System today rose from an Agrarian Nation struggling with poverty to one of the biggest and most powerful nations on the planet with a near $20 Trillion economy
This means their system is a ROARING SUCCESS
India as it stands once Chinas equal has a 1/6 Per Capita Income, 1/9th Industrial Production and 16% of the Skilled Labor and 1/200th of the Infrastructure Or planning but 5 times more corruption and a lot more inequality
This means our system is a HUMONGOUS FAILURE
Plain and Simple
Two Nations
Similar Background of Colonial Exploitation
No Huge Stash of Oil Or Gas
Same Illiterate People, Primarily Farmers
Loads of Poor People
One becomes a major force to reckon with
Other is struggling on its way to the middle
I don’t give a rats ass about anything else
In the same way
Chinese Students have near Top Mensa scores
Chinese Graduates lead all forms of Scientific Research today
Chinese Engineers have worked on Marvels across the world
So their system (Meritocracy) is a ROARING SUCCESS as far as I am concerned
It has delivered results
The Indian Students on a Median Level have nothing on the level of the Chinese
Indian Graduates are at best glorified managers of big enterprises founded by Westerners or have toilet cleaning startups that have Zero Technological Innovation or Edge
Indian Engineers – no need to say much
So our System is a HUMONGOUS FAILURE as far as I am concerned
This System means – Low Quality Government Schools, Free Rein to Private Schools, Exploitation of Students and Reservations – all of these
Plain and Simple
Two Nations
Same level of literacy or illiteracy
Same struggle to expand on primary education
One is so dominant that they terrify the West who have been world leaders for over three or four centuries
Another producing factory drones and talented casual leave sanctioning munims
So everything India is doing is flawed according to me
Simple
Now either it’s because the Chinese are genetically superior in which case it’s perfectly fine to say “This is our maximum limit. Doing little and generating 99% Gas”
Ambika Vijay and our friend Dr Karan Shanmugham have presented some valid points over the last few months or year to say this theory is unlikely
So the only explanation is :-
Our System is flawed in every sense possible
This includes Reservations
I am not for Meritocracy because of the equality notion nor am I against Reservations because it is unjust
I simply say Meritocracy has proven a roaring success while Reservations has achieved virtually nothing for India in 35 years
So this means either the concept of Reservations is wrong in itself or the Implementation of Reservations is wrong
As to Justice to Oppressed Castes
Again China sets an example here to it’s minorities (Uyghurs, Hui, Hill Tribes, Tibetans, Lhasans, Pinglis)
Fully Free Education upto University Graduation
Stipends to students every month from Grade III to University
51% Guaranteed Resource sharing
First Preference Farming Contracts
66% Guaranteed Local Contracts or Undertaken Contracts
Yet all of them need ABILITY to qualify for anything
Won’t these help the oppressed communities far better than keeping them as beggars and dangling reservations???
It’s why Xinjiang generates it’s revenue plus contributes to China while Tibet too has a net outward contribution
Yet
Kashmir has Zip
Most Poor Districts with Dalit Majority or Oppressed Majority have ZERO outward contribution to a State
So as usual India is doing something very wrong
Why?
It hasn’t worked or produced any results so far to indicate otherwise
So it’s time to overhaul everything because India is One Gigantic Failure especially since 1975–2024 barring a 10 year period from 2000–2010 & a 4 year period from 1992–1996
Is that being done?
Our Legal system is replaced by a More Draconian system
Leaders are stupider as time goes by
We are digging down on our failure system instead of looking for flaws and overhauling
So the biggest question is
WHAT THE F*** ARE WE ACTUALLY DOING?
The Media Will Never Tell You What’s REALLY Happening in China
Why were North Vietnamese soldiers so feared by American soldiers during the Vietnam War?
I do not know that is the fact or not but I do know one thing : should stay away from them, period. During the VN War, those nva you bumped into battlefields of South Vietnam were survivors of all challenges before they met you. The weak, the sick all died along the HCM Trails by bombings, sickness…Behind every single nva soldier, he had nothing to lose ( no fancy cars, big house and good living back home ) In fact, behind him there could be a piece of farm land, poor. His village and his folks got bombings from US planes. Put aside all political propaganda, these factors alone could propel him to the point he really wanted to trade life and death with you. He didn’t trek thousand miles in tough terrains to fight you with his bare ass. He got his ak47, hand grenades and all kinds of trainings. He also knew that no man is tougher than a bullet. Why would he be afraid if he is willing to put his life away for a good cause ? That is why no matter what nationality you are Chinese Japanese, French, American, Korean, Australian, Cambodian, Thai…HE WILL NOT HESITATE TO CONFRONT YOU WITH ALL OF WHATEVER HE GOT. Share ( an ex-nva of Cambodia battlefields, late 70s )
Have you ever discovered a friend secretly hiding from you that he is actually rich? How did you find out?
Originally Answered: Have you ever discovered a friend secretly hiding from you that he is actually rich? how did you find out?
Yes actually! Going anonymous.
I have a very good friend who used to drive a very very old second hand car. I always teased him why he didn’t bought a new reasonable car like me, cause I thought he was a middle class guy who can afford a normal car instead of buying refurbished cars. Also, he used to never tip waiters and would always search cheaper options of everything. I would always poke him and make fun of him for being a cheapskate, of course in a friendly way so he never would mind.
Now on the part when I found out. I started a business and was in very needed of investment. It was a big idea so I needed every help I could get. I already had received help from 5 of my friends, which was seemingly enough to start the venture along with my money. When my cheapskate friend knew about my idea (I never told him myself), he came to me and said he would like to invest in my venture as he loved the idea. Then he offered me an amount which was almost double the combined investment of 5 others! No words will be enough to describe how shocked and surprised I was.
I knew there is difference between how the rich thinks and most of us do. But I never totally understood it until I had this experience.
What Putin and China Just Did to the U.S. Military is SHOCKING, Pentagon on Red Alert
What terrifies you about Xi Jinping?
“Terrify” is too strong a word; I prefer the word “concerned”.
Xi Jinping is a very smart person, and there are stories how he was determined from a very early age to become China’s leader. He had a plan.
He worked his way up, and eventually became party general secretary, chairman of the Central Military Commission, and President of China. He is not attracted by wealth and money, and is not distracted by women and sex.
These are all good virtues for the leader of a country to have, because it shows that he is able to think of the overall good of the nation, and its citizens when making decisions. He does not think of personal benefit, which is important.
He has also surrounded himself with very intelligent advisors, notably Wang Qishan.
My concern is that while he has understood how to work the system in China to get where he is, he has much more difficulty getting inside the heads of non-Chinese societies and non-Chinese leaders.
This means that he can make good decisions for China and Chinese, but he has a much harder time understanding the needs and concerns of other nations. But, at a time when China now has the world’s second largest economy, this becomes cause for worry because China is now a superpower. The leader of China cannot only think of what is good for China; he has to think of the problems other nations are having.
This explains my disappointment at China’s current over-reliance on Chinese nationalism to support China’s claims to the South China Sea. While I can understand eventually exercising claims to this territory, I really don’t understand why these claims were exercised beginning in 2013? If China was going to make a peaceful rise, why frighten its SE Asian neighbors so soon, and then militarizing these islands, giving the US a pretext to engage?
Was this really necessary? Was this done just to impress Chinese that China was now a global power, and the period of shame was over? What has been accomplished?
If this was the idea, I think that it was done too soon, and then Xi was caught off-guard by the election of Trump, and then caught off-guard again when Trump appointed Lighthizer and Navarro, both of whom were hostile to Chinese expansionism.
Doesn’t this make other countries look at China and say “All this talk of China’s peaceful rise was a sham, they just want to gobble us up?”
This is not just a PR and media problem, it is a challenge for policy formulation.
China got caught off-guard because many domestic reforms were delayed for too long. Now, if it makes reforms under US pressure, it looks weak, as if it were bowing to US pressure, which is not good for Xi and the leadership.
Deng Xiaoping said that the best strategy for China was to keep a low profile; I continue to believe that is the best formula for China because it does not yet offer a framework which other nations can buy into. “Non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs” is not a framework for an inter-connected world, because technology has gone way past that.
This is because China’s foreign policy now is too purely transactional, and has not yet expanded beyond that. When is it going to expand beyond only being transactional? The one bright spot in foreign relations is Xi’s relationship with President Putin; they seem to genuinely get along and like each other.
Why wasn’t this kind of relationship developed with the leadership of western nations, before everything blew up recently?
The United States was a flawed leader, but it offered a framework which worked for a long time. It won the Cold War against the Soviet Union, but it lost the peace because it turned inward and became selfish. It thought that it could only remain strong if other challengers, like China, were beaten down. Other countries lost respect for its leadership.
So far, China does not offer anything better.
Shorpy
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From another source…
For your information, Sunday there was a demonstration for peace in Amsterdam. Suddenly ''we'' were confronted with AZOV demonstrators. The AFVN wrote an article about it, it is in Dutch, I translated it with deepl translate. Hope it is clear enough what happened.
Sunday 28 July saw the monthly demonstration of Platform for Peace and Solidarity. What happened on that day that we can interpret as a low point, there was ‘suddenly’ a demonstration on Dam Square by the AZOV battalion.* AZOV is a fascist organisation in Ukraine and responsible for much death and destruction. During WW2, they committed many crimes against dissenters, against people of different backgrounds based on colour. Ukrainian fascists openly stood on Dam Square with flags of AZOV and openly scanned slogans for the release of AZOV, for supporting these fascists. With outright lies naming Russia as the aggressor, that Russia would be a terrorist state and hatred against Russians. This while the aggression comes from the US/Ukraine with many bombing civilian casualties. It is not for nothing that most refugees are in Russia.Russia intervened militarily after many attempts to negotiate and conclude peace agreements. So this did not come out of the blue and Russia's action was by no means unprovoked, quite the contrary.
It is a shame that it has come to this, that fascists can openly demonstrate in front of the National Monument that symbolises the victims in the fight against fascism 1940- 1945.
We as AFVN have not experienced that for a long time that fascists are allowed to openly propagate their ideology on public roads with impunity. It is certainly due to the Western media in which fascism in Ukraine is systematically trivialised and denied. So they are certainly partly responsible for the legitimacy of fascism.
Why didn't the police intervene? How could this have come to this? We cannot let this go unpunished and want to call on everyone who is against fascism to take action. We want to call on everyone reading this message to spread it as much as possible, people need to know. We must call on politicians and administrations to distance themselves from Ukrainian fascism in the Netherlands, the law prohibits overt fascism and signs.
We call on all members of parliament to have parliamentary questions asked about this. And we should fire the city council, asking whether fascism is tolerated in the city of the February Strike. In the coat of arms of the municipality of Amsterdam, heroic, determined and merciful is written as a tribute to the February Strike 1941.
US/EU privately admit they lost Ukraine proxy war w/Levan Gudadze
Why do Chinese people think that China is better than the USA?
Both China and the U.S. have their own strengths and weaknesses. My responses will focus more on the aspects of China that I find commendable.
Strict Drug Control
I strongly agree with this. China does have a drug problem, but with years of strict crackdowns, it has been better controlled now.
I remember getting lost in a minority area in Beijing around 1999 or 1998, walking into a small alley, and finding many discarded needles on the ground. It was quite unsettling at the time. Another instance was across from the rental house I was staying in, where a middle-aged man committed suicide because his son couldn’t quit heroin.
Breaking Bad is my favorite American TV show, but what Mr. White does is certainly not commendable! By the way, the U.S. has much better freedom of creation. Shows like Breaking Bad would never pass the censorship in China. This results in very few worthwhile Chinese TV dramas, which I hardly watch because they seem immature and uninteresting.
I know a narcotics officer who said they are like a firewall, sacrificing themselves to protect ordinary people like me who are pure and innocent. He said narcotics officers encounter the most vile things in the world.
I’ve seen some videos about the plight of American drug addicts, wandering the streets and losing their ability to work, which is very sad.
Strict Gun Control
It’s extremely strict, to the point of being unreasonable. For example, if I remember correctly, air guns have been banned since after 2000. If I were American, I would definitely buy a gun because it seems fun. But that’s not possible in China.
There are pros and cons to this.
Most people still support strict gun control. If I remember correctly, countries like Japan and the UK also have strict gun control?
I heard that the U.S. bans the sale of bulletproof vests, while in China, you can buy them freely.
China doesn’t ban bows and arrows; you can buy and play with them freely. In fact, the destructive power of a bow and arrow is not less than that of a handgun, which I don’t understand why it’s allowed.
Refusal of Immigration……
In fact, all East Asian countries refuse immigration, including Japan and South Korea. However, it seems that Japan is not particularly opposed to high-skilled Chinese immigrants. I have two friends who have immigrated to Japan.
China is similar. For instance, North Korean defectors—China has accepted far more than all other countries combined, including South Korea.
But there hasn’t been much public or official reaction, and they gradually receive citizenship. They go to school and work as usual.
However, there was a lot of opposition online when Rohingya refugees entered China from Myanmar, around only 30,000 in total.
The general sentiment was: accept them humanitarianly but do not accept them as immigrants. But for the same Myanmar people, if they are from Kokang (essentially Han Chinese), there is no opposition,even though they are also a minority group suppressed by the Burmese military junta.
Today (2024.08.01), the Kokang army captured a major city, and they have a population of 1.12 million under their control.
Chinese people are very familiar with this.
Today is the PLA Army Building Anniversary, and they deliberately chose today to attack the Northeast Command. This is called “paying tribute”.
You see, their way of thinking is just pure Chinese!
Even if all of them were to integrate into China, I wouldn’t feel much difference. They all speak Chinese, use Chinese currency, and telecom services, and copy China’s way of life, including television stations and news broadcasts.
( Kokang’KKTV)
（China CCTV）
If Vietnamese or Laotians were to immigrate to China, I personally wouldn’t object.
This topic is a bit sensitive and politically incorrect to discuss further, but I think you understand my point. Almost all Chinese people share my attitude. The last Rohingya incident saw a female actress advocating for their acceptance, and she was heavily criticized to the point of shutting down her social media accounts. The general opinion was to put those thousands of people in her home.
I don’t mean to be racist, not at all. However, if hundreds of thousands of people of Chinese or Confucian cultural sphere enter China, and local security hasn’t significantly deteriorated (there are indeed crime records, such as defectors worried about being reported, or cases of murder and assault simply for food, but overall, the crime rate is very low), whereas another group’s entry results in frequent incidents of armed robbery, severe injury, and even rape—crimes that are now quite rare in China—shouldn’t I, as a taxpayer, question whether my tax money might be better spent on something like keeping a dog?
Why is that?
Other benefits include a strong emphasis on education, high medical standards with low costs, and so on. But the most important points are the ones mentioned above.
“Jane!” A voice bellowed from the recesses of the ship. “Where is my grapefruit?”“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” A voice echoed from the opposite direction.“My grapefruit, Jane! The one I specifically had my name on! The one you stole!”“First of all, why would you print your name on a freaking grapefruit? Second of all, if you didn’t want me to take it, you shouldn’t have put it in a community fridge.”“So you did take it!”“Why is this grapefruit so important, anyway?”“Do you know, Jane, how many people have died in ships due to scurvy? Do you?!”“So eat an orange!”“The orange is overrated! The grapefruit is the only citrus fruit that understands me.”Charlie groaned and pressed his forehead against the table. “Lewis, we just had a shipment of grapefruit yesterday, get another one!” “Shut up, Charlie! This doesn’t concern you!” “I don’t even know why you try anymore.” Lyra flipped her braid as she slid in next to him. “Because you well know how much worse it will get if I don’t.” Harriet groaned as she remembered the third great prank war. Jane and Lewis were in an argument over their favorite colors, and it escalated into a full-blown war. Everywhere anyone turned, there was another trap set for either Lewis or Jane. Somehow, they ended up joining forces against the rest of the ship and wreaked havoc upon the crew of the Flame. They feared that it would spread to the other ships of the fleet, but luckily, Charlie recovered from his bout of illness quickly, and managed to calm both Lewis and Jane within the hour. But the crew would never forget the horror and fear they faced in that week; that was the day Charlie became the unofficial leader of all things Lewis and Jane. “I don’t even know why they’re on the same ship after that stunt; much less the mothership.” Lyra took a lasting gulp of coffee. “Jane’s the best engineer in the whole fleet.” “And Lewis is crazy good with the servers and the rest of the ship’s tech.” Harriet supplied, flicking a crumb of her muffin. “Plus, they’re great gunners in a pinch and work well with everyone except each other.” Claude snorted as he walked in. “Tell that to the Horogin embassy from two month ago. “Listen,” Lewis looked up from his tablet, “we all agree that the embassy was a mistake, just like we all agree that in general, Jane and Lewis are remarkable workers.” “Besides,” Harriet simpered, “can you really picture them anywhere else?” The room fell silent except for the gurgle of the coffee maker as each of the four tried to imagine Jane or Lewis stationed on any other ship. “Fair point.” Lyra admitted. “So can I just be put on another ship? I grew up on the Growth; agriculture is not something so easily forgotten.” Her violet braid twisted in front of her and seemed to writhe in agreement. “Uh, Charlie?” Claude pointed. “There’s a problem.” Charlie took one look at the floating braid before letting out a groan. He tapped the screen of his tablet and set it down, a holograph of a red-headed man slowly taking form. “Hey Charlie!” He showed of a gap-toothed grin. “Your gravity messing up too?” “Yep.” “Yeah, I just got off a vid with the captain about it. Lewis is checking it out now.” “Lewis? Isn’t he usually on servers?” “Usually, but since he passed out on another late night shift yesterday, I figured putting him on monitor watching duty was a better plan.” “Alright.” A blond man with dark, circular glasses stomped past, an indescribable look on his face. “Lewis, you figure it out yet?” “Yeah, Arnold, it’ll be fixed in a sec.” He disappeared from view. “Hey Jane!” A voice came from both the tablet and the hallway. “Something’s blocking the free-float tube!” “Yeah, that’s probably your grapefruit.” “You didn’t even eat it?!” The screech caused both Lyra and Charlie to wince. “What the heck?” “I don’t like grapefruit.” “So you took it from me for the sole pleasure of depriving me joy?” “Yeah.” A clang was heard and Lyra’s braid dropped. “It’s in the compost bin now.” “I hate you, you know!” “Just like I hate grapefruit?” An indecipherable collection of sounds was heard, before the hologram showed Lewis stomping back to his post. “Good work, buddy.” Arnold offered, to what might as well have been empty space. “Thanks for dealing with it, A.” Charlie picked up the tablet. “Good luck.” “No, man, good luck to you. Lewis has his morning break in five minutes.” And with a wink, Arnold was gone. “But that’s the same time Jane’s on break.” Lyra remarked. The four looked at each other with wide eyes, then at their meager breakfast. “Hide the grapefruit.”
Stuffed Flounder
1561de48238f7abd452f2e080091a1a3
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
6 (1/2 pound) flounder
2 medium onions, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 small bell pepper, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
3 teaspoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
Salt and pepper, to taste
Dash of Tabasco sauce
Dash of cayenne pepper
1 pound lump crabmeat
1 (8 ounce) can shrimp
Butter (to baste)
Instructions
Cut flounder down the middle. Take knife and cut around inside under skin to make a pocket on each side of the slit.
Sauté onions, celery and bell pepper until tender.
Mix eggs, lemon juice and bread crumbs. Add salt, pepper, Tabasco and cayenne.
Check crabmeat for shells and add.
Drain shrimp and add.
Stuff flounder with crab and shrimp mixture.
Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees F, basting with butter. Watch carefully. Do not overcook.
“We need young MEN to Rise Up Right Now” Globalists are TERRIFIED
What does it feel like to refuse orders from a military superior on ethical grounds?
In 1975 I was assigned to the 1/19th Infantry Battalion, 25th Infantry Division at Schofield Barracks, HI. Although I was an Infantryman (11B MOS) I was detached from my line unit to Battalion HQ as I had another Secondary MOS in Administration (71L).
Under Army Regulations, when someone left for a Leave it was necessary to sign out on the approved Leave form prior to departure. On weekends or other after duty times the forms were sent to the Battalion HQ where the NCO assigned as Charge-of-Quarters managed the sign-out process.
One young Private reported to HQ to sign out but the CQ did not find his approved leave in the file. This was not entirely unusual and, as the CQ knew that a leave had been approved by the young man’s Unit Commander, he let him go saying they’d take care of the paperwork when he returned from leave. Tragically he died in an accident while on leave.
As one of my regular tasks at Battalion included preparing the Duty Status Report, and as it was especially necessary in this case before the soldier’s family was notified of the death – and before they received Death Benefits – I noted his status as “Present for Duty to Approved Leave to Deceased” and sent this to the soldier’s Company Commander for his signature. While waiting for the form to be signed and returned I also began preparations for the letter that was going to be signed by the Battalion Commander and sent to his family.
Instead of signing the form the Company Commander came to Battalion and informed me that this man did not have an approved leave because he did not sign out as required. He further told me that though the man had requested the leave he, as the CO, never approved it. Accordingly, he instructed me to change my status report to “Present for Duty to AWOL to Deceased” which would have resulted in the soldier’s family receiving nothing and being informed that their son was in violation of Army Regulations at the time of his death. I was totally shocked as I knew this was untrue, and I informed the Captain of that fact and that I refused to change my Report.
In anger, the Captain ordered me to accompany him to the Battalion Commander’s office to answer for my “insubordination” and face whatever penalty the Colonel deemed appropriate. I did so and explained to the Colonel what had actually happened, that the man’s First Sergeant would verify that the Leave had in fact been approved by the Captain, and that the man’s name was still on the Company HQ’s Duty Status Board noting that he was on Leave, something the 1SG would not had done unless he had personally seen the approved form. The Colonel seemed to side with me and I was dismissed to continue preparing my report and the notification letter. At the same time the 1SG looked into the Company Commander’s waste basket – and found the leave form, signed by him, and then crumpled up and thrown out. He brought the form to Battalion and gave this to the Colonel. While he and I waited outside the office we could hear the Colonel speaking to the Captain in anger but, after a while, he came out of his office, looked at us, and then stated that while the form had in fact been approved the young man still violated regulations by leaving without signing out as required. I was then ordered – again – to change my report noting that this Private died while AWOL.
Now I was the angry one and, although just a Junior NCO (3-striper at the time), I gave the Colonel a “one finger salute” and went back to my office and slammed the door, ignoring the Colonel’s order to stop.
When the Colonel – and most of his Battalion Officers – came into my office I was ready for them, although I thought I could still end up in Leavenworth. Before the Colonel could say a word I laid out on my desk a stack of Leave Forms that, since I was responsible for Duty Status Reports, had been sent to me for filing. As I went through them I sorted out a number that had not been “properly” handled.
“This form is for the Commander of Company C. He is currently on Leave but has not signed out as required by Regulations. I will prepare the AWOL Report on him, Sir. This one is for the First Sergeant of the Combat Support Company. He is currently on leave also but has not signed out. I will report him as AWOL, Sir, as required.” Altogether I found perhaps a dozen others that were technically AWOL to include one of the Colonel’s Staff Officers.
The Colonel looked at me, realized how serious I was, and then turned to his officers and said, “How did you people let me get into this mess?” He then turned to me and said, “Sergeant Keith, prepare your report and the letter, noting that this young man was on approved leave at the time of his death.” I responded by saying, “Yes, Sir. Already done.” He then ordered the Captain to return to his office with him where, I expect, the Captain was reamed a new one.
A few months later the Colonel – a Lieutenant Colonel actually – was promoted to Full Colonel and reassigned to Division HQ. When I had occasion to go to Division HQ I tried to avoid running into him as I still thought I was on the sh-t list with him but one day I did run into him and he told me to come into his office and close the door. This is what he said: “Sergeant Keith, although you might have handled that situation better, you were right and I was wrong. I apologize.”
My respect for this man has never left me to this day.
Has anyone ever taken a DNA test and found something completely shocking?
I was 17 years old. I was taken to court for a paternity suit from my ex-girlfriend. She claimed I was the father of her child. Her and I were very sexually active using the withdrawal method for birth control. Ultimately, I plead no contest and started paying child support monthly. I supported the girl for 19 years with no visitation rights. Certain times were hard and the mother also took me to court to have the support payments increased by 300%. Again, I was ordered by the judge to pay the increase as my income increased. Fast forward to the the present day. The girl now with a daughter of her own messaged me and says, “I look at photos of your children and I don’t see any resemblance to me. I would like to pay to have a DNA test done. Would you agree to this?” I had nothing to lose so I agreed. We get the results back and it was determined I was NOT her father. Her and I went through so many emotions. Anger, relief, sadness and more. I have messaged the mother with no reply. I feel bad for the daughter as now she never knew her biological father and probably never will. I have no recourse to collect the support payments as there is no statute in Canada. I will just live with the fact I helped support a child that turned out good.
China prepares for Collective West sanctions attack
I typically pre-load (schedule) posts to go public on MM about four months late. This serves various needs, but essentially it allows the “filter of time” to let the reader to process events out of the context of the major news cycles of the MSM propaganda machines.
I find it useful for purposes of perspective.
For instance, when someone tries to warn me against China’s 6G technology I plop them in a time machine and tell them about all the warnings of 5G (makes your brain explode), 4G (steal your data), 3G (gas pumps explode), and 2G (planes fall out of the sky).
I think it adds perspective.
The 2024 election is gonna arrive any day now. Woo Woo! And everyone is expecting big changes. After all, Biden was nothing more than a sock-puppet under the control of a bunch of ivy-league schoolboys now fast-tracking to oligarch-hood.
I am of the opinion that yes, things will change. But the systemic issues that rest bend the curtains will not. The United States is still in a tail-spin, but still at least someone is trying to land the plane. For Pete’s sake.
As I write this, “president” Biden has “decided” to not run for reelection.22 JULY 2024. The sarcastic side of me has a lot to say about this, but I’ll give it a rest for you all. In any event 2024 has been one Hell of a Dragon year. Sheech!
OP-ED -- As reported on this website on July 18 (Story Here) Joe Biden has DROPPED-OUT of the Presidential race and will NOT seek re-election.The deceitful, lying, sleazebags that make up a majority of the Democrat Party, have been in chaos since the Biden-Trump Debate, because they could no longer hide Biden's deteriorating mental condition, which they intentionally hid from the public for the past two years.So craven are the Democrats to keep power, they were willing to engage in elder abuse; ganging-up on the poor old man, harassing him out the door of the campaign.It ought to be interesting to see who these power-hungry vermin try to promote as their candidate for President now that we're less than 100 days from the election. I suggest that washed-up, has-been, old hag, Hillary Clinton, with trans-gendered "Michelle" Obama. I think an old Witch and a trans-gendered freak would epitomize what the Democrat party stands for nowadays!Now, of course, Biden becomes more dangerous than ever. He can implement, via Executive Order, all the radical-left-wing (Romper-room-level) ideas because he doesn't have to care at all whether anyone likes it or not.
Don’t get too caught up.
Lots and lots of strange “puzzle pieces” show up and disappear in the night. Our worn out and tired brains let them wash over us. But many are too alarming to dismiss.
Cloud Strike complete failure all over the West after an “update”.
Zelenskyy is in Utah.
Democrat political party in a cash-fighting frenzy.
China’s slow steady observance of the entire fiasco
Trump selection of JD Vance
Biden disappearance, and then step-down / out
So what is really going on?
Forged signiture on stationary announcing Biden step down
Let me tell you.
The deck chairs on the Titanic are all being rearranged, but the ship still is slowing sinking into the dark, dark abyss.
Everything else is theater.
Today…
What’s a historical fact that would shock most people to find out?
In 1980, a family of four moved into an apartment in a newly built building in Ukraine. However, just within a year of moving into their new house, the elder child who was 18 years old became severely sick. She was taken to a hospital and was diagnosed with leukaemia, a type of cancer that targets the body’s blood-forming tissues and bone marrow. The girl soon passed away within a few months of being diagnosed with cancer.
In less than a year, the younger child of the house who was 16 years showed the same symptoms. He was taken to the hospital and was diagnosed with leukaemia. He passed away soon after. Very soon the mother also lost her life and she was also diagnosed with leukaemia. Leukaemia being hereditary is very rare and it is highly unlikely that it was passed on from the mother to the children but at that time, it was declared that the reason those three patients had blood cancer was due to family genetics.
Gradually, other residents of the building too started to fall sick. None had any life-threatening diseases but they weren’t fully fit either. The man, having lost his family sold his house and moved away from there. Locals started to call that apartment ‘cursed apartment’. A new family moved into that cursed apartment. In 1987, the eldest son of the family passed away and he was diagnosed with leukaemia. While he was being cremated, the younger child of the house was in hospital and he was being treated for leukaemia as well. The boy also passed away soon after.
Meanwhile, the father got to know about the history of leukaemia of the previous residents and it was evident that there was something wrong with the house. The city council started to investigate in 1989. Radiologists found air samples highly radioactive and just as they entered the building, they were recording ten times more radioactivity than normal. They found the source of the radioactivity to be a wall just beside the bed where the family members used to sleep.
The wall was covered with lead sheets and cut out of the house and inside the wall, a capsule of radioactive Caesium-137 inside the concrete was found and that was emitting this ridiculous amount of radiation over the years. The capsule had a serial number which was traced to a densometer that was used in a stone quarry to measure the density of stones. One time, the Caesium-137 capsule got misplaced from the densometer and it wasn’t found. Turns out, the Caesium capsule got mixed with stones which were used to make the concrete that was made into that wall of that “cursed apartment” which took the lives of 5 people and severely affected 17 other in that building.
What companies have gotten destroyed by their business competition?
How do you win a war?
Just ask Netflix
Reed Hastings (founder of Netflix) had a big fight ahead of him. He had just finished watching the movie he rented called “Apollo 13” and he returned it to Blockbuster six weeks late. They charged him for returning the movie late.
Hastings launched a new company called Netflix in complete anger. He did not believe people should have to pay for returning a movie late!!!
Hastings had a plan.
Netflix realised that people wanted as many movies as they could get delivered to them. Therefore, Netflix started as a DVD rentals-by-mail service. Netflix was smart and they made a huge discovery.
Perhaps DVDs don’t have to be delivered physically.
Netflix came up with a genius idea that would change the way they did business. They would start a streaming subscription service where someone could watch movies on their computer or another streaming device.
Netflix started to win the market. Hastings believed that he could make money from selling Netflix. Hastings took Netflix and made a pitch to Blockbuster.
Netflix has seen tremendous growth in previous months and we will offer you Netflix for $50 million.
Blockbuster laughed.
Nobody wants to go to Netflix! People like to physically go to a shop and pick out the DVD they want to buy.
Hastings walked away with nothing. Once again, he was angry. He started marketing Netflix and grossly undercutting Blockbuster on price.
Little by little, Netflix grew its customer base and started to outcompete Blockbuster. Blockbuster tried everything to stop Netflix. Hastings famously said that Blockbuster was throwing “everything but the kitchen sink” at Netflix.
A few days later, Blockbuster physically delivered a kitchen sink to Hastings’ house. The Blockbuster era was over.
In the summer of 2010, Blockbuster declared bankruptcy and Netflix became one of the most recognised brands globally with an annual gross profit of $5.8 billion in 2018 (59.21% increase from 2017 according to macrotrends)
If you are interested, I will leave a few Netflix tips in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the story!
As a landlord, what was the most bizarre thing you found after a tenant moved out of your rental?
There are so many bizarre things that I have found as a landlord….
One time we took over a house after an old widow passed on.
The 95-year-old woman died. Her home—the upstairs anyway—was pristine 1960s-1970s decor and appliances.
main qimg 9e6d9ecadbb654e0ae554206ae79948d lq
She still had the green shag carpet from 1972—well cared for and in good shape. The Avocado-colored stove and fridge were there and still worked. There was even a console stereo with record player, AM/FM and a reel-to-reel tape player.
main qimg e3cacd7874dd079d56ec68d06675a2a7 lq
In addition to this there was an overflowing library of Jehovah’s witness religious materials, tracts, Baptist literature, and MORMON Bibles. There was Catholic and Jewish materials. There was pagan literature. Maybe she couldn’t make up her mind?
It’s just, that—there was a lot of all of this — piles of all of it.
The cream of the crop was a King James Version Bible from 1801.
Inside of the record player pocket, I found LP (long play) albums by Beethoven, Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash—AND—get this…RUSH 2112, A Farewell to Kings, Caress of Steel, and Fly by Night. The old woman was a Rush fan! Incredible!
Fairly clean house—but I kept wondering—-What is that smell?
Then I went to the basement level.
This home had a walk-out basement, with a garage door and garage bay on one end.
Here is where I had to go full haz-mat. Someone had tossed down a 100-pound sack of cat food and left the door open.
I found no fewer than 38 feral cats. All with mange, some with eyeballs missing or hanging out—dead opossum and mice and rats, birds, squirrels and other critters everywhere…Inside the garage.
All of these dead animals, including at least a dozen kitten skeletons, were in differing modes of decomposition. There was everything from recently dead to full skeleton.
SHIT was everywhere. Ankle deep shit—everywhere. Feral kittens, half starved, ribs showing—flea infested, covered in mange, open sores and cat shit.
I had to call animal control for help. They helped me to trap the worst of the lot, and hauled them off for euthanization. Some of the kittens were eventually adopted out.
The majority of the feral animals that couldn’t be caught were destroyed by shotgun.
It was the humane thing to do.
It took me three days, five gallons of concentrated industrial bleach, ten gallons of gas, a power washer, five gallons of liquid soap and a lot of elbow grease to clean up that mess.
It was 100 degrees out and I had to wear a haz-mat suit the entire time.
I even had to get a tetanus booster shot.
In the end, the smell had even permeated the sheet rock in the lower level, so we had to gut the entire place.
I think to this day that the old woman’s heart was in the right place, even if her head was in the clouds.
Chicken Club Sandwich One-Pot Pasta
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Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup panko crispy bread crumbs
3 1/2 cups chicken broth (regular or low-fat)
8 ounces (3 cups) uncooked rotini pasta
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded jack cheese
12 ounces thickly sliced cooked chicken or turkey breast (1/4 inch thick), cut into bite-size strips
8 ounces fresh spinach, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 cup cooked, chopped bacon
1 cup chopped plum (Roma) tomatoes
Instructions
In 5 to 5 1/2 quart Dutch oven, melt butter over medium heat; add bread crumbs. Cook for 2 to 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until bread crumbs are toasted and light brown; remove to small bowl.
Add chicken broth and pasta to Dutch oven; heat to boiling over high heat. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 12 to 14 minutes, stirring occasionally, until pasta is al dente and most of liquid is absorbed.
Add shredded cheese and chicken or turkey, stirring frequently, until cheese is melted.
Gradually add spinach, stirring constantly, until starting to wilt. Remove from heat; stir in mayonnaise, bacon and tomatoes. Top with toasted bread crumbs before serving.
PhD AI student explains how China already have won in AI
A significant event recently marked a breakthrough in the internationalization of the Chinese yuan (RMB). According to Bloomberg, the RMB now accounts for 99.6% of Russia’s foreign exchange settlements, making Russia the first major country in the world to conduct almost all its import and export trade in RMB.
This transformation didn’t happen overnight. In 2015, the RMB was included in the IMF’s “basket of currencies,” initiating its internationalization process. However, until the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in 2022, Russia’s use of the RMB remained limited. After the US and EU imposed financial sanctions on Russia, it was forced to seek alternatives, with the RMB emerging as the best option.
In June 2024, the US further tightened sanctions on Russia, closing all financial loopholes. In response, Russia announced the complete abandonment of the US dollar and euro, requiring all countries trading with it to settle in RMB. This decision rapidly increased the RMB’s share in Russia’s foreign exchange market to nearly 100%.
This development is significant for China’s efforts to promote RMB internationalization. Russia, as a major world power and primary resource exporter, fully adopting the RMB for settlements provides a powerful example for other countries. It demonstrates that international trade can be maintained and economic growth achieved without using the US dollar.
However, this shift also brings new challenges. Due to Russia’s severe shortage of RMB, China-Russia trade growth has already reached its limit. From January to May 2024, China-Russia trade volume increased by only 2.9% year-on-year, far lower than China’s growth rates with other major trading partners.
Meanwhile, China is actively promoting RMB internationalization. Although still receiving large amounts of US dollars in foreign trade, China chooses to quickly use these dollars to help other countries repay their dollar debts, while signing new agreements for repayment in RMB. This strategy not only promotes the use of RMB but also expands China’s trade with these countries.
In conclusion, Russia’s full adoption of the RMB is an important milestone in the process of RMB internationalization. While this was partly facilitated by special circumstances, it has laid the foundation for the RMB to play a more important role in the global financial system. As China continues to advance this strategy, the international influence of the RMB is expected to further increase.
Chinese University Dorms will SHOCK you!
Multiple bridges are collapsing not only in Bihar, but also in China. Do these collapsing of bridges happen due to the effect of global warming causing unusually heavy rains?
There is no comparison
I checked
The Rains in India averaged 247 mm
The Rains in China averaged 718 mm
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The Wind Speeds in China were almost thrice as high as India had ever seen
The Rise in River Levels were almost 250% higher
India has never faced any such adverse weather conditions because the intensity may be high but the torrential outpour stops much faster and the WIND SPEEDS are much slower compared to the deadly TAI FUN (Typhoon)
India in fact is primarily flooded due to pressure based phenomenon like Cyclonic Rain compared to Wind based phenomenon in China due to Typhoons
In China – the weather phenomenon has drastically changed
Precipitation has risen by 26% and flooding levels have risen much higher
So a lot of 1996–2015 built Infrastructure cannot withstand the flooding and torrential lash and collapse
Much of today’s projects are fine because they have been designed to withstand more torrential rains
In India it’s pure corruption and nothing else
The Bridges were all new and yet collapsed
Check out Newly designed buildings in India and see the cracks in Concrete within 3–4 years itself
It’s compromising Quality for price and speed of delivery of projects
Vintage Illustration
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The Media Lied About Safety in China?
What are the most interesting facts about human behavior?
Originally Answered: What are the most interesting facts about human behavior ?
Wanna get some attention? Stop chasing that person and start ignoring him. He’ll shower you with attention.
2. Want someone to confess something? Stop talking and stare at them and they’ll do the needful.
3. Validate the words of someone by just looking into their eyes. Mostly while telling a lie, they tend to look away from you and smile more often than needed.
4. Intelligent people tend to have fewer friends.
5. Look at their feet while talking. If they’re not facing you, they aren’t probably interested in what you are telling them.
6. Are you sad? You can trick your mind by pretending to smile and in no time, you would be smiling for real.
7. Your body language changes with the person you are talking to. Your body language tends to be relaxed and flowy when you are talking to someone you like whereas it tends to be stiff if it’s someone you are not much fond of.
8. You can sustain that high level of concentration for not more than just 10 minutes.
9. Speak a line to yourself daily about what you wish to do or become. You would see it turning into reality.
10. Your brain has more potential than you realise. Never give up on your dreams.
How long will the CCP remain in charge in China?
I am an ordinary Chinese person.
The Chinese people are the least likely to be deceived by political slogans. With over 3,000 years of monarchy and more than 20 dynasties, the Chinese have experienced hundreds of emperors. This long history has endowed them with the ability to recognize the tricks of any ruler, whether they come in the form of words, policies, laws, or political movements. The Chinese can quickly see through the deceptive promises.
No individual or party can sustain a lie for long. To prove one lie as “truth,” ten new lies are needed, creating an astronomical system of deception. The objective reality about “rulers and lies” is clear: no one can govern through lies. Such an elaborate system will inevitably develop cracks and collapse. When these lies are exposed to the light of day, the ruler’s legitimacy vanishes, signaling the end of the regime.
The above paragraphs illustrate a key logic: sustained deception is bound to be exposed, and China’s long history makes its people particularly sensitive to such tactics. The Chinese are not easily fooled.
As of a few years ago, the Communist Party of China (CPC) celebrated its 100th anniversary. In its first 20 years, it nearly faced extinction several times (1920s-1940s). Over the next 30 years, it made several grave mistakes that almost led to societal and economic collapse (1950s-1970s). The CPC then attempted to learn from these errors and reform itself. However, during the following decade, the world’s major communist states collapsed (1980s-1990s), and “socialism” became a relic of history. China emerged as one of the few remaining socialist countries. In 1990, the Chinese echoed Deng Xiaoping’s words, “We must cross the river by feeling the stones,” humorously adding, “If the stones are gone, how do we cross?” Realizing this issue, the CPC began to develop its own theories. China’s economic boom started around that time.
Imagine you are wealthy and have a poor neighbor who has been hungry and poorly clothed for generations. Their frail bodies are swarmed by flies, and they seem on the verge of collapse. The parents of this poor family are determined to improve their situation but don’t know how. Anger and frustration have led to strained family relations. After the chaos subsides, they sit down and ponder how to feed their family.
Initially, the father helps others move, works as a loader, and cleans floors. These jobs are exhausting and pay little, but he endures the physical strain and earns every penny with sweat. Eventually, the family can eat three meals of bread daily, although there’s no beef, jam, or fruit. To save money, they eat only two meals a day, using the savings for education to learn skills like textile work, shoemaking, and knitting. After some time, he acquires these skills and starts new jobs, which, though still demanding, offer indoor work free from harsh weather.
Years pass, and this once-poor family now works as skilled artisans. They continue to save money, thinking of future needs like weddings and births. The third generation grows up in a modest but not impoverished environment, aware of the wider world through trade. They begin to wonder, “Why can’t we have what others have?”
By the fourth generation, they’ve mastered advanced technology and use their ingenuity to propose better scientific solutions. Their ambitions reach for the stars, aiming to uncover the mysteries of the universe.
Over 100 years, from the first impoverished ancestor to the confident children of today, this family has never resorted to killing or invasion to gain even a penny, enduring hunger in silence.
As the family’s fortunes rise, they remain thrifty, never forgetting their past hunger. They save diligently and always question their expenses. However, outsiders with weapons surround them, demanding they return to poverty without reason.
Now, tell me, whose side would you choose? The one who has kept this family intact through it all is named the CPC.
Lylia, Malou, and the Intangible Impossibility of Imperceivable Physics
“Dr. Niwwel, if you summoned the thing, why can’t you just send it away?”Lylia held her tongue. It wasn’t that Malou was stupid, and most of the time it wouldn’t even bother her, but she was running out of ways to explain an unexplainable being. “I didn’t summon it. I just created a way for it to access our world.” She peaked out at the dark hallway—the problem was there was no precedent. Did it matter if there was light? Could the creature even see light? And would staying quiet even matter? Lylia stroked her long, blonde hair as she thought.“I’m sorry. You must be getting tired of all these questions.”It was so hard to be mad at someone who kept acknowledging their flaws. “It’s okay. I know it must be confusing.” Lylia couldn’t help but feel guilty. It was her fault Malou was still in the building to begin with. Not that it really mattered. The creature wasn’t particularly bound by the same matter-based confines that Earth creatures were. Maybe nowhere on the planet was safe.“Can we stay here? Are we safe here?” Malou popped her head out as well, peering down the hallway for signs of the plasma colored of burning light, the only visible material the creature left behind. “I don’t see anything.”“I don’t think we’re safe as long as we’re still here.”“Do you think it’ll leave the building?”Lylia didn’t know how to tell Malou that the creature didn’t even exist in the building as it was. “I hope not.” Cautiously, she crept out into the middle of the hallway. It felt silly to be sneaking around, but she couldn’t help it. It was so human to only feel safe when walls were around to support and protect. “I don’t think it’s coming. Hurry. We can go down this hallway. It’ll lead to the stairs.”Malou nodded and her dyed green hair bobbled in its pigtails. “After you, Dr. Niwwel.”“Really, Malou, you can call me Lylia.” Being called Doctor by someone her own age was weird, but being called Doctor by someone who’d been in every one of her elementary school classes was even weirder.Malou followed. “But you worked so hard for your doctorate. The least I can do is show you the respect you deserve.” Malou smiled and Lylia did her best not to melt. She’d promised herself when she started tutoring Malou in physics that she wouldn’t let that smile get to her anymore, but Malou was so earnest, so… so genuine, that Lylia almost couldn’t help it.She was so dazzled by Malou’s smile that she almost didn’t catch the blazing light splatter behind her. “Malou, look out!”A cabinet behind her suddenly became corrupted, spitting sparks and shuddering in and out of existence before half of it was suddenly away. Lylia felt the hair stand up on her arms. “Run!”The air stung of burned metal, rasping away at the back of Lylia’s throat. Malou was faster than her by far, but she kept pace. “Come on!”After a while, Lylia felt her heart start to pound more and more. If only she didn’t work on the top floor—they’d be out by now. They made it close to the stairs, and Lylia grabbed Malou’s arm right before she went down the stairs, dragging her into a broom closet.“What’d you do that for?”“Going down won’t help,” Lylia wheezed. She needed to work out more. “It’s not… I mean, it’s not confined by floors.”“It can go through floors?”Lylia bit her lip. They seemed safe enough now. Maybe she should try a third time to explain that the creature she’d released wasn’t going through the floor, it was completely apart from the floor.She hadn’t meant to become a doctor in the first place. It just seemed like the only way she could continue to study and to learn about what the emptiness in atoms really entailed. She’d always been fascinated by the way humans always seemed to accept nothing but truth, but didn’t question the truth they knew.
“But what’s in between the electron and the nucleus?”
“Nothing,” her professor had snapped. “Quit asking that. This is just where we are in science right now, okay? Sorry it’s not good enough for you. Finish your work.”
Her curiosity had developed from wondering what the emptiness really meant to wondering if there was a separate way to exist. When she argued for her dissertation, a hypothetical reconfiguration of matter that didn’t involve atoms or quarks or any subatomic particles humans could conceive of, the faculty had been confused and baffled. One professor had gone so far as to declare that it was more science fiction than true science. However, she’d gotten her doctorate anyway, and away she went.
The experiment wasn’t supposed to even work. Lylia had long given up on her own theory, but the premise behind it still stood, in her mind. Countless graduate students flocked to her, to hear her crazy lectures about worlds within our own atoms. The machine she’d fashioned wasn’t supposed to be capable of creating real atomic disturbances—the only other atomic disturbances the world had ever known were military based, so there was no way they’d ever give her something with real power. She’d had the grad students (and Malou, although Lylia still wasn’t sure why she was there) gather around her as she fiddled with it, answering their questions the best she could and firing back some of her own. The machine had never done anything before, no matter what she did, so there was no reason anyone would expect it to do much of anything other than look science-y.
So when the machine had malfunctioned and spewed black smoke and the… the thing (Lylia called it a creature for Malou’s sake, but it wasn’t like any creature or any being that had ever been noted in any way before) seeped into this world’s atomic formation, it had caught everyone by surprise.
At first Lylia, like any good scientist, was fascinated. She had proof! Proof that our physics weren’t the only physics out there—matter didn’t work in the same way, physicality didn’t work in the same way, and the universe wasn’t empty after all!
It was a glowing moment for science.
Until suddenly one of the grad students’ arms disappeared. The blood that splattered the ground flecked Lylia’s shoes as she should there, shocked, helpless as bits of the floor spluttered and vanished and the building’s infrastructure suddenly turned to nothing against the impossibility of a physics-less being. Chaos ensued, filling the hallways with shouts as the being engulfed everything it encountered, turning it into a form of matter imperceivable by humanity, intangible in the same regard. Later, hiding under her desk (not the smartest plan, she knew, but she panicked, okay?), Lylia figured out what she’d unleashed—a being able to interact with the physics and composition of this world, but unable to be interacted with by the physics and composition of this world. It was enough to make her head spin, so explaining it to Malou… Calling it a creature was just easier.
“I’m sorry,” she told Malou now, holed up next to the stairs. “I can’t… I can’t stop it. It defies all nature, it defies all… rational thought. It’s not of this world and it shouldn’t be here now. I’ve released it and I’m so… I’m so sorry.” If she hadn’t been so terrified, Lylia thought she would cry. Even now, with fear freezing her blood, Lylia felt tears well behind her eyes and in the catch in her throat.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault.”
“It’s my machine. My lecture. My experiment. It’s literally my fault.”
“You didn’t know this would happen. Nobody knew. Nobody could know.”
“You should’ve gotten out when you had the chance.” Malou hadn’t evacuated with the others, she’d rushed to Lylia’s office instead.
“I couldn’t leave you.”
“You should have. You’ll die here. I can’t tell you anything about this… creature. I could have doomed the entire Earth.” Lylia began to cry, tears and snot dripping down her cheeks. It wasn’t the time or place, she knew, but she still felt bad for how ugly she must look. “You’re going to die, and everyone I know is going to die, and it’s all my fault.”
“The world was doomed anyway,” Malou said. “And you don’t know that you’re going to die. I mean, you said the creature wasn’t from our physics. Maybe it’ll… make us like it.”
That was highly illogical, but so was everything. “Maybe, but even then our entire lives, everything we know, will be taken away. I wish there was a way I could… I could distract it somehow, so you could escape but I…”
“I couldn’t leave you,” Malou repeated. “I couldn’t.”
“We’re going to die here.” Lylia’s sobs echoed down the hallway, and she no longer cared if the creature was able to perceive sound or not. “We’re going to die here and I never—”
“You never what?”
Lylia didn’t know. There were lots of things she’d never done. She’d never snowboarded, or owned a bird, or bought homeowner’s insurance. She hadn’t told her parents goodbye. She’d dated boys in high school and undergrad, but she’d never really felt in love with any of them. She’d never told Malou how beautiful she was.
The thought popped into Lylia’s head before she could stop it. She’d promised herself she’d never admit that to anyone—not even herself.
But if there was ever a time, now was it.
“You’re pretty,” she said, her voice squeaking like a grade schooler.
“Wait—what?”
“I just wanted you to know you’re really pretty.” This was so dumb. This was remarkably dumb. Lylia wanted to say more but she couldn’t.
“Oh.” Malou stared at Lylia. “I don’t know what to… I—oh. Thank you. You’re… you’re pretty too.”
Lylia felt the blood rush to her face and knew it must be a violent red by now. Violent red with puffy pink eyes—Malou was just being nice. “I’m sorry, I made things weird, it’s weird now, it’s our last hours on Earth probably and I’ve just made it so weird.”
“So?”
“So I’m sorry! We’re up against a unseen, intangible something and I just made everything weird.” Lylia hiccupped. She’d stopped crying, but her face was still a mess, she knew.
“Well, I’m glad you did, or I was going to.” Gently, Malou put her rough, calloused hand over Lylia’s.
“What?”
“I like you,” Malou said, the left corner of her mouth turning up into a grin. “I think I’ve liked you since we were in grade school together. That’s why I wanted you to tutor me, I wanted to get to know you better. That’s why I went to all your lectures. I like you.”
“Oh,” breathed Lylia. “Oh.”
“So I guess, if this really is our last couple hours on this planet”—Lylia didn’t bother correcting her—“then I guess I want you to know. I like you a lot. I think you’re funny and kind and so passionate about everything. So… yeah.”
“Oh,” repeated Lylia. “I don’t know what to—”
“You don’t have to say anything. I know this is probably a weird shock, but I didn’t want to disappear without you knowing, okay? I just needed you to know—”
“I like you too,” Lylia spat out. “I like you too.”
“Oh.”
For a second, the two sat in silence, listening to the sparking of a light that the being had absorbed half of earlier in the day. Then Lylia began to cry again.
“Oh! No! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you—”
“No, no, I’m happy,” Lylia said, frantically wiping her tears. “I mean, I am a little. I’m just sad that we’re not… we’re not going to see the future that would come from this.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess that’s true.”
“I just wish we had more time.”
“Well, we have time right now. And who knows—maybe when the creature takes us, we’ll end up together in its dimension.”
Not a dimension, Lylia’s brain blathered, but it didn’t matter at all. Tentatively, she turned her hand up and laced her fingers though Malou’s. “There’ll be no tomorrow,” she warned.
“It sucks,” Malou said, nodding.
“But right now we’re together.”
“Makes it suck a little less.”
Lylia laughed. Yes. Every action they took should just be to make things suck a little less. “Of all the people to die with, you’re not a bad choice.”
“And at least we know that wherever we’re going, we’ll go together.”
“Together.”
Lylia wept as the creature’s plasmatic flickering came into view a little down the hallway and bits of air and floor disappeared, leaving behind blank nothingness of the physics that Lylia couldn’t perceive.
“Together,” Malou murmured into her ear, and they closed their eyes.
Very interesting clips
The “scary background music” is a minus, but the content is worth your time.
What kind of karma will happen to China for being so evil for so long? How can such evil exist?
Hello, I’m from China, and I am a paid promoter for the CCP.
As the Titanic was about to collide with the iceberg, the ship’s impending sinking was a tragic fate for the main characters. However, for the lobsters waiting to be cooked in the Titanic’s kitchen, it was a miraculous moment.
Similarly, the so-called “evil existence of China” is seen as a tragic threat by Western imperialists, Jewish fascists, and Japanese militarists. But for the countries of Southeast Asia, most African nations, Latin America, and other poor and chaotic Third World countries, it represents an opportunity to end internal conflicts and focus on development.
A strong China will allow us to witness the following in the future:
The decline of the US as a military and diplomatic superpower;
The awakening of the American people and the restructuring of their government;
The Five Eyes countries, excluding the US, gradually adopting independent foreign policies based on their national interests;
The EU possibly gaining autonomy in diplomacy and military matters, or becoming a regional power;
Several traditional Third World countries reaching the threshold of industrialization;
Rapid socio-economic development in Southeast and South Asian countries;
Green energy becoming the primary component of the world’s energy mix;
A fairer and more reasonable carbon emission scheme for Third World countries;
Urumqi, as the geographical center of Central Asia, playing an increasingly important role in international finance and trade;
Japan and South Korea, the two American colonies in East Asia, becoming mere dishes on the table;
Some African countries emerging as newly developed nations;
A united Asia and Latin America;
The elimination of global war hotspots;
Mao Zedong once said, “Before listening to someone, first see where they stand.” China is slowly trying to tell its own story. This process has been fraught with difficulties. However, today, through platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Quora, and through “China Travel,” rather than through official Chinese efforts, China’s story is beginning to spread among people worldwide. These stories and visions instill fear and anxiety in those in the West who are full of prejudice and hatred.
So, “my delicacy is your poison.” To those who wish for the disappearance of “evil China” from the earth, I hope you exercise well and maintain a balanced diet so you can live a long life. If you live as long as a tortoise, for 500 years, you can personally verify whether “evil China” has vanished.
Therefore, haters, I wish you longevity like a tortoise. In China, this is the most beautiful metaphor.
Is it true that martial arts are useless in a street fight?
As others have said, the first thing a martial arts instructor will tell you is ‘don’t get into a street fight’. My judo instructor took it further: get fit and outrun the threat.
At the age of 19, with 8 years of judo instruction, and some unarmed combat training, I spent a summer in Manchester. I didn’t know the city, and found myself in areas that were not safe. This was in the early 80s, around the time of the most violent riots the city has seen in modern times.
Every time a situation looked dodgy, the others scrambled to get out of my way. I’m average height, and while I was very fit at the time, I was not visibly muscular or aggressive-looking. I just looked like I could handle myself (I could). That’s the second lesson: if you can’t avoid a situation, look like you’d be a problem.
The third lesson: take charge of the situation and de-escalate.
I was in a ground-floor student flat in a less salubrious part of Birmingham. There was a crash from the kitchen. I rushed into the corridor, to find myself face-to-face with a guy who looked like a serious boxer, just coming out of the kitchen. I was between him and the front door. He took a swing at me. I deflected the punch into the wall, and he stopped, uncertain.
I asked him who he was, why he was in my flat, and what had happened in the kitchen.
A flatmate of mine had flirted with the guy’s girlfriend through the kitchen window. Our boxer suspected the girl was cheating, and thought he had found the culprit. He found the front door unlocked, walked into the kitchen, and knocked my flatmate off his feet, and over the table. By the time he’d explained all this, he had calmed down a great deal. We went back into the kitchen, established that my flatmate was not the sought-for Lothario. Everyone shook hands, apologised, and there was no more trouble.
None of this used specifically judo moves, but the training gave me both the confidence and the reflexes, so no, martial arts are not useless.
Have you ever taken the law into your own hands?
My neighbor is a big-shot lawyer. One night, his dog was outside my house. I didn’t know it was his dog and had to ask around. I was told it was “the lawyer’s dog.” I noticed that the dog was terribly skinny and, in general, just didn’t have the bounce in her step like most black labs do.
I left her at my house and knocked on the door. I told him I had his dog. He didn’t seem concerned. When it appeared he wasn’t going to come outside, I asked him if he expected me to deliver the dog to him. He got all huffy and said, “Fine!” His beautiful and very, very sweet wife and four little girls were thanking me but he was just pissed that I interrupted his “pizza and movie night with the family.” He begrudgingly followed me home.
I am a retired humane officer and still have a lot of influence at animal control. But I didn’t want to sound arrogant and threatening so I didn’t mention it. I just asked if the dog was okay as she seemed a little gaunt. He told me to mind my own business.
I asked him if the dog had been to see a vet lately and he said, “What’s with all the g-damn questions?” Since I had had this very same exchange many times in my career, I didn’t get mad. I just smiled and said I was concerned about the dog. He again told me to mind my own business. I said “Okay, well, if you’re not going to talk to me…” and trailed off.
The dog was less than enthusiastic to see him and he had to actually pick up the dog .
The next day, bright and early, two uniformed Animal Control officers knocked on his door, demanding to see the dog. He got a seven-day warning to get the dog to a vet or be fined. Seven days later they came back and were shown a letter from a vet that the lab had been seen and is now under treatment for a pancreatic disorder.
My neighbors asked me how I was so bold and stupid to make an enemy out of a big-shot lawyer.
Right makes might. I had right on my side.
I will never be afraid to speak out on behalf of a dog. In my career I had dealt with hardened criminal dog fighters and my anger gave me courage.
I gave him the chance to talk to me, and I would have offered to take the dog to the vet since I know he and his wife are busy, but he shot me down so fast.
My husband is a big-shot lawyer, too, but this guy doesn’t know that.
I called in a favor from my old colleagues and showed this guy that he didn’t intimidate me and that “Failure to render treatment to an animal in need” is a crime and not even a big-shot lawyer is above the law.
Do you think there is such a thing as the worst Hollywood celebrity decision ever?
A virtual unknown, Australian actor George Lazenby was cast as James Bond in 1969, taking over the role from Connery in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”. Lazenby was young, inexperienced… and honestly not that great an actor. But when he played the part, he kind of killed it. And although initially panned by critics, in later years in fact his performance has been hailed as one of the finest. This role could have forever changed his life.
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And yet, out of thin air… Lazenby called it quits. Told the studio he would NOT be apearing in another Bond movie ever again. This was positively unprecedented. The role had made his predecessor a millionaire, a household name around the globe. It would have been Lazenby’s claim to fame. He’d be set for a lifetime. And yet, he bucked. And quit his job, in style. He said the studio “made him feel mindless” and that whenever he made suggestions for the role, he was dismissed, which he disliked. The young Australian didn’t want to “just be a product”. It was all the more shocking because of all the effort he had put into getting cast in the first place, bluffing his way into getting the part.
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As filming came to an end, George Lazenby grew a beard. Grew out his hair, too. He looked more like a hippie than the famous suave secret agent he was portraying. By the time the premier came around, Lazenby was ordered by the studio to shave his beard, cut his hair, “look the part”. He flat-out refused, and not only kept the beard, he even put on a massive fur coat to further enhance his image as the enfant terrible of the Bond universe. Everyone gave Lazenby a hard time for his choice:
“I much prefer being a car salesman to a stereotyped James Bond. My parents think I’m insane, everybody thinks I’m insane passing up maybe millions of pounds. Nobody believed me. They thought it was a publicity stunt. But it’s just me doing my own thing”
He wouldn’t budge. George Lazenby became James Bond, played the role once, and never again. His film career failed to take off after this, and in later years the actor went into real estate, making a fortune for himself off-screen. He could have been one of the world’s most major movie stars… instead, he went from Bond, to hippie, to dude who flips houses for a living.
Do not forget about CloudStrike and it’s roll in the July 2024 shutdowns
The election is gonna be on line in a few days. Keep your eyes open.
What was the most blatant scam a customer has ever failed to get away with?
I used to work at a running store in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.
One day, a guy and his girlfriend/partner came into the store while I was working. They bought a few pairs of shoes and some running clothes and signed up for a local race. There was nothing unusual about any of this, and they were quite nice.
The only odd thing was they both clearly had lower-than-normal IQs. Just imagine the person you know who best fits the phrase “not the sharpest tool in the shed” and add in a little more dullness, and that’s them.
Anyway, the next day the store owner comes in and starts asking us about this couple (he hadn’t been there the day before). After we answered a few questions, he told us that their checks (one for the gear, one for the race) had bounced. We were now out several hundred dollars of product.
The owner, a New York City native, was not one to take things lying down, so he did a little digging.
My old boss: not a sucker
The first thing he discovered was that the guy had used checks with his actual name and address on them. The guy’s last name was unique—“Pfeffenschmecker” or something like that. Now as you can imagine, there were only about five Pfeffenschmeckers in the whole phone book (yes, this was back when we still had phone books), so my boss started calling them all.
He quickly found a relative who said, “Oh yes, they have done this before. They use checks from an old, closed-out account to steal from stores.”
Armed with that knowledge and their home address, here’s what my boss did next.
He went to their house late that night and took a steel pipe with him. He banged on their door with the pipe and started yelling at them with his strongest New York accent from outside the house, telling them in no uncertain terms that he wanted his stuff back…or else.
They never came to the door, so he eventually left. But the next morning, there were several bags in front of the store when he got there.
They had returned all the merchandise and, one hopes, learned a very valuable lesson: don’t steal from a New Yorker, but if you do, don’t use your real name and address as part of your scam!
What is one thing that I can learn from you today?
One day, me and my girlfriend went out for lunch. After finishing our lunch, we called the waiter to get the bill. The waiter kept the bill on our table and then he left.
My girlfriend took the bill and checked it. There was some mistake. We had ordered 6 Rotis (Indian Bread) and only 4 were mentioned in the bill. She told me about this and I checked the bill again. She was right.
Then she said that we need to ask them to add 2 more Rotis in the bill and I was like, “Dude, don’t try to be Raja Harishchandra”. She asked, what’s wrong with that? As there was a difference of only 30 rupees, I answered, “Chalta hai yaar kabhi kabhi” (it happens sometimes). But she said, “No. It’s wrong. We must not do this. It’s someone’s hard earned money. We have ordered it and we have to pay for it.” I was surprised to hear that (just because of her maturity) and then I said, “Okay, you win.”
She immediately called the waiter and told him that we have ordered 6 Rotis and only 4 are mentioned in the bill. And asked him to kindly add that in the bill and get an updated one. The waiter said thanks to her and then went to the bill counter. He got a new and correct bill this time. We both checked it and a random conversation started between us.
During the conversation, I pulled out my wallet and picked out 2 five hundred rupee notes and gave it to the waiter with the bill. I was so lost in the conversation that I forgot the bill amount was 474 Rupees only. And instead of giving him a single note, I gave him two. Neither I was aware of this, nor my girlfriend and suddenly the waiter came and said, “Sir the amount is only 474 Rupees and you gave me 2 five hundred rupee notes. Please take one note back (and then he returned me one note).
I immediately checked my wallet and I was shocked that yes he is right! I had 3 notes in my wallet and there was only 1. I thanked him for this and also praised his honesty. He also got a decent tip from us. Then we left the place with a smile and a lesson. The lesson is,
Do good to get good
If you do a good thing, then something good will happen to you.
Thanks for reading.
Chicken and Mushroom Pasta
This Chicken and Mushroom Pasta is flavor packed and loaded with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, veggie pasta and chicken. It’s a 30 minute meal that’s perfect for busy weeknights!
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Ingredients
8 ounces spiral veggie pasta (rotini), cooked (reserve 1/2 cup starchy pasta water)
1 tablespoon olive oil
8 ounces baby bella mushrooms, sliced
1/2 cup white onion, diced
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Pinch of red pepper chili flakes (optional)
1/2 cup Half-and-Half
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 cups cooked spinach, fresh
2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions. Reserve 1/2 cup of pasta water. Set aside.
Heat olive oil in a sauté pan and add in mushrooms, onions, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic and seasonings. Stir and cook until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Add in the Half-and-Half, chicken broth and pasta water, and bring to a boil. Turn down to simmer for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring occasionally (pasta water will help thicken the sauce).
Lastly, add in the cooked chicken, spinach and Parmesan. Stir until combined.
Serve warm.
19 HOUR Layover In China (Guangzhou visa-free transit)
Is President Trump the new Theodore Roosevelt?
Don’t be ridiculous. Theodore Roosevelt was a 250 pound mountain of self-made muscle who gave a speech, got shot into the chest and, spitting out blood with a smile, told the alarmed crowd: “It takes more than that to kill a bull moose!” He then proceeded to give his speech anyway as if nothing had happened. It’s the type of scene that would make people roll their eyes in an anime series and say: “Gee, those Japanese cartoons sure are over-the-top bombastic and unbelievable!”
When Theodore Roosevelt was born, he was weak and sickly. Doctors said he’d surely die. His father believed otherwise. As soon as his son was old enough to understand, he told him: “God gave you a strong mind, but not a strong body. So you must build that body yourself.” He nodded and internalized that message. Started a fitness regimen of insane intensity, including calisthenics and bodyweight exercises. He climbed mountains. Fought in multiple wars. Knocked down several men at a time in bar fights, and rode horses and trekked through the roughest of terrain. His band of men was called “the Rough Riders”. About as close as a 19th century politician could be to being in a biker gang…
When Theodore Roosevelt was nearly assassinated he survived with a bullet lodged in his chest for the rest of his life. It did not, in any way, shape or form, slow the man down. His very first concern, after telling the crowd he was fine, was for the would-be assassin — he told police not to rough him up too bad. If the shooter had merely nicked his ear, Roosevelt would probably have asked him to come up close and said: “Mediocre! Come, have another go!”
Pre-Historic Underground Megastructure Found in Russia – Khara-Hora Shaft
This is amazing.
What was the most bone-chilling sentence a loved one ever said to you?
When I was 24 years old, married with my first baby, my husband and I were driving my mother home after she had visited us. A bit of an argument broke out between mother and me, over something inconsequential, and she said, coldly and clearly:
“I adopted you to save my marriage, and when he loved you more than me, I got rid of you. I sent you to boarding school.”
I was adopted at 2 years of age and packed off to boarding school when I had just turned 7. I spent the rest of my childhood and teenage years at boarding school, only coming home for school holidays.
She would do humiliating things such as putting a notice in the local paper that I was coming home for the school holidays when everyone knew it was holiday time. She would force me to wear my school uniform to town (Father had a sheep property) so “that everyone can see what a good school I sent you to.” Running into my school “mates” dressed in my formal school uniform in the holidays ensured that I was totally humiliated and bullied.
I never forgave her for this and never forgot what she told me that evening when I was 24. Even though I am now 80, it still hurts.
One final thing. Two years ago I discovered that I have a sister who is 16 months younger than me. We were in the orphanage together, and there is NO WAY that Mother didn’t know about her. She never told me about my sister and it was only by chance that I found out she exists. Sadly, she is not keen on meeting me, saying she has “issues” that have to be resolved. I am so sad, because at 80 and her turning 79 in July, time is running out for us to know each other. I have prayed and prayed that she will contact me again, but I fear this will not happen.
NOTE:
Thank you all for your kindness and care. I am sure there are many of you who have upvoted this who can relate to cruelty by parents who, sadly, are damaged people either from their own childhood or as a result of their own actions. Only a parent can inflict this type of deep grief which stays with us for the rest of our lives.
Do you consider America or China a superpower? Can you give me a good answer, opinion or comments?
America and China are both superpowers. In fact, they are presently the ONLY superpowers.
Both countries have enormous economies, far surpassing third-place Germany and fourth-place Japan.
By purchasing power parity, both economies are also enormous, far surpassing third-place India.
China is indisputably the world’s only manufacturing/industrial superpower.
Both countries have enormous militaries. In fact, China has the largest army and the largest navy by number of ships. China has the second largest aircraft carrier fleet.
Both countries have large nuclear arsenals. Officially, China has 500 nuclear weapons, but unofficially this number is believed to be closer to a thousand.
Both countries are technological superpowers. In fact, according to the ASPI, China leads the world in 37 out of 44 critical technology fields (America leads in 7).
China is granted more technological patents than America and Japan combined!
According to the CWTS Leiden Ranking, China has about half of the world’s top universities.
China dominates the world in 5G. China dominates the world in EVs, batteries and solar panels.
America and China both exert enormous global influence economically, militarily, and technologically. This is why they are superpowers.
What are some short stories that discuss a moral dilemma?
The story of Stéphane Passet always rather haunted me. An amateur photographer, Passet was hired to photograph the world around him — in particular, the Orient, a mysterious place few in the West knew much of. He would go deep into the most remote corners of the world, and photograph what he would encounter. At some point on his travels, he encountered a woman in Mongolia.
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She was trapped in a box, in a desert. There was a hole in the box, large enough for her to poke her head out, and an arm. But far too small for her to ever dream of escaping. Every once in a while, perhaps once every two days or so, a guard would appear. Give the woman some water, a little bit of food — she was meant to die in that box, and the nourishment given to her was only to further prolong her suffering. Passet looked on, in horror.
“What has she done to deserve this fate?” he asked his guide.
“Adultery…” was the answer.
To take a photograph of this moment in time felt almost… obscene, to Passet. Her slender arm, shaking. The sun mercilessly beating down on her. He was watching a woman die before his eyes. It could take days. Weeks, even. But she would die and there was nothing in the world he could do.
Stéphane Passet could not intervene. Could not save her, he was completely powerless to do anything for the poor soul. Still, he took his camera. And took her picture. After that, he went away, knowing she would die. And yet he did something for her — by taking her picture, he ensured she would be remembered. Most nameless people who shared her fate would never have been captured on camera. She died, but through Passet, she lives on.
Why does everybody like Thailand?
Many factors, they have all the 10 conditions qualified, most countries can’t even reach 5:
1)People are nice and kind, probably due to their religion and culture which believe in Karma, and the core and basic Buddhism knowledge is taught in schools and their boys and men stay in a Buddhist monastery as a novice or temporary monk for at least once in their lifetime. Many foreigners found love 💝 💝 in Thailand.
2)Attractions and sceneries: from natural to man-made, they have everything. Pattaya alone is enough for anyone to live for a lifetime.
3)Shopping: their malls and markets are the best and better than most countries. Even their 7/11s is better than their neighbors with either better facilities, better services or selling more things,
4)Food: Thai food from spicy to non-spicy are all good and international food is easily available too. Even better are their desserts and sauces that makes a perfect meal. There is one Thai sauce that have all 4 tastes in one: spicy, sweet, salty and sour, the only kind in the world.
5)Entertainment and nightlife: their cinemas are better than most countries and their nightlife needs no introduction: males, females, middle-sex and homosexuals are easily available.
6)Massage: Both Thai traditional massage and sensual or sex massage is available everywhere. I think no other countries have them, not even a proper basic massage.
7)Transportation: This is most important as transportation is similar to the blood circulation of a body. Bangkok have the most transportation systems in the world: buses, skytrains, underground trains, car taxis, motorcycle taxis, river ferry transport, canal boat transport, tuk-tuks, songtheaws and samlors. Even remote areas and islands are reachable with public transportation systems and you don’t need to hire a private car.
8)Restaurants and cafes of many international food and budget options are easily available everywhere. You can buy a 120 baht fresh coffee in a cafe to as cheap as a 25 baht coffee from a takeaway stall. Even sushi is available in most night markets.
9)Costs: still affordable now although it keeps increasing.
10)Fairness in treatment: all people are treated fairly. There is no racism treatment, all religions are allowed(even Pope is allowed into the country to hold events) although this is not a good idea long term, dual pricing is practiced for many attractions entrance.
I may have missed some factors but I think those above are enough.
As a realtor, what was the shadiest thing you saw a home seller do?
I was young and had wanted to break into the real estate industry since I was a baby. My dad had been an agent and my grandpa had been a house flipper. My grandpa had taught my dad everything about houses and how to fix them and flip them. Dad only had me, a girl.
Dad was undeterred and taught me everything grandpa had taught him and even brought me on showings. I had also studied woodworking, metal working, business administration, accounting, real estate, drafting and various other housing-related things while still in school. I was ready for my career in real estate.
However, I made one heck of a bad move right out of the gate. I signed on with a broker whom I didn’t know was shady. He seemed OK to me and he was Italian like me but I was naive and blinded by my dreams of working in the housing industry. Soon it was obvious that something was wrong. My broker refused to allow me to work the front desk where agents were able to take walk-in clients. He also refused other avenues that would help grow my career. I was completely frustrated to say the least. I was basically getting nowhere fast. It was as if he was deliberately trying to stop me from growing in the business.
What my broker didn’t count on was that I was persistent. So I finally, through my own avenues, got a potential buyer and two potential sellers. I was figuring out my career path, no thanks to my lousy broker. My broker was extremely upset that I was getting anywhere and I quite frankly couldn’t understand why he wanted to destroy me so bad when he hardly knew me. What kind of threat could I possibly be to him!?
So I’m getting ready to show my buyer a house and am getting the listing sheets etc together. Suddenly my broker says, “Oh, that house you’re showing, you need to know that the boiler is about to blow.” I thanked him for giving me the head’s up but was stunned when he added, “It is our secret! The seller and I know and the agents in the office know but no potential buyer is to know about this at all!!” Angry I responded, “Isn’t that illegal and immoral?” His response, “They will never know until after it is sold then the buyers can replace it at their own cost!”
I was beyond livid at that point! I outright refused to lie to my buyer and was asked to part ways with the company as a result of my “insubordination” to my broker. I was more than happy to do so even though it meant giving up my lifelong dreams. I was raised to be honest and forthright. I simple couldn’t bring myself down to that level no matter how much my dreams meant to me.
As I left the broker said, “By the way, I took you on because of your last name and then realized you couldn’t provide ‘favors’ for me afterwards. So basically it was a mistake having you here at all!!” I got what he meant, my uncle was Charles Luciano, AKA Lucky Luciano, the famous mobster. He thought I could get him some mob ties!!!!!
I looked him square in the eyes and said, “What are you, stupid? My uncle has been dead since before I was born! How the heck did you think I was going to pull any favors for you?” I stormed out. A few years later his business went belly up. I cannot decide if it was due to his shady dealings with his sellers or if he was simply a victim of the real estate market crash. I’m guessing it was his shady dealings to be honest.
So what happened to me? I found the man of my dreams and it turns out he builds chimneys for a living. Suddenly I found myself back in the housing industry that I love so much, running our own chimney company. And this company is not run on “favors” and shady dealings. This is one housing company that is run on honesty and integrity. And yes, I use all the education my dad handed down to me and all the schooling I took, on a daily basis, to run this company. The best part? I’m happy.
Norwegian Politician Reveal Shocking SECRET About China in 2024
What are the strangest or most eerie true crime cases you have read about?
From 1974 until 1986 a serial killer who became known as EARONS (East-Area Rapist and the Original Night Stalker) terrorized a massive spree of terrible crimes. He committed at least twelve murders, fifty rapes and one hundred and twenty burglaries as well. In April 2018, the man was arrested… his name? Joseph James DeAngelo. A 72-year old retired cop.
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When they arrested DeAngelo, he appeared to be a kindly old grandfather. He lived in a house he shared with one of his adult daughters and his oldest granddaughter. When officers tried to arrest him, DeAngelo said he “had to go inside for a bit because he had a pot roast in the oven”. The cops then took him down, suspecting he was plotting to reach for a gun and either kill himself or engage them in a shootout…
There was no pot roast. What there was, however, was a house full of evidence. A shocked family who, for a year, never broke their silence in utter disbelief. And a computer, open, up and running…
Now DeAngelo was a terrifying killer. The type of killer who would go into houses, brutally attack sleeping couples and tie up husbands in the hallway with plates and cutlery on their backs as he would rape their wives nearby… and stab, shoot or bludgeon to death the poor husband if he made an attempt to escape and save his wife, causing the cutlery to fall on the floor…
He was also a former cop who “kept tabs” on the case. He stopped in the late 1980s around the time when DNA became a more commonly used source to solve crimes. Aware of his crimes, he even followed online, made accounts on message boards that recorded the case and tracked it’s development.
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Joseph James DeAngelo also stalked his victims and their families for years after the attacks. A prowler, he would get a thrill out of repeatedly entering and leaving their homes on nights prior to his home invasions, getting to know every detail, nook and cranny of his future crime scenes. After raping and murdering family members he would find their phone numbers and call them, breathing down the line and uttering profanities. On one of his last such phone calls, somewhere around the 1990s, the victim heard children in the background. This caused law enforcement to look into the possibility that their suspect may be a family man — they had previously looked for a deranged bachelor without a family.
The fact that one of the most prolific serial killers and rapists went undetected for decades and was so… seemingly normal? Terrifying. You expect some sort of freak who talks to demons in the head and dogs possessed by Satan. Not a grandfather who takes his friends fishing by boat, who lives with his daughter, is happily retired and with-the-times enough to operate a computer and browse the internet successfully in his seventies, keeping up to date with the latest police techniques. Thank God for ancestry websites… it’s how she got a match with a distant relative of DeAngelo.
DNA took down the killer. On April 24, 2018, Joseph James DeAngelo was taken in at long last. But the most chilling detail, for me? Some accounts on the case message board for internet sleuths stopped posting altogether on the day of his arrests. And one never logged in again since. The monster lurked on the forum. Chatted the people obsessed with his case and even may have “thrown them hints” here and there. Chilling.
Italian Beef Pasta
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Ingredients
1 pound beef tenderloin, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 red bell peppers, chopped
1 zucchini, chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 pound sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning
2 cups beef broth
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 pound rotini pasta
Instructions
In a large skillet over medium heat sauté beef strips in hot oil until no longer pink.
Add prepared vegetables and Italian seasoning to skillet. Cook and stir for 2 to 3 minutes or until onion is softened.
Mix together broth and cornstarch until smooth. Add to meat mixture in pan; cook and stir until mixture comes to a boil and is thickened.
Meanwhile, cook pasta as directed on package.
Spoon beef mixture over prepared pasta; garnish with fresh basil if desired.
Why Asia doesn’t want warhawk Kamala in charge
What is something in the world that you feel the need to give attention to, something everyone needs to be aware of?
I want to highlight today the sad tale of Mr. Paco Larrañaga. He was convicted to die in the Philippines in 1997 for a murder and rape he not only didn’t commit… but couldn’t possibly have committed. Why? Because he was not there. Two girls were raped and murdered in Cebu in 1997, the Chiong sisters. They belonged to a rather influential and shady family. Larrañaga, on the other hand, was just a young culinary school student hoping to one day be a chef. Despite having nothing to do with the case whatsoever, he was accused, perhaps for political reasons.
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The murder took place on the island of Cebu. Larrañaga was nowhere near — he was in Manila, studying to be a chef. The night of the crime there are records of him leaving a club in Manila. Early the next day he sat for an exam. Over forty fellow students and teachers testified to this. There were no flight records of Larrañaga flying to or from Cebu at any time near the murder. And the man who claimed he was present, Rusia, a “state witness”, showed up only ten months after the event, having never even met Larrañaga. Physical evidence linking Larrañaga to the crime was never produced. No DNA, no fingerprints, flight records, nor witnesses except for this one state witness who the defense was only allowed to interview for a mere ten minutes(!) while Larrañaga was grilled for hours on end…
The judge said every single testimony from the teachers, the students, the bouncer of the club and even the airlines could not be used by Larrañaga because “they were his friends”. He was sentenced to death, later changed to life in prison when the death penalty was abolished in the Philippines. He was just nineteen years old when they arrested him and his life, for all intents and purposes, came to an end. Today, he is 45. He has been in jail for 25 years. It’s an injustice and it needs to be said. Only a presidential pardon could save this poor man’s already ruined life, but pleas seem to fall on death ears. I’ll link a petition you could sign, and would appreciate it if you did.
This is one of the most shocking cases ever to me. For some reason it gets to me, ever since I watched the documentary “Give Up Tomorrow” made about the subject. I have seen reviewed and researched the case extensively and I am appalled and astonished that a man who has been proven beyond reasonable doubt not to have been anywhere near a crime scene is still in jail wasting away for having committed that crime.
Why are U.S. entrepreneurs flying to China now?
Why do people have a problem with Ambanis and Adanis getting richer?
The China Real Estate Syndrome
Why do you think it happened?
Why a Property that cost 350K RMB in 2004 rose to cost 3.5 Million RMB in 15 years time?
At 17% per Annum
It wasn’t due to demand and supply
It was due to RAPIDLY RISING INCOME INEQUALITY between 2005 and 2017 in China
In 2005 – the Top 0.1% Chinese earned 182% of what the Median Chinese earned
By 2016 it had risen to a whopping 568%
The Richer Chinese didn’t earn their money through manufacturing or factory work
They earned their money by PAPER WEALTH
They made real estate killings, reinvested into the same real estate
They made speculative killings and invested it back in speculative markets
Luckily for the Chinese , they had a great leader like Xi Jinping who saw the situation and decided to curb it
And has brought down the number from 568% to 342% in the last 7 years
Has kept real estate prices constant so that the apartment now costs 3.28 Million RMB instead of 5.25 Million RMB that it could have risen to
It’s still not hunky dory
However China has dodged a Major Hypersonic Nuclear Weapon and managed to get hit with a dozen bullets instead
India is heading the same way
Except that in India – State does not even own the land
Our 0.1% in the last 3 years from 2021–2024 now have 1186% more rise in wealth than the Median group
In China it was 293%
In US it was 313%
In Japan it was 181%
In India it was 1200%
You catch my drift?
If this keeps up, resources will become all the more expensive and the ownership will become even more exclusive
In 20 years – we could virtually be slaves of the 0.1% unable to grow or develop even a fraction
We talk of Middle Income Trap with China
We could fall into a Low Income Trap
Solution?
In the next two decades – the 0.1% should see a wealth growth of 275% of the Median Group
That’s the only way to ensure INEQUALITY IS CONTAINED
If they keep getting richer like today, India is finished
China woke up in 2018 – luckily
We need to have woken up five years ago, given that we have a bureaucracy while they can change the rules in twenty minutes
Unless Ambani and Adani can create latest technology and earn from it
And they are too Moron to do that
A 10-year-old cat abandoned, stays at the owner’s door unwilling to leave
How effective are Taiwan’s Wan’an civil defense drills at simulating a Chinese missile attack?
Unless they’re simulating 12,000 MLRS guided rockets like a smaller version of the ATACMS in one hour. It’s completely useless.
It’s like practicing against 50 people when 10,000 will show up. What will that do? Will that really help?
You decide.
China brings a whole new dimension to modern warfare. Not only do they have advanced weapon system that is equal or better than the US, they have them in ridiculously large numbers.
They have been preparing for war with the US. So do you think Taiwan can do anything?
Right before I went into the US Army, the US invaded Panama. Operation Just Cause. Did Panama manage to fend off the US?
And Panama is over 1,800 miles. Taiwan is 100 miles off the coast of China. With no intervening nation. While Panama has the whole of Mexico between it and the US. Did that bother the US or stop the US?
Americans visiting CHINA for the first time!
As a nurse, what is the most disturbing story you can tell about a patient who was living in extreme poverty?
I was a patient in the hospital myself, which was an eye opening experience for me as an RN. I was there for a week with what turned out to be psitticosis from my new pet parakeet. (Not a fun experience.) During that time, I got to know my roommate very well.
My roommate was a widow in her mid thirties, and she was dying of cancer. She had three young children who had recently entered the foster care system. She had no friends or family to help her, and no one willing to take her kids in. She had done nothing wrong as a mother except to become so sick with cancer that she could no longer care for her children. To complicate matters, she had recently been evicted from her apartment due to the loss of her income as a result of her ongoing illness. She was now homeless.
She was also uninsured, which is why her breast cancer was left untreated until it was too late. The cancer had been detected by a routine mammogram paid for by a woman’s health clinic. She was then referred for a biopsy, then to an oncologist. The oncologist was willing to see her free of charge, yet he could not afford to pay for her chemotherapy. He informed her that she needed to try to get on Medicaid, so that the expensive chemotherapy could begin. At that time she was still working, and she made too much money to qualify for Medicaid. She made far too little money though, to purchase health insurance. (This was in 2004, before the ACA, or even Go-Fund-Me came about.) She kept working as long as she could to feed her kids while the cancer spread throughout her body.
Soon after being told that she was terminal, she received word that she had been accepted into a charity drug program paid for by the Disney corporation. They agreed to pay for her chemotherapy, except now it was too late.
While we were in the hospital, she told me over and over again that she desperately wanted to see her children. She was embarrassed by her appearance though, because as the cancer overtook her, she became so weak that she would occasionally faint. One of those falls had chipped two of her front teeth close to the gum line. This was very noticeable. When her mouth was closed, she looked normal. The minute she spoke, smiled or ate, the missing teeth were very, very apparent. Her children had never seen her without her front teeth, and she feared that she would frighten them. She longed for a partial plate or crowns to correct her appearance before her children saw her, yet she had no money for this. As a result, she planned to wear a mask over her mouth when they came instead. Sadly though, her young children were never brought to see her. Calls by her to the social worker in charge of her children’s foster care placement went unreturned. I tried to get our hospital’s social services department to help, yet nothing was ever accomplished.
My roommate had been a pre-school teacher. This isn’t a high paying job, yet it is an important one. The job, sadly, offered no benefits. Plus, due to her cancer, she had by this point not been able to work for several months.
By the time I was discharged, we had become the best of friends. I was still quite weak from my own illness, yet my hope was to have her live in my spare bedroom when she was discharged. As a nurse who only worked part time, I knew that I could care for her.
Whether she came to live with me or not, I also planned to help get her teeth fixed so that she could at least die with the dignity of a beautiful smile. I even had a dentist lined up who was willing to help. Most importantly, I planned to find some way to have her children visit regularly. I never got the chance to do any of those things though. I went to see her two days after my discharge, only to find out that she had passed away suddenly the night before, alone, homeless and toothless.
Keanu Reeves
While shooting the movie “The Lake House”, he overheard the conversation between two costume assistants, and a woman was crying because she would lose her house if she didn’t pay a sum of 20 thousand dollars. He deposited it into her account.
On his birthday in 2010, he went into a bakery alone and bought a cupcake with a single candle. While he ate it outside, he offered free coffee and bread to all customers. This was his luxury birthday.
With what he earned from the Matrix trilogy, he distributed 50 million dollars to the special effects personnel, because according to him, they were the real heroes of the films.
He almost never used stuntmen, except for very specific things like stunts, and for this reason he recognized the work of his stuntmen by giving each of them a Harley Davidson motorcycle.
To this day, he regularly uses the subway and other public transportation systems such as the bus when necessary because it is the most practical thing, and he is never ashamed.
A large number of hospitals say they have received tens of millions of dollars from him.
He donated 90% of his salary in some films so that the production could hire other stars.
In 1997, a paparazzo found him on the street sitting next to a homeless man, listening to the homeless man’s life and having breakfast with him.
All the good we know about Keanu Reeves was not told to us by him, but by those who benefited from him. He never declared anything.
For everything he has experienced, he could have had a sadder and more pessimistic view of life, but despite this he chose to be that something good among all the evil there is.
American greed…
What happened? Since when did money become EVERYTHING?
You guys all know that I was in MAJestic, and that was my “black role”. And you all also know that I had a “public” or “white role” where I worked in industry designing products and moving factories to China.
It was a tough role.
Not the “black” role, no.
The “white role”; the Public role was tough.
Sheech!
It was always hustle – hustle – hustle, then get a job. Then learn the tasks in a hyper-short window of time. Then implement the objectives, quickly, followed by being laid off. Always on a Friday. And usually right before a holiday.
I was a hire-and-discard engineer.
Now, you can handle perhaps 3 to 4 layoffs in a lifetime, I had what? 25, 30. Fucking Crazy.
Anyways, that pace, and the scope of the work, is not something that you forget. After some 40 years, it becomes who you are.
So, when it came to me being retired, I “hit the ground running” and prepped for my move to China. And those bozo’s in Arkansas and all the rest can accuse me of some fake narrative, but I had everything in hand. While I was in prison, I ate healthy, I exercised. I conducted my verbal affirmations, and I studied.
I got a certificate for Teaching English, and I learned Chinese.
I had an extraction plan and I was all ready to go.
However, there was one thing that I was forgetting. Oh, sure it lay there dormant in the back of my skull, but I was totally unprepared for the total lack of support when I got out.
My first ex-wife met me and helped me get some money out of the bank, and my sister put me up in a cheap hotel for two weeks, but that was it. I had no clothes. No money. No possessions and no help.
For me to do the offender registration, I had to hitchhike from the city bus stop, and then walk though a field to get to the local state police barracks.
Everything was closed to me, and I had to start from scratch. I mean, REALLY from ground zero.
I had to buy a pencil, and a cheap tablet of paper. Ah. Something like this…
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And then, using my wits, reconstitute my documents (all had been lost) and get a new passport and then apply for a visa and all the rest.
Now, the romantic in you might think that I was equipping myself sort of like this…
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But no. That’s just a fantasy.
I bought an army surplus backpack, and put the plain basics in it.
Maybe something a little like this…
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Now, this is not about all that.
That was just the background.
But one of the things that I had, and lost was my technical tools. Not only my computers, printers, files and all that, but my hard toolboxes full of tools. My complete electronics lab.
My micro fab facility, and all my bench tools.
All gone.
How many people want to buy a used signal generator, and a bunch of army surplus aircraft avionics? All gone.
Even though I pretty expected that everything would have been looted, I was surprised that there wasn’t ANYTHING left.
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Apparently, after my friends and family took and hauled away all the good stuff, everyone else came in like vultures and locusts and picked up everything that could be pawned off, or sold on e-bay. There was nothing left.
Sure. I talked about the loss of my art.
As well as my books.
But, I lost much more than all that.
And so, in this post, I will lament the loss of my prototype lab, my engineering study work area, and my tools relative to my profession. Not that anyone would hire me ever again for that role, but I don’t think that a lot of you MM followers have any idea that I was quite the “mad scientist” conjuring up all sorts of devices, and mechanisms and solutions.
People can steal everything you have. Destroy your reputation. Black list you, and make it difficult to live any kind of life, but they cannot take away your skill set.
And after I left the United States gulag, I was able to get reestablished, and was welcomed in a merit-driven world of engineers and people who actually appreciate knowledge, skills and abilities.
The Chinese.
And here is my ode to my old prototype workshop… Ah sure, Pictures of others of my ilk. But these pictures all resemble what my life used to be like.
Recently, the U.S. Congress discussed China’s deployment of “machine dogs carrying automatic rifles” and unanimously passed a proposal opposing this practice. The legislators’ reasoning was peculiar, citing that “dogs are man’s best friend.” However, this decision reflects a severe lag in U.S. lawmakers’ understanding of China’s advancements in military robotics technology.
In reality, China’s progress in the field of military robotics far exceeds the scope of machine dogs. Chinese-manufactured machine dogs have recently outperformed products from industry leader Boston Dynamics in competitions. More strikingly, Chinese machine dogs are priced at just 1/27.5th of their American counterparts. A U.S.-made machine dog costs about $74,500, while its Chinese equivalent is only $2,700. This means China could deploy 28 robots for the cost of one American machine dog.
However, machine dogs are just the beginning of China’s robotic technology advancements. China has already developed more sophisticated robots such as the “land spider” and “small land spider.” These devices surpass traditional machine dogs in stability, movement speed, and load-bearing capacity, while being cheaper and simpler to manufacture.
The “land spider” robot uses a six-wheeled spider-like configuration, offering high-speed all-terrain functionality. This design combines the stability and speed of wheeled vehicles with the flexibility of multi-legged robots, allowing it to operate efficiently in various complex terrains.
The “small land spider” is another significant breakthrough. This small self-destructing robot, loaded with high explosives, is designed for covert movement and urban warfare. Its small size, strong climbing ability, and high speed allow it to navigate complex urban environments nimbly, making it a potential game-changer weapon.
China’s innovation in robotics technology is not limited to imitation and improvement but includes original design and practical application. For example, they have developed a wheeled version of the robot dog, cleverly combining the advantages of both wheeled and legged robots.
These robots are not only technologically advanced, but more importantly, their low cost makes large-scale deployment possible. This cost advantage could radically change the face of future battlefields, making it feasible to replace human soldiers with robots in high-risk situations.
Surprisingly, despite China’s public demonstrations of these equipments in use and production of promotional videos with English subtitles, the U.S. Congress still seems to focus solely on machine dogs. This narrow focus reflects a serious misjudgment by U.S. policymakers regarding China’s military technological development.
The U.S. Congress’s reaction to machine dogs is both surprising and concerning. Their focus on the ethical issues of machine dogs while seemingly ignoring more advanced robotic systems indicates a significant cognitive gap. This lack of comprehensive understanding could lead to misguided policy decisions and inadequate responses to evolving military technologies.
Overall, China’s progress in the field of military robotics, both in terms of technological level and cost-effectiveness, represents a potential major shift in modern warfare. These robots not only possess powerful combat capabilities, but more importantly, their low cost makes large-scale deployment possible, which could reshape the landscape of future battlefields. Robot warfare is no longer a distant future scenario but is rapidly becoming a reality. The U.S. Congress’s response highlights the challenges in understanding and addressing this emerging technological trend.
Grilled Flank Steak with Chimichurri Sauce
Steak 1
Yield: 4 servings; approximately 2 cups chimichurri sauce
1/2 cup (1 ounce) chopped flat leaf Italian parsley
1/2 cup (1 ounce) chopped cilantro
1/2 onion (4 ounces), finely diced
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
2 teaspoons agave nectar or honey
1/2 cup olive oil
Instructions
In a food processor or blender combine parsley, cilantro, onion, garlic, oregano, red pepper and salt by pulsing to a finely chopped consistency.
Add vinegar and agave nectar. With processor running, add oil in a slow stream until well combined. Set aside half of sauce in an air-tight container and refrigerate. Put steak in a casserole pan, coat evenly with remaining chimichurri, cover with plastic wrap and marinate in the refrigerator at least four hours, or overnight for deeper flavor and tenderness.
Heat grill.
Remove steak from chimichurri marinade and wipe clean, discarding marinade. Grill steaks to desired doneness over medium high heat.
Allow to rest 5 minutes and serve, topping with reserved chimichurri sauce.
I’VE COME TOO FAR TO QUIT – Best Motivational Video
What is worse, jail, prison, or homeless?
I’ve been in 1 prison, 6 jails, and I was homeless for 2 years in Cleveland, Ohio.
They are all bad, but bad in different ways, so it depends on the person.
County jails are the most boring places I’ve ever encountered. Each time I was there, it was for an average of 75 days, and I tried to fill the time by reading anything I could find.
One time I only had access to the Bible and L. Ron Hubbard’s “Dianetics,” the blueprint for Scientology. I’d sit in on many games of spades or hearts, but that’s really about all there is to do.
And it’s loud.
I’m an introvert, so I value my personal quiet space, and I was in pods with as few as 6, and as many as 50 guys. I was in solitary for 3 days once, and my mind was beginning to go wonky by the end.
However, in all of the jails I’ve been in, I was in a climate controlled environment, and I was fed 3 meals per day, and I never feared for my safety.
Prison was more scary, but there are more things to do. I
was afraid a number of times, but never suffered any serious damage. I took some classes, and I had a job in the laundry, so time passed much more quickly in prison than in jail, and again, I had a roof, walls, and enough food that I never became weak with hunger.
When you’re in jail or prison, you think a lot about the lack of freedom, and what you’re going to do when you get out. You miss the sunshine, you miss the rain. You miss having normal conversations with family about boring, quotidian subjects.
You miss driving a car, and just walking aimlessly.
Being homeless, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of jail.
You have all the freedom anyone could ever ask for, but you never feel at ease.
u never feel safe, and your time is occupied by finding shelter, money, food, and drugs (the reason I was homeless.) April to mid-November isn’t too, too bad, but when the snow starts, you’re in trouble.
I stayed in a couple of abandoned houses, but there are times when you don’t have enough clothes and blankets, that you’d rather not eat for 3 or 4 days than to hustle on the streets to get money for food.
And in jail, there are people to talk to, but when you’re homeless, nobody even glances in your direction.
It’s a scary, lonely existence. So which is the worst out of the 3? It depends. If I weren’t a junkie when I was homeless, I probably could’ve gotten out of the city and stayed in the woods, in a more temperate climate, and I could find a way to survive, and maybe even found a certain amount of pleasure in living with absolute freedom, enjoying the sun and the stars, and a cool breeze on a summer day.
But when you’re a junkie, homelessness is the worst.
Yes, I’ve had to detox in county jails, and that sucks, but it eventually passes, and you’re left with too much time, and not enough activity to fill it, so I’d say that overall, jails are the worst
Stuck
What is the most interesting conversation you’ve had on a flight?
I once sat next to a commercial pilot who was going to work. So people like me go to their jobs on bus, motor bike, or car. But pilots take flights to their work. Isn’t that super cool? I am so jealous.
Anyway coming back to the story. We were chatting about our professional lives when the plane started to tremble, something that gets me scared. I brought my apprehension to his notice when he told me that this is the part that excites the pilot. Otherwise the flight would be really boring. To say that I was dumbfounded is an understatement. Well, he had an explanation.
“Flying a plane in a good weather is really easy, you can put the plane on autopilot and it will take you from point A to point B. It is during the bad weather that a pilot is responsible for keeping the flight safe.”
“Seriously”
“Could you wish for anything else except bad weather while flying? You know like more normal wishes. How about that next promotion, the big house or that fancy car you want?”
Even though I was being serious. He laughed it off.
Our conversation went ahead and I asked him about his most interesting client. He mentioned that he once flew a young wealthy guy.
“This dude came in wearing worn-out t-shirt and jeans. We were curious to know how he made the big money and asked him. To which he replied that he was a part of a start-up which took off reasonably well. After the flight we “Googled” him, only to find out he was a co-founder of “Google.””
I never expected anything exciting to happen to me in the small town of Pondview, East Carolina, but with my luck, it was inevitable. Well, I guess my luck isn’t all bad, considering I didn’t die. An adventure seemed like something anyone would want when they were bored, but this kind of adventure was something nobody wanted. July 4, 3020 was supposed to be a day to celebrate our country. Instead, it was being torn apart.The day had begun normally, with nothing interesting happening. And that was when it happened.Small, hard spheres fell from the sky, exploding on impact. Huge flame licked the sides of my house, and I ran outside. We hadn’t expected to be bombed, with the population being so small, only 1,203 people in the town, but apparently the military didn’t care how small we were. Their plan to eliminate all the people of the United States of America was slowly becoming a reality as the bombs continued to fall. We all ran in the direction of the one safe house constructed underground. I tripped on a piece of one of those ancient vessels, called a car, and noticed a large gash on my arm from the jagged metal.All around me, more bombs were falling. The military’s new scientists were creating bombs that immobilized every human in a one mile radius of the explosion. Thankfully, these were the older bombs, and they focused the explosions near metal. Not many of our houses were made of metal, so we only had a few houses to worry about.The symbol for the safe house, a heart with the word hope inside it, was spray painted on the wall. An arrow going through the heart pointed me in the direction to run. People merged together to run the final stretch toward the safe house.I estimated the distance left. 50 yards. 40 yards. 30 yards. 10 yards. An enormous black orb of death fell from the sky, going right next to me. I watched the bomb hit the ground, almost in slow motion, and fell to the ground four feet away as the bomb’s force shoved me to the ground. My ears were ringing as everyone ran over me, desperate to make it to the safe house before the next bomb fell. No such luck. Seconds later, another bomb landed almost directly on the safe house. I faded in and out of consciousness, the edges of my vision blurry.When I awoke, it felt as though a stampede had trampled me. Well, pretty much. I didn’t even want to think about how many people had trampled me, thinking I was dead. Or maybe they didn’t care in their rush to escape. I attempted to sit up, and was struck by a wave of dizziness. I laid back down, and looked around me.All around I saw the charred remains of the town all around me. Apparently, the military had used multiple types of their advanced bombs to destroy my town. Ashes and dust floated around, and I was completely covered in it.I carefully stood up, trying not to fall when my leg buckled beneath my weight. After a futile attempt at standing up again, I looked toward the safe house, trying to determine if it would be safe to go to it and take shelter. Half of a building obstructed my view. It was a miracle it had not fallen on me as I was laying there unconscious. I climbed over the rubble, and the safe house was gone. In its place was an expansive pit. The ‘safe house’ wasn’t actually safe.
We should have known. The government had built the safe houses, so obviously they knew where they were. They knew exactly where to bomb to destroy the most amount of people. This had all been a trap to kill my town. I spent the rest of the day walking around my town, searching for other survivors. I obviously knew the military jumped out of their planes to shoot survivors, but I still hoped someone might be alive.
Everywhere I went, nobody I found was still breathing. Everyone was dead. Not me though. I took this as a sign. I needed to do something important with my life, I needed to make a difference. But first, I had to find someone else that had survived the bombing. I heard a sound behind me, and turned to sprint behind a building. I saw a person I was unfamiliar with, clothed completely in black.
The stranger called out to me, saying, “We will not hurt you. We have come to search for survivors. We are not working from the government. Could you please come out?”
I climbed as the person spoke, quickly scaling the crumbling building in front of me. I was in a position where I could see the person but the person could not see me. At the top of the building another figure crouched, also clothed in black. This person appeared to be wielding one of the older gun models, perfectly enough. The older guns were longer than the newer versions, and they didn’t shoot as far.
This one’s back was to the chimney, and I silently crept behind the chimney. I used a long ball of strong string to tie two pieces to the chimney. I would need to make a distraction. I threw a rock onto the next building over, and just as planned, the person turned to look at the building. I quickly tied one end of the nearly invisible string to the butt of the person’s gun. The person every so slightly heard me, and swung their head the other way. I tied the other sting to the barrel of the gun, and slipped behind the chimney. Everything flowed smoothly, following the plan almost exactly.
The process was repeated for the two remaining figures positioned around, and at long last I climbed the final building. The figure removed their mask, and I gasped. I’m almost positive it was heard. My brother, who had been presumed to be dead, was now with these random people. I did this one a bit sloppier so I didn’t injure him too harshly. I got into position where the sound would echo and finally answered his question.
“Prove you’re not working for the government, or all of you will be lucky to be alive. And I refuse to leave my spot.”
I ran to another pile of rubble, and hid behind a cement block, the string trailing behind me.
“We have no proof. I am alone, and I will talk to you before violence needs to be used. Come to me, alone, and we can negotiate.”
Obviously, he didn’t realize I’d already found the three snipers hiding on the roofs of the nearby houses. I yanked the string, and all three snipers’ heads were smacked against the walls behind them. They were instantly knocked unconscious, and I slowly walked toward the human in front of me.
“Yes?” I said. He looked properly terrified, and I loved it.
“They were not supposed to be here, and for that I apologize. I didn’t mean for any of this to lead to violence and death.”
“First of all, they’re only unconscious. Second of all, I asked if you had proof, and you started your sentence with ‘we’. Who are you? All of you? Tell the truth, or the worst injury around here won’t be someone unconscious.”
“We’re the survivors of the city bombings.” As he spoke I noticed a few more details leading me to believe he is male. His stance, for one as well as his voice were dead giveaways to his gender. He continued, “All four of us found each other after our cities were blown up. First, my city. Next, was Charlotte’s city. The next city was more of a town, and it was where John had lived. The most recent one, Laine’s, was beside your town. We’re searching here for survivors, and we stumbled upon you, knocking us unconscious.”
“Okay.”
“Okay what?”
“Okay, I believe you. Have you learned anything about all of this?”
“The military leaves a person of twenty years or younger alive after each bombing, alternating genders. We aren’t sure why, but it’s happening. This area was already searched for anything useful, and you’d be surprised at how much food didn’t explode. We have to start moving immediately to the next city. Are you coming with us or not? If you don’t you’ll probably die, and if I’m being honest, if you come with us you’ll probably die, it will just be longer before you do die. Your choice. Go with us or stay here?”
Why do some people call China’s overseas infrastructure projects “colonialism”? Is it because they can only project their own country’s history onto China?
Colonialism is defined as “control by a power over a dependent area or people.” It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people.
I’ve seen a number of Chinese infrastructure projects in places such as Zambia, Cambodia and Indonesia, and it sure doesn’t fit the definition above. At worst, I heard locals grumble that the work was being done by imported Chinese labor (exploitation of Chinese workers… hmm is that reverse colonialism?).
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New international airport in Phnom Penh being built by Chinese interests
People who call China’s projects “colonialism” either (1) don’t understand the meaning of the word but use it because it sounds suitably disturbing, or (2) DO understand what colonialism is but deliberately misapply it because it makes China sound scary and bad.
Moreover, colonialism is a highly charged word, so it might make people in countries who were previously colonized react negatively to China’s investment projects.
It’s the same reason why the US and other western countries accuse China of debt trap diplomacy. It’s a highly emotive attempt to turn public opinion against China — even though most Western institutions today state that China is doing no such thing.
Unfortunately, the narrative does work on the credulous. For instance, in countries such as Sri Lanka and Malaysia, the debt trap myth led to negative reactions and pushback from citizens in both countries.
Because who wants to be colonized by or in debt to the nasty Chinese?
Food porn
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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
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What type of soldier do other soldiers dislike?
Thieves – From day one in basic training, we were told to keep our belongings (both personal and military) properly secured. “Don’t tempt thieves” was the line provided. If you are found – or even suspected of – stealing from your fellow soldiers, expect a very thorough (and well-deserved) kicking. You’ll also lose any prayer of being trusted in future.
The lazy – There are shirkers, jerkers and workers. Shirkers avoid all work, jerkers only work when they’re being watched and workers pitch in and ensure that they do at least their fair share of the work. When I was an NCO, hell awaited if I thought you were lacking in the proper motivation to do your job.
Those who lacked good hygiene – In the Army, you share very limited personal space with many others. This requires making sure that a lack of personal hygiene standards wasn’t going to cause illness to others. If you were a “gumper”, you could possibly expect a (very illegal) “regimental bath”, where you’d be dumped in a bathtub full of floor cleaner and scrubbed with a yard broom until you’d learned your lesson.
The W.I.M.P.s (Whining Incompetent Malingering Person) – These are the ones who are always complaining that they’re too sick or unable to do things, yet somehow manage to be first in the line to eat, and can be seen scoffing chips and beer. I’ve seen some “soldiers” who spent more time on sick parade than they did any form of military work.
Officers who can’t read maps/perform drill correctly/lead/plan ahead – Actually, there were lots and lots of them. I’m just joking…
… but only just.
Why would a doctor tell an EMT to “call it” at a fatal car accident if the victim still had a pulse?
I once responded to a cold water drowning. Cold, as in his car had gone through the ice covering the lake he and 3 of his buddies were driving on in February cold. 4 went through the ice. 3 made it back to the surface.
It took the sheriff’s office dive team about 40 minutes to respond and get suited up. The diver went into the water using the hole the car had made, flipped over and began his search. It didn’t appear that he even got his flippers wet when he flipped back and said, “I’ve got him.”
We took the victim off the ice and ran to the ambulance. I started looking for an IV site to begin advanced life support while the fire department continued CPR. Then our medical direction at the University of Michigan Hospital told us to stop resuscitation efforts.
Say the hell, WHAT?!?
“It is the considered opinion here that your patient has no chance of surviving. Cease all ACLS, now.”
When you work rescue in climates such as are found in Michigan winters you pretty much adhere to the old adage, “You’re not dead until you’re warm and dead.” There are several documented cases of successful resuscitations of drowning victims who had been submerged in cold water for as long as 64 minutes. We were well within that time, and I got a little heated when I radioed back to the doc at the U of M.
I later found out that the doctor giving us direction was working his second shift as a resident in the ER, and had no practical knowledge of modern pre-hospital medicine.
But orders are orders, so we headed for the local community hospital on the west side of the county to have their ER doc officially pronounce the kid dead. That’s when the family arrived. The mother made a bee-line for my ambulance.
“Did you treat my son?”, she asked with a trembling voice. “Yes ma’am, I did.”
“How is he? … Is he still alive??” The doc had not officially pronounced death, but I didn’t want to lie to her. “Ma’am, I’m sure the doctor will let you know his condition as soon as he can. I really can’t say more than that.” That last sentence told her everything she needed to know.
“He’s dead, isn’t he?” Her face was pleading with me to tell her the truth.
By this time my own tears had betrayed me, and I managed to squeak out, “Ma’am, I’m so very sorry. Yes, your son is dead.”
She saw how upset I was, and this kind mother laid her hand on my arm. “Thank you for telling me. I know that must have been terribly hard for you.” Then she drove in the nail that will forever remain in my heart.
“I know you did everything possible to save my son.”
No, ma’am. I didn’t. Some peckerwood who had no business giving me medical direction told me not to. Of course, I didn’t verbalize my thoughts. It wouldn’t have helped anyway. And if a mother can get some kind of solace believing everything possible was done to save her critically injured son, then it would have been malpractice to correct her.
This incident took place 35 years ago last February at a frozen lake near Chelsea, Michigan. And the tears are flowing again as I write this Quora answer.
Why doesn’t India strengthen economic and political ties with Mongolia and the Philippines to encircle China the way China is doing with Pakistan, SL, etc.?
With What????
main qimg d3263caaf51b3741e0f1a56e4b5451da lq
$45 Billion of Infrastructure Loans
Free Trade for 36 Items
Over 2000 Students a year educated at Chinese expense
Over 100,000 Tourists from China a year
5.76 Million Doses of Vaccines
Thats what Mongolia gets from China
What can India offer?
A Grinning Photo of Modiji in his beard or Jaishankar in his suit promising some nonsense???
How much Mongolian Oan (Sheep Liver) does India consume? How many Skazhi Hides? How much Cashmere?
The Answer is Near Zero
China imports 85% of mongolian products
So what Economic ties????
Same with Phillipines
main qimg 73401c0b2b4c5a0ae38b4d036c428725 lq
The Love Hate relationship wavers between US and China and not India
India has zilch to offer.
China has 125000 maids and Domestics from Phillipines
China Trade with Phillipines is Vitak
China has provided economic assistance
What can India offer except talk?
Modi can say “In 2025 we will…”
Xi will cut a Cheque today , or Biden will
The “We are a Democracy” wont work anymore. Nobody gives a damn.
Gyms Are Going Bankrupt As 60% Of Men Are Boycotting Gyms #4
How do you tell a family that they need to clean their house better?
My beloved husband died after a sudden illness. He was in Intensive Care for three weeks, in the coldest part of the winter here in Ottawa His two brothers came for part of the time but could not stay all the time. I spent all day with him at the hospital and came home to as many as 10 phone messages from his grief stricken family scattered around the world. As well as feeding his brothers and managing the house. This was in 1995 – pre e mail. My own family was minimally supportive. When he died I had a group over at my house after the funeral, my husband’s 2 brothers were also staying with me. They had to fly in from the US I managed funeral arrangements and all the sad details of death by myself. My van was stolen out of my driveway at night and the pipes froze and burst in a vacant rental property owned by my husband during this 3 week period. I was so exhausted and overwhelmed that I could hardly think straight. I wrote down everything I had to do and crossed off my list that which was done
My brother and his wife drove from Toronto for the funeral and stayed at a hotel The following summer I was so lonely. I asked for family to visit. My sister in law said she would not come to stay because when she had come for the funeral my basement had been untidy and she thought she could smell mold. This was the end of February in Ottawa. I told my brother that if he had really cared they would have been helping me clean during this awful time, not looking for opportunities to score points
That was when I realized that I could never expect any understanding ot support from my family EVER I have never asked for anything from them since. I am a very different person now because of this experience
I wrote this several years ago, but it keeps coming up and has so many comments.
So it’s time for a sequel.. I kept contact with my family, expecting nothing from them, and did not make a fuss about the situation described above. I pulled my life together, myself, made a career, adopted a child, renovated my home, travelled. Lots of things have happened –
My brother had a disabling brain bleed about 10 years ago and had to retire; my mother died I kept working until 4 years ago, while raising my little girl. Life progressed. I kept visiting them on a regular basis even through the pandemic They have not visited me.
Last spring, my sister in law died. She had been complaining about a bad back, – turned out it was 4th stage bowel cancer. So I went to visit my brother who is living on his own, even though he now has mobility issues and needs a wheelchair to manage. It turns out that my sister in law had been totally controlling of him, resisting socializing and telling everyone he was too disabled to function in the world. She had the entire basement stuffed with stuff. I mean STUFFED. She was a hoarder. There was like an alleyway between floor to ceiling rows of stuff in the large family room down there. She was a crafter and literally had a room full of wool and fabric and all kinds of things. My brother had one small room which he fitted up as a library with his books, computer and tv, and where he spent the majority of his time. They were barely speaking to each other, and then not in a civil fashion, by the end of the pandemic. The family is still trying to get rid of all her stuff, and my brother is much happier and more friendly now. He is functioning like a different person. They lived together hating each other for so many years —-
I am so glad that I sucked it up and carried on, and did not give in to bitterness and revenge. Think of these people wasting so much precious life in trying to prove who was —- whatever, and forgetting to live. And there is so much irony in her complaints about my home, while she was hoarding stuff in her own.
Jimmy Dore on the Biden’s Performance at the Trump Debate
Have you ever had such a close call it makes your skin shiver everytime you think about it? If so, what happened?
Yes I have a few but this one always hits me hard
I was hit by a car on my bicycle on a hwy26 in Indiana and left in the ditch to die. I was riding 44miles and about 20 miles into the trek I heard nothing as I was struck. The driver stopped about half a block away. I couldn’t move my left leg so I thought my phone should signal them to help. I raised my phone and waved it then they left.
About 10 cars passed my and nobody stopped. I was still in shock and wasn’t thinking clearly. Finally I thought wait I can call 911. After I called a nice lady stopped and I said help is on the way.
Half hour later they arrived with a ambulance and a cop. They talked to me and the cop left to search for the driver. I was strapped on a stretcher. My shoe was a half block away from the crash and my water bottle too. My back tire was completely turned into a V … I was taken to emergency room and released 4 hours later . I had whiplash and internal bleeding, some stitches, and shot with pain killer, and a booster. I had to leave straight to court, still in my hospital scubs because they cut my clothes off.
The judge was shocked and said you definitely dressed the part, and I was helped out to the car to return home.
The next day is when the whiplash set in. I recovered very painfully at home and it took 4years. I still have neck crepitus and am on Meloxicam 15mg.
If it was a truck I’d been torn apart and dead. I relive it everyday.
Women SHOCKED Men Won’t Approach Them After Decade Of INSANE Feminists Yelling At Men For Doing It
USA asked China to share the lunar soil collected by Chang’e-6 in 2024. Interesting. Has USA not collected 380 kg of lunar soil from 1969-72? Why ask China for more? USA has 380 kg; China only 2 kg.
Originally Answered: USA asked China to share the lunar soil collected by Chang'e-6 in 2024. Interesting. Has USA not collected 300 kg of lunar soil from 1969-72? Why ask China for more? USA has 300 kg; China only 12 kg.
China is NOT going to share lunar soil with USA because … in 2011, USA has passed the Wolf Amendment which forbids USA-China space collaboration.
Before 2011, USA already made up many excuses to block Chinese scientists from attending academic space exchange eg not issuing a visa.
Hence, China must not share with USA. Otherwise China will break US law & be arrested or sanctioned. Haha.
CNN “scolded” China for not sharing. USA also complained that China did not invite USA to do joint research. These Americans conveniently forgot the Wolf Amendment.
Before, USA did share its lunar soil with the world incl China.
Out of 380kg of lunar soil, USA gave China 1g only ie proportionally close to 0 of total. Netherlands got a “lunar rock”.
If not because of the US law, China should give USA the same proportion. To be FAIR.
US lunar soil & rock
France has lunar soil from both USA & Chang’e-5 (5 & not 6). France said the soil from the 2 countries are not the same. (note Chang’e-5 landed on the front of moon. Chang’e-6, the back)
China said all compounds from US lunar soil can be found on Earth.
Netherlands said the lunar rock it got from USA is a fossil found on Earth.
GYM Owners KICKING Modern Toxic Women out of Gyms
What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?
My wife and I stayed in a small mobile home park with 2 of our children. We did not realize, (until after we had already moved in and settled down), that this particular park did not like bi racial relationships. I walked to the office to pay my rent,(as always), when the land lord gave me a look, of confusion and discust. As I handed her the rent envelope she said, there’s a… “there’s somebody in your yard”. I replied ,”yes mam! That’s my wife.. and our children!. She proceeded to say,” she a….well how do I say this without getting in trouble. You’re not going to be having any parties with people from Peoria are you?” And she said, “ you can’t be having any drug parties over here!
Then the police started showing up out of the blue for no reason normally. One night they showed up and said they receive a call for gunshots. I said ,” office I have children here and there are no weapons in this home, you can come check! “ the officer said that he could hear the game I was playing so he kindof thought it was a bad call, but that he still had to come and check it out anyway. Couple hours later the police knock on the door again, for people fighting. I assured the office that there was no fight and that who ever was calling on us was living for some reason it seemed like somebody had it out for us, and we were the nicest people around, the only one who helped everyone and treated everyone with respect, as a human being.
How to become a rich man after being stuck in prison for seven long, excruciating years.
As Peter blankly sat on his bed inside of his incommodious five-foot-by-five-foot maximum security jail cell, complete with sparking electric fences and menacing guards surrounding the whole cell, he began to throw random objects at the electric fence, watching them slowly burst into miniscule flames and leave trails of smoke until finally fizzling out.
Out of boredom and an act of defiance against the orders of guards and the king, Peter repeatedly threw objects at this evil faced encasement meant to entrap him: Mice, rocks, scraps of food. Anything he could find to slowly pass his time in jail.
He yelled out to the guards, “Someday I will be out of this jail and you’ll be under my control and power instead of the other way around.”
But, every day, the guards kept their stance and tolerated Peter’s hopeless cries of defiance, annoyance and boredom. Little did Peter know, he would be free and rich sooner than he had expected and meant in his words.
Suddenly, he heard the echoing stomping of their studded metal boots of the kings’ royal guards march down into his quarters, the filthiest area where all the worst criminals were kept in the farthest, darkest corner seventy-five yards away from all other civilians. Countless criminals resided there after committing gregious crimes such as arson, murder, and robberies, all sinking into their own endless pool of shame, regret, and dismay.
Peter felt surprised by this, knowing that the kings’ royal guard thought very highly of themselves and would never draw near to the presence of grimy delinquents and be subject to their shame and indignity, afraid that their guilt would impinge on their own pride and self-respect.
Suddenly interested, Peter avidly sat up and heard the turn of the lock to his cell click open, something that he had not heard for seven long and excruciating years. Seven long years of guilt, shame and contrition due to his wrongdoings. He had been twenty years old then. Young and foolish, he had everything he could ever want: a good family, abundant money, and all the latest tech. But, Peter still wanted more and more.
So, he decided to rob people of money, murder people he got into the slightest arguments with, and finally his biggest misshap– trying to steal the Makepiece Diamond of Zirca, which was one of the most valuable diamonds in all of the galaxies. Peter had planned everything to go according to his potentially flawless plan. He had infiltrated the king’s palace and the treasury where the diamond was kept. Just as his hand was about to snatch the glittering, clean-cut Makepiece diamond, he smelled a foul gas in the air, and he realized he had set off a tripwire that released knockout gas. The guards had come rushing in, stomping and frantically pouring into the small room and brought young Peter to the filthy catacombs where he still inhabited seven years later:
“Halt. You are officially under arrest by the kingdom of Zirca. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do may be used as evidence against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and you have a right to consult an attorney before being questioned and to have an attorney present. If you can’t afford an attorney, which evidently you can, one will be appointed to you.”
Seven years later in his jail cell, startled, Peter’s mind began swarming with millions of hypothetical reasons and questions. Is this a chance to freedom? Am I being sentenced to death? Why am I being summoned?
The royal guards with crisp white uniforms etched with their rankings: general, commander, agent, or so on, each with matching badges that signified they were of the highest class of military personal and pins. Gold trimmings neatly marched along the neckline and cuffs, stitched so perfectly they seemed to be pressed into the uniform. The proud guards spat at Peter and gruffly shouted, “Get up, you purple haired buffoon. The king wishes to see you, though we don’t know why he would want to see a dirty, ragged, wrongdoer like you. Now get up, and don’t make us ask twice.”
Peter quietly stood in confusion, curiosity, and bewilderment, and let the guards drag him to his death–or freedom.
Slowly lumbering up the moss covered stairs, feeling the stares of equally infamous criminals as himself, glancing at sparks flying off of many other electrical fences, new criminals with snarling faces thrashing in the guards arms.
Peter felt the guilt he had controlled and held in the jail of his own heart for seven long years come to light as he walked the walk of his own shame to the king’s court.
After what seemed like an eternity, or more precisely, 458 feet, 30 flights of stairs, and more than a hundred jail cells like his own, he finally saw the dazzling lights of thousands of crystal chandeliers, servants serving the king to all his miniscule whims, mellifluous music floating through the air from a grand harp, and finally the throne itself.
Peter started muttering to the guards that clenched his arms so tightly.
The king’s throne was a magnificent piece of work and the centerpiece of the throne room. Dripping with jewels such as clear-cut diamonds, forest-green jades, ocean-blue sapphires, dazzling sea-green emeralds, deep violet amethysts, ice-blue topaz, and fire-red rubies, it reflected a thousand rays of light, while being placed in pure gold.
Peter gaped in awe to the regal king that comfortably rested aloft the magnificent golden throne and meekly bowed out of his own humility and respect. The king, although aged and ancient-looking, he had an extremely wise mindset, and made decisions for the best of his planet. He had a great, wispy white beard, flowing robes of shimmering gold, and a grand crown on his head.
The tension of silence between the king and Peter at that moment became stifling. All servants, jesters, and guards sensed the palpable tension between the rotten criminal Peter and the royal, regal, wise King of Zirca. As the silence started to become almost unbearable, and static sounding, the king’s booming voice finally rang out.
Suddenly hearing the king’s echoing voice, Peter quickly glanced up at him. The king spoke to Peter and announced, “Peter, son of Circa. You have murdered countless families, looted many of my finest ships, and have attempted to steal the Makepeace Diamond of Zirca. For this, you have had been sentenced to life in prison. But, unfortunately, our planet is dying. Our Fire of Hestia has been stolen by the people of Titan. I am recruiting you to retrieve it for your freedom or death. Now, young Peter, what is your response?”
Hearing the name of “Fire of Hestia,” Peter’s mind clicked, and he finally realized why he had been brought up from the catacombs, left to rot, but instead given a chance of freedom. The Fire of Hestia was a relic from when the whole universe had been created. It powered all life on a planet, and without it, a planet could rot and die away slowly. Peter looked out the king’s grand windows, and saw that the whole landscape had changed since he had been exiled into prison. It looked dark, gloomy, and somber. Before, it had bursting with life: Foliage everywhere, children laughing, picnics taking place everywhere. But now that the Fire of Hestia had been stolen by the Titanians, the planet of Zirca was dying.
True, there were other relics across the universe that powered other planets, but the Fire of Hestia was special. It was the only relic powerful enough to give life to such a gargantuan planet such as Zirca and the people of Zirca the comfort and pleasure it needed.
Peter silently debated in his mind of the decision he should make. Shall I go after The Fire of Hestia in this quest? Should I spend the rest of my life rotting away in my shame and mildew? His hands became clammy, and his throat suddenly felt parched. But, Peter knew what he had to do to save his home planet and all those inhabiting it.
Peter responded in an equally regal voice, knowing that he had been chosen for one of the most difficult and important quests in all of robbery history. Despite the fact that he felt weary, bone thin, hunched over, had matted hair, ragged clothing, smelled of the sewers, and a single shoe he boldly said, “My king, I am honored for this opportunity and I am willing to accept. But, only with added compensation. I would like 100 bars of pure gold, new clothes, new shoes, and a new spaceship to get to Titan. You must give me my demands, otherwise I shall not perform any services for you.”
The king replied after some thought, “Although that is quite a handful of treasures that you demand to have in exchange for your service, the planet needs you. I realize there is no other thief as clever and stealthy as you. I shall supply your extraordinary demands in return for the Fire.”
Peter conclusively announced, “Then I shall accept this quest and go out to find this Fire of Hestia.”
Gym Owners Are Starting to BAN Cameras | Modern Women Are BAFFLED
Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?
In 1979 I was hired to manage a new branch of a trust company. The branch opened in June and was not expected to be profitable for three years. With some good fortune I was able to make a profit in the first year and every year after. The company opened two other branches the following year and asked me to train the new staff which I did. Those branches had turn over and failed to ever be profitable.
in 1988 the firm merged with another firm and all managers were invited to bring their spouses to a big meeting with the new management at a large resort in Arizona. While there the spouses were invited to a special meeting with management to outline how great the nee merged firm was going to be. After that meeting my wife told me I needed to look for a new job. She felt the new management were crooked. I didn’t agree
in January 1989 my immediate supervisor phoned to say he was being dismissed and I needed to watch myself.
in March the replacement for my supervisor decided he wanted to come for a visit to discuss the goals for the new year. He also wanted to meet my local advisory board. The board meeting was held and we sat down to (I thought) goals. He presented me with a letter saying I was being let go. He mumbled his way through an explanation. I asked if the managers of the other two offices were being let go. He said know.
my next statement was “ So my branch has made money for 10 years and those branches have lost money for 9 years. I suppose the problem is that I didn’t realize the objective was to lose money”
He denied that was the issue but did say they thought my pay was too high. They had to pay me severance for 10 months.
I had a new job in 6 weeks and after 18 months I was making twice as much. 6 months after the the trust company went out of business due to losses bi guess the objective was to lose money
Woman RUINS Her Familys Life for Views
Why can’t China make a good ballpoint pen?
The whole saga about how China has only just “discovered” how to make ballpoint pens is a highly instructive lesson in how the media is capable of shaping public opinion of an issue while missing the point entirely.
——————-
In early 2018, TISCO, a Chinese steel and mining conglomerate, announced with much fanfare that they are now able to manufacture high quality ballpoint pen tips, meaning that Chinese pen manufacturers will for the first time be able to produce high-quality ballpoint pens without a single imported input. Western media outlets were quick to latch on to the story and a raft of headlines such as these popped up:
The headlines and articles therein convey the message that Chinese manufacturers were unable to produce a decent ballpoint pen because they either lacked the knowhow, the innovative drive, and/or the IP protection framework required to spur innovation, thus requiring a 5 year state-led initiative to cut through the chaff. Some of these articles also contain misleading information about how the Chinese have to import stainless steel tips from Japan and Switzerland, when the Chinese are in fact the world’s largest manufacturers of said stainless steel tips.
This slew of misinformation and biased reviews led some commentators such as these: China’s Ballpoint Pen Victory – Or Why American Wages Are Higher Than Chinese, to speculate that the Chinese inability to produce a simple pen is symptomatic of the larger reason why American workers are worth more, and also why a barber in Illinois is paid more per haircut than a Chinese barber in Peking (sic), while skirting the fact that neither the US nor any other country besides the Swiss and the Japanese currently possess the ability to produce ballpoint pen tips of a similar quality.
Here’s what all of these writers are missing about these newfangled ballpoint pen tips:
Not only are the tips made with the utmost precision, the balls are made of tungsten carbide.
Tungsten carbide is a very useful material that is not only used in a wide variety of commercial applications such as ballpoint pens, jewelry, and cutting tools, but also industries of critical national importance such as nuclear reactors and armor piercing ammunition.
Since the early 2000s, the PRC government has identified tungsten carbide as a vital component of its national security infrastructure, and has invested huge sums both internationally to secure its sources of supply, and domestically to build its ability to utilize said supply.
The ballpoint pen tip is merely a commercial application for the material that requires extreme precision at all stages of the manufacturing process and supply chain. As such, if you’re able to produce a high quality tungsten carbide ballpoint pen tip, it goes to follow that you will be able to produce anything with tungsten carbide. And yes, that includes armor-piercing weaponry and ball bearings for advanced weapon systems.
That’s why the PRC government has spent 5 years and large sums of money on developing a product for an inconsequential niche market. To the PRC, it’s not about producing a ballpoint pen. It’s about reaching technological parity and independence in an area of vital national interest.
Pull (as a woman)
What was the best revenge you’ve ever gotten?
I was 17 and my best friend, who is now my ex-best friend, posted a video (an embarresing video) of me on the school blog. And I got extremely mad at her.
I couldn’t do anything too bad because my parents were friends with her parents and I could possibly get grounded. I absolutely despise getting grounded, like any other normal teen
Anyway, I finally had an idea, it was pretty harmless yet extremely effective. I put a package filled with glitter and stuffed it inside her car because she had given me the keys just the day before.
She was and still is a very proud and arrogant person. Meaning that she always thought that she was in charge of the fucking world (when she isn’t and I hope to god never will be)
She opened the package and out popped glitter, spreading all over her face and her entire car. The prank was absolutely harmless, but it was horribly hard to get the glitter out of your hair.
She came up to me in the hallway and confronted me. I told her that I didn’t do anything and she started to punch me. I was about to punch back, but then I saw the principal staring at us and decided not to do anything and let her punch me.
Just before she was about to give me a bloody nose or something the principal came in and started scolding her and telling her that violence was wrong and is NEVER justified.
By now the bell had rung, but everyone was still outside, eager to see what was going to happen. The principal not only humiliated her in front of everyone, but she also got a 1 week suspension.
After the end of this I was very proud of myself and continued on with my normal life. She didn’t talk to me and I didn’t talk to her.
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What is the weirdest excuse someone ever gave you?
One of my employees had missed an important meeting on Friday, and I needed an explanation.
“Why weren’t you at the meeting on Friday?” I asked, trying to keep my tone professional but firm.
He looked at me, a serious expression on his face. “I’m really sorry, boss. I was abducted by aliens.”
I blinked, not sure if I had heard him correctly. “Come again?”
He nodded earnestly. “I know it sounds crazy, but I was walking to my car, and suddenly, this bright light appeared. Next thing I know, I’m on this spaceship surrounded by little green men. They were curious about Earth and kept asking me questions. I tried to tell them I had a meeting, but they wouldn’t let me leave until they were done.”
I stared at him, trying to gauge if he was pulling my leg. But he looked completely sincere. “And… they just let you go after that?”
“Yeah, they dropped me off late Friday night. I didn’t think anyone would believe me, so I didn’t say anything,” he explained, his eyes wide with what I could only describe as genuine bewilderment.
I took a deep breath, wondering how to handle this. “Alright. Let’s just focus on getting back to work and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He nodded, relieved. As he walked away, I shook my head, still processing the bizarre excuse. I wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth, had an overactive imagination, or just didn’t want to admit to a more mundane reason for missing the meeting. Either way, it was the weirdest excuse I had ever received, and one I doubted I would ever hear again.
Huawei exec rejects idea that advanced chip shortage will hamper China’s AI ambitions
By Reuters
BEIJING, July 4 (Reuters) – A senior executive at Chinese technology giant Huawei (HWT.UL) on Thursday dismissed the idea that a shortage of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips will hinder the country’s aim to be a leader in AI, but said innovation is needed to address the issue.
The comments by Zhang Ping’an, CEO of Huawei Cloud, comes amid tighter U.S. restrictions on advanced AI chip shipments to China including a ban on sales there by companies such as U.S. giant Nvidia (NVDA.O).
“Nobody will deny that we are facing limited computing power in China… But we cannot rely solely on having the AI chips with the advanced manufacturing process nodes as the ultimate foundation for AI infrastructure,” Zhang told a forum at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, a three-day event that kicked off on Thursday.
“If we believe that not having the most advanced AI chips means we will be unable to lead in AI, then we need to abandon this viewpoint,” Zhang said.
Huawei, which has been placed on the U.S. Entity List barring it from purchasing advanced chips from U.S. companies, has developed its own AI chip product called Ascend, which is now used by many companies in China to train AI models.
However, the Ascend AI chip, along with many others from Chinese companies, is considered to be significantly inferior in terms of computing power compared to the offerings from Nvidia.
Zhang called for innovative approaches that place more focus on the cloud, which he said can help to compensate for the lack of advanced AI chips through innovation in computing architecture.
He also said that a converged approach is needed to combine cloud, edge, and networks in ways that can be used to reduce energy consumption and improve overall efficiency. Zhang touted Huawei Cloud as being among the leaders in providing such innovative solutions.
He Got Up And Left Her & She INSTANTLY Regrets It!
In a nonmetal pan marinate meat for at least 3 hours, turning several times and basting with mixture.
Cook on grill over hot coals 10 minutes on each side for medium-rare meat. For medium to well-done meat, cook 2 to 3 minutes longer per side.
Notes
If preferred, meat can be smoked for 1 to 2 hours instead of grilling.
Have you ever accidentally found out that you were about to be fired?
Not me, my husband. He was the practice manager for a group of doctors. In one year he had made sufficient efficiencies to double the income of each doctor, he had worked tirelessly, they had even requested him to go into work when our own doctor had signed him off with epididymitis and he had, although I had to drive him there. A doctor in a single doctor practice in a nearby town who wanted to retire was looking to find alternative care for his patients and my husband facilitated this, ensuring continuity of care for the patients, continued employment for the staff and yet more income for the doctors. The practice manager from the other practice was made deputy practice manager and they worked together well, taking it in turns to do the late finish which meant a slightly later start. One morning my husband was on late start and when he went into his office the book which contained the P45s was out and he noticed that one was missing. For those who are not in the UK a P45 is a form which staff get when they leave a job, it is given to a new employer to prove the employee’s tax position. He had been using it the day before as a staff member was leaving, he was therefore aware of the number of the next form in the book and this was how he knew there was one missing. He instinctively knew what it meant – the partners had decided that they didn’t “need two practice managers” and as the manager his salary was higher than the deputy manager’s so he knew he was the one they would get rid of. Despite all of the improvements and savings he had made and the way he had increased their personal incomes, he was escorted from the building before lunchtime.
There was a certain quiet satisfaction in hearing that the deputy manager had been unable to cope and walked out within a couple of months.
How did Eddie O’Hare – a business partner with Al Capone – contribute to the US WW2 effort?
Edward Joseph O’Hare (a.k.a. “Easy” Eddie, a.k.a. “Artful” Eddie) was a wealthy Chicago defense lawyer, renowned for finding legal loopholes through which many of his criminal clients would walk and escape justice.
In 1923, O’Hare himself was indicted for illegal booze racketeering, but he won his own case on appeal.
Al Capone, one of O’Hare’s legal clients, went into business with O’Hare, with Eddie running Capone’s dog racing sideline. This came about because O’Hare had somehow obtained the patent on the mechanical rabbit, and was able to “fix” the races. The rigged dog races would make a ton of money for both Capone and O’Hare.
By 1930, Eddie O’Hare was on top of the world – he had fabulous wealth, he had fame, he had power, and he had the backing of Al Capone.
But out of the blue, in 1930, O’Hare decided to “go straight”, and told Federal agents what was going on in Capone’s criminal empire. He told them everything: about the organization’s structure, the tax books, the bribes, the fixes, he gave names – the works. O’Hare did all this because he wanted a better life for his son. It’s not known what deal Eddie made with the Federal Government (possibly admittance to USNA?), but it’s certain that he didn’t want his son to be associated with the slime of the criminal underworld. In no small part, based on O’Hare’s testimony, Capone would be found guilty of income tax evasion in 1931, and sentenced to 11 years in a federal penitentiary.
Ratting on Al Capone was tantamount to committing suicide, and “Easy” Eddie met his death in 1939 – one week before Capone was released from Alcatraz – a victim of blasts from several shotguns while he was driving his car:
shot dead
Edward J. O’Hare pictured slumped at the wheel of his car after he was shot to death in 1939.
Although he started cleaning up the family name, Eddie never lived to see what would become of his son, but Edward Henry O’Hare (a.k.a. “Butch”) made sure the O’Hare name would become respectable.
You see, after graduating from a military high school, Butch O’Hare would enter the United States Naval Academy (USNA) in 1933, and graduate in 1937, becoming a navy pilot.
On February 20, 1942, Butch O’Hare became the Navy’s first fighter ace of World War II when he single-handedly attacked a formation of nine medium bombers approaching his aircraft carrier Lexington. Even though he had a limited amount of ammunition, O’Hare shot down five enemy bombers and became the first naval aviator recipient of the Medal of Honor of the war.
O’Hare’s final action took place on the night of November 26, 1943, while he was leading the U.S. Navy’s first-ever nighttime fighter attack launched from an aircraft carrier. During this encounter with a group of Japanese torpedo bombers, Butch’s Grumman F6F Hellcat was shot down; his aircraft was never found. He was 29 years old.
In 1945, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS O’Hare (DD-889) was named in Butch’s honor.
If ever you fly, and your trip takes you through Chicago, you will be landing at the O’Hare International Airport, so named on September 19, 1949, six years after Butch O’Hare was killed in action.
Aviator
Lieutenant Edward “Butch” O’Hare in a Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat. The wartime censor has blanked out the famous “Felix the Cat” squadron insignia on this photo
Is this true that many Chinese would like to get a green card in a Western country? Which countries would be the most desirable?
The Creamy layer don’t
The Brainiest Chinese, the Intelligent Chinese – they see far more potential at home than to go to the US now
In 2005 -52% of the top 1000 GaoKao scorers gave up their places to go for Graduation to the US
In 2023 – it’s ZERO
They go to Peking, HK, Tsinghua and other Chinese Universities instead
Only those who can’t get placed in a Top University and have money – go to US or Australia or Singapore
The Chinese who want to go abroad and get a green card are those who :-
Score low in GaoKao and cant get placed in a Good University
Who don’t want to go to college and rather to work and start a business and have relatives abroad
Who want to study Political Science, International Politics and such subjects
Cooks and other low level Chinese
They end up setting up a Restaurant Or Night Club Or Kiosk or Bodega or work in a Floating Barge
When I lived in Louisiana, and was laid off, I was forced to move out of necessity. At that time I took and accepted a position in Boston, Massachusetts as Design Engineering Manager. Then, and I wrote about this on and off in prior posts, resulted in my buying a motor home, and moving into it and actually living in it while I got settled in Massachusetts.
What I never wrote about was shat happened to my house and furnishings.
Well, I put my furnishings in storage. I rented a storage locker and put most of my furnishings in it. This was (I guess and estimate) around 1995 give or take.
Stokado Self Storage1lr 768×512 jpg
And I lived my life… quickly replacing the furnishings, books, appliances and clothing over time. And aside from making monthly payments on the locker, just pretty much moving forward with my life.
Around, I guess 2005, about ten years later jobs and work took me to Arkansas. And a mere ten hour drive could take me to the storage locker in Shreveport, LA from Maumelle, Arkansas. And so one day my second wife (the one who “retired me”) rode down to fetch things.
Opening up that locker was like discovering an old tomb.
Storage locker
Old stuff, styles and everything so dusty and dated. Rats and mice moved in, I had old beta tapes, books that I’ll never read again, my first wife’s sentimental stuff, and misc junk long since replaced. The furniture dried up and was just junk.
Aside from a few things, I really didn’t want anything.
So we hauled about 50% of it to the nearby city dump, and left the rest to auction off to the highest bidder.
Two weeks later, we got a couple of thousand dollars for the gear inside. Supposedly those plastic storage containers were a big draw. But to me, it was mostly stuff and junk that had no bearing in my life any longer.
If there is one regret that I have, it is that I paid month after month to store junk that I had evolved away from. You cannot move forward if you are always looking in your rear-view mirror.
A lesson to the wise.
Keep moving forward.
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Today…
Why does Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam write like an angry old man who hates everything except China?
It’s a long story
It began in 1985
A Delegation of Chinese Businessmen came to Bombay to various Indian Banks for a Letter of Credit.
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They wanted a LoC of £ 15 Million Or so to import steel from Hull in UK
They wanted an SBI LoC because their banks were not recognized in UK and the UK Bank (Midlands Bank) refused to do Business with the Chinese
DBS refused because the Steel was not insured
The Chinese delegation waited for 4 Days patiently and for three days the Bank GM couldn’t meet them. They waited outside his cabin and were mocked at by the staff
All of us worked close by – SBI, BoB, CBI and other banks so this was popular news
Every day at lunch the four Chinese would sit and have Indian food and give awkward smiles
On the fourth day the GM came, gave them 30–40 minutes and demanded a ton of documents
At the same time the Japanese had come for some credit line related to NTPC to supply equipment and they were met by the Chairman and executives and given VVIP treatment
The Chinese patiently signed their documents, did their business, paid the extra interest and went back home
I was a witness to this and any banker who worked in Bombay would be witness to this
In 2014 – 29 years later, a Chinese Delegation came for some business
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Banks scrambled over themselves for the Chinese Business
They deposited $ 2 Billion in one hour with a flick of their finger
The Executives grovelled and kowtowed and bowed and scraped like Coolies before the Chinese
Plus at this time SBI needed LoC from Foreign Banks to import from UK or US while every Bank in the world saluted at the Chinese LoC and advanced Twenty Billion Dollars without a second word
So SBI Kowtowed to Bank of America or Credit Suisse or used Bangee to get it’s LoCs accepted for upto $ 300 Million
The Chinese Banks didn’t need anything. They could get $ 20 Billion on their own LoC
I was a witness to this also
I wasn’t a Banker anymore but a Legal /Credit Consultant and saw the 2 Billion Dollar deposit as a friend showed me the entry
In 29 years i saw the Chinese grow from people who didn’t merit even a MD of a PSB to a group of people who could deposit 2 Billion Dollars in a single hour
I saw the same UK Banks who once refused to give the Chinese a mere 15 Million Pounds unless they had double backed LoCs , now begging for their business and lending them 20 Billion on their Paper without 15 seconds hesitation
I saw the Chinese go from a Nation which once stood in line at Tata Steel gaping with awe and admiration at our machines and process, now a Nation that makes steel superior to any other Nation on the planet
I saw the Chinese who once watched our Maruti 800 with awe and admiration now make EVs that are beating the pants of the Western models every single day
In 40 stinking years!!!!!!
Meanwhile
I see India once proudly emerging now groveling for Business from Western Companies even with all political favors
I see India unable to produce a pencil that has a demand in a Global market outside Nigeria and Bangladesh
I see India entirely dependent on Western Hardware and Software and merely clicking the key board like two bit PROGRAMMING COOLIES unable to invent anything with a Global Appeal
I see India with once with an Industrial Productivity which was fourth highest in Asia in 1981 after Japan, South Korea and Singapore now rank 11th behind Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia and even Goddamn Thailand!!!!!
And all my anger began with Mitra
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Those who have been on Quora for longer than 4 years can attest to this
I never wrote anything except the law and rarely politics and never on China until I saw posts of Mitra as a cutting edge robot
I felt a surge of rage and all my pent up emotions surged out and that’s it. It can’t stop to this day.
I saw my fellow countrymen defend Mitra as a cutting edge piece of Robotics and it’s founder rather than acknowledge that it was premature to introduce this Robot to the Global World , actually mock me as a desk jockey government servant and claim that he would respond only to the criticism of Google Top Execs or Big Shots
I left the topic at this point, unwilling to start a war on Quora
From that day I have written against Indian ‘Achievements’ because I AM ANGRY
I am not a Chinese Citizen
I am an Indian Citizen and I want my sons to be here in this country with me, growing, prospering, working hard for its development like so many Chinese sons
To watch with pride as India grows and dominates
But No!!!!
I see LIES, LIES and more LIES every day
I see my fellow countrymen rather than find ways to identify problems, call me China Agent and Paid Propagandist
It shows me the inferiority of many of my countrymen and I GET ANGRY
So you think it’s because I admire the Chinese that I write all this?
No
I admire the Chinese but I write because I AM ANGRY AT INDIA, AT INDIAN POLITICIANS, AT THE INDIAN SYSTEM AND WITH MOST OF MY FELLOW INDIANS AND MYSELF
Where did we go wrong?
That keeps me angry all the time
What can we do about it? How can we correct ourselves?
Nobody asks this question and that makes me angry all the more
So if you don’t like it – Apologies
I will keep on and on
Somewhere some people should wake up and see and question people Like Byju Raveendran, Ola Bhavish , Ambani, Adani, Mahindra on what their indigenous technology is and what they have actually achieved
Question people like Modi, Shah, Nirmala, Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal on the same questions
And those who agree with me, they aren’t my bhakts. They are just logical minds who can see where the Nation is heading.
For God’s sakes remember I am not your enemy
I am a Patriotic Indian helplessly watching his Nation slide into regression and worthlessness with every passing day
Those who are closing their eyes to this and talking of 3rd Largest Economy and Viksit Bharat and How great Ambani is – THEY ARE THE PROBLEM NOT ME
Women Have Cost Businesses MILLIONS Because of METOO
What’s the saddest thing someone told you before dying?
When my father was 92 he pretty much gave up on living. He didn’t have any terminal condition other than the one we all have. We had made attempts at various safe living situations during which he refused to move from his independent living apartment to assisted living in the same facility, kicked my sister and then me out for “being in his business”, fired anyone we hired to help with activities of daily living, and lots of other maddening behaviors (actually, par for the course for him but worse). The thing is, his mind was pretty much fine- it was his body that was failing him. When he realized he couldn’t and wouldn’t have life on his own terms, he just gave up. After a couple falls, passing out from low blood sugar several times (including at a wedding) because he refused to lower his insulin dose appropriate to the much smaller amount he was eating, and several admissions for urinary retention, bleeding from his bladder and UTIs, all due to prior prostate radiation, he said he just wanted to be left in peace to die. We (including him) decided to admit him to a really excellent hospice, the same one where my mother had died 8 years earlier. He asked to sign a DNR and did, asked that he receive anti-anxiety and pain meds for his spinal stenosis, and said he only wanted ice cream to eat. We all had an agreed-upon plan of care. He was sleeping peacefully when we left. Then, at 10 pm that first night while I was showering, I got a voicemail from his personal cellphone. On it, he sounded frightened, said he didn’t know where he was, and that the nurses were poisoning him. I called the nurses’ station. His nurse immediately went to his room then called me back to say he was sound asleep again. She even held the phone to his mouth and I could hear him snoring. He grumbled loudly when she tried to wake him to talk to me. She said he probably wasn’t used to the meds and they would give less and stagger them from then on. I wound up not going there that night after checking on him again with his nurse about 2 hours later. At 5 am I got a call that he had died in his sleep. So his voicemail wound up being the last words I heard from him.
Kansas City Beef Brisket
chef marks kc smoked brisket large
Ingredients
1 (5 pound) beef brisket
1 tablespoon tenderizer (optional)
2 to 4 tablespoons Liquid Smoke
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon celery salt
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup brown sugar
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
Instructions
The night before cooking, sprinkle brisket with tenderizer, Liquid Smoke, salt, pepper, celery salt, onion salt and garlic salt.
Wrap in aluminum foil and refrigerate overnight.
The next day add nutmeg, paprika, brown sugar and Worcestershire. Wrap well with aluminum foil — this is important. Cook 5 hours at 275 degrees F.
I posted this as a long comment here but thought that it is significant to deserve its own posting on China’s Future:
Let me explain: From the US official POV, China is an existential threat like never before, because not only can China do and make everything the US does and makes, China will lead in all the fields which the US has no hope of catching up in: EVs, tech and network equipment, aircraft manufacturing, and defense equipment. Even in agriculture, the US will not be able to sell food commodities to China because China will import from Russia and Brazil instead of from the US.
If the US is no longer the tech leader, the US stock and bond markets will lose 50% of their value. Since the US and European ruling classes derive a significant portion of their value from the New York, London markets, they will get poorer. And they will not be able to invest in growth markets because those markets won’t want to take western currencies, especially the US dollar.
If the US stock and bond markets take such a hit, this means that the US standard of living will also take a hit. First, most Americans are heavily in debt; many of them rely on credit card debt just to cover their monthly expenses, and they have no savings. These people will not be happy, and they will not go away peacefully because a lot of them have guns. They won’t understand how it got to this, and they don’t particularly care in understanding, but they will be very angry.
Under the US political system, it is very hard to mobilize the public against an enemy because most Americans have very little understanding of foreign affairs. For this reason, it is very important to create a foreign bogeyman such as China which they can lay all the blame on.
That is what is happening now. When the US’s existence is threatened, academic scholars are at the frontline in shaping public opinion.
The problem now is that both sides are hardening their positions. Biden doesn’t have the mental capacity to defuse the situation. This means that his key advisors are making policy without his input. They all believe that China is the existential threat. They hoped that the Ukraine war would weaken Russia enough so that they could then deal with China, but that did not go according to plan. But China is getting stronger and its relationship with Russia is growing, so the US is running out of time.
South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines were going to be the useful idiots who would directly confront China, but that is not going according to plan because they know that they are in China’s frontyard, and China is becoming increasingly powerful. They also understand that they may be left high and dry by the US, in which case they become dead meat in China’s front yard.
The US policymakers also understand that the US military is in a weak position to confront China because of the long logistics lines from the US mainland to the western Pacific. A lot of tactical inventory for a conventional war has been shipped to Ukraine and Israel for their wars, and it will take 2–5 years for American factories to step up production to replenish those inventories.
But the US doesn’t have 2–5 years; by that time China will be exporting its chips and selling EVs and solar panels all over the world, and will complete its overland connections to Europe through Russia and the Trans-Caspian routes. Europe will have de-industrialized because it has lost access to cheap Russian energy making their factories uncompetitive, and Chinese brands and equipment will replace European brands and products at 50% of the original European price.
The NATO/EU/G7 alliance will grow weaker by the year. Will the US withdraw to the North American continent, or will it make Custer’s last stand in a nuclear confrontation with China?
Right now, the US is led by candidates who were born in the 1940s and grew up during the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Both strongly believe that the US triumphed against the USSR; they believe that this was America’s winning formula, and that today’s China is a smarter and much more adaptable version of the USSR, and that it can be cut down to size using the same tactics and sanctions against the USSR. They cannot adapt because this is the world they grew up in.
They have no vision for the next generation of Americans because they are old, and frankly will not live much longer. I feel sorry for younger Americans because they are stuck in a bus with a crazy driver who is heading for the cliff, and there is nothing they can do.
They deserve better leadership so that they can build their future, but right now, it looks like they have no future.
The American Revolution: Take 2
What is the most badass thing you did today?
A few months ago, I received a friend request from a girl. She was from my college and also my best friend’s ex, so I accepted it. I remember, they were in a relationship for eight months after which she friend-zoned him as she did with her previous partners. My friend went into depression after that.
Well, within a few days she became comfortable chatting with me and started sending flirtatious texts. I felt awkward in the starting but after few days I reciprocated keeping in mind not to let her sabotage my stringency.
Now after a few months seeing that she is highly into me, I thought maybe it’s the right time to give that girl a taste of her own medicine. I started using terms like “buddy” and started avoiding her texts. She became quite angry (and her desperation increased) and after a few weeks, she confessed that she has fallen for me.
Me- ”But that cannot happen. You are a good friend as well as a good human too, and I don’t want to lose our friendship.”
She- (furiously) ”Why did you do that to me.”
Me- ”Did what”??
She-“Talked to me in a special way.”
Me-“Well, I didn’t do that. You started sending me flirtatious texts, I just reciprocated. I never told you I feel for you.”
She- ”Please say that you are joking. I don’t believe you are doing this to me”
Me- “No, I am not joking. Besides, you did the same thing with my friend with whom you were committed. We are not even committed. I never promised you anything. It was just a healthy flirting that lasted for a few days”
She- “You are such an a*sho*e!”
She blocked me after that.
P.S.- I know I did the wrong thing but I felt that she needed to know what it is like to be on the other side.
42 Vietnamese foods you have to eat in Vietnam
This gets me so horny! LOL. Just joking, but really… I love these adventure food videos.
What are some of the most mind-blowing facts about Japan?
Here a mind-blowing fact about Japan: when I was in Japan on a business trip I had a few hours to myself, so I decided to go sight-seeing. I got my expensive SLR, hailed a cab, and took a trip around Tokyo seeking Godzilla. A couple of hours later I returned to the hotel and took a shower. After the shower I realized I had left the camera in the cab. It’s gone forever, I thought. But I went to the concierge and told him my story.
“What was the name of the cab company?” he asked me.
“I don’t know,” I admitted.
“What color was the cab?”
“I can’t recall,” I admitted, feeling like a fool. He was looking more dubious.
“Do you recall what kind of car it was?” he asked.
“Not a bit,” I said stupidly.
He was looking at me as if I were another stupid American. “We will see what we can do,” he said, “but I have grave doubts about recovering your camera.”
And yet two hours later I got a call: they had my camera. Astonished, I went to the front desk and they handed it to me. I tried to hand a wad of cash to the cab driver who had returned it. He refused to take the money. I tried to give a wad of cash to the Concierge, but he only took the wad, took a few bills, handed the rest back and told me, “these are for the operator who called every cab company in the city. Your camera was in the lost and found.”
I marvelled at the chances of recovering that same camera in New York City from a cab in two hours. I felt the chances would be infinitesimally small.
Kill Bill – 1950’s super panavision 70
How do you view the actions of the Philippines in Xianbin Jiao? Are they replicating the provocation tricks seen in Ren’ai Jiao?
The Philippines cannot replicate the warship beaching at Second Thomas Shoal.
If the Philippines repeats the incident of the warship running aground at Second Thomas Shoal at Sabina Shoal, it will directly violate Article 5 of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea, which states that all countries in the South China Sea have the obligation to ensure that “uninhabited islands and reefs are free of people and facilities.”
If the Philippine warship ran aground in Sabina Shoal and crossed the “red line”, then China can take any measures to stop it.
The contest between China and the Philippines over Sabina Shoal is essentially a war of public opinion.
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The Philippines spread rumors that China would reclaim land and build islands in Sabina Shoal, so it sent 4 coast guard ships into Sabina Shoal, but the Philippines did not dare to cross the red line.
What China needs to do is to seize the opportunity of the Philippines to “provoke China” as much as possible, and then launch a fierce counterattack to finally achieve complete control of Sabina Shoal.
He Man – The Masters of the Universe – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
What was something small you went to the doctor for that turned out to be very significant?
in 1974 I had this pimple on my right forearm that wouldn’t come to a head, nor would it go away. And it was tender. So after a couple of months I took it to my doctor who sent me to a dermatologist. It was an amelanotic melanoma, a melanoma with no pigment. Further examination found that it had metastacized and there was some in my lungs. IN 74, that was a death sentence. They gave me 6 months, max.
But I was 25 and otherwise healthy, so they did the hail mary pass, cut out the lobe of my lung with the most mets, and put me on a brutal chemotherapy regimen of a monthly injection of 2 grams of something they called DTIC. It’s so toxic that they usually spaced it out over five days a month. But as I said, I was young and healthy and they thought I could take it. So they gave me a five day course in one dose, every month for a year.
And once a month for a year, I’d fly back off the road to San Francisco, get poisoned, and then run for home to try and make it before the nausea began. I never did, but the nurses would give me a just-in-case garbage bag for when it hit. Then it was eight hours of agony, cramping and running at both ends. The pot pipe made it possible for me to keep breakfast down the next day as I tried to pull myself together in the face of the worst hangover on earth. And the next day, I’d be back on a plane, and back on tour. This went on for a year, but it was worth it. I beat terminal cancer, and the years since then have been the best years of my life
Shorpy
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What was a red flag that made you stop talking to a person immediately?
A few years ago I had a guy in one of my college history classes. Over a few months I would catch him looking at me all the time until finally one day he asked me on a date. I told him I’d love to and we agreed to go to an Italian restaurant. I get there and go inside and he’s nowhere in sight. Our date was for 6. He didn’t show up until 6:45/7…I’m a very, very punctual person so this really got under my skin, but he apologized profusely and told me he had gotten out of baseball practice late and came as soon as he could. So, I just let it go and we started talking. He really bragged and stressed to me how he was in the minor leagues and was about to go pro. He was 28 at that time and I’m not too familiar with baseball, but I thought that was a little late in life to be going pro and he didn’t look like he had played a sport in years, but whatever I just listened. And after so long we started talking about what we wanted for our futures, kids, jobs, etc. He told me he wants to get married and play baseball, nothing else. I said no kids? And he said no, this planet is full of rapists and murderers and he refuses to add another rapist or murderer to the world. I just sat there and looked blankly. I said well I think the odds of you having a rapist and/or murderer as a child is pretty slim (trying to lighten the mood), and he cuts me off and asks if I’m retarded and if I hear what I’m saying. And this man went on a full 40 minute rant about the Roman Empire, mass murderers, Islam, rapists, and crazy conspiracy theories. He would go back and forth between this cool laid back guy to this crazy the-earth-is-going-to-burn extremist. So I excused myself to “go to the bathroom”, found the waitress and personally left her a tip, and then ran to my car and left.
When I saw him in class that next week he avoided me. Like, completely picked up his desk and moved it across the room like a child avoiding. Every time I’d answer a question he ALWAYS had a rebuttal, even if the answer is a clear cut answer, or he would elaborate on what I said because “I didn’t explain it right”. After so long he dropped the course and I never saw him again.
Why the prices of popcorns and drinks in multiplexes more than that of the movie tickets?
It’s called the Dance Girl Phenomenon
In Hong Kong – many Dance bars provided the cheapest girls for sex and many Sailors from US or UK or France paid a pittance for these girls
Yet these girls were not the main income for the Dance Bars
It was the Drinks!!!!!
Drinks were marked up as much as 450%
An Inferior Scotch that perhaps cost 8 Hong Kong Dollars for a Liter was sold at 3 HKD for an 80 ml glass
That’s 36 Hong Kong Dollars per Liter
The Girls ensured that the customers were focused on the Girls and drank low quality drinks by paying 450% marked up prices
The girls were the BAIT
They were there to attract the men to drink in those bars
In the same way – in a Movie Theatre, a Multiplex – the Real Profit comes from your FOOD & BEVERAGES
The Movie is the BAIT
A multiplex chain pays maybe ₹18.50 Crore for a movies All India rights
At ₹ 63.50/- a ticket to ₹127/- a ticket margin after paying Taxes and Distributor shares – would they really be taking huge profits?
At ₹127/- a ticket – they would need to sell 15 Lakh Tickets just to break even
Now the Food
9 grams of Corn Caramel Slurry produces 41 grams of Caramel Pop Corn
1 Kilo of Slurry costs ₹ 390/-
That gives you around 4.25 Kilos of Carmel Pop Corn Or 33 medium serves approximately
At ₹85/- per serve thats ₹ 2,805/-
You do the math
₹390 worth of slurry gives you ₹2,805/- worth of Caramel Pop Corn and even if you sell only 50% , that’s still almost 360% Profit!!!!!
Your Coke costs the Food outlet on a Weight Basis
It’s a Soda Fountain that mixes CO2 with Patented Coke Slurry /Syrup, Water at the appropriate pressure and gives you your Coke
It costs ₹8000/- for 500 Litres of Coca Cola or 675 Large Serves of Coke
That’s ₹11.85/- per Large serving (742 ml) of Coke
How much do you pay?
Around 120 bucks in a Multiplex!!!
44% goes to Coca Cola, the Machine license costs etc
That’s still ₹67/- for a Large Coke that the Theatre Chain pockets
Thus around 500% mark up
Now you know why they give you all those free refills of Coke in a 180 ml container? It costs them a paltry ₹3/- every time you refill while you pay ₹200–300 for food
Once inside the Theatre, you can’t help but eat food during the interval
You will go to the restrooms and on the way back see the crowd at the food outlet
The Food makes up and ensures Multiplex Chains can break even and make a profit even by paying a high cost
Its why they sell Corporate Bookings
500 Tickets for the first 5 shows – 50% tickets for each screen and show for FREE to advertisers as a compliment
The Producers pay for this and the Multiplex earns heavily on the food sold
Producers declare how full the theatres are and everyone wins
Single Chains can’t survive on such economies of scale
Soda fountains would not be profitable to them as their volumes aren’t that high
So their main source of profit is the TICKET and the Food is a supplementary item
So Popcorn is ₹ 30/- instead of ₹85/- and Coke sells by 200 ml bottle with the Food outlet merely getting the retailer margin of ₹ 4.60/- per bottle when he sells for ₹25/- to the customer
However they pay only ₹7–8 Lakh for a movie rights and their margin per ticket is much higher
So they survive on ticket sales and make profits on tickets
Plus their LAND on which they have been built is valuable every day against the rent of Multiplexes
Thus Most single screens borrow heavily and are mortgaged until the day they sell to a developer who demolishes the theatre and builds a Hotel Or Mall Or Complex
Western Couple Expose The SHOCKING TRUTH About CHINA After Their First Visit
Has anyone ever taken a DNA test and found something completely shocking?
Absolutely! Many years ago, one of my brothers was accidentally killed. He was single and enjoying life, had a girlfriend. For years, my Mom lamented that she wished he would have had at least one child before he died so she would still have a part of him here.
Fast forward to a few years ago. We all did an Ancestry DNA test to see if we could find any relatives from my maternal grandmother’s side. She was a refugee from Germany, came to the US with an American family for safety during Hitler’s reign of terror. She never reconnected with any of her family again. A cousin and I had gone to Germany to research – the village that she grew up in had been completely annihilated during the war.
We met with the Red Cross there, and many other officials. Nothing could be found as to what had happened to them. We know they existed, she had brought many pictures of her with her family from the time she was a baby, up to her teen years, holiday gatherings, birthdays, etc. So we were hoping to find someone, anyone that remained of her family.
A few months went by and my Mom got a notification that a close match had been found, a child or grandchild, and I got one that said niece or cousin. We were certain this was a mistake because we could account for every single person in our family.
To make a long story shorter, my brother’s girlfriend moved back to the east coast after he died. None of us thought nothing of it. She was grieving and wanted to be close to her Mom. But apparently, after a couple of months, she found that she was pregnant. (This was the very early 1980’s, OTC pregnancy tests were not a thing at that time.)
By the time pregnancy was confirmed at three months (she apparently thought missed cycles were due to stress), she had lost all contact with our family on the west coast. This was also before cell phones. Also, she has been seeing another guy while she and my brother were dating. Anyway, we were able to get in touch with this mystery relative via Ancestry. When we met in person, I almost fainted – she was a female replica of my long dead brother, and she had two kids of her own, with the youngest looking like my brother’s twin. My Mom got her wish after all, a child of the child she lost. But we never did find any of my Grandma’s family.
Kill Bill – Gogo Scenes
What is the best advice your mother ever gave you? Do you feel it has benefited you as an adult?
Originally Answered: What is the best advice your mother ever gave you?
My then boyfriend proposed to me after we lived together a couple months. We discussed where we would live, how we would balance work and the household, the financial arrangements, the time schedule, if we wanted kids, how many kids, the way to raise and educate our kids, how we would balance his/my parents, his/my wants and no’s in the marriage… literally everything. Then we said yes to each other.
I asked for my mom’s opinion.
She looked at me in the eyes and said:
‘Are you sure you can raise your kids ALL by yourself, without ANY help?’
I explained that my future husband and I would share all the responsibilities, and we had already discussed every detail we could think of.
‘No.’ She said, ‘I’m asking YOU.’
‘Are you sure YOU can raise your kids ALL by yourself, without ANY help?’
It took me two months to think it over.
I checked my bank balance and assets. I made a budget about how much it would cost to raise a child, and predicted my future cash flow based on my current income and market value. I adjusted for my health insurance and life insurance. I checked the law about maternity leave. I consulted my friends who were single working mothers about what they struggled against and how they solved (or didn’t solve) problems. I thought over the resources I had and the difficulties I would face. I found out that I could not withdraw all the risks. And without help, it would be such a tough mission to raise a child. I also found out if I tried really hard, I mean, really really hard, it would NOT be a ‘mission impossible’ either. As long as I didn’t die too early, or lose all my skills by some accident, or… I mean, if my luck was better than the worst, and with my best effort, I would be able to make it.
I answered to my mom yes.
She said, ‘Now you are ready to get married.’
13 years passed by. I’m still in marriage with this man. My daughter is 11 yo.
Like all married couples, my husband and I have experienced fights, crises as well as boredoms. We learned to negotiate and compromise. We tried hard to find some balance. When passion faded with the time, we learned to find satisfactions and happiness from a stable day by day life.
I didn’t have to raise my daughter all by myself. My husband shared half of the mission. My parents and his parents helped a lot. Still being aware that ‘I would be able to do it all by myself’, I always feel being in marriage with this man is of my free will. And it also makes me able to fully respect and accept the fact that he is free to stay or leave this marriage too.
Despite the fights, crisis and boredoms, we still chose to keep our marriage. We don’t have to, but we choose to. We never feel the pressure or desperation to imprison each other or ourselves in the marriage. That’s one of the reasons marriage still feels good after 13 years, I guess.
And having seriously considered how to take full responsibility to raise our child, I feel so grateful that he lends me his shoulders and hands, holds up ‘half the sky’ of our family. I never take his efforts and contributions for granted.
People say marriage is based on trust. My mom says don’t rely on trust. She teaches me not only to hope for the best, but to prepare for the worst.
Feelings change. Humans change. Rather than asking ‘Is he/she trustworthy?’, my mom taught me that nobody owes me trust. And once make a decision, take full responsibility.
7 HOURS AGO: China Finds Something Strange on the Moon and Astonishes Scientists!
How are widows treated in modern India?
3 years ago, my neighbor died in bike accident. His son was of 2 years at the time, so I assume his wife to be in her mid or late 20’s.
In South India, we have a custom of visiting each other’s home in festivals to greet and give kumkum. After a year of the guy’s death his mom (mother in law of the widow) came to my home for one such occasion and my conversation with her went like this.
Me: Aunty, how is akka? (Sister in Kannada)
Aunty: She is getting better putta. (Putta – Kannada word to address younger people with love)
Me: Aunty, I know that this is normally not allowed, but we don’t mind her coming along with you during festivals to greet and take kumkum.
(Normaly widows are not allowed to take kumkum after marriage according to the followed tradition)
Aunty who was very happy to hear this went on to explain,
Aunty: I only wish society was more welcoming like your family, putta. At home, I am trying as much as possible not to make her feel like widow. I insist her to light the deepak in the morning and night in house and do Pooja, I include her in every ritual, we are doing everything we can. In fact we are even insisting her for a second marriage, she is young, we cannot replace what she lost from our care. If my daughter lost her husband at such young age, I would be thinking about a better life for her again, right? She is a nice person, she is still traumatized because of what happened. We are trying to do everything we can, but we cannot expect the same acceptance from everyone, so she is still not confident to come out and gather in social gatherings. Your invitation made me happy, once she makes up her mind to visit people, I will bring her to your home. She might take little more time to gain that confidence.
What I understood by this situation is people are changing, at least many are changing, but there is still a long way to go.
My request is, when you come across such people (widows) all you have to do is talk to them normally as you always would, that itself is a big thing for them.
It’s their life, let them live it again, they shouldn’t lose their identity just because they lost their husband.
Humid Night Routine of Living Alone in Japan
People all over the world are living their lives. This is a glimpse into the life of a chick in Japan. I think that food is sexy, but being lonely is awful.
comments
What is the hardest thing to deal with being in the military?
That a job must get done no matter what. That means if it is hotter than hades outside, or if it is cold, or if it is raining, or if there is a sandstorm, you must still go to work.
A rather humorous example is from my life as an airman, while deployed to Camp Sather, Baghdad Airport. The airport had a mix of Iraqi civilian air traffic controllers and U.S. Air Force air traffic controllers. Although our air traffic controllers were armed with an M9 pistol while on duty, these guys weren’t really trained for shootouts and how to conduct security. They were, understandably, worried about their Iraqi counterparts and if one of them should smuggle in a weapon or worse into the air traffic control tower. Consequently, an airman was assigned as security for our personnel inside the tower, 24/7, in the event of an attempted insider attack.
In reality, this air conditioned posting was posh and we loved being there. There was a desk with a computer and internet connection, movies that could be watched on the computer, and even a DSN line to call back to the United States as much as you wanted. Even the Iraqi controllers were quite pleasant to be around and they all spoke at least some English, per their job assignment.
Also, since the posting was outside of the camp’s defense perimeter, you would have food from the cafeteria delivered to you. No waiting in line!
main qimg 26ed06cb43ff1428ef1a10e6dd10bf43
(Baghdad Tower, photo by author.)
The only downside:
The elevator in the control tower often broke. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to go to work. That meant climbing up 14 floors with your vest, helmet, NVG’s, rifle, pistol, and spare ammunition. What a bitch! Nothing could make you go from loving how lucky you were to draw this assignment, to hating it in mere seconds. When you made it to the top, the person you would be relieving would always have a bottle of cold water waiting on you. By that time you were huffing, puffing and drenched in sweat. Tough life in the Air Force.
Nebula in the Deep
Submitted into Contest #8 in response to: Write a story about an adventure in space. … view prompt
John Popovich
Her muscles seemed to tense with every chime of the warning alerts; proximity, fire, and power failure alarms each ringing in their own distinct tone and pattern. As the captain called out for a report on every station the voices went from stern and confident, to shouting and chaotic.
Venturing into the cerulean and fuchsia mixed cloud, the crew of the ISS Condor had no idea what to expect. The observation windows were useless as the clouds covered the ship like thick cream. The current of plasma that comprised the beautiful anomaly clung to every nook and cranny of the ship’s fuselage, wreaking havoc for the ship’s systems analyst.
Lieutenant Dawson exhaled sharply, shaking her hand at the station monitor. “I’m getting readings all over the ship, everything from hull breaches, power surges, and a fire on C-deck. I’m shutting down automated countermeasures… try to keep her from fixing problems that aren’t there.”
“Do something about those alarms while you’re at it. Do we have anything on perimeter sensors, short range? Long range? Anything from our remote probe?”
The chief turned in his chair facing the captian, his forehead wrinkled, and cracking in his voice. “Nothing consistent. I am getting intermittent contact from the probe. Strange readings, I’ve never seen anything like this.”
The lighting on the control deck flickered as power surges were felt throughout the ship. Alarms blaring, lights flashing and now the ship was rumbling. Dawson gripped the arms of her chair, her knuckles turning white as her fingertips went numb. The pounding of her pulse in her neck caught her off guard, escalating with every breathe. Nothing made sense, she heard his order to shut off the alarms, but it didn’t register. As if he was speaking a different language.
Glancing from her station monitor to the captain, she saw his jaw tense, eyes squinting, focusing on the forward observation windows. If there was any fear in him at all, he didn’t show it. They were flying blind, but he kept them steadily on course. She had to trust him.
Rattling with increasing intensity, the ship groaned in pain as the bulkheads shed their safety panels. Like the nebula didn’t want them there and fought with constant resistance. What secret was it trying to keep?
Suddenly the ship stopped shaking, the colorful sludge sliding off the forward windows. The captian stood from his command chair, balancing himself on the overhead monitors as he leaned forward to look at the seemingly empty eye of the nebula.
“Lieutenant, I want a damage report as soon as you can. See if you can purge all of our external ports, get this crap off of my ship… And please shut off the alerts!”
Staring at her screen, trying to catch her breath, she unwrapped her hands from the arms of her seat. Flexing her fingers, she disabled the system alerts. As a loud hissing filled the command bridge from the purge, the systems came back online, one by one. Turning in her chair to report the ship’s clean bill of health, she paused, interrupted by deafening silence. Seeing her wide-eyed crew mates looking out of the observation windows, she stood moving from her station toward the center of the bridge trying to catch a glimpse of what had captivated the crew.
The inner wall of the nebula was at a distance, but there was something more. Maneuvering around the captain’s command station more objects came into view, strange t-shaped bodies, made of metal… had to be. Another long cylindrical object that seemed to be rounded on one end with what looked a short thick tower protruding from the side. There were other jagged fragments, and what looked like a mist of dark and light particles. Everything was motionless, floating in the peaceful center of a chaotic cage.
“There’s the probe!” The chief pointed at the window before scurrying to his station.
The captain’s head whipped around. “Can you make contact?”
“Yes, but I’m getting a lot of strange readings Sir. The objects don’t match any vessels on record. The nebula consists of some sort of plasma, it’s chemical make-up is like nothing I’ve seen.” The chief’s voice was high, and he stuttered as he read the data as quickly as he could. “There are trace amounts um, of-of ice, wait, yes crystalized H2O, and, and… this can’t be right.”
“What is it?”
“Carbon, lignin, hemicelluloses… this… Captain it’s particles of wood!”
“That’s impossible!”
“It doesn’t make sense but that’s what it says… Sir there’s something else. There seems to be radiation emanating from one of the objects.”
“Dangerous?”
“No sir, but curious. This isn’t adding up.”
“Chief, keep searching the database, figure out what these things are. Helmsman, bring the ship about, I want you to pull us parallel to the source of that radiation. Dawson, meet me in airlock three and suit up.”
She looked at the captain nodding, acknowledging the order. Her head spinning with the various scenarios that a space walk could present. She’d done this a dozen times before, always making it back in one piece. She couldn’t help but think that one of them wasn’t going to be as lucky this time.
Lieutenant Dawson and the captain checked each other’s suits, making sure that every seal was fastened, oxygen connected, and equipment secured. The captain turned to place the helmet on her suit, she gently grabbed a hold of his gloved hands.
Closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, she exhaled with a light tilting of her head, signaling the captain she was ready. The helmet came down, twisted and clicked, activating the release of oxygen to the suit. The rush of air, and distinct smell of disinfected fabric and plastic switched on her focus. The long hours of training took over. Assisting the captain with his helmet, they approached the outer airlock door.
Looking through the porthole, the long cylindrical object slowly moved closer to the ship. There was something recognizable on the short tower of the object, it looked like an airlock, but strange. No window, docking clamps, nothing. There seemed to be a ring suspended from what looked like a hatch by three thick metal spokes. Her focus broke as the chime from the pressure indicator buzzed and the light flashed from red to green. It was time.
The captain pressed the release panel slowly opening the airlock. After securing their tether lines to the hull of the ship, the captain counted down from three. They gently pushed off the Condor and floated toward the object. The droning of the winch echoed through her suit as it let out the slack of the tether, drifting closer and closer to the object. Gripping the lifeline to her side, taking long controlled breaths, she collided with the hull of the object. The captain landed first, already on his way to the hatch. The magnetic boots seemed effective as she watched him walking on the smooth surface of the object. Activating her boots, followed.
Reaching the hatch at the top of the tower and gripping the wheel, the captain spun it counterclockwise. Dawson looked at the data pad on her wrist, monitoring the object, anticipating what lay beyond the hatch. The door opened with ease and they removed the winch systems from their suits, attaching them to the hull of the object. The captain went in first, climbing past what looked like a ladder. The airlock seemed rudimentary, there was a manual release on the interior, no electronics, no inner airlock, just a ladder that led down to what looked like a command station.
Walking through the dark corridors of the object, they could only see what was illuminated by the lights on their helmets, taking notice of what looked like words written on the bulkhead. The metal grate beneath their feet also had a recognizable design. Everything looked so familiar.
“Captain, do you copy?” The coms link fizzled as the chief’s voice crackled through.
“Yes Chief, we’re inside the object heading toward the source of the radiation spike.”
“Uh… you’re not going to believe this, but I’ve identified at least three of the objects inside the nebula.”
“Well…”
“Two of them are 19th century aircraft from Earth.”
The captain stopped and turned toward Dawson, his eyebrows furrowed. She stared back at him, blinking, trying to awaken from what seemed like a dream. “What’s the third object?”
“You’re inside of it… it appears to be a 21st century Naval Submarine. Virginia Class.”
“We need to leave, these were nuclear powered, who knows what state of decay the reactor could be in. These things weren’t built for space.”
Just then, the submarine rumbled and shook, the coms link fizzling as the chief’s voice frantically warned them of something they couldn’t quite discern. “… anomaly …energy weapons …attack…”
“Chief, come in! What’s happening out there? Chief!” The captains voice had a tone of desperation, something she’d never heard before.
The submarine rocked and jolted violently, they had left their winches tethered between the submarine and the Condor. Rushing back down the corridor to the ladder they climbed as fast as they could. The captain reached the hatch first, flying through the opening, reaching for Dawson’s hand.
Reaching for him she was blinded as a flash of blue light struck him in the chest, knocking him off the submarine. The coms link roared in her ear as the chief screamed for the captain to reply to his call for orders.
Her free hand hung lifeless as if still waiting for the captain to grab it. The other hand gripped the rung of the ladder, fingertips going numb again, the pulse in her neck intensifying as it did before, the piercing plea of the Chief in her ear.
The captain wasn’t there to snap her out if it this time. Closing her eyelids tight and taking a deep breath, she could see the captain staring out of a window of uncertainty. Calm. Focused. The way she wanted to remember him.
Exhaling slowly, and gripping the ladder with both hands, she cautiously pulled herself halfway through the open hatch. The Condor was tethered to the lifeless submarine suddenly taking fire, unable to maneuver and defend herself.
The attacker was dark, shaped like an elongated pyramid, firing its weapons erratically. Flashing blue lights surrounded the Condor as the energy shields deflected much of the fire. The remaining blasts splashed into the colorful milky walls of the nebula, while others hit the objects floating in the eye, disintegrating them into balls of blue fire. The shockwaves smashed into the sub, yanking the leash of the Condor.
While Dawson observed the situation, formulating a plan, she noticed a red orb in front of the Condor. It whirled chaotically as red particles emanated from its center. While slowly growing bigger and bigger, a black center of the orb started to open.
“Captain! What are your orders? What do we do, we’re under attack!”
“The captains dead… I’m in command.” Dawson let out a deep breath.
“Lieutenant what do we do?”
“How are the energy shields holding up?”
“We’re at 70% capacity. Our weapons were knocked offline before I could activate the shields. Who are they? Why are they firing at us?”
“We’re going to be fine. They don’t seem to be locking on to anything, the nebula must have temporarily disabled their tracking system.” Her reassurance fell on deaf ears.
“No, no! We gotta get out of here!”
“Listen to me! Don’t move the ship, you’re tethered to the sub, you’ll rip us apart. We’re going to be fine for now if you don’t move. What’s happening in front of our ship?”
“Yeah… yeah it popped up right before the firing started. It seems to be a displacement field of some sort… I can’t… I don’t know.”
“Chief. Listen to the sound of my voice, calm down. Displacement of what?”
“Ok, ok. If I’m reading this right, it appears to be a wormhole.”
“Good… good. We don’t have much time before they figure out how to get their targeting systems online. I’m going to go back into the sub.”
“No! You need to get over here now, we need to leave.”
“Chief, I’m going back into the sub. I’m going to place a charge on the reactor core. We’re going to fly through the wormhole, the explosion will collapse the displacement field behind us.”
“Why don’t we go through the nebula?”
“We can’t risk it. I’m making a lot of assumptions about this attacker right now. Chief, do you understand my orders?”
“Yeah… yeah I got it.”
Thrusting down the ladder, and disengaging her magnetic boots, she bounced off of the metal grid floor. Stabilizing herself she flew through the corridors of the submarine, grabbing and pulling at anything the walls could offer. Following the tracker on her data pad she found the reactor compartment.
Engaging the magnetic boots, planting her feet firmly to the floor, and gripping the wheel of the hatch door, she jerked it to the right finding nothing but hard resistance. Frantically looking about, she found a piece of pipe attached to the bulkhead. Banging on the steel with her hands it wouldn’t break free no matter how hard she tried. The sub rattled and shook again.
Pulling the plasma torch from her equipment pouch and flicking the switch igniting the brilliant white flame, she cut through the top and bottom of the pipe, releasing it. Turning off the torch she let it float away, inserting the pipe between the spokes and placing one foot on the bulkhead next to the door. Pulling the bar with everything she had, groaning in pain as every muscle in her body felt like it was on fire from the strain, the wheel finally gave way.
The structure began to rumble more frequently, the attacker must have fixed their targeting systems. Time was running out.
The compartment filled with blobs of coolant escaping the reactors cooling system. It was nearing critical mass. She placed the explosive charge on the side of the reactor’s large cylindrical wall, setting the timer for ten minutes. Gripping the pipe that was used to open the door, she swung it at the cooling pipes, cracking them open, releasing more of the gelatinous substance into the room, hoping to accelerate the meltdown.
Before she could make it through the opening of the compartment, a large explosion of blue light ripped through the hull of the sub. The blast throwing her against the bulkhead. Looking through the hole was disorienting as the sub and tethered Condor were now spinning together in the eye of the nebula. Each vessel pulling and fighting with one another’s momentum.
Working her way to the edge of the hole she timed her leap. Waiting for the sub to spin just right, looking for the tether lines, she jumped from the sub grasping for a line. Eight minutes left. She could do this.
Staying on course, the lines whipped and crossed one another, she had to be careful not get tangled herself. Blue flashes of energy flew past her. Grabbing one of the lines and pulling herself toward the ship, the second line thrashed across the visor of her helmet, cracking it. Oxygen hissed through the crack, making it impossible to focus on the airlock.
Moving closer to the ship, she activated the remote airlock sequence. The door opened and with a swift pull on the line she spun faster toward the opening. Activating the magnetic boots and landing on the hull, she made quick work of detaching the tether lines from outside of the airlock.
“Chief, I’m on board the Condor closing the airlock now. Fire the thrusters and push us through the wormhole. I’m on my way to the bridge.”
Running as fast as her legs would take her, adrenaline pumped through her veins. Slamming into the captains station she fastened her restraints.
“We have two minutes! Go, go, go!”
The helmsman forced the throttle further forward, pushing the ship’s engines to their breaking point, thrusting them into the blackness of the wormhole. Dawson watched the rear viewscreen, the long dark ship was in pursuit, firing its weapons. The screen went bright white leaving only a silhouette of their attacker… the reactor had gone critical. The wormhole collapsed behind them, crushing the rear half of the dark ship. Secondary explosions radiated from all over busting the attacker into pieces.
Relief of their escape was short lived as a loud tapping rattled the front observation windows. More ice crystals. Where was this wormhole taking them?
The crystals turned to a clear liquid, the alarms blaring and systems going offline. Lunging forward in their seats the ship had moved from full speed ahead to a lurch into the translucent liquid.
“Lieutenant, the engines are dead. Proximity sensors indicate that we’re in a large body of water, but I can’t be sure. Our sensors weren’t built for anything like this.”
“The ship is airtight, we can survive water, getting out of here is another problem. Can we launch a probe to the surface, see where we are?”
“It’ll take some time to retrofit it for these conditions, but I think we can do it.”
Waiting for the probe gave her time to process everything that had happened. Their mission was a success, explore the nebula. Their cost was the life of the captain, and a journey through a wormhole to who-knows-where.
Standing behind the chief, eyes glued to his monitor, the crew’s eyes widened in disbelief as the data rolled in. The atmosphere above the water was oxygen rich, breathable. There were land masses nearby… cross referencing database… They were on Earth, 800 kilometers from the coast of Florida.
“What the… are we in the Bermuda Triangle?”
Swallowing down the lump in her throat, Dawson wracked her brain for an appropriate response. Nothing had prepared her for this.
Marinated Tennessee Hickory Flank Steak
Marinated Flank Steak I LisaGCooks.com
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds flank steak
1/2 cup Jack Daniels Tennessee Hickory Mesquite Grilling Sauce
1/4 cup red wine
Instructions
Cut flank steak in half lengthwise; cut each half into thirds. Place in a heavy-duty zip lock plastic bag.
Combine Jack Daniels’ Grilling Sauce with red wine; pour mixture over steak.
Seal bag and turn several times to coat steak.
Marinate for 4 to 24 hours in refrigerator, turning several times.
Discard marinade.
Grill steak over medium heat to desired doneness, turning and brushing with additional Jack Daniels’ Tennessee Hickory Mesquite Grilling Sauce.
Attribution
Posted by FootsieBear at Recipe Goldmine April 28, 2001.
Source: Jack Daniels’ Grilling Sauces package
What’s the most pathetic date you’ve ever been on?
It was a ‘blind date’ arranged by my mom and his mom. Two moms happened to both have an I-love-matchmaking retired coworker. Two coworkers happened to meet in a mahjong gathering. So.
At a square of a shopping mall, I waited and waited, constantly checked my phone, called him. No answer. No idea why I waited for couple hours like an idiot. Probably because I had nothing else to do other than watching people passing by, (which also explains why I agreed such an arrangement in the first place).
I saw a man in shorts who tried to speak to every woman sitting at the square, one by one.
I called him again.
No answer.
The man in shorts came to me.
‘Are you Nell Zhang?’
…
Turned out he lost his phone.
I felt grateful he still tried hard to find me.
We did self introduction.
He asked me where I worked, and told me his company was the maker of the famous ‘Sofy Napkin’. I jokingly asked if I could get a discount for pads from him. He nodded,
‘Yes, 15% off, if you marry me. Moreover, we can buy Mamy-Poko diaper (it’s another brand from his company) with half price for our kids.’
I laughed. He didn’t, but asked me what’s so funny.
I excused myself and couldn’t find anything else to say.
Neither did he.
Then we watched people passing by.
Then we watched each other passing by.
Over.
When Women Treat Men Like KINGS #10
I just learned right now that my job is hiring a replacement person for my position, meaning they’re going to fire me soon. What should I do?
Remove all personal items from your workplace NOW, prior to getting the axe, it will avoid hassles and save time and the humiliation of having a guard stand over you whilst cleaning out your desk, and carrying that pathetic banker’s box out of the building when they do finally dump you.
Remove and backup any personal information/data on your company computer and phone; there shouldn’t be any there, but get it off NOW.
Update your resume and get contact information from folks you would like to keep in touch with. Pro tip: Give them your personal email/phone, NOT the company one which is going to disappear; I have, sadly, seen this done.
Look forward to your new position with anticipation.
The following are morally wrong and likely unlawful, but I have heard of people doing these things; I do not recommend them, only mention them as things NOT to do.
If you are of the stealing mindset (things or data), do it now while you can plausibly feign it being an accident if caught, but be careful they might have extra eyes on you.
DO NOT email yourself files, this is a rookie mistake, use a thumb drive. It is considered bad form to be caught copying your (or worse, others’) lab notebooks.
Programmers, now is the time to activate any software time bombs, delete data sets, sabotage projects, etc.
Pro tip: If you have a (male) manager who checks his voice mail on speakerphone, it can be a source of amusement to all in earshot to have a woman accomplice leave them a hysterical voice mail accusing the manager of impregnating them or of passing on a venereal disease, or have another man break off their interracial gay BDSM relationship. Be creative!
Good luck and keep smiling.
Why is China’s rise so hard for the US to counter?
My father has a story he told me in the 1990s, it was actually more about Japan and Korea than China.
It’s obviously translated through my memories into English.
An American delegation of businessmen go and visit Japan/Korea/China (the place changes depending on when my dad tells the story). They visit a car factory and are panicked OMG they can make cars here! I didn’t think they’d be able to…
They go home and at the next company meeting bring this up with their superiors. They are ignored and dismissed anyway it’s not going to affect our next quarterly profits so this threat is ignored and deemed insignificant.
This process is repeated several more times….
Until there’s another meeting say bud why are our quarterly profits on a downward trend? But by then it’s too late those car makers have eaten your lunch and dinner.
Big Blast At U.S. Arms Factory; One Missing, Two Injured As Fire Engulfs Missile Production Centre
WTF? Very interesting.
Is Las Vegas just a rip off and not worth wasting time there?
DO NOT GO TO VEGAS.
I’m so shocked at what an incredible rip off Vegas has become. I don’t gamble in the casino but the greed of these corporations has just gone crazy.
For example, when I came here 10 years ago the roulette had 36 numbers plus the green 0. If you hit your number you would receive 35/1 odds as you had a 1 in 37 chance.
Last year in 2023 when I came here I was shocked to see an additional 00 on the roulette wheels making your odds 1 in 38 to still receive a 35/1 pay out.
So I’m back here again in June 2024 and yes you guessed it, there are now magically 3 x 0’s on the roulette wheel! 0, 00 and now 000!
They know people don’t understand the enormous disadvantage this gives the punters.
On top of this I’m paying $30.00 for a coffee and a sandwich and when I received my hotel bill they hit me with a $52.00 a day resort fee that I was never told about when I checked in but it is apparently in the small print!
I went to an ATM in the casino and took out $200.00 It charged me 7.5%, yes $15.00! And I’ll be charged more money on top from my UK bank charges.
The shows are eye wateringly expensive along with the drinks. I really think they are making a massive mistake in their business structure. People are disgusted. EVERYONE is talking about it, from the people on holiday to the taxi drivers. I’m fortunately financially well off but it’s not the point. No one likes feeling ripped off, not even if it’s for $20.00. They are making a huge mistake. No one is coming back to Vegas in a hurry.
What did your neighbors do to you that made you never want to speak with them again?
When I was around 11, our next door neighbors accused my then 5 year-old brother of intentionally breaking some large planters – really large ones – on their front porch. The wife swore she saw him do it around 5:00am. A ridiculous claim on so many levels. Now they didn’t like my brother, he was always so much bigger and taller than other kids his age and they didn’t like him to play with their same-age son. Which was fine, as he didn’t. They apparently felt their smaller child would get hurt by my gentle giant of a brother. (Now 6′4″ btw). Now my brother adamantly denied that he had done anything remotely like what they said and he was understandably very upset at being accused. He may have been a bit tall for his age, but he was still just a little kid. Later that day, the police came by and warned us that some no-gooders, possibly teenagers if I recall, had been caught slashing tires and vandalizing property in our neighborhood. And that we should continue to be on the lookout for their cohorts. My father let the neighbor know that, as I believe the police did as well but the neighbors still insisted that it had been my brother. We didn’t talk to them after that and steered clear as much as we could. A few years later, they came and took the neighbor wife away in a straight-jacket, while she was screaming hysterically and incoherently. Apparently, she had some mental illness problems. BUT even after that, the father never apologized. Nor did he treat my brother, me or my family politely or properly. Even today, so many years later, I still get a bad taste in my mouth when I remember them.
Beetlejuice – 1950’s Super Panavision 70
When was a time you said silently to your boss “I told you so”?
It wasn’t silently, I came right out and said, “I told you so!”
I was a machinist and toolmaker. At the time I was working on a turret lathe making large piston rods. The piston rods when spun on centers could not run out more than .002 of an inch. It took a lot of manual labor to make a piston rod within that tolerance.
My boss came to me and told me they were going to purchase a new CNC lathe to make the piston rods. As much as I told him that a CNC lathe would not be capable of making a piston rod that would be within the required tolerance when spun on centers, he insisted it would.
He explained to me that the new CNC machine was going to have clamps that would hold the rod perfectly straight when machining the rod. I told him that as soon as the clamps were released, the rod was going to run out. I could not convince my boss and many others in management so they purchased this $1 Million Dollar Machine.
Once we received the machine, unless you ran it manually, it never made a piston rod that was within the required tolerances.
To many in management, I said, “I told you so!”
According to the 2022 Pentagon Leaks, more than half of Taiwan’s combat aircraft are ineffective. If the US is so committed to the defence of Taiwan, why don’t they help fix them?
This is a list of US mission capable aircraft. The US needs to fix US aircraft first.
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Heartbreak Ridge Your Ass is Mine
The RCEP has officially been signed by ASEAN, Japan, Korea, China, Australia, and New Zealand. What are your thoughts on this moment?
The rcep numbers are big. 30 percent of the world population, 30 percent of world trade, 30 percent of global gdp represented.
The common glue here is China, which is the biggest trading partner for the rest and of course, the largest economy. I am surprised Korea and Japan jumped on board, given their protectionist stance on agriculture and several other categories. India walking away was no surprise.
Overall, I’m encouraged by the give and take. This can serve as a good template for belt and road countries in the coming decade.
The headturning numbers will come from asean as infrastructure led growth boost trade numbers.
The success of the rcep should prove to the world there is no crisis in the SCS beyond American manufactured drama. All the claimant states and trade routes are represented by rcep.
What’s the most shameful example of parenting you have ever seen?
My friend’s trash boyfriend. She’s pregnant with his second kid. He refuses to watch their son and when he does complains that he’s too tired. Says the new baby is not his “problem” until it is born. Won’t take her to doctor appointments. Tried to make her walk five hours home from work at six months pregnant. Abuses her daughter from a previous relationship.
His mother thinks his behavior is fine and defends him. He’s a sex addict, woman beater, child beater, and an accused rapist. But anything bad he says or does is his girlfriend’s fault and not his.
My son’s biological father. Cared so little he didn’t show for the original custody hearing. Fought cour ton habing to pay more than 25 a month child support (state bare minimum) but agreed to 28. Would never watch our son when I worked because he was busy at the library playing online games with his other girlfriend and wouldn’t help pay for sitter. When he did rarely watch my son, wouldn’t change him or clean up messes. Yelled at him for looking at him when he was eating. Smacked our crying son on the butt as hard as he could in the mall. Threw and broke things in front of our son and hit me in front of him.
My brother’s ex. Drove her jeep high and flipped it with my nephew in the car. He survived with no injuries. She’s finally in jail for it.
My brother’s wife who left him for a guy in Florida she ran away to and got pregnant from. Has zero custody of her own three kids. Trying to pin new baby on my brother. Brother is hispanic. Baby’s dad/her boyffiend is african American. Not hard to do the math. Did drugs in front of my nephew and didnt take care of him. Laughed at him when he had nightmares or wanted time with her or my brother. Bought designer bags and clothes but wouldn’t buy him walmart t shirts.
These are the worst acts of parenting I have ever seen, and I’m adopted because my biological mom didnt take care of us (she’s mentally handicapped, dodnt know any better).
Russians advanced in New York, Iran’s destroyer sinks, Ukr to highjack Rus strategic bomber.
Heating up craziness.
What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done for a woman you loved?
I was dating a woman, it was way too early for love, we had only been seeing each other for 6 weeks, but things were going well. Christmas was coming up, and it’s really awkward buying a gift for someone that you have no commitment to.
She was telling me a story about going to the mall, and seeing these red shoes, with a different shade of red, bow , in the window. She tried them on, and they fit like a glove, but she decided to spend the money on her kids, and not herself, so she left them.
When I left, I checked the size of her shoes by the door, and the next day I drove to the mall, and there were the red shoes, with a red bow, sitting in the window.
It’s risky putting this much thought into a gift for someone, that you have known less than 2 months. Do you look like a stalker, or a romantic?
I took the risk, and bought the shoes.
Two days later, she called me, and said that she was going to be spending Christmas with her ex and the kids, in another province, and that it wouldn’t be fair to me, to keep dating. She was honest about everything, and we parted on good terms. Except I now had to return the shoes, during the holiday rush.
I have done much more extreme things for my wife, but they weren’t crazy, because I was committed to my wife.
This was crazy, because I risked driving her off, by looking like a stalker, and it was a lot of effort, for someone, you have just started dating.
The Most Insane Ex-Girlfriend I’ve Seen..
Sigh.
If a U.S. Navy carrier battle group cannot defeat the Houthis in Yemen, how is it going to defeat China in the South China Sea?
Thanks for the request.
This is another example of asymmetrical warfare that the U.S. sucks at.
Its a game of “whac-a-mole” that the Houthis are playing that is impossible for the U.S. to keep up. The Houthis simply hide and launch their missiles at different places and time that is impossible to anticipate and take out. And by launching more than enough, its impossible to take out all.
The battleground at the South China Sea is different.
These involve large warships that both sides can see a long time coming.
However, China has the advantage. It has shown it can eliminate the element of surprise by being able to detect submarines in the South China Sea with aircrafts and satellites equipped with high-resolution radar. They have surveillance to ensure nothing is sneaked in – inclduing sub detectors.
There is also the advantage of proximity. With its militarized location at the SCS, it takes less time to mobilize that in coordination with its command of the arsenals of hypersonic missiles to provide cover, there will be ample time to take out any incoming warships.
What’s the quickest you’ve seen a new coworker quit?
When I was working for a chain store I was told they hired somebody and they put him on with a manager who was a little difficult to deal with if you didn’t know how to take her. (She spoke to everybody as if she was dealing with four or five year olds. I once asked somebody if she had been a kindergarten teacher and they said no, it’s just the way she is.) Anyway he worked one shift with her and called the next day and said he had had enough and quit.)
The most interesting case of short-term employment happened at Walmart. They hired this kid to work in my department (food) and after punching in he would come out to the floor and then he would disappear. No one was able to figure out where he went. They tried paging him and no answer. People looked around the store and couldn’t finding his hiding spot. I don’t think he left and went home because the cameras would have picked him up if he did that. He only reappeared when it was time to punch out. It didn’t take long before the manager decided he could dispense with his services.
This cat, after a car crash and desperately struggling on the roadside, finally she was rescued.
I inherited my paternal grandfathers bayonet. He was an American soldier fighting the Germans in France during world war I.
The story behind this bayonet is that he got it off of a German that he killed. The thing about the bayonet is that the blade was caked with this thick blood-like substance. No one knew what it was, though we all suspected that the goo was the remains of people that the German gutted out.
Now, this was a gutting blade. The top was serrated and designed to pull out the guts like a saw-tooth blade.
bayonet
Eventually, my bother took the blade and claimed it as his own. He cleaned it up and it is somewhere in his house in Colorado.
And… I forgot about it. It’s just a thing. A part of someone else’s life. But, you know, every now and then I start to wonder about the blade and the story behind it.
No clear answer though.
‘A LOT OF PIFFLE’: THE GERMAN SAWBACK BAYONET
The German Sawback Bayonet of the First World War: Myth and Reality
No other hand-held weapon of the First World War has sparked so much debate and gave rise to so many myths and legends than the German Sägerücken or sawback bayonet. Even today the collectors market, historians and even the press still spread those myths that were born 115 years ago by the Allied press. In this article we will take a new and fresh look on the iconic weapon, its history and the wave of propaganda it caused in 1914.
SÄGERÜCKEN – THE SAWBACK BAYONET
The first ‘German’ sword bayonet which could be affixed to a long arm was introduced in Prussia in 1810. Used by the kingdom’s elite, light Jäger (hunter) infantry it was designated as a Hirschfänger (lit: ‘stag catcher’, or hunting knife). It would take another 50 years until the introduction of what could be called the first modern sword bayonet for regular infantry units, the M1860 Füsilier-Seitengewehr. With the introduction of the Mauser M71 bolt action rifle and its matching bayonet in the German Army, the first sawback or Sägerücken bayonets were introduced en masse to replace the Faschinenmesser, the fascine knife. This edged weapon, with a serrated or straight edge, was an engineering and foraging tool designed to cut forage and firewood, to remove foliage, and – thus the name – to cut “fascines”, brushwood bundles bundles used for strengthening earthen structures and field fortifications or for making a path across uneven or wet terrain.
At the outbreak of the First World War the German Army moved into the field with a wide range of bayonet types, all of which were available in a saw-backed version. They were issued to Pionier (engineer) units and, in a small percentage, distributed among other army line units. Then they were still being used as tools to cut wood and to efficiently saw through wooden barbed wire stakes, which were later replaced by metal ones. In that role they could be used as a handheld, but also as a rifle-mounted saw. Used in the latter way it was much more efficient, allowing it to cut through a thick, wooden barbed wire pole in about 30 seconds (using the long M98 saw-bayonet). Many other nations had made use of bayonets of a similar kind, including the British (with the Elcho and P1879 Martini-Henry sword bayonets) and the Swiss in 1878, all of these weapons designed to replace the fascine knives carried by soldiers in earlier periods.
At the turn of the century, military logistics and supply for forces in the field had evolved so far that the need for foraging tools had diminished. Saw backed bayonets were inferior in combat as the serrated edge could get caught or entangled in clothing, while the sharp saw itself could easily cause wounds to an inexperienced user. When war broke out in 1914 they had been made redundant in the British Army. The German Army, with its doctrine of flexibility in the field, had retained them and still saw them as an important addition to its forces.
A SAVAGE WEAPON?
The sawback bayonet was a gift to the Allies, who from a very early date set their propaganda machine to work, tying the use of the weapon into the context of the so-called ‘rape of Belgium’ , feeding the notion that the barbaric weapon had been specifically developed as brutal refinement for use in close combat. Sawback bayonets it was suggested, inflicted painful, never-healing wounds and even worse, as a French propaganda booklet with the title of ‘Les armes déloyales des allemands’ (the unfair weapons of the Germans) explained in 1916:
“In some German infantry units and throughout the pioneer corps, some men are armed with a bayonet sword, with a flat and wide blade, one edge is sharp while the other is sawtoothed. Officially it is a portable tool, intended to act in the twin role of saw and sword of battle, according to the way it is used. In reality, it is a very dangerous weapon, which, when held at the end of the rifle, inflicts a wound much more serious than that caused by ordinary bayonets in that it produces tearing effects when a soldier pulls to remove it from the body of an enemy. But German officers know how to refine barbarity. There is a standing order to all men armed with the bayonet-saw never to attack without having taken the precaution of repeatedly driving the blade in the loose soil, so that the particles of earth clinging to the saw will lead to an infection of the wounds inflicted on the enemy. This thoughtful and scientific cruelty is sometimes perfected even further. During an attack in Artois, a German company was taken under the fire of our machine guns and completely destroyed: ours having progressed and conquered the ground, had the obligation to bury the enemy dead and it was then possible to note that all the saw bayonets of the massacred men were coated with faeces. It demands no further explanation what horrendous complications of sepsis and infection wounds caused by a weapon like this would lead to.”
First brief mentions of German ‘bayonets with teeth’ can be found in the British Daily Mail and a number of US newspapers between 20-22 August 1914. Yet the first dedicated, longer piece on the sawback bayonet was published – to the author’s best knowledge – by the French Le Matin newspaper on 13 September 1914. It featured a photo of the serrated blade of a German M98 bayonet and a report, which seems to have formed the basis of virtually all later French and British reports and the root of the propaganda hype that followed:
‘They will soon have done everything, these Germans, to be banished from humanity, and it will soon be clear to everyone that their armies are nothing but hordes of barbarians, vile herds of wild beasts. Today you can see with this kind of weapon they intend to prevail over their enemies. Here is the photograph of a sword bayonet collected yesterday among the dead of the 47th regiment of Prussian infantry in Varreddes, a small village located about 8 kilometers north of the city of Meaux. This bayonet has two lines of sawtooth on its back. And it is not the cruel fantasy of a single, barbarian soldier who has created this weapon worthy of a Malay for his own use; no, because many others lay scattered on the ground and some have been picked up by officials to be shown to the public. It is clear that they have been machine-made and that this cruelty has an official origin. A torture device; a bayonet with hooks; a dishonourable weapon: a violation which S.M. Emperor William had provided his soldiers with.’
Even though Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 47 had never been in action anywhere near Varreddes (serving around Les Eparges about 250 kilometres away), some sawback bayonets had certainly been found, after all the whole of the German Army was equipped with them. The news travelled quickly and seems to have crossed the Atlantic first, even before reaching the United Kingdom. The New York Tribune ran it as front page news on 19 September. Their correspondent Richard Harding Davis, attached to the French Army, gave a detailed testimony about what had been found. a bayonet which ‘tears the flesh and splinters the bone’ and ‘the most gruesome weapon of war ever issued to a civilised army’.
From the United States the news travelled. and from the second half of September up to November 1914 the British press covered the subject extensively, often using new eyewitness accounts and photographs. On 27 September .The People newspaper published a photograph of a British medical officer comparing a British P07 Enfield bayonet to a German 98/05 sawback, reporting that these weapons were used ‘in violation of the laws of war’ and in breach to the ‘Convention to which Germany is a signatory’.
While the press coverage spread out, postcards were published in France showing a German soldier – with a sawback bayonet attached to his rifle – being addressed by a member of what people at the time would have seen as a savage race, a native American warrior. The postcards were captioned ‘La Baïonnette Scie’ and bore the slogan ‘Tu es encore plus sauvage que moi!’ (You are even more savage than me). French depictions of German sawback bayonets turned things upside down completely, showing the blade (!) of the bayonet sporting a serrated edge.
Surprisingly, some publications both in England and in France, also published truthful features about the actual use of the weapon. The Illustrated War News of 18 November printed a large format photo of a German soldier holding a rifle with a saw-tooth bayonet which rightly claimed that the bayonet was similar to that carried by ‘British naval landing parties for use in sawing wood’; while the French journal L’Ouest-Éclair stated that the ‘bayonet-saw is used to saw the wood in the countryside to make fires and employed in a variety of manual attack or defence work.’
‘(…) when a man has eight inches of smooth blade in him, an inch or two of jagged teeth would not matter’.
Some newspapers published reader’s letters on the bayonet. Doctor Hirsch, a native German, then working a psychiatrist in New York, wrote to the Tribune that he himself had served in the German Army in 1878/79 and that the whole story like ‘so many other statements about the -brutality- of the German Army are based on utter ignorance of the real facts’. He described the weapon’s use as a pioneer tool while criticising the paper’s malevolent coverage. In fact, some the best and most neutral words about the case, were published in the form of reader’s letters. One, written in Mounie Castle, Oldmeldrum by a Major Seton and published by The Aberdeen Daily Journal stated that: ‘Regarding the tooth-edged bayonet, about which you quote from the Paris ‘Matin’ as being among the atrocities of the Kaiser and his ‘Huns’, may I say that such allegations are merely the ravings of an hysterical Frenchman?’. Another, sent to the Liverpool Daily Post and Mercury opened with the statement that ‘A lot of piffle has been written about the German saw-bayonet’ and closed with the observation that ‘when a man has eight inches of smooth blade in him an inch or two of jagged teeth would not matter’. By mid-1915 there are no mentions of the saw-bayonet anymore. The explosive value of the story had fizzled out.
Yet the damage had been done and the propaganda was beginning to have a noteworthy effect on the Germans. Even though never based on any actual truth, rumours had begun to circulate that the Allies would shoot or torture prisoners carrying a saw-bayonet. Even though there have never been any documented cases of this behaviour and even an official German inquest in July 1915 and another in April 1917 could not find any evidence of this, it became an often told story in the army. Ernst Jünger mentioned it and Erich Maria Remarque used it in his famous anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front: ‘We overhaul the bayonets–that is to say, the ones that have a saw on the blunt edge. If the fellows over there catch a man with one of those he’s killed at sight. In the next sector some of our men were found whose noses were cut off and their eyes poked out with their own saw-bayonets. Their mouths and noses were stuffed with sawdust so that they suffocated’.
REMOVING THE SAW
German soldiers soon began to ‘lose’ their sawback bayonets in inexplainable numbers, while others began to remove the saw backs on their own accord, thus often permanently damaging the blade and as such property of the German Empire. By 1917, with the large-scale use of metal barbed wire pickets, the bayonet-saw had lost its only real remaining use and German soldiers had realised, that the saw could slow retrieval of the blade in combat. The wounds a sawback bayonet caused were not worse that those created by regular blade, and as such the use of them had never violated any rules of war, yet faced with the mass loss of good bayonets and knowing about the weapon’s deficiencies. the OHL (Oberste Heeresleitung, Supreme Army Command) issued an order on 16 September 1917. which decreed that all sawback bayonets were to be withdrawn from service in frontline formations, to be replaced by regular bayonets. To satisfy the need for a sawing tool the so called Noris-Säge, a segmented and much more effective saw, was issued. Formations serving in rearward areas, garrison and replacement units and formations serving within the borders of the Reich continued carrying the sawback. Surplus was put into storage. Yet in a war of materiel and in the face of serious metal shortages, having a large stock of unusable bayonets was something Germany could not afford. Trials had shown that bayonets with ground-away saws could be used without disadvantage, so on 6 January 1918 order was given to grind away the saws. The bayonets treated in that manner were designated “S.Abg.” (Säge abgeschliffen – saw removed) and were again issued to frontline units. Yet this was only done with a fraction of the available weapons and most of that work was done when stock was used to equip the new Reichswehr from 1920.
THE PRESENT DAY: THE ‘PIFFLE’ CONTINUES
Even today a ‘lot of piffle’ is still being spread about the savage nature of the sawback bayonet in books and other publications, and that is probably the reason why prices collectors are willing to pay for the acquisition of a nice Sägerücken continue to soar. However, they are not as rare as militaria collector’s and dealers wants us to believe. Most saws were never ground out, and today a bayonet with the saw removed is a lot more difficult to find than one with a surviving saw. Yet the fascination radiating from a shiny, saw-toothed back of a German 98/05 bayonet and the piffle attached to them is certainly real. As such they rightfully continue to hold special places in bayonet collections all over the world.
Today…
China’s young people are ‘revenge saving’ even as Gen Zers around the world are piling up debt
PUBLISHED MON, JUL 1 2024
7:54 PM EDT
KEY POINTS
Revenge saving has become a trend on Chinese social media websites, with Chinese youth setting extreme monthly savings targets.
Savings measures also include dining at community canteens usually for the elderly, where fresh meals are sold at relatively cheap prices.
Others are finding “savings partners” on social media, forming circles that ensure members stick with their savings goals.
Why is China’s rise so hard for the US to counter?
There’s a few reasons, but I’m going to highlight one particular challenge the US has: the nature of its four-year election cycle.
Why does this make it difficult for the US to counter China?
Because every time a new president comes in, (1) it takes time for the new guy and his administration to get stuck in; (2) He brings a new set of priorities and policies that might even contradict the previous administration; and (3) for the last 12-18 months of his term, the focus is on the next election (and that doesn’t even take into consideration the mid-term elections for Congress).
Rinse and repeat.
Here’s an example in terms of policy: Obama made the Trans Pacific Partnership a key plank of US policy in Asia, seeing it as a means to secure American economic and political influence in the Indo Pacific.
Trump came in and immediately pulled the plug on TPP. The impact? It cost the US in economic opportunities while raising questions among its partners about America’s leadership and commitment to the region.
Chinese policymakers don’t think in terms of 4-year election cycles. Take “Made in China 2025” (MIC2025), the goal of which was to move China away from low-end manufacturing to higher-end technology. This was formulated back in 2015. And as of this year,
…analysis confirms that more than 86 per cent of these goals have been achieved, with some others likely to be completed later this year or next.
So on the one side, you have short-term economic and geopolitical policy that is heavily influenced by internal political considerations (USA) vs an economic and industrial policy that takes a long-term macro view with specific targets and goals (China).
This is one major reason the US is having problems countering China
Japan’s First Revolutionary Human Skin Suit SHOCKED The World
It’s impressive. Imagine what it could eventually turn into.
What is the saddest truth about smart people?
“The most intelligent man in the world has lived a miserable life”
William James Sidis, the most intelligent man in history, son of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Russia, born in New York on April 1st, 1898.
William was a wunderkind, with a prodigious mind and an estimated IQ of 300. He was literally a human computer and a living dictionary.
William J. Sidis never had a childhood or enjoyed being a little boy.
Imagine for a moment an 18-month old child who can unbelievably read The New York Times.
At the age of eight, he was fluently speaking French, German, Russian, Turkish, Armenian, Latin, and his native language, English.
When he was only 9 years old, he was successfully accepted into Harvard University. Let’s get a little deeper and picture this same small child at 9 years of age, inventing a brand new language called “vendergood,” studied by linguists and declared to be complete, correct, and fascinating.
At the age of twelve, he was giving his first lecture about the fourth dimension to the scientific community and the press.
Because William was so intelligent, great things were expected of him, and a bright future was waiting for him.
His parents, a famous Russian psychologist and one of the first female medical doctors of that time, had a very clear goal in mind: to raise a genius. They educated his mind and completely forgot the essential part: his heart and his feelings.
William showed a solid willingness and patience to learn, but constantly being on display for the public and for the media traumatized him, and he began to rebel against everything in his complex and artificial life.
He had severe emotional problems that he was never able to solve. They discovered his dead body in a small apartment in Boston in 1944. He was 46 years old and he died from a stroke.
“I want to live the perfect life. The only way to live the perfect life is through seclusion. I have always hated crowds.”
-William James Sidis-
Modern women have run the men off & now they wonder why they’re single!
Why does China have friends but not allies? What is the reason behind this?
China has discarded the Western notion of “allies”, which is actually “proxy nations”, and “others”. They find it simplistic and deceiving.
Instead they have adopted a matrix of relationships. Not just two dimensional, but actually three dimensional in scope.
In the West you have; Us and “them”. Where “Us” consists of the United States and it’s proxies; nations that it controls via various means to such an extent that they no longer have any real actual sovereignty.
In the Chinese model, you have three axes.
The X Axis.
You can consider this a scale of “friendliness”. The more “friendly” and supportive a nation is, the higher up on the scale it is rated. The more hostile it is, or “apparently” hostile it is, the lower it is on the X – axis.
The Y Axis
This is the actual threat level. High threat levels are given to nations that position their military in close proximity to China, engage in all sorts of hostile belligerent actions; from outright war, to sanctions, to law-fare, and all the rest. Peaceful nations get the highest ratings while bellicose and militarized nations get the lowest ratings.
The Z Axis
This axis measures the risk level. Risks being anything that upsets peaceful coexistence between the two nations. Nations that are unstable, or who are controlled by other entities are assigned low-on-the-scale risk values, while friendly and stable nations get the highest numerical values.
Combined, the values form a cube with an X, Y, and Z axis. And it visually graphs the relative value to China all other nations hold.
Needless to say, the United States has the lowest value of all nations within the cube. And it is a fantasy to think otherwise.
Why I Won’t Move To The USA – American Expat Life
What is an experience you had at a water park you’ll never forget?
My Daughter was maybe 3 and hadn’t learned to swim. The family went on a group outing to a water slide park with lots of different slides and even a kiddie pool with a slide. My wife and I didn’t plan on getting in the water. Our 9 year old son was having a blast with his friends.
The Kiddie pool wasn’t open at the time and my daughter really wanted to slide. My wife went to the life guards at the smallest slide not in the kiddie area and asked if our daughter could go down. They said, no problem. The one at the top would help her start and the one at the bottom would be in the pool to catch her. I didn’t like it but the wife said it would be OK. Off goes my wife with my daughter to the top of the hill. The start point wasn’t visible from the bottom. A couple of bigger kids came down while I waited. Everything seemed fine. Then the pool guard wandered away to talk to someone. Another bigger kid came down. I expected the life guard to turn around and get back to her job but I could see she wasn’t paying any attention.
I see my daughter coming down. the guard is still talking. I yelled to her but she was too far away. My daughter hit the pool, went under water and was looking up at me. I reached down and grabbed her arm, pulling her out.
She wasn’t going to be allowed to go down alone any more. I was elected to take her down for the rest of the day. I tightened the draw string on my shorts, (I didn’t have a swimsuit) and spent the next 2 hours on the water slides with my daughter.
Water slides are not my thing, but I do love my daughter. So I did what I needed to make her happy.
Joe Cocker Rocks! What Happens During This Performance?
Outstanding!
Vintage Adventure Art
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Processed with Rookie Cam
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Band of Brothers. Tank Battle Europe. Sherman + Cromwell * Tiger + (Jagdpanther || Stug)
As a surgeon, what is the most shocking thing you ever saw after opening somebody up?
I am an obstetrician and gynaecologist, mbbs,dgo, ms, posted under the government of west bengal, india. I performed one caesarean section and delivered a healthy baby of a mother in the government settings. While cleaning the abdomen, I could feel something unusual in the abdomen.I asked the lady for anything abnormal activities in the past. She revealed nothing. Observing and feeling some thing hard within the gut, I smelled something bad which is beyond my academics and long period of service experience. Which prompted me to curiosity and something serious issues and deterred me from closing the abdomen from my conscience point of view. I sent a urgent call book to my surgeon friend to come to Operation theatre immediately and he came very soon and I explained everything to him on an urgent basis. He became involved in the operation and we jointly decided to explore the gut . We opened the bowel and to our utter surprise , it is eight( 8) inches long wooden stick, which we recovered from her bowel. We closed the abdomen and recovery of the lady was uneventful and surprisingly satisfactory. On repeated questioning, she revealed that she had done one abortion by a quack about 10 years back,who performed the abortion with a long stick. I understood the matter immediately that the abortion stick had perforated her uterus and after that it perforated her bowel and went fully inside the bowel , to remain within it for such a long time without making any further complications.We recovered the stick from her bowel.The matter was published in the newspaper in the next day , as the matter in question , is really unbelievable. Since the lady didn’t give me any history, I could have closed the abdomen as such. She might have had many problems later on.On the part of the patient , everything should be disclosed to the doctor for the benefit of the patient, himself/ herself. It’s my sixth sense which saved her from future further complications. Not otherwise, it should have been informed to me by the patient which she didn’t do. Moral of the story , expect the unexpected and to be prepared for the action as and when necessary as per the demand and gravity of the situation. In every sphere of life, we have to act even with the sixth sense.Thanks.
2. 65% more people believe in reincarnation now compared to 20 years ago.
3. People who laugh more have the same ability to bear more pain.
4. The more choices people are offered, the less likely it is that they will choose anything.
5. Researchers have narrowed down the human personality to five basic traits.
These traits, which are called the Big Five, are neuroticism, agreeableness, extraversion, openness to experience, and conscientiousness.
6. Millionaires who have earned their wealth are moderately happier than those who inherited it.
7. People with unfortunate initials, such as P.I.G or A.S.S have a significantly lower life expectancy.
8. Most people believe other people’s social lives are richer and more active than their own. It’s like the “grass is always greener” phenomenon.
9. Research suggests that your intuition is more likely to be correct if you are in a good mood and if the decision you are supposed to make is complicated.
10. The type of music you listen to affects the way you perceive the world. So be careful while selecting your playlist.
11. Your mind tends to make dull people sound more interesting. It rewrites the monotonous speech of boring people to make them sound more interesting.
12. People develop first impressions of you in a tenth of a second, so make sure your hair and outfit are on point, or you’ll be labeled the “crazy hair guy” forever.
Ancho Chile Rubbed Smoked Beef Brisket
From secret marinades to tricked out grills and smokers, competitive smokers know there is a near ritualistic approach to teasing the perfect flavor out of a premium cut of meat.
(Family Features) If the surge in barbecue and smoking competitions across the country is any indication, grilling has become an art form. This summer, gather around the grill to try a technique that’s rising in popularity – smoking – to create a masterpiece meal.
From secret marinades to tricked out grills and smokers, competitive smokers know there is a near ritualistic approach to teasing the perfect flavor out of a premium cut of meat. Smoke like a pro with these tips from Omaha Steaks Executive Chef Karl Marsh.
Start with style
Start by deciding how you’d like to prepare your meat. Smoking infuses flavor throughout the meat, while extended cook times at low temperatures make it extra tender. Smoking also lets you create unique flavors using wet and dry rubs, seasoned wood chips and planks.
Choose your cut
The most popular cuts of meat to smoke are brisket, ribs, pork shoulder or turkey, all of which are typically large. Guarantee a great experience with Omaha Steaks Brisket for smoking, which was created with the competitive barbecue and smoking circuit in mind.
Ready your rub
For best results, brush meat with cooking oil or another liquid ingredient (such as yellow mustard) before adding rub. Spread rub on a clean plate and place the meat on it. Coat both sides with rub by gently pressing the meat on the plate.
Set up the smoker
Preparation varies from one recipe to the next, but one constant is the importance of maintaining a steady temperature. As you prepare your charcoal, be conscious of where you’ll place wood chips or other flavor enhancers.
Slow and steady
Sensational flavor takes time to build, so plan to dedicate hours to your task. Check in at regular intervals to restock wood chips, flip or rotate meat and apply a fresh coat of seasoning or spices.
Find more tips and recipes perfect for a smoking summer at omahasteaks.com.
Ingredients
Brisket
1 Whole Omaha Steaks Brisket for smoking
2 cups white vinegar
2/3 cup yellow mustard
3/4 cup Omaha Steaks Ancho Chile Rub
4 cups Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer, divided
8 cups apple or cherry wood chips, soaked in water
Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer
2 cups apple juice
1 cup cranberry juice
1 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons red hot pepper sauce
1/2 cup Omaha Steaks Ancho Chile Rub
Instructions
Brisket
Remove brisket from bag and rinse with white vinegar then rinse with water.
Dry completely using paper towels.
Slather brisket generously with yellow mustard.
Rub generously with ancho chile rub and inject with 1 cup Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer.
Prepare smoker using 1 chimney of pure lump charcoal fully lit and one chimney of pure lump charcoal unlit. Make sure water pan is full and adjust vents until smoker maintains a temperature between 225 and 250 degrees F.
Place brisket on smoker fat side up and brush smoking spritzer over top.
Every hour, check smoker temp, squirt with smoking spritzer and add handful of wood chips.
After 3 hours, flip brisket fat side down and squirt with spritzer.
After 6 hours, flip brisket fat side up. Wrap heavy duty foil around the last 3-4 inches of brisket tip to prevent it from drying out. Restock water pan and add lump charcoal as needed. Adjust vents until temperature is between 225 and 250 degrees F.
Beginning at 8 hours, check internal temperature every hour and apply spritzer and wood chips as needed.
Between 11 to 13 hours, when internal temperature is between 195 and 200 degrees F, if fork slides easily into brisket, it is done.
Let brisket rest for 1-2 hours before slicing and serving.
Ancho Chile Smoking Spritzer
Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Attribution
Omaha Steaks
How concerned should we be about China’s use of AI in the military, including rifle-wielding AI robot dogs?
You don’t have to worry about it at all.
In order to attack China, you have to get to China. Which means ships. China can sink everything within 1,200 miles of the Chinese coast. So you will never see a Chinese robodog with a rifle.
Constantine | John Strikes A Deal With Satan
What are some scary facts about history?
One of the nastiest ways to die in the Middle Ages was toilet related. Because in medieval times, men of power and wealth made use of primitive toilets called a garderobe. If you knew a noble lord would make stool at a specific time a day, it would allow you to target your enemy from below when he’s least expecting it…
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Various famous leaders were killed in this gruesome manner, such as English King Edmund Ironside who likely was either stabbed or shot by bow and arrow while relieving himself. It’s just particularly wicked to me… the toilet is the one place where a person should feel safe. It’s a moment of peaceful contemplation. A moment of total relaxation. I couldn’t imagine sitting down to poop and ending up impaled in the butt and dying.
There are a lot of things that scare me about history. But nothing scares me as much as being stabbed or shot in the butt and dying on the toilet. That’s just absolutely gruesome. Medieval times were incredibly unsafe times — even relieving yourself could end up in brutal murder.
“What time is it?“No time in space, mate”Kian rolled his eyes and turned from the cockpit to face Cassius.“I know that,” he said with exasperation. I mean on Earth. I want to see if I can get a last radio transmission out to the kids before they get to sleep. We’ll be out of range by the time they get up for school.”Kian yanked on the bar above him and floated out of his seat in the rear of the cabin. He floated forward, as though swimming, to a console between the cockpit and cabin, the electronics glowing blue and orange.“Looks like it’s 21:22.”“I don’t have long. Can you start the private comms system, I think we’re still on frequency with the ISS. I don’t think NASA and Roscosmos really want to hear another person saying goodnight to the wife and kids just because they forgot to swap bands.”“I thought they made a policy against that?”“Only if you interfere with their ground station.”“Still.”Cassius opened a drawer under the radio system and pulled out a wired headset.“Kian!”He threw the headset to Kian and it rotated in slow motion towards the cockpit. Kian plucked it from the air without taking his eyes off the black expanse before him. One white, gloved hand was still on the controls. Despite flying this route since he was 9, he was still scared of letting his attention waver, especially as they drew close to the Belt. He always thought he might miss the Beacon and they’d end up on the wrong asteroid. Or worse, just miss the whole Belt entirely.Cassius pushed himself back to the main cabin as Kian adjusted the headset to fit over his ears.“God, this spacesuit sucks.”“I know. When you were asleep I finally got to talk to Haley, and five minutes in my head was hurting.”“I wish they kept the old collar. Why did they even change it?”“Policy, probably. Everything is policy. But hurry and say goodnight, you’ll miss them.” He floated himself back to the cabin, and picked up a book, adjusting the suit skin around his ankles. He regretted not getting the new one tailored. It was going to be awful in the boots.In the cockpit, Kian adjusted the headset to help take the weight off the collar one last time.“Hey, Miranda, you there?”“Kian! I was getting concerned, the kids have been waiting.”There was a rustle in the background and the voices of three young kids all erupting at once came through, so loud it became static.“Hi dad!”“Hi, you all being nice to your mom.”A unison of yesses followed.
“What’s space like?” asked one of them.
“It’s great, but how about we save the stories for when I get back?”
There was a second unison of yesses. Kian smiled to himself.
“Alright, well get some sleep. I love you all.”
“Love you too, dad!”
“I love you Kian. Be safe.”
“Always. Talk to you in a week. I’ll send radio signals out to let you know how things are going. And make sure you tell Leda to study for her calculus exam.”
“I know. See you in a week.” Miranda replied warmly.
The radio transmission ended. They passed Mars.
“Are you and Haley going to start a family?” Kian asked. It was, undoubtedly, the most fulfilling part of his life.
“I want to, but Haley says we aren’t ready. She wants to wait for another few years.” There was some doubt in his voice.
“Truthfully, I don’t think she ever wants kids. Just wish she’d have told me before we got married. I just wish she’d tell me at all.”
Silence filled the cabin, except for the periodic systems check beeps. It would seem unbearable to have the constant noise on Earth, but with only two travelling in the massive void of space, there would be an eerie, intolerable silence . without them.
Kian was always anxious being so far from home. He’d not yet recovered from nearly losing Maia on the Moon a month ago, and was questioning ever bringing his girls on a trip again.
He shook his head at the memory. Him and Miranda were so close to letting her wander out the space lock. It took not even ten seconds of her being out of their sight. Earth was far safer. But then again he was a year younger than Maia when him and his grandfather had come to Ceres the first time. And with far worse equipment. No wonder his mother thought her dad was psychotic.
As they approached the Asteroid Belt, Kian watched for the Beacon. It was an orbit leaping spacecraft that kept its position relative to Ceres so travelers would know when to engage the thrusters to divert from the straightaway to Jupiter.
Finally, in the distance, he saw it. He flipped on a series of switches in the cockpit overhead. The empty co-pilot seat now needed to be occupied.
“Cassius!” Kian called back.
“It’s time already?” asked Cassius, who was staring out the window facing back towards Earth.
“It’s time.”
Cassius smiled, took his spot next to Kian, and they started the auto-calculations for the thruster angles. A scramble of quaternions ran down the configuration screen in front of them, the GPS and antenna information calculated their exact position in space.
“I can’t believe your grandfather got you here without auto-nav.”
“Not like there wasn’t the technology. He just liked proving to everyone he was smart.”
Kian didn’t like admitting he was impressed, so he looked to Cassius for a brief moment, a smirk on his face, one eyebrow up, mocking his grandfather.
“You kids, don’t even know how to make the software that lets you camp, and you call it rugged.”
Cassius laughed as the trajectory was locked in, and the thrusters aligned themselves.
“Ready?”
“Ready.”
Kian counted down, each of their hands on a golden key in front of them.
“Three. Two. One.”
They turned their keys at the same moment, and the thrusters engaged. It was the worst part of the trip. Kian always vomited. At least he knew and kept a receptacle on hand. It didn’t stop Cassius from mocking him for it every time.
When they slowed and Ceres was in sight, and the two felt the nausea fade, Cassius turned to Kian, quite serious.
“If this were two hundred years ago and you had to do that with a helmet on, you’d be screwed, mate.”
“Well yeah. Lucky this isn’t 200 years ago, and I don’t need a helmet, or to know how to write the flight software. Although, I suppose we should start suiting up. Don’t want to land without gear.”
“You or me first?”
“I’ll get ready first. Keep an eye on the controls. Last time we lost auto-pilot and I had to get us to the surface without it.”
Kian unbuckled from the seat and used the armrests to push himself up out of the chair, careful to keep his feet from knocking the steering, or his head from touching the command module.
“You want a snack?”
“I just watched you vomit. I’m good.”
Kian reached the intermediary of the ship, and stowed the headset. Behind his ears was killing him. The collar was made of metal, like a woman’s choker. Or one of those ancient Egyptian mummies. He liked his neck the length it was. He cursed the Global Agency for Astronautics. He wished they’d let them leave Earth with their old skin suits.
He adjusted the clinging fabric as best he could, and realigned the belt around his waist. He opened a drawer in the console and removed his space suit. It was bulky, and weighed 170 pounds on Earth, without the helmet. Although, the pressure regulator did seem to take the weight off once it was operational.
He slid into the suit as if it were one-piece pajamas and interlocked it with the skin suit at the collar and belt. The leg and arm openings were metal rings which interlocked with the gloves and boots. He stepped into the boots and leaned over to twist the rings tight. Then the gloves. It was always the hardest part. He had no trouble with the first one, but his hands lost so much mobility from the gloves it was difficult to click the second one into place.
He opened a cabinet and saw his reflection staring back at him in the lens of his helmet. It was disproportional, like a man in a sumo suit. His blonde hair was already growing back, having been buzzed for the trip.
“You almost done?” shouted Cassius
“Yeah, just the helmet left.”
He took the helmet from the cabinet, careful to only touch the back half that didn’t have the lens, and placed it over his head, securing it with the same twist lock. He took a deep breath and rotated the heavy ring. The whole inside of the suit isolated, he could finally turn on all the regulators, and air valves. The suit inflated slightly, and he pulled out his oxygen tanks from a final drawer, guiding them towards the space lock for use once they landed.
“Your turn.” He said to Cassius, sitting back in the primary pilot seat. Ceres was only thirty minutes away. He stared intently out the window as the thrusters disengaged and they caught the dwarf’s orbit.
“I set the coordinates to get us to Rao, but I think we’re going to end up closer to Kokopelli,” he said.
“Well that’s okay, we haven’t stayed there yet. Remember last time we wished we’d gone a couple more degrees north.” Cassius replied, his voice getting slightly muffled with the helmet.
Kian nodded, turning on his helmet’s local radio.
“Is this too loud?” he asked Cassius.
It came over as barely more than white noise on Cassius’s helmet.
“Too quiet, actually.”
Kian adjusted the settings.
“HOW ABOUT NOW?”
“No! No. Too much. Definitely too much” Cassius, instinctively reached to cover his ears despite them being trapped by the helmet.
Kian made the final adjustments.
“You ready? Let’s land this thing.”
Cassius rejoined Kian.
“You know the drill. Once the command module says we’re orthogonal with the ground, launch the landing sequence.”
They stretched to reach a different duo of keys. The command module beeped with a blue light, and they turned them in unison.
The spacecraft started its descent directly downwards until they were just hovering over the surface. And then they were grounded. They stared out at the crater expanding before them, a couple other spacecraft landed along its rim, and finally let their excitement show.
“Hell yeah. Let’s get out there.”
Kian and Cassius gathered backpacks of items, fixed one another’s oxygen tanks to their backs, and clicked the space lock button. Inside the vestibule, they engaged the air circulation in their suits, making sure they could breathe, and then waited for the chamber to depressurize. The door opened in front of them. In the opposite direction Jupiter hung low in the sky, rising like the Moon.
“Did you remember the camera, Cass?”
“Obviously.”
They walked a few paces from the ship and laid down their gear, pitching their dome. They’d only sleep in it a night out of the three there were here because of oxygen limits, but Kian was more interested in the larger domes that were further along the rim of the crater.
“While this inflates, let’s go check out the other domes. I want to see how they’ve kept their plants alive.”
“I thought you said you didn’t bring any this time? Remember, yours kept dying?”
Kian glanced at Cassius with a mischievous grin on his face.
“There’s no harm in trying, Cass.”
“You took space up for plants? Again?”
“Relax, I only brought a few. I figure one of the permanent botanists can watch them after we leave. And the dome has better UV protection than last time. It should filter out some of the radiation that was burning the leaves off the oaks.”
“I thought you said we were going to explore, not experiment.”
“There’s nothing to explore. Just some rocky land and craters you don’t want to fall into.”
“We could try to find an entrance to the mantle. I really want to be the person to finally prove the existence of the underground ocean.” Cassius sounded as if he were begging.
Kian gawked.
“You’re really comparing getting lost underground to me bringing a few foot-tall trees? I thought we were just going to look at the stars and take pictures. Maybe see if we could catch Earth on the telescope. Not get ourselves killed.”
“We won’t get ourselves killed. Besides, you have to admit that sitting around for three days is going to be painfully boring.”
Kian groaned. He did want to find the underwater cavern. Him and his grandfather spent a week every summer looking for it. But the only entrance to the sublayers of Ceres were in cryovolcanoes. It was way beyond the threshold of their suit ranges. Their blood would freeze.
Cassius knew all of this. Kian had reminded him on a number of occasions and Cassius knew it was a losing battle.
“I suppose we could figure out how to plant your stupid trees,” Cassius said, rolling his eyes.
“I figure,” Kian said as they started leaping towards the larger domes, lazy as can be to preserve oxygen, “if I can get the trees to live, we could get some pretty good terraforming plots going. With enough oxygen and permanence here, maybe we actually could find your underwater ocean.”
“Don’t pretend like you don’t have a nursery at home with another hundred experiments with your plants, Kian. Don’t pretend like you’re doing this for me.”
“I’m a bioengineer, what do you expect? Anyways, I want to find the caverns too. Just, I don’t want to be so rash about it. No one else comes here. We’re not racing to explore. Or, just bring a drone next time.”
They reached the first dome. It was greener than Kian had expected. They approached the space lock and a woman tending to a small patch of grass near the inner door, looked up. She grinned, wide-mouthed, and stood, rubbing the grey dust from her gloves. Sunglasses blocked the radiation, but Cassius was certain they weren’t protecting her vision the way she needed them to, even with the dome shielding.
She looked as if she were tending a regular garden on Earth. He saw her face, and regret immediately filling him with a sick feeling, fell in love.
She opened the space lock and waited as they stepped inside and the vestibule re-pressurized. Before opening the main lock, she asked their identities.
“You two look familiar.”
“Yeah, it’s Kian. I pestered you last year about your growing methods.”
A look of recognition spread across her face.
“Ohhh, I remember you. But not him. You were with someone different, no?”
“Another of my friends.”
Her voice sounded like honey. She welcomed the two of them into the dome. They turned the oxygen feed off and let natural air fill their suits. It was thin certainly, but the dome was beautiful. Somehow, in the middle of the void of space, this little dwarf was green and livable.
“I have all your basic crops growing pretty well now,” said the woman. “Grain, lettuce, even grapes. I’m working on grass to increase the oxygen levels, but it takes a lot of water. Hard to get it to grow without taking trips to the ice caps often. I worry for when they melt in the solar maximum that is upcoming.”
“You do all this by yourself?” asked Cassius, fishing. He felt as though he were betraying Haley, but he knew Haley didn’t love him the way he wished she would.
“No.”
Cassius felt instant disappointment. It was odd he was so attached to her and yet he’d only met her. He thought he wanted to return to Earth but it didn’t stop him from staring at her, at the blue of her eyes, enamored. He reasoned he could get to know her for a few days, convince her to return to Earth with him. It was, of course, entirely unreasonable.
But the dome was beautiful. And did he really want to return to such an unsatisfying life? Kian had a family. What did he have but a crappy job and wife who didn’t love him.
“Do you need any help?” he asked.
“My sister helps. Though it’s a lot.”
“Just you two?”
“Yeah.”
“Care to make it three?”
The woman looked at him like he was crazy.
“Trust me, you don’t want to stay here.”
Kian looked at him like he was even more crazy.
“You know it takes two to pilot the ship right?”
“Well, then I shall return next trip, and when I do, I shall stay.”
The woman smiled.
“We’ll see.”
Three months later, Kian, Cassius, and another friend returned to Ceres. Cassius had resolved to live there permanently. He had divorced Haley. He was, for the first time in years, optimistic.
When they landed near Kokopelli, Kian knew something was wrong. The domes looked different. Cassius, who had dreamt of returning Daria since they left, was the first to run aimlessly to the dome when they landed. Kian and Auden didn’t need to run. They knew what had happened. What had so often happened to those who tried to terraform.
They reached the dome. It wasn’t green or lush. The crops were withered. The air lock was wide open. Daria’s body was huddled next to her sister’s, on the ground and motionless near the entrance of the sub-dome where they slept. The polar caps had melted and vanished. The two girls were dead.
Expat life: American things that don’t make sense
Chile Chicken with Basil and Coconut Cream
This is one of my favorites! Easy and great for dinner parties. Always a hit!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds chicken breast fillets
2 tablespoons oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons finely chopped small fresh red chiles
1 cup shredded fresh basil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 teaspoon chopped fresh coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 cup coconut cream
Instructions
Remove excess fat from chicken, cut chicken into 1cm (half inch) strips.
Heat oil in wok, add onions and chiles, stir fry until onion is soft.
Add chicken, stir fry until chicken is tender. Add basil, sauce, coriander and sugar, stir fry for 1 minute.
Add coconut cream, stir mixture until heated through.
Notes
Best made before serving. Freeze: Not suitable.
I serve this dish with fluffy Basmati rice and a light lettuce salad.
Jack Meets The Tet (End Scene) | Oblivion
More Heart Pain – Going Home to NJ to see Cardiologist today
As I write it is 6:17 AM EDT on Monday, July 1, 2024 here in Pennsylvania. I have more heart pain. I’m heading home to NJ to head to my Cardiologist. I think I’ve got another blockage.
You may be aware that back on April of the year 2019, I suffered a Myocardial Infarction heart attack. I was in my car on a Saturday morning, driving to the local supermarket in North Bergen, NJ when I suddenly felt this “pressure” in the center of my chest. It didn’t hurt, it felt like someone was kneeling on my chest. I remember thinking, This is odd, and kept driving.
A few blocks later, I started getting this awful pain in my lower jaw. Really hurt! And I started to sweat. Not some gentle little glistening sweat, I mean a full blown FLOP SWEAT. The sweat was POURING out of me.
I thought to myself, pressure in my chest, pain in my jaw, now severe sweating, these are all signs of a heart attack. I denied it and kept driving.
When I got to the supermarket and tried to turn the car into the parking space, it felt as though the muscles in my arms had been hollowed out. No strength at all.
I managed to turn into the space and park.
I opened the car window to get some air and thought I’d just rest a minute and maybe I would feel better. After a minute or so, I went to get out of the car to go shopping, and my legs felt as hollowed out as my arm did. I almost fell flat on my butt.
I got back in the car and said to myself, that’s it, I’m not going shopping, I’m going home. At that moment, I started to feel like I was going to pass out. And I knew, “If I pass out, I’m gonna die right here.” So I called 911.
The police and an ambulance came – fast! They took me to Christ Hospital in Jersey City where I was admitted.
The next day was Easter Sunday, and laying in the hospital bed doing nothing . . . . the whole shit show started all over again. Pressure in the chest, pain the jaw. Sweating.
Docs came, put me on IV nitroglycerin and told me: “There’s something wrong with your heart. We’re trying to prevent it from killing you before we can get in there tomorrow morning and find out what’s going on.
6:00 AM the next morning, into a Cardiac catheterization lab I go. They insert a camera into my wrist artery, then fish it to my heart. There was big imaging machine above my chest taking images as they did what they did. Didn’t hurt at all.
After about ten minutes, the Doc comes back and says, Mr. Turner, you have three, possibly four, severely clogged heart arteries. Normally in a situation like this, we insert stents. But your clogs are not small and round, yours run the entire length of your coronary arteries. You need open heart surgery, and we don’t do that here.
So I told him my regular Doctor is Harvey Gross in Englewood. He has privileges at Englewood Hospital, do they do open heart surgery there? He told me he would call and ask and be right back.
A few minutes later he came back. Yes, they do open heart surgery at Englewood, yes, they take your insurance and yes, they have a bed available, we’ve called an ambulance to transport you up there right now.
So up I go.
We get to Englewood, they do all the tests all over again; they weren’t taking anyone’s word for it.
In anticipation of giving me stents, Christ Hospital gave me a load dose of a medicine called Plavix. It stops the blood from clotting. But they couldn’t put the stents and I had to go to Englewood.
Well, Plavix is great for stents, but terrible for open heart surgery. They need me to clot when they cut my chest open.
It took five days for the Plavix to clear out enough where I could undergo surgery. They took me in Friday morning. Long story short, I got quadruple bypasses. FOUR arteries were 90-95% clogged.
It took about 6 months for the sternum to heal after they cut it open, but I got along fine.
Fast-Forward 17 months after the surgery . . . . down I go again!
Another myocardial infarction heart attack. Turned out that two of the four bypasses, CLOGGED WITH BLOOD CLOTS. I was right back into a life threatening situation. And __this__ heart attack . . . . . . was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY worse than the first.
The ended up putting a stent in. I went into heart failure in the cardiac catheterization lab, but came out of that. That was October 2020.
In January 2023, I started getting the twinges of pain that I recalled preceded my first heart attack, so up to the Doc I went. He said, given my history, it is best they go in and look again. I agreed. They found more clogs. Inserted another stent in my left, anterior, descending artery.
Which brings me to this past Saturday afternoon, around 12:45 PM. I’m sitting at my desk up here in Pennsylvania and wham, the same pain that happened at the first heart attack, started again. Then the jaw pain. I thought “Oh shit, it’s happening again.” And then . . . . it all just stopped. No pain. No pressure. No sweating.
Uh oh. I think this is a sign I’ve got more trouble brewing.
I wanted to drive home to NJ but my truck has 22 solar panels in the bed and I want them up here. But unloading them (1400 lbs) would be physical labor that may not have been wise given my situation. So I planned to get some neighbors to help unload the solar panels on Sunday. That didn’t work out. So I’m hiring a couple guys today.
I’ve got very mild pressure in the center of my chest. No pain, no sweating, so if there’s something going on inside, it is not a full blown M.I. but that nagging, mild pressure in my chest tells me I’m close to going full blockage.
The plan is to unload the solar panels, lock up the house and head out to NJ to my cardiologist. I’m pretty certain he’s going to want to go back in with a cardiac catheter again. In fact, I’m going to request exactly that. I KNOW something is wrong and it has to be addressed – today. This would mean I won’t be on the air tonight.
If, by chance I waited too long, or this thing hits while I’m doing my stuff this morning, or while I’m driving home – and I die – my son Michael will let you know.
I just want to let all of you know how much I appreciated you being part of my radio show. It has been a pleasure and an honor for me – even if sometimes I brought down lightning strikes with some of the opinions I aired.
You folks have been very kind to me and while I completely intend to keep broadcasting, God may have other plans. I’ll keep you posted.
Just a heads-up.
Prometheus | Destroy the Ship
In the battlefield, how safe are snipers? Do snipers have the highest chance of survival since they are so far away?
Rule #1 of combat. If the enemy is in range, so are you.
A sniper, if they are set up really well and don’t shoot too often, can go a long time without being found. But once they are found, then they die.
There was a situation once where a particularly well concealed sniper was shooting at American troops in Iraq. He may not have always killed his intended victim, but it was, to say the least, disconcerting for the troops in his area.
In an effort to rid themselves of this pest, the Army sent out various sniper teams to try and locate this guy. They were out for a LONG time and shot after shot was made by the sniper, but he was still impossible to find.
Then one counter-sniper saw a brick in a wall move. A single brick moved, then a shot was heard, then the brick was put back in place.
They had found him.
A sniper was sent to a position that would allow them to shoot into the hole the sniper was making when he moved that brick. A few minutes later, the brick moved, the counter-sniper shot, and the enemy sniper was dead.
His big mistake was thinking that nobody would ever see that one brick moving. So he stayed in one place and died because he was too lazy to find a new hide.
Did China just pass quasi-laws which can theoretically sentence anyone (especially the Taiwanese people) who publish or support the opinions of Taiwanese independence to death penalty?
Study the laws carefully with proper Chinese translation
(Rough Translation)
There are four levels of Punishment :-
Level 1 – Any person who publishes material through a blog or electronic post advocating for Taiwanese Secession from the Mainland shall be
If younger than 18 years of age, be placed under RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE until such time as the Investigator sees fit or until the person commits activities that are deemed secessionist under the security act
If older than 18 years of age or 18 years of age, shall be placed under ACTIVE SECURITY INVESTIGATION and subject to security report may be WARNED or placed under DIGITAL BLACKLIST or maybe charged with Secessionist activity under the security act
So here if you merely post you want Taiwanese Independence – you will either be monitored by the authorities and won’t get a Civil Service Job or a Foreign Scholarship or a Passport for maybe a decade or two
Or if you are an Adult – you get a warning or get placed on a Digital Blacklist meaning No access to Weibo or other Social Media Apps
Unless it is revealed you are funded by NGOs or other groups in which case you get charged with Secession and could face severe sentences
No Jail in either case
Level 2 – Any Person who belongs to or supports an Organization that advocates Taiwanese Secession under Lists I-IX or who has received a sum of not less than 60,000 RMB in a single year or 200,000 RMB over a longer period from such an organization without discernible services provided shall
Be sentenced to an Imprisonment of not less than 5 years which can extend upto 15 years
However any Person who has joined or expressed such support only over a period of less than 3 months shall receive a PUBLIC WARNING and if in compliance shall not be proceeded with beyond RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE
This means if a Mainlander joins a Pro Taiwanese Organization like a foolish student,he shall get a WARNING and if he complies and backs out – he is not touched beyond the usual Restrictive Surveillance. He of course will never work for Civil Service or Get a Passport for life
Level 3 – Any Person who forms an organization within the Mainland that calls Support for Taiwanese Secession and either collects funds for the same or advocates policy and speech that is in favor of Taiwanese Secession shall
Be Sentenced to Death with no avenue of commutation to Life Imprisonment
All members of the HUKOU records of the Person shall automatically be under ACTIVE SECURITY INVESTIGATION and shall be placed under RESTRICTIVE SURVEILLANCE and Digital Blacklist and any members of the Party shall be expelled from Party Membership subject to Committee Enquiry under VII Rules
Any members of the HUKOU records of such a person shall if overseas be recalled immediately and after a recall notice period of 60 days shall be categorized under Level III Security Act
This is the changed law. The new law where if anyone forms an organization that calls for Taiwanese Secession and collects funds or makes speeches in favor of Taiwan. THEY WILL BE EXECUTED WITHOUT MERCY OR COMMUTATION TO LIFE
Their family members will be investigated and if members of the CPC may be expelled or if overseas shall be recalled and if they don’t come within 60 days- they will be deemed security threats and can even be KILLED ON FOREIGN SOIL
This is the New change in the law. Earlier it was 25 Years to Life with NO DEATH PENALTY
Level 4 – Any Person who is accomplice to or instigator of an Act of Physical Violence or Terrorism on the Mainland or Mainland Sovereign Territory in any Country that causes at least 500,000 RMB of Damage or a loss of one or more lives shall be
Sentenced to Death with Commutation possible only for persons who can prove lack of knowledge of the activities and who had no further role
All members of the HUKOU records of the Person shall automatically be subjected to the NATIONAL RELOCATION ACT and SECURITY DETENTION ACT
Any members of the HUKOU records of such a person shall if overseas be recalled immediately and after a recall notice period of 7 days shall be categorized under Level III Security Act
Any Separatist who causes Violence in China or Embassies that cause 500K of physical damage or loss of even one person shall be executed without mercy
This Law is so tough that IF YOU ARE A LANDLORD WHO RENTED A HOUSE TO SUCH PEOPLE – YOU WILL GET LIFE IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT MERCY
Families of such persons shall be deported to labor camps and kept there for life including Children
Both Parents or All Guardians will face the same sentence if their Kids younger than 18 are charged and convicted under this act
So if a 17 year old kid blows up a Molotov cocktail killing someone, the Parents will be executed under the New Law unless they inform on their kid leading to a conviction of the Kid in which case they get fully exonerated by the State
So the only new change is that now anyone who forms an organization to support Taiwanese Independence shall be executed without mercy and their families shall be prevented from doing a lot of things
Their Kids can never go abroad
Their families can never live within 300 Kms of any place with Security facilities
Their families can never get a Passport
Their families can never work for the Government of China
Their families can never work for a Strategic Industry in any capacity
Their families can never join the PLA or PLAAF or PLAN
Families include – Parents, Children, Wife, Consort, Divorced Wife is Divorce is less than 5 years old, Siblings, Wives of Siblings, Children of Siblings, Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren
So if one guy does it – upto 40–50 people can suffer for no fault of their own
Now here is something the West didn’t tell you
The Law also excludes people:-
Exclusion:-
The Security Law shall NOT regard the following persons as culpable under it and shall deem them law abiding. This includes :-
Any person who reports possible secessionist activities of any family member under the Hukou system
Any Person who has relatives in Taiwan and declares the same
Merely because a person has visited Chinese Taipei does not put a person under the purview of the Act unless such person visited Taipei in contravention of existing emigration procedures
No person who merely posts secessionist content on behalf of another person and can establish the same, be charged under this act
Merely indicating support for DPP in Taiwan or for Leaders of the DPP is insufficient to be charged under this Act
So you can call William Lai a Hero and nothing will happen to you
So only three areas are DRACONIAN
First is that family members also suffer for no fault of their own , something that was removed off statuette since the death of Mao Tse Tung and reintroduced in 2009 for Xinjiang only
Second – Kids can inform on their parents and Parents must inform on their Kids to avoid being charged. So a son who sees his father work for Taiwan must report him and watch him be executed to survive and so must a father
Three – Execution is the only course now. No commutation to life. You get convicted, you die
This wasn’t the case previously
So while the new laws are draconian to a good extent – they allow a lot of leeway unlike India
In India someone saying Pakistan Zindabad can be charged with UAPA
In China now clearly – just because you hail DPP or William Lai won’t make you culpable at all. You will not even be touched.
Biden debate debacle
Yeah. It was awful.
Shorpy
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As a doctor, what is it like when you have to see a doctor?
I hate it.
I hate having to make an appointment. I hate filling out those stupid review of systems files that the doctor never seems to have bothered looking at by the time I get to talk to them. I hate that the doctor is always late, but that the staff will give me shit about it if I’m late. I hate having to ask someone else to write me a prescription for something I already know I need. And, most of all, I hate being lectured about what I need to do for my health.
Go away! Shut up. I already know this stuff. LEAVE ME ALONE! I’m a freakin’ doctor, too, dammit.
That’s a polite rendition of my inner monologue when a doctor tells me what I need to do. So, most of the time, I avoid going to the doctor’s office. If I know I want something, I write myself a prescription—yes, you can do that, as long as it’s not a controlled substance. If it doesn’t take care of my problem, then and only then will I seek medical care.
I’m young enough that I can get away with it, because I don’t yet have serious medical issues. For now, there are very specific circumstances under which I will go see a doctor:
I need to see a specialist for a problem well above my pay grade.
I know that some test needs to be ordered. I can’t order a hip X-ray or lab test for myself, for instance.
Even then, if I can get away with it, I’ll go to the Urgent Care center, because I hate making appointments.
“If you treat yourself as a doctor, you’ll have an idiot for a patient.”
I’ve heard variations of these over the years. Fine, I’m an idiot, then. I don’t care. I’ll be damned if I’ll go see a doctor unless I absolutely have to.
Don’t try this at home, kids.
I Dumped My Girlfriend And Ended Her Best Friend’s “Perfect” Open Marriage, Now EVERYONE Blames Me
Has a doctor ever misdiagnosed you to the point where it was almost bizarre?
Yes. When having sepsis, the initial diagnosis by the ER doctor who didn’t even bother to look at me was “ your depression acting up”. Never mind my high fever, renal colic pain and failure, my inability to breathe, vomiting and repeated fainting, it must be all in my head! Fortunately my blood results changed his mind.
Blood tests were ordered after I did some yelling on the topic of me going to another hospital( which was quite near) and then coming back to kick his a**.
Very recently my elderly mom has suffered from lower back pain for 2 months straight. No meds helped, she frequently vomited, could hardly walk and couldn’t sleep because of the pain. She was ordered basically every test known, going through gastroenterology ( yeah, she has post inflammatory narrowed esophagus), urology/nephrology, orthopedia. Urine tested, blood tested. She was told she was fine, nothing was wrong. Until a CAT scan was performed. Showed 3 fractured vertebraes caused by foreign mass.
After giving birth , I cried through the night because of a terrible pain. Was told by the nurse on duty that “ G, you have birth vaginally, we only give pain meds to women recovering from C-section, it can’t hurt you”. Had multitude of stitches( forgot to count after an hour of them sewing me back together) due to 4th degree tear and an F broken coccyx! I couldn’t sit, walk or lay down without that pain for 4 months. But I guess it was just me being too sensitive.
Since we’re both women, we have plenty of those experience. Let’s group them under medical misogyny aka “you’re a woman, you’re overreacting”.
Ps. Let me not start on how many times I was asked if I was sure it wasn’t just a period pain. I think it was actually the first 2 years of me having recurrent kidney stones causing renal colics when my then ahole GP refused to order an ultrasound “ because I was too young to have kidney stones”.
PS 2. The most ridiculous situation actually happened when my molars rot and caused a massive infection during the last trimester of my pregnancy. At first, I went to a doctor with what seemed as a heart attack. He then moved on to whether I was having a stroke, trigeminal nerve inflammation to finally getting to “ F teeth why didn’t I think of that?”. To give him some credit, my pulse was sky high and I felt sharp pain in my jaw and neck. Teeth wouldn’t be the first guess.
This cat was called ‘mean.’ Then he met my husband.
What was it that your partner told you that gave you chills?
My second husband was in the hospital, dying from cancer. The day before he died, I took him down stairs to smoke a cigarette. As we were sitting outside, he looked around and said, “Honey, don’t look, they’re watching me.” When I asked him what he was talking about, he said “the shadow people. They’re over there, in the woods.” I turned to look and he said “no, don’t look, they’ll get you too. I think they’re here for me” That comment sent shivers down my spine. I said “no, sweetheart, there’s no one here for you” I thought he was hallucinating because of the pain meds. He said “shut up, I have to tell you some things.” He proceeded to tell me how my life would go after he was gone. He told me that I would get remarried and that he would tell me WHOM I was going to marry. He told me I would have more children.
Now, at this point in my life I had been told that I couldn’t have any more children. I told him he was crazy and that I thought we needed to get him back up to his room.
I got him back up to his room got him in his bed and he went back to sleep. He passed away in his sleep 6 hours later.
Oh, and the things he said would happen….
They happened!
Have you ever witnessed a life ruined from a small mistake?
I worked with a man whose life fell apart quite dramatically over a few weeks.
He was a nice guy and I really liked him. His name was Ivor and I feel terrible about what happened to him.
He and his wife were drinking together one evening, and they started arguing. So he went to sleep in his car. A few hours later, the police knocked on his window and woke him up. Although he had not been driving, the keys were in the ignition and he had been sleeping in the driver’s seat. They breathalised him and he was still very drunk.
As they now had him for drunk driving, they had the right to search his car. In the car they found a cosh that he kept for protection. I doubt he would ever use it. But, unfortunately, they are illegal and he was now in trouble for carrying an offensive weapon.
His wife was angry at him so wouldn’t let him come home, so he had to sleep on a friend’s sofa. By the way, Ivor was not a young man, he was in his early sixties. Due to his stress, he carried on drinking. He started missing a lot of work. Which was bad. What was worse is that one day, he DID turn up to work, but very drunk. He worked for about thirty minutes, until his managers called him in the office, and after a heated argument, he was fired.
So we never saw Ivor again. This whole thing played out over about three weeks. So in three weeks, Ivor lost his wife, driver’s license, job, and got a criminal record. In his sixties.
Ivor was a good guy and he used to have foreign students stay at his house. Just before he got fired he had Japanese students, and would bring Japanese food in for us to try. I often wonder what the Japanese people staying at his house made of his meltdown.
Brutal Signs of a Collapsing Empire | Richard D. Wolff
Barbecued Brisket
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Ingredients
Brisket
1 flat brisket
Dry Rub
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons meat tenderizer
1 tablespoon pepper
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
Mop Sauce
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can beef consommé
1 can water
1/3 cup vinegar
3/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons meat tenderizer
1 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 bay leaf
Barbecue Sauce
1 1/2 cups Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup steak sauce
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup ketchup
Instructions
Brisket
Trim any excess fat from 1 flat brisket. Rub both sides of brisket thoroughly with Dry Rub. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
The next day prepare a grill so that it will smoke slowly for about 6 hours or about 1 hour per pound. Start brisket on grill with the fattest side up. Cover grill. Mop with Mop Sauce frequently during grilling. Turn brisket about every hour.
Serve with warm Barbecue Sauce.
Dry Rub
Mix all ingredients in small bowl.
Mop Sauce
Bring beef consommé and water to boil in medium-size saucepan. Turn down heat. Add remaining ingredients. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Remove from heat.
Barbecue Sauce
Place all ingredients in small saucepan. Bring to boil. Remove from heat.
What would happen if I threw a rock at a wild polar bear?
Throwin rocks at a wild Polar Bear ?
Short answer – No. Long answer – HELL NO.
Even if you had a 9mm pistol (let’s say a glock)
And you were facing a polar bear and you were lucky enough to let off some rounds. Guess what ? Be prepared to make peace with whatever deity you follow and learn from the lesson and do better in the next life.
The Bear will look at you and think……. “that looks tasty …nom nom”
Most animals will back off at the sound of gunshot.
Not Polar Bears
Even if you hit them they’ll carry on charging and will get to you.
The only way to stop it was if you were very, very, very lucky and got the bullet through their eye into their brain, maybe.
But areas of instant kill with a bear charging towards you on all fours is about size of teaplate. Can you hit that repeatedly under stress ? You really do not have much time for mistakes.
Their skull is harder and thicker than a motorcycle helmet. They kill seals just by slapping them. Trying to alpha posture by standing tall and making yourself look bigger will accomplish nothing.
“I’d hide behind a rock!”
You die behind that rock.
“I’d jump into a river!”
You die wet and cold.
“I’d stand my ground and yell at the bear to frighten it”
You die faster.
There are around three thousand polar bears on the Svalbard islands; that’s more polar bears than there are humans and they are protected by Svalbard law. So they have not built up a fear of humans.
Not every animal wants to hug a human.
Until humans with BIG rifles (22 calibre ……….actually more like .444 marlin) came along, nothing hunted polar bears. Nothing. There is no scaring it off. Just look at them
Polar bears will eat each other if they’re desperate enough. So what do you think they’ll do to you ?
They’re also dangerous because they’re skilled apex predators (meaning they have no natural predators of their own) Which means, cute as they may be, the polar bear is quite functionally the great white shark of the north.
They don’t hibernate.
They never get cold.
Food is scarce.
They’re always (I repeat) ALWAYS hungry.
The bottom line is if you’re a human being on open ice in the Artic Tundra with no serious firearm or vehicle and you run into this pic below ?
You have two chances of surviving
Slim
None
And slim just left town
You know the striking thing about a Polar Bear when u see them in the flesh, my friend ?
They’ve got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll’s eyes.
When they come at ya, it doesn’t seem to be livin…….until they bite ya and at that point you’re not on earth anymore and the Polar bear is the last thing you’ll ever see.
And bears are omnivores (meat and plant eaters) which means unlike carnivores like tigers and lions who have the polite decency to kill you as quick as possible first then eat you.
Polar bears will just hold you down, pin you to the ground like you’re a seal or salmon and eat you while you’re alive and screaming.
They have a bite force of 1,000 psi (Pounds Per Square Inch) that’s a force strong enough to crack a bowling ball and they’ll use that to disable you, to rip off your arm or leg for a snack, you can’t even imagine the kinda force they can generate.
To a Polar Bear an average-sized human is just right for a comfortable dinner with a glass of port and a good cigar afterwards.
You dunno what you’re dealing with.
And they’re trying to get access to your organs to chew them apart, then if there’s anything left of you, put you in stash, n come back a bit later n eat some more of you.
Just a brutal way to go.
They can run at speeds of 25 mph, If that doesn’t impress you, the fastest man alive who was Usain Bolt his maximum top speed was 27 mph and they can smell you for miles (even if your under snow) and swim for 100’s of miles
And they’re smart to. Polar bear on thin ice ? No problem they know they have to spread their weight around so it’s not concentrated in one spot so as to not crack the ice.
Humans in movies : Aggressively steps on ice
There are only three things up in the Arctic: Ice, water, and potential calories. Guess which category people are in ?
Modern Women Are DOOMED – New Anti Paternity Fraud Law Gets Passed!
For a spell, I worked as a Movie Theater Manager in Corpus Christi, Texas. The theater was a duplex; meaning two screens. Being a rather small operation. And the company was Mann National and our branch was “Twin”. So I worked for and at “Mann National Twin”.
The hours were terrible. Essentially, you worked when everyone else was having fun. But the perks were nice. One of the perks was a credit card that enabled me to visit and watch any movie at any time at any of the movie theaters in the country. UA (United Artists) or whatever. I could go anywhere.
Some of the movies I would watch over and over. Like Christine, or “For your eyes only” which pretty much tells you all the time frame of my experience. Ha!
One of the things that I used to like to do was crawl up to the projection booth and ham it up with the projection guys. There were two guys and one girl and they all rotated. And they were union workers and had rules that they had to obey, but they liked me a lot and we had a good time chatting it up and chillin’.
Good memories come about around the most common and unusual events. Who would have ever thought that I would be remembering those days with a fondness from my office in China while some guy in Romania is hounding me for solar pile drivers? Ah, life is strange. That’s for sure.
Enjoy what you have. The mundane might be truly valuable.
Today…
What freaked you out today?
I was sitting in Anatomy, 1st period, when this girl walked in.
Now, she’s not an ordinary girl; she’s a VSCO girl, and trust me, I’m a little scared of her. VSCO girls, I’m chill with, and friends with a lot of them. This one?
Pfft.
Anyway.
So this girl comes in, sits down next to me (assigned seats, ugh), nothing new.
The first bell rang, and everything was going normal when suddenly, this girl jerked as if she was having a seizure.
I was sleeping; my head was down, arms around my head. I needed a nap. So when this girl suddenly starts screeching, I shot my head straight up.
“My hydro flask!”, she screeched.
“BRUH”.
“Oh god, I thought someone was dying”.
“Sarah, just shut up”.
The class was mad.
I, on the other hand, was still recovering from this horrific shock, when she suddenly grabbed my arm.
I’m not even kidding, I thought I was going to die from fear.
“Amon!”, she yelled.
“Wh-”.
She got up and walked up to my teacher.
“Ms.J, can I go to Mr.A’s room? I left my hydro in there!”.
My teacher rolled her eyes and nodded.
The second she left, I felt peace.
It was my freak out of the week. Before she came back, I asked my teacher if I could change seats.
I couldn’t 🙂
Who’s listening?
What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?
Riding a bicycle on the public roadways… as state law requires.
I lived in a really rich area (with family) and had a job to save up for college expenses. To get from Point A to Point B (before I eventually did move out to my own place), I rode a bicycle. The road from the neighborhood that I lived in was a two-lane road that had no shoulder and no sidewalks. This meant that I had no choice but to use the roadway on my bicycle. When the sidewalks did exist, state law (I looked it up) mandated that I use the roadway. This situation was not well-received by nearly all of the wealthy people who ended up stuck behind me while I peddled along the road, to and from work or wherever else.
One night a bottle-blonde loudmouth with five spawn of hers bouncing around the back seat sans seatbelts decided that riding my bicycle peacefully (with lights as required by law) was somehow a crime. She pulled up beside me as I stopped into a McD’s for a late-night meal on the way home, and ordered me to wait for the police as she was calling them on me. She loudly berated me for riding my bicycle “on her road” and I was to consider myself detained. So, like a good citizen, I waited…
Just as I figured the cops might arrive, I suddenly left the scene, riding as fast as I could through the bushes to leave the woman looking empty-handed and dumb for the cops to arrive to. I thought I might have heard faint screams for me to stay put, but I did not care.
I hope the cops cited that wretched woman for her kids having no restraints / seatbelts.
Whenever I question if I am being a good dad, I watch this father…
What do Chinese people think about the First Island Chain that the US and its allies created to restrain and block China’s path to the Pacific Ocean? Is the nine-dash line and the Kra Canal the plan that China came up with to break the seal?
What do the Chinese think? Of course, thanks to the United States and its allies!
In 1960, when Mao Zedong spoke to a Japanese literary delegation, he mentioned, “I spoke to many Japanese friends about this incident, and some of them said that it was not good for Japan to invade China. I said of course the invasion was bad, but we should not look at this bad side alone, on the other hand, Japan has done us a great favour in China. If Japan had not occupied half of China, the Chinese people would not have awakened.”
This is the dialectic of history.
For the same reason, We are very thank for the first island chain created by the United States and its allies to contain and block China’s path to the Pacific Ocean.
Without the first island chain built by the United States and its allies to contain and block China’s access to the Pacific, China, as a traditional “LAND POWER”, would not take the initiative to develop an ocean-going navy.
There is an idiom in China called:
Life springs from sorrow and calamity; death comes from ease and pleasure.
It means that the sense of crisis makes people cheer up and work hard in order to survive. Hedonism makes people lazy, leading to death and the decline of national undertakings.
It was the blockade and suppression of China by the United States and its allies that objectively had an educational effect on the Chinese people, prompting their awakening, unity and resistance, and reminding them every day of the need to work hard for the rise of China.
If China was still the Republic of China, still ruled by the Kuomintang who fled to Taiwan, and still an ally of the United States, then China would not be so powerful today and would even become a sub-colony of the United States, and China will never have a chance to surpass the United States!
Especially after Trump started the Sino-US trade war, I saw the unity shown by our young people in the face of Sino-US trade friction, their indignation against hegemonic behavior, their care for national enterprises, their reflection on independent innovation, and their concern for the nation. The defense of interests, the persistence of the country’s position, and the clear understanding of one’s own responsibilities are very touching.
They are not xenophobic because of trade frictions, but love their country more; they have not lost their rationality and calmness, but have strengthened their confidence in independence and self-improvement.
This generation of Chinese young people who grew up drinking Coca-Cola may usually like to watch American TV series and love freedom and individuality. Sometimes they are also cynical and have all kinds of dissatisfaction and complaints about reality. But when the United States and its allies want to bully in trade China, harming China’s interests, these young people are absolutely unambiguous, and that spirit of unity will condense into a powerful force.
Some politicians in the United States are provoking economic and trade frictions. What effect do they have in mind?
They want to create fear in the Chinese people: The United States is so strong and tough, exerting extreme pressure and pressing every step of the way, and China’s key technologies are being choked by the United States, so you surrender!
They want the Chinese people to fight each other and blame each other: you see, the agreement collapsed, companies were damaged, consumers were affected, and travel abroad was restricted. This is all the fault of the Chinese government.
They make the Chinese people confused: a trade conflict with the most powerful country in the world, the consequences will be serious!
However, the calculations of these American politicians were wrong. They underestimated China’s determination to defend its core interests, underestimated China’s psychological tolerance for extreme pressure, and even underestimated the patriotism of the Chinese people.
They should read Chinese history. When have the Chinese been frightened? The greater the pressure from external forces, the more united the Chinese people will be!
In the court of public opinion in China, there is an unprecedented unity of opinion about the United States and an unprecedented unanimity of attitude in criticizing the hegemony of the United States.
The hegemony of the United States is so deep that even those “pro-Americans” who once praised the United States and used the United States to belittle China have begun to hate the United States and have become psychologically alienated from the United States.
In the past, the U.S. was an easy topic to stir up controversy in China’s court of public opinion, and extreme evaluations of the U.S. were often the cause of disputes. The “pro-American camp” used to glorify everything about the U.S., American values, American history and stories, and America’s “universal goodwill. The “pro-American camp” used to glorify everything about the United States, American values, American history and stories, America’s “universal goodwill”, and the United States as the “savior” of China and the world. The remarks of the “pro-American faction” have deceived many Chinese people.
However, as the conflicts between China and the United States intensify, the deceptive remarks made by “pro-Americans” to beautify the United States have been exposed one by one.
We are grateful to American politicians for their hegemonic behavior in the trade war between China and the United States, in total disregard of international rules, and for tearing down the veil that hides realist interests, so that the world can see a real United States.
Again! The Chinese people thank the United States and its allies for their hostility, blockade, and suppression of China!
Playin’ my song
Have you ever seen a teacher get completely roasted by a student in high school?
It was the day a new guy came to school. Actually, he wasn’t totally new, he just spent a year at home quarantine because of infectious disease. Now he’s back and because of missing a year at school, he comes to our class. Little did he say about how he’d spent his time in hospital and at home.
History teacher that day also had no way to know. She decided to flood us with hard data on WW2, and just started about how Wehrmacht swept through Ukraine. Half class about to fall asleep, the other half looking for some other quiet entertainment, Zdenek, the new guy, staring at her. She gets nervous and fastens up her speech. Zdenek says this makes no sense and with a loud BANG throws math book on his desk.
“What did you just say?” she roars and rushes toward him.
“I said paying attention to you makes no sense. You make it boring.”
“History is just like that. Do you think you can do any better?” She shows toward the map hanging on the wall that pictures Europe at WW2 begining.
With a confident smile he takes a pointer from her, walks to the map and gives the most amazing lecture I’ve ever heard on the subject. He covers all important data, shows places on the map, spices up with interesting details, throws in jokes, the class for the first time pays attention to history. Not a single mistake in his speech. The teacher, red as a boiled lobster, stands and stares in silent amazement.
When the bell rings, he bowes deeply like a theater actor and the teacher claps. The class applaudes. When we wrote test on the subject a few weeks later, THIS topic was the only one everyone gave correct answers to.
Closing: Zdenek is now a well renowned history teacher himself. His students love him.
Appendix: I’m happy to hear about so many great teachers out there! It is very important to spark interest in children and cultivate it, and these guys you mention here are obviously doing a great job. Thumbs up for all the good teachers worldwide.
‘As Though They Lobotomized Him’: Vivek Ramaswamy Blasts Joe Biden After Debate Performance
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This is what is great about families
Do you regret moving to Australia?
I am a guy from Slovakia. I moved to Australia 3 years ago. It’s been a life changing experience for me.
Even though the beginnings were hard, I regret nothing. When I came here, level of my English was really poor. I had some basics, but it was just hard to understand Aussie accent. So that was the first thing for me which I had to struggle with. I moved to the location where it is generally hard to find any job even if your English is on higher level. Let me clarify something for you. Before I moved here, I made a deal with my parents, where they lent me all their savings so I could start a new life. I had three weeks for finding a job before I would have run out of money because, along with a rent, I had to pay the school fees too (the only option for me to enter this country at that time !).
But I did it. I found a job. It wasn’t any luxury job – I wasn’t expecting it at all. I became a cleaner, domestic cleaner, public cleaner, and I cleaned also in industrial places. Some people think this is the hardest part, because they have to leave all the education and degrees behind, and start from the bottom. But I was glad that I had an opportunity to make money and cover my journey. My mind set then was so crazy that I would have been doing almost anything not to fail my parents and me. It was hard for me YES, from many reasons. I entered an adult life because I was convinced that school benches are not for me anymore, convinced that a real life is out there (I checked some countries as an exchange student). I can’t even say how many times I was hitting the wall with my head in my bedroom, saying to myself how stupid I was, I should have rather stayed at home and live my secure life with family and friends. But I never accepted any failures. Even though I felt lonely because I left them all behind or felt lonely because of missing social activities due to heaps of school stuff along with work.
My conclusion is that after 3 years I can say it was worth it. I am still here, I made many friends that have the same value for me as ones that I left in the home country. I am living on the beach with an ocean view from my bedroom, working at a luxury holiday resort. I make enough money to buy presents for my family, and support them if they need. If I wanted a car, I could buy one tomorrow.
When I look back, when I came here I was just a kid with ridiculous opinions about the world and about people. My best friend told me once, if you don’t struggle at the beginning, in the end it is never THAT great. You have to struggle so then you can APPRECIATE what you have earned !
So I definitely regret nothing, because moving to Australia helped me to become a stronger person !
PS: Now, I am 24 years old 🙂
GF Pretended To Love Me For A Ring, Instead She Got Booted Out And Almost A Restraining Order!
Did the rise of the U.S. and European colonialism coincide with and benefit from the relative weakness and isolation of Asia, especially China and India?
China
What made China weak in the 1800’s? Weapon.
China was not economically weak at the time. Quite the contrary, China was so rich that attracted western merchants to do trading with China. UK waged 2 opium wars with China to force China to open the entire China for them to sell opium. … they sucked dry China’s currency (silver at the time).
So, to be accurate. It was industrialsation that made the West militarily strong. Not because China was isolated.
Before western colonisation started, China did trading with Mideast esp ancient civilisations eg Persia (Iran & part of Iraq). The famous SILK ROAD to do trading with Mideast is well documented.
About 1500 years ago, Persia was attacked by some nation. Persian king asked China for military help. But due to distance by horse & camel, China turned it down.
China was not isolated at all.
India
India was a tribal entity before UK colonised & united the tribes.
Sure, before colonisation, Indian tribes were militarily weak. Otherwise, they would not be colonised.
UK also tried to colonise Xizang (Tibet) & around Xinjiang regions, but failed.
Was India isolated before colonisation? I dont think so. Buddhism was invented by Indians. It spread to Mideast before Christianity. Somehow, Buddhism took a U-turn & went East to China.
Today, we see Christian fathers holding a chain of beads. That matches Buddhist monks’ practice. To keep their mind focused during meditation.
The so-called European gypsies are actually Indians wandering around thru Mideast from India.
conclusion
It is industrialisation & weapon that made the West strong. Not their economy. Not their philosophy.
Even today, it is weapon that makes USA strong. Weapon first. Then monetary & financial.
When have you cheaply or inexpensively fixed an item someone thought unrepairable?
Originally Answered: Have you ever cheaply or inexpensively repaired something that people thought could not be repaired?
I did more than once. My dad used to tell me “you have to know how to improvise.”
In 1970 my girlfriend (first wife) worked for a lawyer and he got rear ended in his Karmin Ghia. Insurance totalled the car. He offered to give it to her…free.
I looked at it and couldn’t figure out why. She asked if I could fix it. Being a young guy in love, I said sure. The car was drivable and we drove it to my parents’ house.
Then I understood why it was totalled. It was a unibody. The correct way to fix it was…I had no clue. But you have to know how to improvise.
The right rear quarter panel and the unibody frame were rolled up around the battery, even though the battery was okay.
On a cold February Saturday morning I started. I took a sabre saw and cut off the quarter panel. Wasn’t hard – just took 6 blades to get the panel off.
Then I got a couple of hammers and started to unroll the unibody frame. That took three weekends. Neighbors were not amused at the racket since I was doing this on the street. It didn’t look like new, but I could marry it to a new panel.
I found another Ghia in a junk yard and bought the quarter panel… $30. Took it home, cut it to fit. So far so good…but I don’t know how to weld. Improvise!
Got it! Pop rivets!
I had a neighbor whose dad was a body shop manager at a Ford dealer. He offered to weld the panel for $300. And then told me that pop rivets would never hold the quarter in place and it would never line up correctly.
$330 for a car my broke girlfriend just got for free? Don’t think so. But thank you for the advice.
I put bondo on the area, sanded it down then sanded the rest of the car. My neighbor’s dad lent me a spray gun and sold me two gallons of yellow paint. The car was originally green. I talked another neighbor into letting me use his garage for a weekend.
My girlfriend had not seen the car in three months.
That wrecked car she got for free looked close to new, and she drove it for five years. Then she gave it to her sister, who drove it for four more.
Gotta know how to improvise.
Meanwhile in China
What is the general sentiment of Filipinos towards China? Can you share your personal opinion on this matter and the reasons behind it?
Human being are not very smart. They can easily be brainwashed.
Let me give you an example.
All cultures have creators. All creators made the SAME sun, rain, humans, animals, plants etc. It means it is the same creator, be in polytheism or mono.
Different wisdom will create different cultures incl religions.
Jesus was a man who rebelled the Jewish authority – Jewish history.
Christianity told followers that Jesus is son of creator.
How many Christians are there in the world? …. human beings are lazy to do their own thinking; Nor do they read more. They just listen & blindly follow their leader.
PH under Marcos is anti-China. He creates hatred of China.
Christianity twisted Jewish history & painted a picture of Jesus the Jewish rebel as the victim & as the saint to save the world. … yet Christians buy the narrative of the bible/church.
Marcos twisted UNCLOS meaning. He paints a picture that China is the bully harassing the poor weak PH. But the fact is that PH territory does not incl SCS according to the 1898 Spain-US Treaty & 1900 UK-USA Treaty.
PH changed its PH law (I think it is the constitution) to incl SCS. It is an internal that has no binding on world stage. But Marcos wont tell his people. …. many Filipinos buy Marcos’ narrative.
Human beings only listen to their leader without thinking. Nor do they read more.
Hence, I wont be surprised if, like Christians, a big portion of Filipinos hate China.
Even in London… this is the reality
Who was the most cowardly military leader in history?
That would be Lloyd Fredendall
main qimg 1efa7583987542e2368ffbf62ac8a79d lq
“There were signs of trouble ahead. In the early morning hours of January 30, a force of 30 panzers broke through the Faid Pass and struck the French positions there, with another force of tanks and infantry circling south and coming up behind the defenders. The French plea to the Americans for help resulted in a shambles.“
“A force too small for the task under U.S. Brig. Gen. Raymond McQuillin moved slowly forward before halting for the night. The next day 17 American Sherman medium tanks rolled directly into a trap and were devastated by German 88mm guns. An infantry counterattack the next day also failed, and the pass remained in German hands.“
“The French, suffering losses of 900 men killed or missing, were furious at the Americans. The entire ordeal revealed problems in American command and tactics, but the disastrous rude awakening that would spark the sweeping changes desperately needed was yet to come.“
“Shangri-la”: Fredendall’s Leadership From the Rear
“In early February, General Eisenhower managed to get away from Casablanca and visit II Corps. What he found shocked and appalled him. Fredendall had located his headquarters an incredible 70 miles behind the front line (some have said even farther back). Seemingly obsessed with an air attack, Fredendall had a battalion of engineers working to blast out underground bunkers in the side of a ravine for his staff, while having the headquarters ringed with antiaircraft guns.“
“It was the only time during the war that I ever saw a higher headquarters so concerned over its own safety that it dug itself underground shelters,” Eisenhower remarked later.”
“At the front the situation was also alarming. Eisenhower arrived at the crossroads village of Sidi Bou Zid, where the 1st Armored Division and the 34th Infantry Division were positioned because of the enemy capture of Faid Pass on January 30. He found no defensive minefields laid down, only excuses as to why not, and assurances the job would be done tomorrow. It was an example of a troubling lackadaisical attitude among the American troops there.“
“Fredendall did not go up to the front line, instead relying on maps at his headquarters and issuing orders over the radio. That was undoubtedly a factor in the woeful unpreparedness at the front line in the American sector. Moreover, the fact that he was always in the rear was noted by his men, who called his headquarters “Speedy Valley,” “Lloyd’s very last resort,” and “Shangri-la, a million miles from nowhere.” Inevitably, the situation affected morale and severely eroded the confidence of Fredendall’s men in their leader.”
“General Lucian Truscott had this to say about Fredendall: “Small in stature, loud and rough in speech, he was outspoken in his opinions and critical of superiors and subordinates alike. He was inclined to jump to conclusions which were not always well founded. Fredendall rarely left his command post for personal visits and reconnaissance, yet he was impatient with the recommendations of subordinates more familiar with the terrain and other conditions than he.” Fredendall routinely ignored intelligence reports, bypassed subordinate commanders, and micromanaged troop dispositions down to company level.”
“He often used blowhard, tough-guy sounding language in an attempt to cover up his inability and indecisiveness. Phrases such as “Go smash ‘em,” “Pull a Stonewall Jackson,” “Go get ‘em at once,” or “Use your tanks and shove” were common.“
“He also issued orders using wording that no one understood. His intention was to confuse the enemy if he was listening in, but orders such as “Move your command, i.e., the walking boys, pop guns, Baker’s outfit and the outfit which is the reverse of Baker’s outfit and the big fellows to M, which is due north of where you are now, as soon as possible. Have your boys report to the French gentleman whose name begins with J at a place which begins with D which is five grid squares to the left of M,” only managed to baffle his own people.“
The Thin American Line
“When Ike visited the II Corps units near Sidi Bou Zid on the night of February 13, he had no idea that within hours the Germans would launch an offensive under Rommel and von Armin that would unleash a disaster for the Americans. Fredendall, against the advice of his 1st Armored Division commander, Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward (whom Fredendall disliked and so deliberately ignored) and others, had kept American forces spread thinly along the front instead of maintaining a strong mobile force to counter any German attack—wherever it might happen—or take swift advantage of an opportunity. Time had run out to organize such a mobile force. The next day, February 14, the Germans attacked, and all hell broke loose.”
A German artillery shell shocks an American soldier on the battlefield in North Africa. Early encounters with the Germans resulted in stinging defeats for the U.S. Army.
“Things rapidly fell apart for the Americans. Everything seemed to go wrong. The lack of discipline under Fredendall’s command came to a head with the German onslaught, and Fredendall’s actions in the battle speak for themselves.“
“At his headquarters, well back from the fighting, Fredendall was unable to control the situation. From Djebel Lessouda and Djebel Ksaira, two hilltop defensive positions Fredendall had ordered set up which flanked Sid Bou Zid and were too far away from each other to offer any mutual support, American soldiers could only watch helplessly as the Germans rolled over their comrades below while panic spread rapidly amid the savage mauling. An under-strength counterattack by the Americans on February 15 failed, Sidi Bou Zid had to be abandoned, and the Americans on Djebel Lessouda and Djebel Ksiara were cut off.“
“By the time Fredendall issued orders for the hilltop defenders to break out it was too late. Although they tried to make it back to Allied lines, only 300 of the original 900 men made it. One of those taken prisoner was Lt. Col. John Waters, General Patton’s son-in-law.“
“The attack quickly turned into a rout. Panicked American troops, only wanting to escape the maelstrom, fled in chaotic pandemonium rearward under terrifying attacks by Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers. Forced back 50 miles, disorganized and demoralized by the stinging defeat, the Americans fell back to the Kasserine Pass, which pierced the Western Dorsal Mountains and provided a gateway for the Germans to slice into the Allied rear areas.”
The German Breakthrough at the Kasserine Pass
“With the situation extremely desperate, Eisenhower sent 2nd Armored Division commander Maj. Gen. Ernest Harmon out to Fredendall. He was identified as a “useful senior assistant” sent to help Fredendall in “the unusual conditions of the present battle,” although in reality he was there to assess the situation at II Corps for Eisenhower. Arriving at 3 am, Harmon found Fredendall groggy from lack of sleep. Obviously broken by circumstances and a defeated man, Fredendall simply said, “The party is yours,” and went to bed. Taking control, Harmon managed to stabilize things. Harmon reported back to Eisenhower that Fredendall was “no damn good.”
“After more heavy fighting, the Germans did manage to get through Kasserine Pass. The arrival of Allied reinforcements combined with the Germans’ own command problems to grind the offensive to a halt. In just 10 days the Americans had lost 183 tanks and 7,000 men, including 300 killed and 3,000 missing.“
When American troops of the II Corps came up against the German veterans, the initial results were disastrous. The American commander, Maj. Gen. Lloyd Fredendall, was also found unequal to the task of leading troops in combat.
“Time was running out for Fredendall. In early March, Eisenhower pulled General Omar Bradley aside at Tebessa. Bradley had recently finished an inspection of II Corps, and Ike asked him about the situation there. “It’s pretty bad,” replied Bradley. “I’ve talked to all the division commanders. To a man they’ve lost confidence in Fredendall as the corps commander.”
Patton Takes Command of II Corps
“On March 4, Patton was given command of II Corps, writing in his diary, “Well it is taking over rather a mess but I will make a go of it.”
“Patton reached II Corps headquarters on March 6, finding Fredendall at breakfast. Initially, his impression of Fredendall personally was positive, but when he discovered how bad things were with the lack of discipline, no saluting, and the slovenly appearance of so many officers and men, he wrote in his diary on March 13, “I cannot see what Fredendall did to justify his existence. Have never seen such little order or discipline.”
“Under the leadership of “Blood and Guts” Patton, however, duty in II Corps was transformed. Rigorous training regimens were imposed; all officers were required to wear neckties and helmets. Decades later, one of the officers who was there when Patton took over remembered his initial encounter with the legendary general: “General Patton said, ‘Every man old enough will shave every day. Officers will wear ties in combat.’ And then he came up to about a foot in front of my face and said, ‘And anyone wearing a wool-knit cap without a steel helmet will be shot!’”
“Bradley, now Patton’s deputy commander, observed, “Each time a soldier knotted his necktie, threaded his leggings, and buckled on his heavy steel helmet, he was forcibly reminded … that the pre-Kasserine days had ended, and that a tough new era had begun.”
“It was the start of a turnaround that resulted in victory at El Guettar in the eight-day Allied offensive that began just 10 days after Patton took command. The Americans had learned a hard lesson well, and the painful but eye-opening experience of February 1943 ultimately paid off for them for the rest of the war.”
“For Lloyd Fredendall, however, the fighting was over. He was sent back to the States, where he remained for the duration, training men. He retired in 1946 and passed away in 1962, at the age of 79.“
Blame For the Catastrophe at Kasserine Pass
“The fighting in February 1943 became known as the Battle of Kasserine Pass, a humiliating experience for the Americans although it must be remembered that many U.S. soldiers fought bravely and tenaciously in the chaos and confusion.“
“Not all of the blame for the disaster of Kasserine can be laid on Fredendall’s shoulders; there were other factors behind what happened. One was the reality that the American soldiers at that point were inexperienced—something beyond anyone’s control. There was also a widespread overconfidence among them. Anything Fredendall or anyone else could have done to alter their unrealistic mind-set that a quick and easy victory lay ahead likely would not have had much effect.”
“Still, Fredendall was largely culpable in what happened. He violated command structure and kept commanders in the dark by withholding vital information, bypassing them, and causing confusion. He was more interested in his own safety than in being constantly aware of what was happening at the front.“
“The fact that he issued orders worded in incomprehensible nonsense was bizarre without question. How could a U.S. Army general act in such a way? He isolated himself from his men and was responsible for an appalling lack of discipline.”
“Fredendall sounded like a fighting general, and with his exemplary service record prior to World War II he seemed a likely success. But battle makes short work of hype or false bravado, and it made short work of Lloyd Fredendall.”
“However, only a week later, after an initial inspection of his new command, Patton had completely changed his mind: "I cannot see what Fredendall did to justify his existence."
“According to Harmon, Fredendall is a physical and moral coward.”
George S. Patton diary entry March 2, 1943
In college I saw a frat guy beat a homeless man pretty bad in an alley while all his friends watched. He paid for it though!
I was in a patio area of a bar that was adjacent to the alley. We watched the guy pull up in his hummer and walk down past the guy, then tell his friends to film as he beat him. He went into the bar we were at and several of us went to check on the homeless man. He turned everyone away and said he refused to be violent but that if the guy came back it would be a different story.
A few hours later that frat guy left the bar with his friends and started talking about how he was going to beat the homeless man again. When he started throwing punches this time we saw the homeless man lunge at him. I’ll never forget how he screamed as the homeless man stabbed him in the stomach multiple times.
His friends ran off and left him, crying in his own blood.
The homeless man walked about 10 feet away and set the knife down. He just waited for the police. Everyone from the patio cleared out to check on the frat guy, but he just kept crying saying he didn’t know what had happened.
The police showed up, with an ambulance and they hauled the frat kid off. The cops were being awful to the homeless man and didn’t even act like they wanted to take statements. Finally enough of us explained what we saw that they believed the homeless man’s story.
I’ll never forget two things about that.
The first is that the frat threw a get well fundraiser for the guy. What’s worse is that they didn’t even say that he was stabbed they said it was a car wreck.
The second was the statement the homeless man gave the police. The cop asked what happened and he clearly said, “I’ve stabbed thousands of people. I took a beating the first time but growing up on these streets sometimes you have to teach people a lesson.”
That cop was stunned, he said thousands, and they guy said yeah, and that’s why people know not to F*ck with me. As they were putting him in the car he was telling people what kind of knife to steal at Walmart and how to use it to protect themselves.
Momma cat is not plain’
How many Chinese missiles can reach Taiwan?
At this point, even a rock hurled using a large trebuchet can hit Taiwan.
If you count the stock of missiles that China has and include MLRS (multiple launch rocket system) and everything. It probably comes to somewhere around hundreds of thousands. That is in the 100,000+ range.
China has been preparing to fight the US, NATO, Japan, SK, Australia, and India at the same time for the last 30 years. Go take a look at how much munitions have been fired in Ukraine from both sides then multiply by 100.
For your reference, China supplied Vietnam during the Vietnam war with over 1,000,000,000 (1 billion) rounds of rifle ammo. 64,000 artillery guns and 17,000,000 (17 million) rounds of artillery ammo.
This is the scale that China had 60 years ago when China was on it’s knees. China is now hundreds of times wealthier and can manufacture more than anyone else in the world.
How much munitions do you think China has stocked up? And this included everything they have from the end of the Vietnam war to now. China can bury Taiwan in munitions. forget about Taiwan, China can bury the West in munitions.
Chinese police do not mess around
Would you hire someone who’s been in prison?
Many years ago I needed someone to go grocery shopping once a week for our company’s lunchroom. We paid a $15.00 flat fee, and the shopper was required to provide their own transportation. I sent them out with a detailed shopping list and a company check. It was actually a good fill-in job in a college town, but not exactly a career path.
My two previous shoppers presented their primary credential as being born-again Christians, thus obviously highly moral and trustworthy. Both bought their own personal groceries on our tab and were shocked when I told them that we weren’t paying for them. Telling them that it wasn’t just theft, but stupid theft, since the receipt clearly listed the unapproved items, made them rise in holy fury–and ask for a second chance. There were no third chances.
So the next guy, Rick, applies. His credentials: early 20s, personable, bright, out on bail for dealing coke. I don’t know why, but I hired him. He was one of the best employees I have ever had. Everyone in our small company liked him. He was absolutely reliable, cheerful, and never tried to slip personal purchases into his shopping trips. Our highly selective lab manager came and asked me if it would be ok for him to hire Rick as a part-time lab tech. Of course I told him yes. Rick rapidly became full-time, then earned a couple of raises as his skill levels rose at phenomenal speed. I came to trust him with my car and my personal bank PIN. Never had a problem.
Right after Christmas Rick pulled me aside to say that he wanted to thank me for the opportunity I had given him. I choked up. Being tougher than a junkyard badger, I couldn’t let him see that, though I think the snuffling and tears (allergies! It was allergies, I swear!) might have given me away. I didn’t give him anything: he earned everything he had at that job, and the lab manager wouldn’t have hesitated to fire him if he wasn’t very, very good at his job. This wasn’t a charity dedicated to rehabilitating the unfortunate: it was a for-profit business where competence was valued above almost all else. He didn’t owe me or anyone else thanks.
Maybe I thought that this guy knew what REAL trouble was, and wouldn’t risk loss of a job or legal trouble over small change. I don’t know, but I wish him well.
Al Consoles Cuckolded Husband | Married With Husband
Regardless of what you may have heard, Los Angeles is a shithole.
If you are coming to Los Angeles to become a movie star, stay in Wisconsin and be a plumber.
The word is, “anyway.” There is no ‘s’ at the end.
Public Education is a total mess on every level. We need alternative educational choices.
You will not see any actors during your vacation in Los Angeles.
Illegal immigration is a big fucking problem in CA, Arizona, Texas, etc.
Socialism doesn’t work. It doesn’t matter how hard you try to make a plausible argument in favor of it, it will NOT ever be successful.
Marijuana is not a “gateway” drug. Being a dumbass hypochondriac, bored housewife, or rejected husband is a much larger doorway to opioid abuse.
Yes, there are thousands, if not millions of people that I can’t stand for one reason or another. That’s what misanthrope means.
You’re probably not receiving a shit ton of upvotes on your answer, because it’s just possible that your answer is shitty, not because there is a conspiracy against you by the invisible rulers on Quora.
Thai Pork Burritos
Thai Pork Burritos
Ingredients
1 pound ground pork
2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, thinly sliced
2 cups cole slaw mix (with carrots)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
4 large (10 inch) flour tortillas, warmed
Instructions
Sauté pork in large nonstick skillet until no longer pink, about 3 to 4 minutes.
Add ginger, garlic, onion and cole slaw mix and cook for 5 minutes, until vegetables are wilted.
Add remaining ingredients except tortillas and stir fry about 1 more minute.
Spoon equally onto tortillas, and roll up like an egg roll.
Serve with rice and salsa or Asian dipping sauces.
I cannot believe that this is caught on camera
What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?
The company I worked for decided at the start of lockdown due to coronavirus to sack pretty much all of the staff. I tried to argue with the owners to keep my staff but they decided that it wouldn’t be fair to the 4 or 5 of us they were keeping on to work throughout lockdown ( we were a café and deli and a market so because of the deli being classed as essential we stayed open ) if they kept the others on the furlough scheme of 80% wage for “sitting at home doing nothing” while those of us working only got 20% more for actually working. The fact that all of these people couldn’t exactly help it being a global pandemic was clearly inconsequential to them.
After losing out over that they then asked me to sign the furlough application “just in case we closed” and couldn’t work. I did it as I thought it sensible to safeguard myself in case that did happen. Anyway, after the argument because they sacked all the staff they decided to hire someone else for me to train as manager, I assumed it was for their other store but also started to believe that they may be trying to get rid of me.
2 months after the start of lockdown and them sacking all the staff I notice my payslip says I’m being paid furlough and then it’s being topped up by the company to give me what I’m working for. Totally ILLEGAL so I called them out on it. 3 days later I was sacked because “money had gone missing” and since they didn’t know who it was that took it I, as manager was to take the responsibility.
End of the story is I went to all of their small business partners who rent space from them telling all about the fact they had all paid rent while the company refused to pay their own, I then went to the government and reported them for the fraudulent claim of furlough money. Currently waiting for an update on how things are going. Will update as soon as I know.
EDIT: Not entirely sure why I have saved them the embarrassment of being named before now. The place is called WhyNot? The one I worked at is based in North Berwick, Scotland although they do have a second store in Galashiels, Scotland. They are on Tripadvisor and Google. They did this in both stores, I think between both locations they sacked between 15 and 20 staff and cheated the UK Government and taxman, as well as the staff, with the wages of at least 2 staff that were kept on at first during the lockdown in Britain.
纯享丨早安《麒麟》 秀到天花板的flow | 中国说唱巅峰对决 EP7 | THE RAP OF CHINA | iQIYI精选
Most spaceships are designed to give their crew members several flashing warning lights or perhaps a blaring alarm before dropping out of the sky, but my lucky streak just so happens to land me in the only one that isn’t. Here I am, hurtling towards a planet at speeds that will crush me and my crew on impact, and not a single red light to speak of. Even the little “check engine” light next to the gas valve remains stoic and dark. Insurance is never going to cover this damage.Calypso, our wonderful commander-in-training and significant pain in the ass, scuttles around the cockpit examining all of the dials. The left wall is full of them, measuring gravity levels, emissions, fuel, speed, and a dozen or so pointless other things we never bother to look at unless something is wrong.“All normal!” she shouts at me, as if I’m not five feet away in the pilot’s chair.I shout back at her, “And we didn’t run into the atmosphere?”She checks a tiny screen close to the floor. Another design failure. “Not according to the pressure sensors.”The pressure sensors line the bottom of the ship to detect atmospheric pressure from around a mile away. If they sense it, the blast disks will rupture and send a report to the cockpit screen. We use them to keep in orbit of a planet, because diving too low can cause exactly what’s happening now. They’re also known to be changeable and glitchy.“Check something reliable.”“Fine.” Calypso scans the wall again, this time stopping to stare at another screen higher up. “No atmospheric gases reported on our air sample. According to them, we’re still in open space and at an even keel.”“Then how are we headed downwards?”I stare out the front glass, willing the screen to power up and tell me what’s going on. It remains clear, my only clues being chucks of space rock that burst into fractals on contact. Damn it, I don’t want to crash on my first mission with a new crew. Even with the nice adrenaline rush, they’ll think I was placed here because I wasn’t competent enough to fly elsewhere, and that’s entirely untrue.“Pilot error, I guess,” Valentina chirps from her seat.There it is. The blatant lie. Knew it was coming.There’s no way in hell—or in space—that I caused whatever this is. I am a competent pilot.“Oh, fuck off.”“You fuck off. We’re about to waste a perfectly good ship.”The last part of that sentence is a lie, too. Valentina lays it on thick with this bold-faced blasphemy. I’ve flown exactly thirty-seven different varieties of cargo ship and fifty versions of a fighter, and to call this ship good is an insult to all of the others. I’ve also crashed a fair few ships in my day, and all of them at least alert you to issues within the console if not give you a full mechanical workup on what’s going wrong.What the hell is wrong with this thing?The ship lurches, throwing Calypso into Valentina’s chair and knocking them both to the floor. Valentina deserves it. If I angle the control wheel a little more, I can make them slide across the cockpit floor and hit the doors at the back, which would be funny if I didn’t have to worry about landing the ship in one piece. Right now, angle is everything.But maybe it’d be worth it—just to see—maybe?“No,” I say aloud. “We’re landing this ship.”The girls clutch onto the chair with white knuckles, as if they’ve never gone down in a ship before.Their normal pilot must not have ever crashed. I bet he thinks he’s some kind of legend for that.Unpopular opinion: it is so much better to have a pilot that goes down every other mission than one who finesses their way through every trial. When you’re with that first guy, you know that they can land that craft no matter what shit happens on the final panicked spiral. The second, who’s to say?
“I need you guys to stand up,” I tell Valentina. “Brace yourselves on the chair or whatever, but I need you to tell me the second we hit the atmosphere.”
I wish I could look back and see her face as she says the next sentence, because it does not sound friendly. “You want us to stand up?” She must be so pissed. Too bad I have to keep my eyes ahead of me or we’ll all explode like a package of popping candy in a Coca-Cola.
“Yes, stand up.”
“How do you expect us to do that?”
“Brace yourselves on the chair.” I need to tug upward on the throttle within five seconds of hitting the atmosphere in order to survive this crash. “Use the top screen, not the blast disks.”
“The blast disks are just as reliable as the top screen,” Calypso snaps, “and I can read them from the floor where it’s safe.”
“Sometimes they burst too early. Can’t take that risk.”
“But you can take the risk of driving us straight into this planet? That makes perfect sense.”
There’s a difference between calculated risk and stupid risk. Using the blast disks over the atmospheric sample is a stupid risk. And I wasn’t the one who decided on crashing into this planet; the ship made a move to crash and I tagged along for the ride. I would say all that, but I wouldn’t want to waste the air.
I hear Valentina groan, so she must heed my orders to rise. Something rams into our starboard side, but she remains standing. Or at least, she doesn’t fall on anything that makes a significant amount of noise.
“You’re up, right?” I ask to confirm.
“No thanks to you,” comes her response.
I’d tell her to fuck off again, if it wasn’t a waste of energy. “Okay, tell me when we hit the atmosphere. That very second.”
She doesn’t answer right away, so I imagine she’s making a face at the back of my head. She can do that as much as she likes. I’m still going to be the savior when we all walk out of this alive.
When she does speak, it’s curt. “Of course.”
“And if you tell me a millisecond too late, we’re all going to die in a hail of fire.”
“Finally.”
“We’re talking Hell’s fury here.”
“Where do I sign up?”
I stop engaging her. Even though the medic is two years older than me, she acts far more immature. Had I known switching crews would suck this much, I would have stayed at the Gemini Base with the rest of the burnouts.
So long as she answers me at the right time, I should be able to land our ship with minimal damage to the cockpit and enough intact material to fly again after a few repairs. Calypso, commander, took the place of mechanic on this trip as if she had some kind of mechanical skill, so the reconstruction should be covered.
“Pressure disks just snapped!” calls Calypso from the floor. “Whatever you’re planning—”
Valentina cuts her off. “Atmospheric readings don’t detect anything yet. Wait a minute.”
I’m going to trust Valentina.
“I’m waiting a minute,” I say.
The next few moments are crucial. Hit the atmosphere, pull up on the throttle, slow our descent to less than one hundred miles per hour, then locate a good place to slide where the underbelly of the ship will not completely tear off. Simple. Of course, it would be a lot easier with the warning lights blaring, but I suppose we’re past that point. If I miss the margin to pull up, we’ll come in too heavy and obliterate our means of transport against whatever sort of foreign ground this is, and will therefore have to survive on whatever we can salvage from the craft like savages.
“Atmosphere!” Valentina exclaims. I wrap both hands around the throttle and pull up as hard as I can. The ship’s nose rises slightly, and our speed decreases. Now it’s time to look for an empty stretch of ground. I make a mental note to remind both girls later how close the pilot’s chair is to theirs, how they don’t have to scream, because the ringing in my ears does a fabulous job of garbling my thoughts.
Sixty seconds to impact, I think. Seventy if we’re lucky.
My track record isn’t the best. I decide to give us fifty seconds.
Clouds puff by the side windows. I can see the heat building on the tip of our spaceship. I pull an overhead lever to force-field the cargo hold below us, so the crash will not disintegrate everyone onboard. Forty seconds.
Now that I have a clear sight line, there is barely anything at all on the surface of this planet, save for a few skeletal copses of trees. I can land us almost anywhere that I wish, a luxury I so rarely receive. I line up the control wheel, pull the throttle a little bit more, press on the glass guards so I can’t be impaled by razor thin shards, and then all we can do is wait for the ground to hit us. Or rather, us to hit the ground. Valentina, bless her intelligent heart, drops back to the floor next to Calypso so she will have something to hold on to. Twenty seconds.
Minutes are so long. I use ten seconds to spin around in my pilot’s chair, like my old friends used to when we were on the same squad. They should be here now, instead of these panicked people, telling me if my angle is right and whether or not we’ll lose all of our resources or just a couple.
And now we’re on the final countdown.
“We’re coming in hot!” Calypso shrieks, although I don’t know how she can tell that from the floor.
“That’s the only way to come in!” I yell back.
She screams, and I whoop, and the ground gets closer. I’m cheering when we hit it.
A Barn Cats Natural Instincts Defend Our Farm
Was pardoning the Oregon ranchers a good move by President Trump?
Originally Answered: Was pardoning the Oregon Ranchers a good move by President Trump?
Lets say you own a few acres of land somewhere out there in America. A oil company knocks on your door and says, “Hey satellite pictures show that you have a rather large oil field on your property. We would like to pay to extract it.” Now you agree to this and sign a contract that allows them to take the oil but for every barrel they have to pay x dollars + inflationary rates.
So the oil company now sets up the equipment on your land and starts to use your driveway to move the heavy equipment to the location they are going to drill. You think everything is going okay except you never see any money from the barrels of oil they are extracting. When asked for your money on the resources on your land, they keep telling you the check is in the mail. So they are ruining your driveway with heavy equipment, blocking friends family and relatives access to your house, you have no mail services, and you can not use your land for you own cattle or something else becasue the oil company is blocking everything yet you are not getting paid.
Finally after a few years becasue you are going to go under and you can not pay your mortgage or maintain your land anymore, you press the company to actually pay you for the oil extraction. Then they remove all the heavy equipment from your land and burn your house and everything on the land to ground.
Now I am going to ask you, what kind of justice would you want?
Well, the boys in Oregon did exactly this. Except it was not an oil company it was cattle grazing and poaching wild deer. They also blocked and prevented people from accessing the public park land and allowing them hike, camp, etc…. They used the roads that the park maintains to move their cattle. Except they did not do this for a few years….. it was like over 20. When finally pressed for them to pay the American people for using our resources, money that would go to helping in sustaining the park systems that EVERYONE has the right to use and lessen the tax burden of the american people, they burned down the entire forest which then the hotshot firemen and women had to come in and put out to prevent it from spreading to homes and the rest of the forest, thus costing you millions of dollars in damage.
Now justice to me would be we literally take the land of those people as reparations for all the damage and money owed to the american people and put it in the national park system. Then whatever else remaining they owe they spend their time in jail or we garnish their wages until it is all paid.
What the hell…
Is it okay for parents to secretly snoop through their teenagers’ stuff?
When I was young, my mom regularly read my older sister’s diary and would scream at her for hours based on what my sister wrote (normal, innocent things like losing her temper about having to wash the dishes). So I never wrote in a diary even though my mom pushed me to. She tried to read all my emails, almost never left me at any friend’s house, and would listen in on phone conversations. She would search my (shared) room up to a couple times a week while I was in college.
It got to the point that my cousin knew to follow along if I immediately changed the topic because I hear the click of another phone getting picked up. I would set up my underwear and sock drawers in specific ways so I knew which days she searched the room. Sometimes, I set up stuff for her to find (a fake love note) because it would stop her from searching more. Even after I moved out, she would go on my library account and check which books I was reading to see what I was doing in life. A pregnancy rumor was started that way because I was studying to help one of my friends in the delivery room.
I begged her to respect my privacy and to just talk with me but she refused. If we had trust and open communication, she would have found out that I had never done drugs, didn’t drink till I was 21 and still in small quantities, my crazy behavior was study at coffee shops with classmates, and that my then boyfriend and I were very safe in everything we did.
Now, due to that and other things, I don’t tell her about anything personal. I have not told her about the long term relationship I’m in, where I live, anything serious going on in life, etc. Instead, she searches online, stalks through our personal and professional profiles, and finds information that was stolen and sold by hackers. When I was recently followed by a photographer, I didn’t know if it was a private investigator that she might have hired or someone I needed to be scared of.
So NO, it is not ok for parents to snoop through their children’s stuff. It is crossing a boundary and destroying trust. Instead, parents need to build the trust between themselves and their children, even if it means getting outside help. Otherwise, you are treating your child the same way prison wardens treat prisoners.
Alexander Mercouris: NATO & Russian Jets Clash Over Black Sea, Ukrainian Military Defies Orders
What is the most appalling breach of customer service etiquette you have ever seen?
A few years ago i had booked a flight on an airline whose name I won’t mention. Anyway, their policy was the fare was non-refundable but you if cancel you will get flight credits for a future flight.
I tried to cancel online, but it wouldn’t go through, The message that came up was to call customer service.
I called and after trying to put it through, the agent said there seems to be a glitch whereby the system couldn’t process it. The agent then said they can send me a voucher for the flight amount for future use.
Later I received the voucher in my email, but it was only good for 90 days, and didn’t include taxes or fees.
I called again and they again said there was nothing they could do about it because the system wouldn’t put it through. I asked to speak to a supervisor. The agent said they don’t have supervisors there but would escalate it and I’d receive a call within the next two weeks from the corporate office.
When corporate called, the representative said there’s nothing they could do, but “as a one-time courtesy” would extend the expiration date 6 months. I said that was unacceptable but the rep would not listen. I tried to reason with her. I asked her what if she bought something from Walmart, returned it in the time allotted with the receipt, and Walmart said there was a glitch in the system but they’d give her a voucher that would expire and didn’t include taxes. I was talking to deaf ears, as she still didn’t listen.
Finally I contacted the State Attorney General’s office with all the information. They sent a letter to the airline, and within a few days I got a letter from the airline saying there was a “misunderstanding”, and they gave me a full refund on my credit card.
A little known fact
When you were invited to someone’s home, what surprised you there (behaviour, decor, etc.)?
Many years ago, I was invited to a friends home. We were both children, but my mother kept a clean, orderly house. When i entered the neighbours house, I was shocked by the filth & dirty diapers & garbage that was almost floor to ceiling with a narrow path winding around inside the house. This little girl had 2 younger siblings. The older one wasn’t a boy or a girl. It had legs that splayed in either direction, crossed eyes & it’s mouth hung open permanently. I was horrified by the sight. The mother had also just had a baby boy, but i never saw him. The young girl took a bottle of dish soap & we climbed the short stairs to the garage roof, got out the garden hose & a broom & started washing the roof of the garage. Meanwhile, the severely handicapped younger sibling pulled itself up the stairs & onto the garage roof. Suddenly it flopped forward on its face & started noisily slurping up soapy water. What a family.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson: Putin’s NUCLEAR WARNING is No Bluff and NATO Crossed His Red Line
What is the smartest thing you have seen a lawyer do in court?
Well, not so much a lawyer, but….
I heard this story 35 years ago, told by a highly respected prosecutor about a case someone else in his office handled.
The case involved a murder charge but the body of the victim had never been found. Instead, the prosecution relied on circumstantial evidence to prove that the victim had in fact been killed. Nonetheless, the evidence, according to this prosecutor, was overwhelming and proved convincingly that the defendant committed the crime and disposed of the body.
The defense case focused on the lack of a body, hoping to create reasonable doubt in the jury’s mind about the prosecutor’s whole theory.
In this particular state, the prosecutor makes a closing argument, followed by the defense, followed by a rebuttal closing argument by the prosecutor to address points raised by the defense.
In his first argument, the prosecutor laid out the evidence, piece by piece in such a forceful and convincing fashion that the jury sat mesmerized, as he described it, “noddin’ and bobbin’” their heads in agreement. When he was finished, he confidently sat down.
When it was the defense attorney’s turn, after a few introductory remarks, he proclaimed “Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, having heard the prosecutor’s argument, you may be thinking that this is a slam-dunk case and my client is guilty. But there is one piece of evidence that the prosecutor didn’t and couldn’t produce: The body of the alleged victim. Well, the reason why he couldn’t produce the body is because there is no victim. And I am going to prove that to you.”
At that point, the defense attorney stopped, then pointing to the door, said “ladies and gentlemen, in the next thirty seconds, the alleged “victim” (using air quotes) is going to walk through that door!” He then walked back to his seat.
The prosecutor broke out in a sweat, thinking that his case just went down the tubes. But after about 30 seconds, he sighed in relief when no one walked through the door.
The defense attorney then continued: “Now ladies and gentleman, you have heard the judge instruct you that you must find that the prosecution has proved each and every element beyond a reasonable doubt in order to find my client guilty. Up until this time, you may have felt he succeeded. But when I announced that the alleged victim was going to walk through the door, each and every one of you WATCHED THAT DOOR! In fact, all the courtroom staff WATCHED THE DOOR! Not only that, the PROSECUTOR HIMSELF WATCHED THE DOOR. Now you tell me how anyone in this courtroom could claim there is no reasonable doubt that my client murdered the victim when EACH AND EVERYONE IN THE COURTROOM TURNED AND WATCHED THE DOOR!”
He then sat down.
The prosecutor, a bit flummoxed, got up for his rebuttal and did his best to convince the jury that the evidence nonetheless proved the defendant’s guilt.
The jury went out to deliberate but within 20 minutes announced they had a verdict. When the court asked the foreman to read the verdict, he confidently announced “GUILTY!” Each of the jurors was then polled and confirmed that they too had voted to convict.
As was permitted in some states, the judge invited the jurors back to chambers and permitted them to discuss their experience with the attorneys. Of course, the defense attorney and even the prosecutor were anxious to know how they so quickly reached a verdict without a body to prove the killing. The defense attorney asked in a respectful manner, “Didn’t the fact that all of you, as well as the courtroom staff, and even the judge and the prosecutor turned to watch the door mean you had some level of doubt in your minds about whether a murder even occurred?” The jury foreman spoke up. “Yes, you’re right that each of us turned to watch the door. And we couldn’t help but notice that the court’s staff also fixed their eyes on it, along with the judge and even the prosecutor. But we also couldn’t help noticing that there was one person who didn’t turn to watch the door and that was your client.”
I should add that the prosecutor who told this story was Michael Turpin, who was the Attorney General of Oklahoma when he spoke in 1983 at the Career Prosecutors School of the National District Attorneys Association at the University of Houston. He gave the best lecture I ever heard as a prosecutor and I’ve attended hundreds since then.
The most dangerous man
Vietnamese Pork with Orange Juice and Cilantro
Vietnamese Pork Chops
Yield: 5 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Pork
1 (2 1/2 pound) loin of pork, center cut, trimmed of most but not all the fat
20 small cloves garlic, peeled
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup chopped cilantro stalks
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
4 bay leaves
4 whole allspice
Sauce
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fat skimmed from the pan juices
3 green onions, trimmed and finely chopped, with most of the green parts
2 1/2 tablespoons lime juice
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
Juice of 2 large oranges
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro stalks
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350 degrees F and set the rack in the middle of the oven.
Make 20 incisions all over the pork with the point of a sharp knife and insert the cloves of garlic.
Season the meat with salt and pepper to taste.
Set the meat on a rack in a roasting pan and sprinkle the top thickly with the 1/3 cup chopped cilantro stalks.
Put the broth, bay leaves and allspice in the roasting pan, and cover the pan tightly with foil so that no steam will escape.
Cook the meat until it is very tender but not falling apart, so that you can slice it easily — about 3 1/2 to 4 hours.
Set the meat aside on a warm dish for about 15 minutes.
Slice the meat, cover with foil and keep warm in the oven.
Meanwhile, degrease the broth.
Put the butter and 1 tablespoon of the skimmed fat in a saucepan and heat.
Add the onions and 1 tablespoon of the lime juice and fry gently until soft.
Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons lime juice plus the skimmed pan juices (be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan well for all the scraps adhering to it), cover the pan and cook the sauce for about 5 minutes.
Add the mustard, orange juice and the 1/4 cup chopped cilantro stalks.
Cook, uncovered, for about 4 minutes longer.
Pour some of the sauce over the meat and pass the rest in a separate dish.
Vietnamese Pork Chops 2
Chinese Opinion. Presidential debate is so depressing, it sent me back to Church!
A very good perspective.
matters
Look at ancient China and take the necessary precautions.
"Youse guys in the United States are really flooring the gas petal so that you can speed off the edge of a cliff. I don't know whether to laugh or cry."
I have been paying attention, as of late, to the American “news” aggregate sources. These are websites that just list headlines, and links from “news” sources, and you thous get a relative “snapshot” of what the news actually is on any given day.
For American “news” it’s all obvious. No really news. No real subjects. Just artificially produced narratives served in “canned” packages for distribution. It’s really terribly bad.
So I am looking at the today’s Drudge Report. I just glace over this as I shy away from what ever it is trying to push. But I noticed something. No advertisements, but instead targeted articles.
An article that makes LGBT+ look good, or is supportive of it…
Another one, but only this time for NASA…
Wait, another one about Global Warming…
Hold on, your daily issuance of China = Bad…
Oh, and while I am at it, Ukraine is winning against Russia and Russia is collapsing…
Whoa, there’s another on that inflation is lowest it’s been in decades…
Oh, the multivitamin myth…
But, you know, get your bird flu vaccine…
Oh, and men are bad, another victory for woman’s rights…
Do you see the point?
Instead of advertisements. The interests hire writers and write stories that direct people to their platforms of choice where they get money, enhance their narratives, and groom them into “pigeon holes” for money extraction. Insidious.
Sheech!
What a cluster fuck.
Today…
What is the most bizarre thing you’ve witnessed at a public pool?
I was having dinner at a restaurant with a pool (down in the Keys such things exist). I was with my family: two grown sons, their wives and kids and my husband.
Suddenly my son bolted from the table and dove into the pool, clothes and all. He had seen a toddler slip under the water in the semi-deep end and not make a sound. When people saw him running they began to pay attention and realized what he was doing but he was on it so there was nothing else to be done. The mom was standing on the other end chatting up a friend, and didn’t see a thing.
My son, who just HAPPENS to be a Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer, brought the girl up and she was coughing and petrified but other than that, she was okay. He asked her “Where’s Mommy?” and she pointed to the mother.
My son carried the child over to the woman, who was still talking and had not noticed a thing. He tapped her on the shoulder and set the girl down. “She fell in the pool,” he said. “Oh, thanks,” she said, and turned to continue her conversation.
At this point, others who had witnessed the entire thing confronted the mother and said “Hey, that man just saved your child’s life. She slipped under the water!” The mom was appropriately chagrined and apologized for not being more responsible and finally realized he was wearing regular clothes. People were still talking about it when she scooped up the sniffling child and left. She never even realized that her life could have been changed in that second.
We see drownings in the movies and it’s always someone splashing about in a frenzy. But in real life, drownings are silent. The person who doesn’t know better just sinks, instead of puffing out his lungs and helping himself stay buoyant. I never knew that.
Richard Wolff on How Russia Destroyed NATO’s Economic War and Europe is Collapsing
What makes Indians think they have a chance at beating China?
Collective delusion. Cultural madness.
India faces massive problems that hinder its development, starting with a dysfunctional democratic government. It is overly bureaucratic. Its regulatory structure discourages foreign investment. It is often hostile to foreign companies.
India has a large, rapidly-growing, young population but it is poorly educated. Indian literacy is quite low.
India’s female participation rate in the labour force is quite low.
India is fractured by ethnic strife. Hindu nationalism exacerbates the problem.
India has serious human rights issues, particularly with respect to women.
India’s caste system remains an obstacle.
India’s infrastructure is seriously lagging behind China.
India is mired in extreme poverty with over 100 million people living in these conditions.
Can India overcome all these obstacles and challenges? If I were a betting man, I wouldn’t put my money on India. Sorry. The odds really suck.
China’s economy is 4.7X larger than India’s by nominal GDP.
China’s economy is 2.4X larger than India’s by purchasing power parity. [Source: IMF.]
Even assuming Indian growth of 8% to Chinese growth of 5%, it would take India more than 30 years to catch up to China. The math doesn’t lie.
Can India grow at 8% ???
Douglas Macgregor Warns: US Forces Are Under ATTACK Around The World! Wind Is CHANGING Direction
How would you react if your boss fired you without notice?
This just happened to me.
I worked as a manager for 3 years, improving systems, increasing productivity, and even doubling the company’s clientele within 1.5 years. I consistently received rave reviews from staff and clients. I was efficient, trustworthy, loyal, kind, funny, was always early, and stayed late anytime they needed me. I ran the business while the owner was able to look into opening a second location because of how much I improved her business.
One month ago (Nov. 2019), I came to work like any other day. I booked several new clients within my first 30 minutes. I was then called into a meeting with the owner and another manager. I was handed an email I had written the day before. I read it and asked what was wrong. The manager said, “We are moving to termination.” Shocked, with all the blood in my body now rushing out (I could feel myself turn white), I said, “I don’t think this is right. Where is the disciplinary trail?”
They proceded to tell me they did not need a disciplinary trail and gave me no reason other than the way I had written the email made it sound like I threw the manager under the bus. This was not my intent and I profusely apologized for it coming off that way. I tried to discuss the fact that I had no previous disciplinary problems. The owner and manager then started bringing up little mistakes I had made – nothing bad, just simple mistakes, and things I had never before been made aware of.
I proceeded to remind them how much I have done for the company and asked if we could instead discuss this rather then just get rid of me. I kept asking why. They never had a straight answer. They never had me sign anything. At one point the manager said, “Go process this at home, goodbye.”
As I gathered my belongings while they watched me like hawks, I stuttered and mumbled, trying anything to make sense of what was happening. I still have no idea why I was fired nor what the grounds for firing me were.
I am moving on, but hurting a lot. I absolutely loved the job and the work, and I believed in the company. I am angry and sad and I know this wasn’t right. But I have no recourse. They had made up their minds and there was nothing I could say or do. I wish I knew what happened and I wish I could go back and say the magic words. My only choice is to move ahead.
It helps a bit reading from others who say this type of incident isn’t right and also that I’m not the only one this has happened to.
Side note – I found out a couple of weeks later that my office assistant quit the day after I left and that the owner replaced me with her daughter.
UPDATE June 2020: Thank you for all of your up votes and comments, I really appreciate them. To update, they had to eventually hire 3 people to take over my position. Many employees have quit as have many clients. The person who took the lead in firing me was demoted soon after and recently quit.
Pad Mi Korat Phet
(Hot Noodles, Korat Style – Thai)
The route to this recipe started with a couple of requests for a hot version of pad Thai.
Pad Mee Korat3
Unfortunately for those that asked, whilst you can add anything you like to pad Thai | including chiles | the result is not authentic. It simply isn’t done (which is not to say that Thais don’t load their plates of pad Thai with prik phom and chiles in fish sauce or vinegar ccording to taste)
Pad Thai is quite an elaborate dish. The style usually found in Thai restaurants outside Thailand is particularly elaborate, being referred to somewhat insultingly my Thai housewives as “pad Thai Krungthep” | the implication being that rich people in the capital do it that way to show off.
Ignoring the countryside versus capital debate, there is a local, very simple variant of the dish, known as pad mi Korat. Made with the round egg noodles known as sen mi, rather than the narrow rice ribbon noodles, and with a recipe that consists of partly cooking a cup of noodles, then stir frying them with a cup of sliced and shredded pak bung (swamp cabbage), adding a little tamarind juice for flavor, and drizzling a beaten egg over it to complete it.
However my wife prepares a more elaborate version of pad mi Korat, which is also fairly hot. This version I will call pad mi Korat phet (hot stir fried noodles in the Korat style).
Before I get into the details, I would like to make two comments.
The original of this dish is made with sen mi (Thai egg noodles), but if you can’t find them I find it works very well with a spaghetti or similar (the little shell shapes are good).
The original uses swamp cabbage, but any greens will do. If I fancy splashing out we make this with a mixture of broccoli and asparagus.
To simplify the dish I should point out that it is actually made using table condiments, thus the ingredients are not as complicated as they look. I will first include recipes for the table condiments you need. In Thailand these would probably be on every housewife’s table, but if you don’t have them you should make them about a week before you intend to cook the dish.
We make them in vast quantities for the restaurant (in 5 gallon containers), but for home use we use 1 pint spring top preserving jars. These have the advantage of fitting in the door shelves of our refrigerator.
Pad Mee Korat1
Nam Pla Prik
Put 2/3 cup of prik ki nu (finely sliced green birdseye or dynamite chiles) into a 1 pint jar, and fill with fish sauce. Seal and keep for a week before using.
Prik Dong
Put 2/3 cup of prik ki nu daeng (finely sliced red birdeye or dynamtie chiles) in a 1 pint jar, and fill with rice vinegar (any white vinegar will do, as will cider vinegar, if rice vinegar is unavailable).
Prik Siyu Wan
Put 2/3 cup of prik chi fa (sliced red or green Thai jalapeños) in a 1 pint jar, and fill with sweet dark soy sauce.
Kratiem Dong
Peel and slice 2/3 cup of garlic, place it in the 1 pint jar, add 1 teaspoon of palm sugar, and 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of MSG (optional but recommended) and topped up with rice vinegar.
Khing Ki Mao
Julienne 2/3 cup of fresh ginger (into match stick sized pieces). Place in the 1 pint jar. Add 1/2 cup of Mekong whiskey (Mekong is a whiskey made from Rice. If you can’t find it or prefer something else, any spirits, even sherry, will do). Add 1/2 cup of rice vinegar, and fill up the jar with fish sauce.
Now we’ll progress to the pad mi itself.
For this you will need 1 cup of noodles, 1/2 cup of green veggies, 1/2 cup of mild peppers such as prik chi fa (Thai jalapeños). If you want to try this but at a lower heat level, use the Thai chili called prik yiek, or a bell pepper. You also need 1 large egg (preferably a duck egg), some tamarind juice and sugar, and chiles, bai chi (coriander leaves) and a sliced cucumber for garnish.
Place the noodles in water to soak for about 15 minutes.
Place 2 tablespoons of the liquor from each of the five condiments listed above, together with 2 tablespoons of tamarind juice, in a small saucepan and simmer to reduce it to half its volume. When this is done heat a wok, and stir a teaspoon of the fish sauce from the nam pla prik into the egg, and beat it lightly. Drain 1 tablespoon of the pickle from each of the five condiments.
If you are using Italian pasta, boil it for half the normal cooking time.
Add all the ingredients except the egg and the reduced sauce to the wok and stir fry until the noodles are just ‘toothy’ in texture. Add the sauce, turn the heat to as high as possible, and when the sauce has come to a vigorous boil, gently drizzle the egg into the mix, which will cook it.
Serve immediately, with the listed condiments, together with sugar and prik phom (powdered red chile), and decorate with the garnishes.
What’s the weirdest thing a guest has done at your house?
Weirdest? Maybe, you decide. I had asked a good family “friend” to check on my high school kids while I was going to be gone a couple nights. They were both working and responsible but I just wanted someone to look in on them, it made me feel better. He offered to stay over and would let the dog out if they were working. I thought that would be great. He was a good friend and I thought I knew him well Well, We ended up coming home sooner then planned and I messaged him our new plans. When did we expect to be home? About what time? Not sure why it mattered but I let him know. He acted strangely in his texts, which I didn’t pick up on until later. I wasn’t sure why he was even still at the house since we were coming back that evening, but I thought he was just being kind and taking care of the dog or maybe he wanted a quiet spot to be as he had moved back in with his parents to save money. Fast forward about 3 months and my daughter had to run home to grab something before a game. She had a couple other kids with her, one being a new kid. “Oh, I’ve been here before” he says. My daughter asked when. “ when I met up with someone on grinder “ my daughter didn’t believe him until he mentioned some details about the inside of the house. Well, after asking when and a description of the person she put two and two together, it was our good “friend.” My daughter was so upset she had a panic attack about the whole thing. She told me and I told my husband and we called law enforcement since he was a minor. There was an investigation and it turned out the kid lied about his age and nothing had actually happened because our friend had the sense to kick him out when he discovered he was not 18, and the investigation was ended. My daughter had to go through questioning about what she was told. We had to let our employer know because we work with kids and couldn’t risk this kid saying he was at our house with an adult male when they didn’t know the circumstances. Obviously I did not speak to the person again after this, and he had no idea why I was upset! He did not realize the repercussions that my family could have faced because of this or how disgusting this was even if not intentional. Now, we all knew he was gay and that’s not the disgusting part- it’s inviting a stranger into my home without my permission and possibly with my other kids around, it’s a safety issue, and a trust issue. If I don’t trust people anymore this is one of the reasons why.
What Was it About Malls in the 1970s?
Have you ever fired an employee who then retaliated against you or the company? What happened?
Yes, I owned a burglar alarm company. The employee had been on the job about three weeks but was well trained. He failed to dispatch on an alarm. I fired him. He was black. He filed an EEOC complaint alleging I fired him because he was a black male. He had a black female supervisor and I had many employees of different races working for me. I did not discriminate on pay, male vs female, black vs white. The EEOC called me about the complaint and told me he would settle it for $1995. I told her no. She asked what I would counter with. I told her I wouldn’t counter. She told me they would have to audit me. Maybe I should counter with $995. I told her to audit. I was audited and no wrong doing was found. About a year later I received a notice that he had appealed. I called the EEOC and told them I was pissed. I was ready to sue but I had a supervisor on the line. He said just cool it. Ok. Was everything just as it was when I was audited? Sure! Ok, ty. The appeal was denied. Another year later I received a notice that he had appealed again. Really pissed now. Same supervisor. Really ready to sue. He said cool it. Was everything the same as when they audited? I said no, employees had come and gone but the ratios and pay were still equitable. I asked how many times this guy had done this. I was told that couldn’t be divulged but would hear nothing more. Appeal denied. The thing that still bothers me is that the EEOC initially really wanted me to pay to make the problem go away. Sad.
America Decline is identical to that of Tang Dynasty!?
What has your child done that is technically “wrong” but you were proud of them for doing it?
My son is not my biological child. I met his mother when he was 7 and his little sister had just been born. Their biological father was in jail, having assaulted his wife when she was seven months pregnant, and was not present. Even when he HAD been present he was not a positive influence and poor Aaron had really been through way more than a child his age should ever have to experience, including a hospital visit that was necessary because he attempted to defend his mother from his abusive father.
Aaron’s mother had no one except her kids when I met her, and she had begun treating Aaron like a friend instead of her child. The lack of discipline or a male role model combined with Aaron being spoiled by his mother and his general anger at his father to create a child that had a very difficult time getting along with others his age. He and I used to play video games together all afternoon long, and over time he and I became very close. I took him under my wing and thus began a years long process of reforming him from a spoiled mamma’s boy (which doesn’t play too well here in the Deep South) to a rough and tumble young man with integrity and respect for others.
One of the biggest obstacles was that he was being relentlessly bullied. We switched him to different schools several times, but being socially awkward AND the “new kid” made him a natural target. Finally we put him in kickboxing so he could learn to defend himself.
Fast forward a few years. That scrawny awkward boy has become a big strong teenager that is both extraordinarily sensitive and YEARS ahead of his classmates in physical conditioning due to his dedication to his training. He became a standout football player his first season after setting a team record for sacks (I taught him how to slip blocks and punch through defenders and the kid learned incredibly fast).
So one day I get a call from his mom telling me that Aaron has been suspended for fighting. I’ve always told him not to start fights, but if someone puts their hands on him he’s free to defend himself. Of course I ask how it happened.
One of his buddies (a very small boy) had been getting bullied by a group of boys after school. These boys all live in a nearby neighborhood and walk home, and during that walk there’s no adult supervision. Several boys would team up on the one littler kid, and nothing was being done about it. Aaron decided to defend his buddy so the next time they did it he stepped in and beat up the ringleader. The little asshole’s parents made a big stink the next day so the school suspended all of them for fighting.
When I got home I told him I was proud of him. Even though he’s trained to fight he rarely does, he’s the sweetest kid and doesn’t like violence or hurting people. And now he finally did get in a fight, and it was to protect someone else. After all he’s been through he still cares about others and I’m incredibly proud of him for using his size and skills to defend weaker people.
“Hell On Earth” (Official Lyric Video)
He’s talking about the Lifestyles of Americans.
What is the best comeback you used on someone?
I was on a highway on the way home after teaching a night class. A driver in a Camaro came up to an intersection on the right and rolled through the stop sign (like most St Louis drivers do). I saw them approaching the stop sign and was thinking “they’re going to stop … they’re going to stop… oh no!”. Luckily there was no one to my left so I swerved left trying to avoid them but hit the front end of the car. If I hadn’t gone left I would have T-boned it right on the driver’s door.
No injuries, my little Mazda was totaled, the Camaro was missing it’s nose. Called AAA who dispatched law enforcement, exchanged insurance info with the lady driver, talked with law enforcement and waited for the tow truck etc.
Suddenly the driver’s daughter drove up and started ranting. “Who knocked the front end off of my new Camaro? I know they were speeding if they did that!”.
Her attitude rubbed me the wrong way so I tried to give her my perspective: “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Your mother pulled out right in front of me, I went left to try to avoid killing her. You need to go be with her.” She had a shocked look on her face as she walked away.
Retiring at 65 is a HUGE Mistake. Retirement Expert Explains Why
Very interesting, and frankly, frightening.
Why do lottery winners often blow through their winnings?
.
It’s really simple.
People who play lotteries are generally folks who I’d call “pay check people,” living check to check. They’ve never had much money and no prospects of any, like family inheritances.
When they Win Big they’re in euphoria, of course. But they haven’t a clue how to manage their sudden windfall of seemingly endless wealth. Oh, but plenty of other “well-meaning” friends and family do!
Turns out the biggest problem that lottery winners have is simple, good-hearted generosity: giving away too much money to family and friends. Family feel especially entitled to a nice, fat chunk. And if they don’t get it…? Trouble. And once the money spigot is opened, it’s hard to stop its gush.
Financial “advisors” circle like vultures and the pickings are easy. Winners are virtually never well-educated, certainly not in financial matters. For example, they have no idea what they owe the IRS on their miraculous windfall. And being ill-educated they cannot see the difference between a brilliant investment and a monstrous scam.
And so begins the sad spiral down to the misery of bankruptcy…or worse. They almost all utter a common cry, “Oh, God, I wish I’d never won!”
70% of lottery winners are broke within seven years of The Big Win.
Read the horrifying Powerball stories on Fredrick Josefsson’s fascinating Comment. [scroll down below inoperative video on NY Daily News]
Brits Colin & Chris Weir are among the few winners living-Happily-Ever-After.
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The story is much the same with professional athletes. Often from truly dirt-poor families, they are now multimillionaires. They, too, have no meaningful financial education, but they do have out-sized egos. Vulture Inc. knows how to play the flattery game.
First purchase? Without question, a vast mansion for mom so she can move out of that shack. Then a couple of homes for themselves in places like Malibu, California or Jupiter, Florida or some other gilded ZIP Code.
Pro athletes just love “foolproof” investments. Like played-out gold mines in Alaska. And they rarely fly “commercial” like you and me. No, they charter private jets such as the Gulfstream below which costs $5,000 a flight hour. That’s $60,000 from Malibu to Jupiter and back.
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Coke, cars, planes, jewelry, women, Vegas and dozens of flattering friends who magically vanish when the money does. Five or six years after hanging up the spurs, the once-proud athlete is flat-ass broke. Some end up in jail for schemes that went criminal. And, sadly, a few actually become homeless.
All this is so common, it’s a cliché. You’ve surely been to parties where people ‘cluck-cluck’ about it. There’s even a well-known German term for this happy clucking: Schadenfreude [SHAH-den-froy-da] It means happiness at another’s misfortune or humiliation—especially when that person was once rolling in $ dough $.
At the next party, Impress—or mystify—those clucking guests with this: “Oh, isn’t Schadenfreude such fun?”
Champion boxer Mike Tyson (top photo) once spent $173,706 on a gold chain, $410,000 on a birthday party. Evander Holyfield once owned a 109 room mansion with a $17,000 monthly electric bill. Once owned—but not for long.
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Alien: The Deleted Airlock Sequence – Explained
What was the most hilarious accidentally inappropriate thing your grandmother said?
Well…..
Our snazzy grandma didn’t say a whole lot, but when she did speak, it was almost always what many people would call inappropriate.
And….
Our grandpa did say a lot, but he was even more inappropriate. So when our grandparents got together with people that didn’t know them, a whole lot of inappropriateness was inevitable, and often hilarious.
At least to us.
Even though my sister and I always did well in school, there was always some teacher or counselor that thought we were getting too close, and needed to find our own identities, or some such crap.
So….
They would bring us in with our parents to discuss the problem, but of course we didn’t think there was a problem. We knew our genealogy was a bit different than most other families, and our family tree had branches that had some very strange things living on them, but we didn’t consider that a problem in the least.
But…..
The school still would insist on occasion that we had to come in to discuss the problem, and since our parents were sick of discussing this non-existing problem, one time our grandparents offered to go with us instead.
My sister and I just looked at each other when we found out our grandparents were going together, to discuss the problem, with the teachers and counselors, because we just knew something was going to happen.
And that something was definitely going to be inappropriate.
So off we went to the school….
With our spooky, sibylline and very snazzy grandma, and giant kraken fighting grandpa, close behind us. And my sister and I both just knew that the school was in for some serious inappropriateness.
Our snazzy grandma looked like a witch, a very lovely witch, but still obviously norn. And our grandpa looked like he could go down to Múspellsheimr, and drag out Surtr by his ears.
An interesting couple.
So….
Our grandparents listened patiently to the experts talk about the problem, until one got to the part where she said that we acted like we were one person. At that point our snazzy grandma quietly replied,
“How did they know we weren’t really one person, with one soul, but with two bodies?”
That comment brought a bit of a awkward silence, but then another expert started going on about how our family should be better role models for us, and then mentioned that the other kids in school thought we were elves.
And…
Our grandma quietly replied,
“What made them think we weren’t elves?”
This made the room go silent, until the headmaster looked at our snazzy grandma, and simply said,
Norn.
There was a bit of a gasp from the teachers, and then silence.
Until…
Our snazzy grandma stood up and looked at the head counselor and said,
“I know what that shadow in the corner of your bedroom really is.”
And then….
Looked at the headmaster and said,
“And I know why you can’t make love to your wife.”
Followed by some very serious, silent, silence.
Until our grandpa suddenly got up and said that he had enough of this horseshit, and that he was going to take the norn home and have some fun, and then get shit-faced drunk.
And then looked at the teachers, counselors, and head master and said,
“How’s that for a role model?”
And as we walked on home, even though we knew the answer, my sister couldn’t resist asking our snazzy grandma why the headmaster couldn’t make love to his wife.
Grandma just kept walking, but told us to be quiet, or she was going to turn both of us into rutabagas. <3 <3
As of 3:30 PM eastern US time today, June 26, 2024, reports are flooding-in saying a Military Coup d’Etat is taking place to oust President Luis Arce of Bolivia!
Military leader General Juan José Zúñiga reportedly has sent troops into the Presidential Palace to remove President Arce by force of arms.
Developing . . .
Imagery and videos beginning to come in from Bolivia:
coup 3 bolivia
coup 2 bolivia
Coup 1 bolivia
Hal Turner Snap Analysis:
CIA color revolution all over it
Bolivia is one of the rare countries in South America that are trying to fight against the American colonialism and don’t want to be their puppets.
UPDATE 5:08 PM EDT —
Bolivian general Juan Jose Zuñiga has PUBLICLY ANNOUNCED that he has seized power after militarily taking over the Presidential Palace in La Paz.
INSIDE THE RETAIL APOCALYPSE! ABANDONED STORE CRISIS!
What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?
I was driving to work in a blizzard. there was already 4 inches of snow on the road. I was taking my time and safely following the truck ahead of me trying to keep my wheels in his tracks. I was driving a normal RWD car.
Okay, so far, so good.
A total idiot in a 4WD truck came speeding up behind me. He tried to pass me a couple of times, but almost lost control each time and flicking me the finger. I said to myself “I’m in no mood for this shit”
He tried a final time. I closed on the truck ahead of me and he tried to swerve in between me and the truck in front of me. I sped up a touch to prevent him from getting in (yes, I’m pretty upset at this point).
He tried again, and I changed the game plan. He swerved to get in ahead of me, and I lifted (took my foot off of the gas pedal), and the distance between me and the truck I was following opened.
The dork trying to pass me, hit the gas and lost control. He slid/spun between me and the truck and went straight off the road into a 20 foot ditch. I beeped and waved as I went by and kept going.
Talk about sweet revenge! I never did a thing wrong, I just made it possible for him to “learn a lesson”. When I got to work, the incident was on the radio news because the police closed the northbound lanes of the highway. When I got to work 15 minutes late, I was not docked for the time. I came from my home 80 miles away while most of the staff lived less than 5 miles away and called out. Remember this was during a blizzard! Even though it’s been 30+ years, I still grin when I think about it!
What is the most amazing thing you overheard because people didn’t think you understood their language?
I speak High German reasonably well. As I don’t use it very often anymore, it can take me a few minutes of a conversation, or listening, to get back in the proverbial swing.
I stopped once at one of the road-side Amish food stores in Pennsylvania to scoop up some great chow. There were a bunch of other customers in before me, including some who were dressed pretty outlandishly, and some who were just being asses in general.
The two giggly teenage Amish girls working the counter were going to town, cracking wise about the “English” in their German dialect. It’s hard to follow at times, and uses some real archaic vocabulary, but once you get used to the sentence structure, that includes some pidgin English, it’s fairly clear to the casual German speaker.
I assumed the two Amish girls were a little more worldly by working in the store and interacting with the “English”, and thus were probably a little more less typically Amish in how they acted. And they were teenagers …
At any rate, when I was the last “English” in the store, and was at the counter paying for my pies and bread, I started speaking to them in German, and told them I agreed with their jokes, but that the Good Lord might send someone in from time to time to see how they were conducting business.
I took my change and bags and gave a Witchie-Poo laugh as I watched their faces turn chalk white.
Thirteen moons glittered down from the smog-packed sky. Their silvery light cast ethereal glows across the glass sidewalks and streets. The purple gas trapped below their feet danced and spun like living creatures.As polluted as Neptune was, still beauty could be found. Of course, Ace Lowell was too busy to seek out the beauty of his home planet. He had a job to do.His nineteenth birthday. This had been the day he had tossed and turned over each night. This was the day his dream was finally supposed to come true.And, up to a point, everything had worked out exactly as he had imagined.Buy a rundown apartment in downtown Neptune with every last penny in his and Zyla’s pockets. Check.Turn said apartment in a detective business. Check.Get his first mystery. Check.But the whole ‘solve the clues and save the day’ part was still out on recess. Maybe that part had never been an option at all. Maybe all hopes of fame and fortune he had envisioned for this day had abandoned him the moment he received his first case.In the old detective films Ace used to watch (alone, naturally–his parents were too busy ignoring him), a disaster shook the city. An unexplained string of robberies. A mysterious disappearance of someone important. A grievous murder. And the detective, clad in his trench coat and sporting a magnifying glass in his hand, always sought out the clues and solved the mystery. And everybody loved him for it.Well, Ace had the trench coat and the drive to bust crime. What he lacked, however, was an actual crime.Darkness clung thick to the Neptunian night. Lamplight glimmered dimly through the streets, illuminating their way. Hands shoved in his coat pockets, Ace trudged after his partner in anti-crime, Zyla Strange.She was the reason they had been walking around like headless chickens for two hours. Because when Ace’s first client rushed into their apartment and presented them with the most pointless, ridiculous mystery he never dreamed of asking for, Zyla jumped to the rescue as always.
His first mystery wasn’t a robbery or a kidnapping or a murder. Instead, a little sniffling boy had waddled up to their door, snot dripping from his nose and tears pouring from his eyes as he explained that his cat had gone missing.
No, the kid didn’t have any money to pay them. If they wanted payment, though, he’d gladly give them the unwrapped collection of Lifesaver mints collecting dust in his pajama pockets.
Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
Huffing, Ace caught up to Zyla. The cold air blasted against his cheeks, tinging his blue skin bluer. He tugged his coat snugly around himself. Tattooed arms bare and pierced belly button exposed, Zyla just crammed her hands in her sweatpants pockets. She was the kind of stubborn that would outlast a bull in a headstrong fight.
“A cat,” Ace muttered for the seventeenth time that night. “I’ve wasted two hours of my life searching for some kid’s damn cat. Honestly, slap up some missing posters or something! We’re detectives, not pet finders.”
“We’ll be whatever we need to be,” Zyla snapped back, voice sharper than a snakebite. Her emerald eyes cut through the darkness to glare at him. “So this isn’t your ideal picture of a first mystery. It’s still a mystery, Ace! And if we can help that poor boy, then we will.”
Ace sighed. What was her deal? Ever since he had found her huddled in a Neptunian alleyway two years ago, she had acted like the planet was one big charity case. If someone tripped, she was there with a wad of bandages. If someone frowned, she went out of her way to brighten their day. If someone so much as sneezed, she made sure to bless them.
Maybe it was a Uranian thing. Then again, nobody in the universe had ever been on Uranus. The planet was an impenetrable force the galaxy had been trying to break into for centuries. How Zyla even left Uranus, she had never said.
Beside him, Zyla drew a sharp gasp. Ace followed her gaze in time to see a striped gray tail vanish around the corner.
Without a word, Zyla took off, violet cornrow braids flying behind her. Ace hesitantly followed.
The moment he rounded the corner, he found it. There, in the shadow of a Starbucks, sat a gray tabby cat. The feline glanced up at them with intelligent blue eyes. Meeting the creature’s gaze, a shudder passed down Ace’s spine. The cat seemed strangely human-like.
Zyla turned to him with a cheeky smile. “See? Not a complete waste of time! We found the cat. Mystery solved!”
“Great. Grab the creepy cat and let’s go to bed,” he muttered back.
Instead of reaching for the cat, though, Zyla stooped down and fished into her pockets. Ace watched her, his foot tapping an impatient rhythm against the glass sidewalk.
Finally, Zyla withdrew a regular fruit bar. The wrapper crinkled as she wrestled it open.
Ace’s eyebrows shot up to his pale hairline. “You’re gonna feed it?”
“It’s rude to just grab the cat,” Zyla protested. “What if it’s unfriendly and bites me?”
“Then you can blast it with your Uranian superpowers and turn it to kitty litter. Who knows? Maybe the kid will still give us his nasty mints.”
She ignored him as she broke off the corner of the fruit bar. Cooing at the creature, Zyla held out her offering under the cat’s nose.
The cat blinked. Then, with unnatural speed, it swallowed the fruity piece in one lightning-fast gulp. Ace and Zyla froze, staring at it.
Around them, the wind turned harsh, whistling across the cityscape. Energy crackled through the air.
Ace felt the hairs at the nape of his neck bristle. “What the hell–”
With a crack of thunder, reality cleaved in two. A gaping hole alight with thousands of swirling, vibrant hues opened beneath his feet. The yelp that rose to his mouth got sucked into oblivion with the rest of him.
The fall lasted both a millisecond and an eternity. Ears popping, heart hammering, head spinning, Ace spiraled downward through the darkness. He squeezed his eyes shut, biting back a scream.
After both a millisecond and an eternity, the ground rushed up to catch him. Ace landed on both feet into soft crimson sand.
Wait, sand?
He looked around and discovered another world. Red sand shifted and pooled across the ground. A light breeze plucked sandy grains from the floor and whisked them off into the night sky. Above him hung two moons; they stared down like a pair of wide silver eyes.
Laughter poured all around him from dozens of old-fashioned wooden buildings hugging the narrow street. The scent of whiskey hit his nostrils as a light-skinned man stumbled out a set of swinging barn doors.
Fingers curled tightly around his forearm. Ace glanced over to find a pale-faced Zyla gawking at the horizon. “Ace, we’re not on Neptune anymore.”
Ace took a deep breath. His lungs stung with the cleanliness of the air. He gulped another breath, intoxicated with the feeling. Never had Neptune’s air been this clean. His planet’s atmosphere was all smoke and smog and ash. And while Neptunians didn’t need oxygen to breathe, Ace had always secretly wondered what clean air tasted like.
In all his nineteen years of living, Ace had never set foot off Neptune. He never had enough money to take a vacation from his home planet, and his parents could care less about showing their son the Milky Way. With thirteen older sisters, it felt like Ace wasn’t even there. His parents didn’t have the time to notice him. With an earth-shattering mystery, he had hoped to change all of that and finally snatch their affection.
Instead, he had found a cat. A snack-stealing, planet-hopping cat.
“Mars,” he whispered. “We’re on Mars.”
“So cool,” Zyla breathed back. After a second, though, she shook her head. “We’ve got a job to do. We can’t get distracted.”
“Zyla, the cat made a freaking portal that took us to Mars. How can we not get distracted?”
He glanced down, searching for the unusual feline. At his feet, however, he found only sand. Ace’s heart leapt into his throat. If the cat’s the reason why we teleported…and we don’t have the cat…we’ll be stuck here.
Frankly, it wasn’t the worst fate they could suffer. It wasn’t like anyone on Neptune would notice their disappearance anyway. But from what he had read about Mars, the planet was a war-torn catastrophe waiting to happen. He wasn’t exactly cut out for fighting.
“We need to find the cat,” he said slowly, pulse pounding in his ears.
Zyla’s lips crinkled in a smirk. “Oh, now he wants to find the cat. Still wishing we had gotten a more interesting first mystery?”
He skillfully ignored her. “Can you use your powers to find it?”
“You’re kidding, right?” Zyla held out her hands. For a second, green light sparked between her fingers. She tucked her hands back into her pockets, frowning. “My power is to blast things, not find things.”
“Fine. Let’s start looking then. If that cat teleports again and doesn’t take us with it, we’re screwed.”
They took off through the streets, sand kicking up in plumes behind them. As the buildings blurred around him and the wind howled in his ears, Ace felt the tension seeping from his body. Running wild and free, he had never felt more alive. Like he had lived his entire life on Neptune with his eyes closed, and had just stumbled back into the light to find a brand new world awaiting exploration.
Zyla turned left down an alleyway, Ace nipping at her heels. When she stopped suddenly in front of him, Ace nearly pitched face-first into the sand with the effort of not slamming into her back.
He peered around her shoulder. At the end of the alleyway sat the gray tabby cat. At its paws sprawled a single slab of sand-caked cheddar cheese.
Ace’s shoulders tensed again. “Didn’t the portal that got us here first open because that thing ate your fruit bar?”
“Yep,” Zyla whispered back, dread weighing her voice.
“Think that if it eats something else, we’ll get sucked into another portal?”
“Most likely.”
The cat darted forward, snagging the corner of the cheese between its teeth. Reality split open again under their feet.
Mercury, Venus, Saturn, Earth, even Pluto. They went everywhere in the span of an hour, introduced into another culture every other minute. Each time they caught up to the cat, it would find a piece of food and take a bite, opening another portal that swallowed them into another world. It was like a twisted birthday present for Ace–a free explore-the-galaxy pass through the Milky Way.
Roughly fifteen portals later, the familiar glassy floor appeared beneath Ace’s feet once more. They popped up in the shadow of a Neptunian Starbucks–the exact point they had disappeared from. The thirteen moons shone down on him again. He breathed in a lungful of smoggy air.
It was as if they had never left at all. Not a single aspect around them had changed. Looking around, though, Ace saw things in a new light. His heart felt lighter, less shackled by worry. It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
Before the cat could stalk away in search of more food, Zyla swept forward and scooped the feline into her arms. It wriggled and squirmed before finally relenting to her strong grip. She glanced down at it in a mix of anger and awe.
“I am not doing that again,” she muttered. When she looked up at Ace, though, a smile crossed her features. “Still sleepy? We could still squeeze in a few winks before we return the cat.”
Ace snorted. The trip around the universe hummed through his veins like a gallon’s worth of coffee.
They began walking down the street in the direction of their apartment. As they pushed on, Ace studied every shining edge of every skyscraper reaching up to Neptune’s night sky. For the first time in years, it took his breath away. Why had he taken Neptune for granted this whole time? He had been so blinded by his own ambitions of making a name for himself that he had forgotten to enjoy the world around him.
Halfway across the street, Ace stopped. “The cat’s Uranian, isn’t it?”
Zyla paused. In her grip, the cat reached out and batted her jaw. She cocked her head at Ace. “Duh. It can make portals by eating, genius. It’s not some regular house cat.”
“Shouldn’t we return it to Uranus, then? I know it’s technically that kid’s cat, but wouldn’t the cat be happier where it’s from?”
He had always imagined Uranus as a secret paradise, a haven no outsider could ever enter. In truth, no one knew anything about the planet. No one had ever been on it–no one except the girl and the cat in front of him.
Zyla smiled sadly. “That’s not how it works. Once you leave Uranus, you can’t go back. There’s only two ways off the planet–either teleportation like this little guy probably did, or banishment.”
Ace froze. Banishment?
He stared at Zyla’s back as she started away. The question he had asked ever since he first met her rose again to his lips. “Why did you leave?”
Silence. Like every time before, he expected the silence to ring on and on, echoing with a thousand possibilities. Finally, though, her soft voice spliced through the night.
“That, Ace Lowell,” Zyla said, casting him the same sad smile, “is a mystery for another time. Now come on. Let’s go save the day.”
He watched her walk away, a Uranian girl with a Uranian cat. And gradually, when his senses pieced themselves back together again, Ace trailed after her.
Nothing about his nineteenth birthday that day had been the picturesque moment he had imagined since childhood. His name was no closer to shining in lights. For all he knew, he could forever remain another nameless face in this vast universe.
But something about chasing that damn cat across the Milky Way had changed him. Something about all the excitement and wonder and beauty he had experienced while racing through the galaxy resounded through his bones. Maybe he’d never find the fame and fortune he had always wanted, or the recognition he had thought would bring him happiness.
But, step by step, he could still make a difference. Maybe Zyla had been right all along in her passion to help others, no matter the cost.
Ace could already imagine the grin on that little boy’s face when they returned his annoying cat. And personally, he wouldn’t trade the image of that smile for all the fame in the galaxy.
Who’s the funniest patient you’ve ever had as a doctor or nurse?
Maybe not the funniest ever but this one really cracks me up.
I get cold easily. Whenever I can get away with it, you will see me wearing a fleece-lined beanie. I own roughly a million and a half of those. But, unfortunately, I have to take them off when I go see my patients. Most of my patients are old. And many of them also get cold easily, what with all the adipose tissue they’ve lost over the decades.
This is the case for one of my current ladies. She’s in her mid 80s, and the first time I saw her, she was bundled up under a thousand and one blankets. So I shared with her that I get cold too.
“I blame it on being African.”
She chuckled.
And that was the end of the story, I thought.
There are many side effects to being old, apart from the aforementioned impaired thermoregulation: high blood pressure, lower bone density leading to a loss of height and a higher susceptibility to fractures, hair loss, impaired balance, reduced visual acuity, higher rate of cancers of all sort, arthritis, loss of bowel and bladder control, etc. Basically, getting old is a really bad idea.
But one of the side effects that is amusing for those of us who have a twisted sense of humor is that people lose their filter.
“Mister Africaaaaaah!” She shouted this the second time she saw me in her room.
I was laughing so hard, I almost collapsed on her bed.
Did she really just say that?
She had. Now she does it every time she sees me. She said it again when I popped in on her yesterday during her speech therapy session. I told her that next time I would come in a loin cloth and a spear.
Earlier today, she told me she hadn’t slept well. I told her that maybe she needed someone to tuck her in and give her a hug or something.
“Or something…” she said, suggestively.
She just passed me in the hall about a half hour ago. I was chatting with the nurses and not paying attention to the faint sound of the wheelchair coming from behind.
“There’s Misteeeeeer Africaaaaaah. Hahaha!”
The nurses did a double take, then everybody was cracking up.
“I’m going to start calling you that,” said the youngest nurse.
I tried to make a face at her but my surgical mask covered half of it. She’s too young to get away with that. Only people who have the plausible deniability of senility get to call me Mister Africa.
This Killed All But 1,000 Humans 900,000 Years Ago
Blue Camouflage MH-6 Little Birds Point To Night Stalkers’ Pacific Pivot
Now both MH-6s and MH-60s from the 160th SOAR have been seen in the blue camouflage amid a shift in focus to high-end Pacific operations.
MH-6 Little Birds belonging to the U.S. Army’s elite 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR), better known as the Night Stalkers, are now flying in a multi-tone blue camouflage scheme, as seen during recent deck landing training with a U.S. Navy destroyer. This underscores the renewed importance of the maritime domain to the U.S. special operations community as it works to ensure its relevance in potential high-end fights, especially one against China in the Pacific, after decades of counter-terror and counter-insurgency operations. The War Zone previously highlighted this manifestation of the famed unit’s change in focus when the blue scheme first emerged on a Night Stalker MH-60 Black Hawk last year.
U.S. Army Special Operations Aviation Command (USASOAC) posted pictures showing at least two blue-painted MH-6s training with the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Bainbridge (DDG-96) on social media earlier today, which was brought to our attention by @thenewarea51 on X, a friend of The War Zone. At least one Little Bird in the 160th’s standard overall black paint scheme is also seen in the images. USASOAC has described the helicopters as MH-6Ms, but they have six-bladed main rotors. This is something that has been identified in the past as a component of the latest Block III Mission Enhanced Little Bird (MELB) configuration, now also known as the R variant.
A pair of MH-6Ms wearing the blue camouflage scheme fly past the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Bainbridge, identifiable by its hull number. USASOAC
The Night Stalkers currently operate a mix of M and R variant Little Birds configured as either MH-6s or AH-6s. MH-6s are small “assault” transports with planks on either side for operators to ride on and the Fast Rope Insertion Extraction System (FRIES). AH-6s are light attack helicopters capable of carrying various missiles, rockets, and guns. Both configurations use the same underlying helicopter, and MH-6s can be readily converted to AH-6s and vice versa.
A Night Stalker MH-6M in the unit’s standard overall black paint scheme comes in to land on the USS Bainbridge during the recent deck landing training. USASOAC
“MH-6M helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment conduct deck landing training aboard a US Navy ship,” the USASOAC post on X reads. “160th SOAR pilots and crews regularly train for operations on unique platforms, in diverse environments, at any time.”
Pictures of Night Stalker Little Birds with the new blue paint jobs first emerged earlier this year. This followed the appearance of an MH-60 from the 160th wearing the scheme at Pryor Field Airport in Alabama in September 2023. What is likely the same Black Hawk has since been spotted elsewhere.
Details about the blue camouflage scheme, its origins, and how widely the Night Stalkers expect to make use of it remain scant. It has been suggested that the paint job may be a product of Project Genesis, an internal innovation “challenge” the U.S. Army’s special operations aviation community held in 2022.
“ARSOA [Army Special Operations Aviation] has launched Project Genesis … a 120-day challenge where every Night Stalker has the opportunity to submit ideas (paper-thin) and compete to be one of five finalists to live-pitch their idea or solution to a panel of past and present Night Stalkers and possibly see their idea make its way onto an aircraft, into a hangar, or incorporated into a support office,” according to an article in the June 2022 edition of Army Aviation Magazine.
The War Zone has reached out to the US Army for more information.
A picture of the Night Stalker MH-60 Black Hawk wearing the blue camouflage scheme at Pryor Field Airport last year. Pryor Field Airport Authority
After focusing on counter-terrorism and other lower-intensity missions in the Middle East and Afghanistan for the past 20 years or so, the U.S. special operations community has been working to reorient itself to this new security paradigm. This includes the Night Stalkers, who notably highlighted how the unique capabilities they offer could be utilized in maritime and Arctic operations in a demonstration in and around Alaska last August. That included deck landing training with the Navy’s San Antonio class amphibious warship USS John P. Murtha in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia, another one of America’s chief global competitors.
A pair of MH-60Ms from the 160th SOAR come in to land on the deck of the USS John P. Murtha off the coast of Alaska in September 2023. USN A pair of MH-60Ms from the 160th SOAR come in to land on the deck of the USS John P. Murtha. USN
The importance of the maritime domain extends beyond the Pacific and the Arctic, too, as underscored by the campaign that Iranian-backed Houthi militants are continuing to wage against commercial ships and foreign naval vessels in and around the Red Sea. Waterways in Europe, especially the strategic Baltic Sea and Black Sea have taken on new significance since Russia launched its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
On an operational level, it is worth noting that the 160th’s Little Birds offer unique capabilities given how small and maneuverable they are, which are applicable to maritime operations, as well as ones over land. Their size, in particular, means they can be loaded into various aircraft and embarked on ships that otherwise might not be able to accommodate larger helicopters.
“It is your streetfighter,” Paul Kylander, Little Bird program manager with U.S. Special Operations Command’s larger PEO-RW office, told The War Zone and other attendees at the SOF Week conference in May. “I’ve heard it said multiple times that this still continues to be the most effective platform to get a set of operators to like to a rooftop.”
The Night Stalkers’ Little Bird fleet is currently experiencing what has been described as a “resurrection” following the Army’s decision to cancel its Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program. The expectation had previously been that a special operations variant of FARA would supplant at least a significant portion of the 160th’s Little Birds. The plan now for what will happen to the helicopters beyond 2030 is still murky, as you can read more about here.
The appearance of the MH-6Ms wearing the new blue camouflage scheme underscores the continued relevance of the 160th’s Little Birds and the distinct capabilities they offer, including in the maritime domain.
While sorting through a deceased person’s possessions, what is the most disturbing thing you found?
For a number of years I worked with elderly people who I helped them get their financial affairs in order. It was a very rewarding job because I enjoyed talking to them. I wanted them to know that they were going to be okay as their health deteriorated. Money makes people do terrible things and I had seen it ALL!! So I still had young high net worth clients but the elderly were just more enjoyable and appreciated all the effort.
My collegeues always said ““old people just love you….I don’t understand it?” I thought it was easy to understand. I appeared to be a straight laced young man who would sit and listen to them for hours. I was respectful and did everything for them as I would want done for my grandmothers or mom. I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and great uncles who helped raise me. They taught me a lot about myself and had an undying belief that I was going to go great things. That kind of faith helped me thru some very difficult times.
So to many of these elderly people I became a grandson type and looked out for them because they couldn’t do it for themselves. One of my clients was a WW2 ace who I discovered accidentally when watching a history channel show about his life. I could have listened to him for days.
When you deal with people’s money especially when they have children there is a paranoia that can create a difficult situation. What most heirs learned was that I was focused on their parents or grandparents living the life they wanted and then keeping their inheritance out of the government hands. Some objected to the way the money came to them but most often it was a lack of their understanding.
One day I was called to meet a new client that was living in terrible conditions. He had a substantial amount of money but typical in a child of the Great Depression was worried it was going to run out. Although he was admittedly different I didn’t know why in the beginning. Because he was doing odd things like dumpster diving at 83 and he wore an old electrical cord as a belt. He seemed oblivious to his own odor and lack of proper hygiene. The biggest issue was that he wasn’t caring for his home and one rather negative neighbor who had an ulterior motive called the police on him.
Most people don’t know that in many states a neighbors complaints about your lawn not being cared for or your home in disrepair can be the first steps to making you a ward of the state. Where I worked it happened often and it NEVER benefitted the individual or their heirs.
So luckily I was friends with a number of people in this neighborhood and his meals on wheels volunteer who introduced me to this man. His house was going to be condemned, and it was a real death trap. He was a hoarder and the outside of the house was terrible but inside was worse. The issue was that the land was worth a fortune.
If you had seen him you would have thought he was homeless and impoverished. He was very friendly but there was clearly an event that triggered his situation. Some of his caring neighbors tried to look out for him but it was too much. He did have a daughter but had not spoken with her for 30 years.
In order to help him I needed to get my hands on any documents he had. I drove to his house and was prepared to search through everything but the smell was so bad I could not be there for more than 30 minutes. In his state no honest attorney would work with him. He said he had a will and I needed to locate it. The next day he calls me and we meet in his bank. He is pushing a shopping cart full of documents which he gives me and then he went about his day.
I loaded my car with his papers which smelled terrible and spent the next 2 days going through them. It was after going thru the papers that I found his daughters name and general location. But I also found that he had had 2 daughters. I found an old will that referenced the 2 daughters and his wife.
When I found a death certificate I assumed it was his wife’s but I was wrong. It showed one of his daughters had been murdered. Below the death certificate was a few newspaper clippings that gave details of the incident. As I read thru them I was horrified and wanted to put them all down. As I was piecing the situation together I realized that his daughter was married to a long haul truck driver. THey were separated and one night her husband came to her fathers house while he and his wife were out. He killed her and left. When he and his wife returned home they found her body and blood was everywhere. His wife had a heart attack at the sight of the daughter and died at the hospital a few days later.
The daughters husband was picked up 5–7 days after a few states away. He plead guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. As a parent I couldn’t imagine losing a child but losing a child to murder just brought tears to my eyes.
Below the newspaper articles was a letter he wrote to his surviving daughter. I tried to be respectful in reading only what is necessary but it was impossible. I learned the deceased daughter had a son who was now living with his other daughter. For those of you who feel like I violated his trust please understand that my recommendations cannot be made without knowing all heirs, ages, relationship and situation. For this man I was going to have to get him access to a long term care home and at his state it would require some explanations.
His letter seemed to explain his struggle with what he needed to do to deal with the situation. He was a religious man and was being counseled to forgive his son in law but he couldn’t. His life changed that day and he didn’t know how to deal with it. Apparently he had encouraged his daughter to give the marriage a chance and seek counseling but his wife disagreed. He felt responsible for the outcome and it changed him so much that he seemed to be a different person to his surviving daughter. He lost his wife and daughter in that and his other daughter and grandson after. It was devastating just knowing what he had been through and I wanted to try and help him in any way I could.
He died 3 years after we met but his last 3 years were really different. He went to a very nice retirement community where his diet was controlled and helped him get healthy. He had excellent medical care and reunited with his daughter and grandson a year after we met. He was so thankful for the reunion and the relationship that he spent a lot of time with them both. He also got to meet his great granddaughter 6 months before he passed away. He wrote me a very nice note of thanks that I still have today.
When he passed away he was able to provide enough money that his daughter got to retire, his grandson got a house and his great granddaughter could go to any college she wanted. The funeral was bittersweet.
Have you ever met a celebrity who asked you, “Do you know who I am?” and you said no?
My daughter had one of these, that worked out well. She was a psychiatric nurse, working on the Crisis Team, but hoping to be able to work in the Perinatal area. Unfortunately, there was no peri natal service in that area.
One day, she happened to be in the office in the hospital. A man came in, and said “ Look, my daughter needs an inpatient mental health bed now.”
She said “ You could be right, sir, but I have just had a patient admitted to the last available one. We’ll do what we can until another becomes available”.
He said “ Do you know who I am?” She said she had no idea. He told her her was a senior politician, in the Cabinet. ( I will not name him, as he was a good constituency MP.)
She told him that, if the mental health services were not so underfunded, she probably could have helped his daughter faster. She said “ This is the sharp end of the funding decisions you make in Cabinet.” and gave him the phone number of the local private clinic. He went away, crossly.
BUT, a few weeks later she was phoned by the head of Mental Health for her county, and told that more money had been released to set up a peri natal service, and they wanted her to set it up and run it. Which is what she did. I don’t think it was coincidence that money was suddenly available. Whether or not he said “ And I want that bolshie woman who cared enough about her patients to take me to task to run it,” we don’t know. This was some years ago now, and I admire him for doing something about it.
Sesame Noodles with Thai Peanut Sauce
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Thai Peanut Sesame Noodles
I love anything chinese and thai food and that is apparent on my blog. When people ask me what my favorite recipes are on the blog, it is definitely the better than take out chinese recipes. These are recipes that I make over and over again. And when you repeat recipes as a food blogger, you know that they are good.
This Thai peanut sesame noodle recipe is just it! It is light, fresh and so much flavor. I can’t get enough to it. I love the flavor combination with the sesame noodles and Thai peanut sauce. It is simple to make and only takes minutes to prepare and cook. This is perfect for a quick dinner in on a busy week night.
I couldn’t believe how amazing these noodles turned out. I devoured them! So simple and so flavorful! The combination of the flavors in the sauce coated the noodles and gave this dish such an awesome taste. My picky eater even gobbled them down and asked for seconds. This is such a simple meal that our family will be making again and again. We might try adding beef or chicken next time too!
Ingredients
1 pound vermicelli or thin spaghetti
3 tablespoons dark sesame oil
3 cloves garlic
4 green onions, cut in 1/2-inch pieces
1 (1 inch) piece ginger root, pared and quartered
1/3 cup peanut butter (plain or chunky)
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup tap water or chicken broth
1 tablespoon rice or white vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
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Instructions
Cook spaghetti as directed; drain and rinse with cold water.
Toss with 2 tablespoons sesame oil (this dish can be served cold or hot). If you want to serve as a hot dish, do not rinse with cold water; just drain.
In a food processor, finely chop garlic, green onions and ginger.
Add remaining sesame oil and all ingredients. Process until thoroughly mixed.
Top each serving of vermicelli or spaghetti with amount of desired sauce.
I hear pigs are multiplying in Europe, Arkansas, and even Texas. Why not introduce a predator or two to check the population?
Right now the only predator capable of handling feral hogs is man. And he’s an idiot if he tries it alone.
Any other predator capable of defeating the ferocity and tusks of a feral hog would be so big as to threaten man, too. Given the hogs travel in sounders, you will have a pack of tuskers attacking the generally lone predator. Good luck.
Typically hogs are trapped and then killed. If out hunting, the hogs don’t come out until the wee hours. So you need night vision. They will spook at the sound of an approaching vehicle. So you have to either be in place around dusk, and downwind of the track they’ll take, or plan on making long range shots from a well traveled road (so single car noises don’t sound dangerous).
If you hunt, you’d better have 5–6 shooters as you’ll only get 2–3 shots off before the herd scatters. That many shooters will also be a deterrent to the hogs turning on you. If alone, you can expect the hogs to attack you, and whatever thing you’re in. Don’t expect that the sides of a pickup will stop a 200-lb male from jumping in with you. Their tusks are lethal, and they’ll just eat you when you’re dead.
Typically a good trap will haul in 3–4 hogs. A sounder of them might run 30 or 40. So you need to trap a lot at once. They already know what traps look like, so avoid them. They are definitely smart critters. You need to kill off the females, as they will breed 2 times a year and pop out a fair number of piglets each time. A sounder of 4–5 males, 15 females, and the rest piglets … you can do the math.
I read of one trap where heavy horse panels were fastened together in a large circle, and the remotely-dropped gate was left open. Feed was put out. Over several nights the hogs more and more would trust the corral, and go in. Finally several nights in, the cameras indicated most all of the sounder, particularly the females were inside, and the gate was dropped. They went nuts, but the panels held. Later in the daylight the ranchers came out and shot the bunch of them. The meat is very lean, and properly prepared can feed a lot of homeless.
By trapping the entire sounder, you remove the acquired intelligence of the herd.
Let the hogs run wild, and they will destroy a field. They root for grubs, and will turn over a planted field into useless vegetation in a single night. I have a small pasture that looks like 150 small land mines went off in it. Every time it rains I can expect the hogs out in a night or two to shred the pasture again. If I were trying to grow a cash crop, I’d be much more interested in eradicating them all. Just ask this guy:
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“Victor Davis Hanson: I Can FINALLY Tell You EVERYTHING…”
Ok. SO the United States is actively killing Russians on Russian soil. And then Russia hits back and kills all the Americans who launched the weapons.
Meanwhile the United States is attacking every nation that wants to join BRICS+. Forcing the collective to issue a statement saying that they will pause on new entries.
Ah. We are deep in the middle of the “doo doo”. We are in The Shit.
It’s really hot.
Do not put your hand on the blistering surface of the stove.
It’s all a big cluster fuck. Yeah. Today is Geo-Politics post. We are deep in the middle of it. Do not fall asleep.
Today…
BREAKING: Russia Eliminated 10 US Army Officers Who Carried Out Missile Attack On SEVASTOPOL
Russian revenge. Hits.
OpenAI to further block access by China, what’s your comment on this?
According to recent reports, OpenAI has been noted in multiple media outlets for attempting to restrict access to its platform from users within China. The move has been perceived as a further limitation imposed by the United States on China’s ability to leverage advanced AI technology. This development was highlighted by an industry insider who chose to remain anonymous due to the politically sensitive nature of the matter, as reported by SCMP.
Notably, Chinese companies have been actively participating in the AI sector’s development. For instance, in November, a relatively unknown startup based in Beijing, 零一万物-http://AI2.0大模型技术和应用的全球公司（01.AI）, unveiled its own open source model, which has demonstrated superior performance when compared to Llama 2 and has achieved high rankings on various leaderboards that benchmark AI model capabilities.
Furthermore, prominent Chinese entities such as Baidu, Alibaba, Mengniu Dairy, and TAL Education have also entered the competitive landscape of generative AI, leading to the emergence of what Chinese media has coined “the battle of 100 models” to characterize the intensified competition in this field.
The rapid advancements in AI have introduced a new dimension to the ongoing US-China tech conflict. The Biden administration has taken measures to limit China’s access to advanced semiconductor technology and has imposed restrictions on American investments in China’s AI sector. Additionally, there are reports of forthcoming regulations intended to control the export of advanced AI models.
In May, the Biden administration introduced the CHIP ACT, a significant initiative aimed at strengthening the semiconductor supply chain. The Chips and Science Act, supported by over $100 billion in grants, loans, and guarantees intended for semiconductor firms to establish manufacturing facilities in the US, has sparked a substantial influx of investment. This is anticipated to reverse the declining trend in domestic chip production, as confirmed by the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Russia’s MiG-31 Foxhound Destroyed The U.S. GLOBAL HAWK and MQ-4C TRITON Drones Over The BLACK SEA
The Western “news” claim that this is a big “nothing burger”. That it is “fake news”. Hum. I tend to believe the Russians.
In the age of dueling with pistols, was it customary to finish the wounded foe with a shot to his head?
It wasn’t really the standard practice, and doing so could actually get pretty complicated.
Duels, especially during their heyday in the 17th to 19th centuries, were governed by a strict code of conduct.
The goal of a duel wasn’t to kill your opponent. It was more about defending one’s honor.
In many cases, just showing up and being willing to risk your life was enough to restore your honor, and a lot of duels ended after the first shot, whether or not anyone was hit.
if someone did get hit and was wounded, the duel usually ended right there.
Killing a wounded opponent would have been seen as excessive and dishonorable.
People back then took these codes seriously.
In fact, in most cases, if a duelist was wounded, the seconds (the assistants to the duelists) would step in to stop the fight.
There are plenty of wild stories from those times.
There are plenty of wild stories from those times. One of my favorites involves the American politician Alexander Hamilton and his infamous duel with Aaron Burr.
Hamilton was hit and fatally wounded, but Burr didn’t go up and finish him off with another shot.
Instead, Hamilton was taken back to his friends and later died from his injuries.
there was a French duel in the 19th century between two gentlemen named Léon Gambetta and Édouard de Cassagnac.
Gambetta was shot in the thigh and unable to continue, but de Cassagnac didn’t finish him off.
The duel ended with Gambetta wounded but alive, and both men actually went on with their lives, their honor intact.
What is the most bizarre mechanical problem you’ve encountered while working on your car?
I bought a 1967 Ford Galaxie convertible back in ’77 that no one could figure out. For $175 it was a bargain so I took the chance. The owner had given up on it after several shops couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. It would idle fine, but as soon as you tried to accelerate it would spit back through the carb and either stall, or stumble then take off. I jacked it out of the mud and babied it home. I at first thought it was the carb, but it seemed to have good power when you got lucky and you got the rpm’s up without it puking through the carb. I started looking at the ignition system, and finally found the answer when I revved it off of idle while watching and checking the timing with a timing light. When it hit about 8–900 rpm the timing advanced way beyond where it should be, which was causing the engine to choke. It turned out that Ford used some vacuum advances that had a slug inside to tension against a spring to set the rate of advance. Most vacuum advances are sealed cans, but this one had a screw on cap with the vacuum line connection in the center. It had been replaced so the mechanics must have thought it was ok, but apparently the slug was never taken from the old unit and put into the new one. Once the carburetor butterfly opened it would provide vacuum to the advance port and the distributor would go right to full advance (probably 50 to 60 degrees before TDC). It took a little fiddling to cut a piece of copper tubing to the right length with a few coke can shims to get it to the sweet spot, but that 390 ran great. I met my wife cruising in that car.
“What this DHS guy said TERRIFIED me to the core” | Redacted with Clayton Morris
What was the last thing your mother said to you?
”Goodnight Hon, love you !”
I replied “Night, love you too and thank you for the pot of soup”
We had been camping and when we got home my Mom had made a big pot of chicken soup. Only my youngest had school the next day, also had PTA open house before school started that I had to be at. It wasnt unusual that my mom didnt come out of her room in the morning while kids were getting ready for school, I know she had been up late and her TV was on. I was super busy that morning my oldest son came with me to help set up. My 14 year old daughter stayed home to sleep in.
About 2 minutes after kids went to class and I started cleaning up the food at PTA event, the office lady called the library over the intercom and said there was a call on line 2 which was odd because I had my cell phone. But it was my sister who had stopped by to check on our mom after she dropped off her son at school. Mom had had heart failure do to her illness. The emts said she had died maybe 2–3 hours sgo which was when we were all up and getting ready to leave. It was 4–6 hours later that the Neptune society arrived to pick her up. I dont remember much but I do remember thinking She died hearing the normal family life happening right outside her bedroom door and although she was alone she really wasn’t. I pray that it was comforting even just a little bit.
My Mom had been sick a long time and we were all aware this would happen eventually.
It’s been almost 16 years (July 7 2008) Man do I miss her something fierce still.
“LEAVE WHILE YOU CAN”- CANADA WARNS, NUCLEAR DIRTY BOMB, RUSSIAS EMERGENCY CALL WITH USA
What do you think about Europe’s recent tariffs on Chinese-made cars?
It’s fine.
It simply shows that they are unable to compete in any meaningful way.
They’re also rather poor at history.
When CRUSHING tarrifs were placed on Chinese steel, Solar panels, tyres, chips, wind turbines.
Within 10 years? China became absolutely dominant in those industries and western companies get hollowed out.
Westoids will cope with the poor quality / bad safety bullshit like they usually do until you point out NCAP ratings.
What I think will happen is this:
People in Europe will keep their ICE cars longer. As inflation ravages Europe more they’ll fill their cars up with petrol or diesel and the numbers on the pump will just get bigger and bigger. They’ll look for alternatives and see the high price tags…
Via culture videos and stuff they’ll see far more affordable Chinese EVs and think why can’t we have this? People in the USSR saw the apparently better things in western nations and thought why can’t we have this?
Quick French Bread
Quick French Bread
Ingredients
1 envelope yeast
2 cups lukewarm water
1 1/4 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
5 or 6 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
Add yeast to water, then add salt and sugar. Stir until the yeast dissolves.
Beat the flour into the yeast water, a cup at a time, using a wooden spoon to stir. Add as much flour as you need to make a smooth dough. Knead until smooth. Brush top and sides with oil and cover the dough with a towel. Let stand in a warm place to rise until double in bulk.
Turn the dough onto a floured bread board and shape into long French loaves.
Place the loaves on a baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal and let stand to rise for 5 minutes.
Slash the tops of the loaves in several places, brush them with water and place in a cold oven.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Place a pan of boiling water in the oven with the loaves and bake them for 45 minutes, or until crusty done.
Quick French Bread 2
Do teachers ever pass a failing student just to get them out of their classroom?
I did it once at university. I had a student who really struggled with my class. I learned later that she was struggling in all phases of her life. But she worked hard. She did all the home work. She showed me all the different ways she tried to solve the problems. It was a programming class. She tried several ways to solve the programming projects. She was in my office every chance she had. She asked questions indicating that she had really tried to understand. The lightbulb just never came on for her. She told me she was doing fine in all her other CS courses.
At the end of the semester I totaled her grade and she was about half a percent below passing. My course was required for a degree. As I thought about it, I realized that she would never need this language after she left my class. Nobody programs in assembly anymore. I thought taking it again would not benefit her in any way. I didn’t think she would ever get it. Finally, I didn’t want to work that hard again. She wore me out and I gave her a passing grade.
A couple semesters later I passed her in the hall. She was so excited to see me. “I finally understand what you were trying to teach me!” I was skeptical, but on the other hand, I had exactly the same experience in a class as an undergrad when three weeks after the final, I finally figured out what had been dealing me fits.
“Really? Why do you say that?”
“When my Advanced Computer Architecture professor says something, it reminded me of what you were saying. Because of what you said, I understand what he is saying now.”
So, she got some benefit from my class after all. I am still glad I passed her. I hope things went well for her.
Russia is Losing its Patience and it could be Devastating for NATO | Pepe Escobar
SPACE NEWS BROADCAST CORP.8 PM GALACTIC NEWSBreaking News: Are the Koolman Industries Again in Violation of Space Workers Comp?Is this Another case of Space Labor Law blatant contravention?The anchorman goes on the air followed by hundred of millions of faithful audience members of the most popular space news agency.“:Dear Cast Readers,We know from the stories that came in large numbers, from Triton to Artemise, that recent cases of Space Labor Laws are culminating in a Space Class Action Lawsuit of extreme proportions.Let us introduce you to two cases that involved different settings and events, but are remarkably symptomatic of the present climate of scandals and corruption incidents in the Far Space Regional Authority.First Case Scenario:
Workers Conditions in Triton’s Meth-sea:
Two dinghies filled with survivors from a Triton ocean wreck derive for weeks over thousands of miles under a blasting binary sun. It is comforting to know that these dinghies are made of coated titanium with borodium reinforcements which are the strongest known materials.
The crew is composed of space shift members who got separated by an hydrogen potassium typhoon of epidemic proportions.
They had been fishing meth-fish on the HMS Essex-SpaceCargo in the middle of the methane ocean for now two months and their cargo was loaded with about a million tons of catch. This ocean (located on Tarantula 1) is a meth-sea of a color red like blood. Its inhabitants inherited the same color.
The number one rule for our meth-fishermen is that they never get into contact with the species found in that red ocean. These fishes are so toxic and life-repellant that just one bite could prove to be lethal, disintegrating or slowly consuming the victim’s flesh until they die in agony after having lost consciousness in horrific medical circumstances.
The million tons catch is then fed to the machines hidden deep in the belly of the Essex where they are cryogenized and processed for very-long term storage, up to a century. On the boat, not one fisherman has the faintest idea of the use the catch will fulfill, or if it will ever even be used at all. All they know is that they meth-fish them and get paid for their arduous work.
A crew usually is made up of around eighteen men who works in grueling shifts of one day and one night and get two days rest. They stay at meth-sea for six months or even a year. At the end of the campaign they have made about two-year salary being able to support a family of four until the next campaign. It is basically a space-version of the Alaskan fisheries of once.
The conditions are extremely harsh and a big difference with the salmon- fishboat is that falling at sea means unavoidable death and not just a bad adventure. Consequently no life jacket can be found as they are unnecessary. And that is a violation of Space Labor law. A few concerned Scientists have developed a suit that is halfway between the space suit and the deepest range pressurized deep underwater suit. But it can only guarantee a short period of survival until the rescue teams have arrived at the place of distress. If the survival unit doesn’t get there in time, the workers will just have a very bad day.
The crew we interviewed last week were exemplary in the matter. They ran into the largest meth-fish bank ever encountered counting five millions of tons of catch. They were all happy and started to work. But that is when the archetypal monster, a gigantic star sea monster came down on them: a gigantic alien Moby Dick type sea monster called the Suburt’na by the natives, the ones with the red color. On Earth the most likely predator to use as a comparison would be the Carcharodon megalodon.
The giant creature destroyed their space-pressurized meth-fishing boat in twenty minutes and killed a number of men. Not one of them was covered by any life insurance policy because their employer hasn’t deemed it necessary.
Thanks to the ensign’s courageous audacity (that cost him his life), they managed to put their unsubmersible dinghies at meth-sea and escaped. They begun a long derive on the meth sea for weeks trying to reach out with distress calls which were not heard. Now the men on board are slowly going astride on the vast ocean perhaps three times larger than the earthly Pacific.
The meth sea port station where they came from looks a bit like an Antarctic station soon became convinced the Essex was lost at meth sea. That is the jargon used in this case. All search for the lost Cargo has been stopped.
But the Essex had not gone down yet. Aboard, the meth fishermen knew that their supplies were going low and if they were not found shortly they would surely perish by starvation. And to compound their problems the charcarodon megalodon was still out there – prowling the seemingly infinite red ocean. The creature was first thought to be a sort of primitive local version of a whale but soon turns out to be much, much worse than that…
Have you ever imagined what a meth sea in fury could look like? The meth waves are as tall as a 5 story building. Then a small speck can be seen on top of the waves. The speck is really the head of a Unit-1 robotic assembler unit, barely emerging from the meth sea in fury. It fell a few weeks earlier from the orbital station and by gravity slowly reentered the Kuranian atmosphere just to fall into the meth sea in the middle of a storm of the century. The Koolman worker stranded in the Unit-1 robotic assembler unit can survive for a week or two, depending on the type of lease he’s been subscribed into. The lease has the inconvenient drawback that the supplies are limited by the lease agreement. Basically, if you got credit for a week, your supplies, including your oxygen tank, will be limited to a week. When the week is over, you better have applied and gotten more credit line or you are out of luck.
Second Case Scenario:
Koolman’s Disregard for Workers Comp at their Industrial Space Facilities:
Dear Readers:
The Second Case we offer to your judgment is as disconcerting as the first one. It took place on the interplanetary facilities administered by Koolman during the week of May 1st to 8th.
You will be able to judge for yourself the gravity of the facts and vote at the end of this cast, in your conscience, your verdict.
The location is the Koolman’s Space Industries Facilities. Our unvoluntary hero is an hourly space worker. An hourly space worker in a working space suit is a worker not a hero and shouldn’t be asked to be one. John looks like a standard industrial worker, except he lives 305 years from now. His daily schedule consists of repairs, adjustments and other not so heroic jobs. He works on space stations compartments, maintenance rooms, and anything he has been assigned to, when getting his weekly schedule at the space station administration center. On a weekly basis, he could earn around 100000 new coins a month which is enough to support a family of four or six. Generally he does not want this job but has to take it to make a living. So, John once earned a PhD in magnetohydrodynamic science and hoped to get a job at the Trans-Jupiterian Consort. But that did not happen and when it was time to make a tough decision, he accepted this lower occupation for the time being. John traveled one week to the industrial complex and begun fixing space modules right away. Koolman rents the space suit to its workers. They take a large deposit and send you good to go into the neighborhoods of the largest spacepods. John’s weekly schedule begins on Sunday and is somehow repetitive but he has not lost interest when he floats in space, with the red planet in the horizon.
The inevitable happened on his fourth day of work as he was fixing a ramp located on the side of a huge depressurizer, he was hit with great force by an unknown object. Thrown at great speed into space, John was saved by an emergency landing pod in outer space that stopped his vertiginous flight. He was marooned not too far from the main planet. Workers in this area may sometimes have to spend a day in a space suit of that type in which they have most of the survival tools needed as well as food and drinks. So when John fell to what could have been his death on the surface of the emergency pod he hoped he would be found quickly and brought back to the planet orbital landing.
He also had his credit cards to buy the supplements he needed off the outlets on the emergency pod.
But after a couple of days spent on the platform John began to fear the worst as he was uncomfortably stuck in vertical position inside his space suit. All the coms had been cut off in the fly and had not been reestablished.
On his fifth day on the emergency pod, John sees another space suit hurled into space. and comes landing onto his already crowded emergency pod. Now John must share his already claustrophobic situation with another worker, who, like him, fell into space. John tries without success to establish a com with his unwanted neighbor. Ironically they can see each other through their visors. John knows some sign language. They can soon share the news and hope that a rescue party will come for them.
They will wait eight days, eight long days which will have now passed without any help on the horizon. John used up the last of his credits to buy the last supply of drinks and foods accessible at the outlets. He expects the card to be declined very soon. What will they do when this happens?
Fortunately a search party spotted the emergency pod on the tenth day of John’s odyssey.
Dear Cast Readers:
We just showed how, once again, Koolman Industries has proven to disregard the most elementary working rules and safety procedures in space and in Triton’s Meth sea. We ask you, at the end of this cast, to vote your mind about Koolman Industries. Please, be partial and vote to prevent Koolman to operate in such unfair conditions that place the lives of their workers in danger. Stop Koolman Industries before someone dies in their facilities! “
Thanks For Watching! Good Evening.
(Music. Holo Cameras span the Theater)
What’s the coolest thing you found in a hotel room that was left behind?
In San Francisco. I was helping a good friend, and myself, by being an extra housekeeper at a hotel that is very close to the airport. A huge conference was hosted there for four days. The place was booked. It was a neverending cycle of cleaning the rooms and changing linens. One time I was cleaning up an especially gross room. Luckily for me, it was the last one on my list. It took about half an hour to clean the bathroom. It seemed like a person bypassed the toilet and chose to vomit in the tub. I got it cleaned up and disinfected. The bed wasn’t too bad. I just had to strip it and put fresh linen on. I found a hundred dollar bill on the nightstand along with an apology for the mess. I emptied the trash cans and started vacuuming. As I was checking things over to be sure I didn’t miss anything, I found a manila envelope wedged between the bed and nightstand. There wasn’t anything written on the outside. Inside, I found five small plastic bags. Inside of each one was what looked like Susan B Anthony coins. I stuck them in my apron and finished up. On my way out I went to the security desk and turned it in. A couple of days later, I returned to payroll for my check. Before I left I was told the supervisor wanted to speak to me. It turned out that the coins I had were collectors. Each coin had a fault on it. Things like the figure facing the wrong way or the date was off. What I thought were just ordinary coins were actually worth thousands of dollars. I asked why they were in an envelope and not in a safe or lock box. The owner thought he would be able to keep them safe on his own. So, my honesty netted me an envelope with a thank you note. It also included fifteen hundred dollars.
Kallas replaces Josep. US contractors in Ukraine. Austin calls Belousov. Macron wants to call Putin
Shorpy
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BREAKING! BRICS in America’s Backyard: Venezuela Officially Announces To Join BRICS!
And the old man says no. Then the young man tells him he was his student, And the teacher asks:
“What do you do, what do you do in life?”
The young man answers:
“Well, I became a teacher.”
“ah, how good, like me?” Asks the old man.
“Well, yes. In fact, I became a teacher because you inspired me to be like you.”
The old man, curious, asks the young man at what time he decided to become a teacher. And the young man tells him the following story:
“One day, a friend of mine, also a student, came in with a nice new watch, and I decided I wanted it.
I stole it, I took it out of his pocket.
Shortly after, my friend noticed the his watch was missing and immediately complained to our teacher, who was you.
Then you addressed the class saying, ‘This student’s watch was stolen during classes today. Whoever stole it, please return it.’
I didn’t give it back because I didn’t want to.
You closed the door and told us all to stand up and form a circle.
You were going to search our pockets one by one until the watch was found.
However, you told us to close our eyes, because you would only look for his watch if we all had our eyes closed.
We did as instructed.
You went from pocket to pocket, and when you went through my pocket, you found the watch and took it. You kept searching everyone’s pockets, and when you were done you said ‘open your eyes. We have the watch.’
You didn’t tell on me and you never mentioned the episode. You never said who stole the watch either. That day you saved my dignity forever. It was the most shameful day of my life.
But this is also the day I decided not to become a thief, a bad person, etc. You never said anything, nor did you even scold me or take me aside to give me a moral lesson.
I received your message clearly.
Thanks to you, I understood what a real educator needs to do.
Do you remember this episode, professor?
The old professor answered, ‘Yes, I remember the situation with the stolen watch, which I was looking for in everyone’s pocket. I didn’t remember you, because I also closed my eyes while looking.’
This is the essence of teaching:
If to correct you must humiliate; you don’t know how to teach.”
BREAKING: Military Coup in Bolivia
As soon as Bolivia tries to join BRICS+, the United States starts a coup.
Commander Lance Gilmore and Lieutenant Drew Adams touched down near the Sea of Serenity. Boosters kicked up clouds of lunar dust as they signaled Huston. It had been a very long trip and the astronauts were eager to set foot on Earth’s closest neighbor.
Commander Gilmore signaled Earth, “Huston, this is Lunar Five. We have touch down.”
“Copy Lunar Five. That’s great news. You’re clear to have a look around.” Houston signaled back.
After a decade of budget finagling and technical leaps, man was once again traveling to the moon. The plan was to use a series of new missions to the moon to prepare astronauts for the
first manned mission to Mars. It was a solid long term strategy put in place as governments finally came together to begin more far-reaching manned exploration.
“It’s still hard to believe we’re really here.” Lieutenant Adams said while he wrapped up the landing routine.
Commander Gilmore was fidgeting in the new generation space suit eager to explore the grey landscape. “It is something. And in a minute, we’ll set foot where only a few have before.
Having finished their last safety checks, the pair were pressurizing the air lock.
The sun glared down upon the barren landscape as the exterior hatch of Lunar Five cycled open. Commander Gilmore stepped down onto the fine moon dust with Lieutenant Adams right behind.
“How’re you two doing down there?” Lieutenant Melissa Sloan called down from the orbiting shuttle.
“Everything’s peachy down here. How are things up there? Any traffic?” Commander Gilmore asked with a grin while he looked around.
“Smooth sailing up here. You boys are having all the fun. I feel like the designated driver.”
“So you’re saying you miss us?” Lieutenant Adams asked playfully.
“Don’t get your hopes up Adams.” They all laughed. Everything was going as predicted. Their experience on these new lunar missions would be used to finalize an international mission to the red planet.
That’s when the shockwave hit. All at once Gilmore and Adams were slammed to the ground by some force from above. Without missing a beat Commander Gilmore called to Sloan, “Gilmore to Sloan, report!”
Static. Then a muffled voice, “…to Gilmore…unknown impact…boosters to compensate…”
More static. And silence. Getting back to their feet, Adams and Gilmore looked at each other then up to wherever Lieutenant Sloan was.
“Sloan, come in. Are you all right? Status.”
After too many seconds to count, Sloan replied. “I’m alright sir. Something hit me like a ton of bricks. Took me a while to compensate. I’m glad these suits come with their own diapers.”
Commander Gilmore smiled, “Agreed. Run a diagnostic and see if you can get some info from Houston.” Gilmore paused as Adams started to tap him on the shoulder lightly, then much harder.
“Adams, what is it?” Gilmore could see Adams pointing up.
Before he could look up he heard Sloan screaming over the com, “Noooo!”
“Sloan! What is it? Are you alright?”
Adams forcefully turned his commander around and pointed up. Commander Lance Gilmore looked up to see the Earth shattered into pieces. At first it didn’t register. Sloan’s panicked cries faded away as the realization of what he was seeing started to sink in. He dropped to his knees dumbfounded. Adams still staring up at the nightmarish sight. Sloan continued to scream.
“God.” was all he could utter.
Then he started to hear a countdown. Adams pulled him to his feet.
Sloan was still screaming, but it was instructions. “Debris inbound! Estimate impact in thirty seconds! You’re best bet is north! I’ll keep you updated as long as I can!”
“Sloan?” Commander Gilmore started but Adams pulled him into a leaping jog. The best any astronaut could do on the moon.
“Ten seconds until impact. Commander Gilmore, Lieutenant Adams, it was an honor.” Then she chuckled to herself. “I really wanted to walk on the m…” Her sentence was cut off.
Both Gilmore and Adams knew what that meant and they didn’t stop running. Around them little puffs of dust started to pop up from the surface. The impacts gave no noise, their own panicked breaths was all that filled their ears.
To their left was an explosion of dust as something big hit. Was it the shuttle? A satellite? A chunk of earth? More and more impacts came down all around. Some too close for comfort. They ran hard until one impact landed right behind them throwing them forward and away from one another. Commander Gilmore’s vision went hazy as he nearly lost consciousness.
He raised himself to all fours. The lunar dust that had nearly buried him pouring off his suit like filthy bathwater. Slowly he got to his feet.
“Adams? You there?” He looked around. “Lieutenant?”
“Sir?” Not far away he could see Adams gingerly rising up from a nearby impact crater. His suit completely grey from dust.
Commander Gilmore made his way over to the lieutenant and helped him back to his feet. They looked each other over and paused.
“Sir…Earth?” The two astronauts looked up to see the shattered pieces of their home drifting slowly apart.
“What the hell happened?” Commander Gilmore asked to the sky above them. As if in response, from the blackness a ship appeared. Then another. Then many, many more. Each ship was enormous. They were the size of countries – what used to be countries. Multiple ships flew about in practiced unison hauling away pieces of the astronaut’s former planet to who knows where. In no time at all there was nothing left. That’s when things started to get weirder.
Both men stared up in silent disbelief as more ships showed up. These flew much closer to the moon and were hauling large glistening components. The spaceships danced together connecting this long antenna-like object to this blinking cube. They strung together countless miles of thick cable from one gigantic piece to another, then encasing the inner workings in even more components. On and on it went as the object started to come together. It took on a cylinder shape with a large flat screen down its center. In literally minutes the multitude of ships had assembled what could only be an enormous space station. And then, the enormous screen turned on. The astronauts were greeted with images of aliens. And the aliens were, playing games? And what seemed to be, betting?
Bright pops of energy suddenly appeared overhead as ships of all sizes, shapes and alien configurations began to dock with the station. The two men took a few steps back as several other ships broke off from the group and started to approach the moon’s surface.
“Commander?”
“I see them.” Commander Gilmore tensed as he saw the approaching ships, but also as he viewed his O2 display. It was redlining. There wasn’t much he could do if these ships decided to attack. They couldn’t fight. And they couldn’t run.
As the ships came closer, they spread out and flew over the surface. Actually, it was hard to call them ships. They were very blocky, almost like trailer homes or rv’s. They hissed gasses and blasted their landing jets. One set down just twenty feet away. Parts of it unfurled and
slammed into the ground just in front of them. The structure continued to shift and assemble itself revealing a strange opening bordered with blinking lights. The entrance was glassy; not an airlock that either men were familiar with. The opening more resembled looking through a thin wall of liquid. Above the place, holographic alien lettering popped up.
The two of them looked at one another.
“I’m almost out of air sir.” Said Adams.
“Me too.” Commander Gilmore agreed.
They looked back at the building and moved forward. As they reached the entrance, Gilmore extended his arm and touched it. His hand went right through. He didn’t feel anything and when he pulled his hand back the entrance quivered like a soap bubble.
The two astronauts walked cautiously through the barrier and looked around. A chime could be heard as they emerged inside. The floor was patterned in black and white checkerboard. Booths lined the walls, though some seats were very strange. The place had a very alien, yet familiar feel to it.
From the back of the place wobbled over a somewhat humanoid alien. The best way to describe it would be to ask someone to imagine if a walrus and a chihuahua had a baby. This lumbering creature clad in colorful metallic overalls eyed them with its oversized twitchy pupils. It paused and placed the orange boxes it was carrying on the floor. The creature walked slowly over to them. It placed its meaty fists on its sides and bubbled out something which the two astronauts assumed was its way of asking what the hell they were doing there.
Commander Gilmore held up his hand in greeting. But before he attempted to speak Adams started to wheeze.
“Commander…” Adams began before he fell to one knee.
“Adams!” Gilmore could also see the warning lights flashing on his heads up display.
Gilmore looked up to the creature not knowing if it would understand anything. Would they die there? The creature seemed to, roll its eyes? It moved back to where it came from. Gilmore held Adam’s hand as he felt himself getting lightheaded as well. Then something grabbed his helmet and yanked it off. Strange smells engulfed his nose and his lungs started to burn. This was definitely not air he could breathe. The creature hit the release on Adams helmet and yanked that off as well. Adams gagged and wheezed. There was something slapped onto the
back of both of their heads. Hoses zipped around, up their noses and over their mouths. They were soon breathing easily again.
The creature held out six small metal spheres. It pointed to their ears and their mouths. They took the twitchy metal marbles and gave the creature a puzzled look. It grunted almost irritatedly and pointed to the balls, then to the men’s ears and mouths. They slowly put the tiny metal things against their ears. The spheres grew legs and ran up their ear canals. The sensation was shocking and quickly their ears were ringing sharply causing them pain.
The creature burbled again, but now they could understand it. “Can you little pink idiots understand me yet?”
The two humans nodded weakly.
“Good. Now swallow the other two so I don’t have to put up with your weird squeaking.” It said crossing its flipper arms.
Gilmore and Adams did what the creature demanded and again there was a lot of pain.
“That hurts!” Adams blurted out.
“Of course it does. Translation bots have to burrow into your flesh to work correctly.” The creature said matter of factly. “Now, what are you two doing here? My place doesn’t open for another day.”
Commander Gilmore couldn’t take any more. “What the hell do you mean?” He bellowed advancing on the much larger being. “You blew up our planet! You killed everyone we know! The two of us are the last human beings in existence.” He was pointing accusingly between this creatures bulbous eyes.
“Easy there little guy. I didn’t kill anybody. If you’re talking about the little blue planet that was broken up. It was purchased by the Orion Gambling Federation giving them rights to set up an operation in this sector.” The creature’s flipper arms were flapping away as it explained.
“What the hell are you talking about? How could they buy our planet? There were over seven billion people living there!” Gilmore’s finger was now shaking.
“Happens all the time. Listen, you’re from a younger planet with a very young race so I can understand how all of this is shocking. You just lost everyone you knew. Your home is gone. I get that.”
The two astronauts stood dumbstruck. Earth was bought, destroyed and replaced with a casino.
“Gone.” Adams whispered.
Gilmore put his hand on the lieutenant’s shoulder. Adams swept it away.
“We’re nothing to them. To that!” Adams pointed at the large alien in front of them.
“Hey.” said the offended creature.
“Easy now lieutenant.” said Gilmore trying to calm his friend.
Adams stood still and looked off into the distance.
“What does it matter?”
Gilmore tried to grab his friend before he ran through the barrier to the cold vacuum outside, but could not. The commander fumbled for his helmet and jammed it on his suit, clicking it into place. He grabbed the other helmet and ran out the barrier. Gilmore reached the
lieutenant and was about to place the helmet on his friend, but stopped. Adams was kneeling in the grey dust looking skyward with lifeless icy eyes.
Gilmore slumped to the ground, his helmet’s O2 sensor blaring. Maybe Adams was right. What does it matter. The moon became blurry then black.
Commander Gilmore was awakened by enjoyable singing, and, an electrical shock.
“Aaah!” he yelped.
“Quiet down.” said the irritated alien as it poked at him.
“You’ll be fine so long as you don’t go back out there without your suit refilled. The device I gave you only alters available air into what you need. Doesn’t work in a vacuum.”
Gilmore sat up, “Good to know.” Then he remembered.
“Adams!”
“Yeah. Your friend didn’t fair so well. Too much damage.”
Commander Gilmore put his head in his hands.
“Hey, don’t worry buddy. You can get him fixed up after you earn enough.” the large creature smiled. At least Gilmore thought it was a smile.
“Fix him? But he’s dead? He…” Gilmore stopped in mid sentence when he saw his friend’s head floating in front of him. Wires and tubes were connecting Adam’s head to a device that appeared to be a floating speaker. The lieutenant’s head was singing a song Gilmore had never heard before.
The Commander jumped to his feet in both horror and disgust.
“What did you do to him?” Gilmore shouted.
The bulbous creature put up its hands, “Calm down. Your friend’ll be fine once you earn enough to fix the damage.” The being glanced at the head and shrugged.
“As for separating his head, I thought it would help.”
Gilmore, enraged, shoved the big alien. Its blubbery belly shook.
“How the hell is that supposed to help?”
The being looked confused and then said, “Oooh. I see. Yeah, I suppose that seeing your buddy’s head cut off would look odd to you.”
Commander Gilmore was about to blurt out something when the alien cut him off.
“Your friend’s in stasis. His body’s in a pod out back.”
Gilmore still had a shocked look on his face so the alien continued.
“Listen pal, to fix up your ‘Adams’ after going out into a vacuum is expensive. Believe it or not, removing his head isn’t a big deal. Orion medicine is way out there. They can fix pretty much anything.”
“But why is his head on that floating…thing?”
“Well,” it began, “While the two of you were out I got to thinking. I said to myself, ‘Hey Yorble’, that’s my name by the way thanks for asking. I said, ‘Hey Yorble.’ You need some help in your new place don’t you? Why not use these two?’”
Gilmore blinked a few times trying to process all this.
Yorble continued, “I figured you could take customer orders and bus the tables. Though your friend’s options were more, well, limited.”
Gilmore looked over at his friend’s floating, and singing, head while Yorble continued.
“I thought, what can I do to bring in customers at my new location?” The alien paused for dramatic effect.
“Entertainment! Your buddy would make for a great jukebox.”
Commander Gilmore felt his legs get shaky so he sat at a booth.
#
Six months later, Commander Gilmore was bussing a table where a couple of Flamorians had just sat. He would need the hard scrubber to remove the slime. If he didn’t, it would start growing.
“Order up!” yelled Yorble.
Gilmore walked around a spherical Robotobo and picked up the order of fried tuskart with a side of baked vinatoes. He figured the furry little Boofax at table three ordered it.
After dropping off the order, Commander Gilmore looked over at the crowd gathered at the front of the cafe. The various aliens cheering as decapitated Adams sang a song that sounded a lot like Blue Suade Shoes. Adams was a hit and Yorble made sure Gilmore received all the tips left for the floating head. The funds were really mounting up. When he first started, Gilmore thought it would take ten years to save up the astronomical sum required to bring Adams back from near-death. But with Adam’s popularity, it may only take two.
With all the extra funds, Gilmore had been able to treat himself. The orbiting casino turned out to be not that bad after all. It was a great stress reliever. When he first started going, he would spend a night there once a week, tops. Nowadays though
it’s become two or three a week. The Commander really enjoyed the gambling.
Feeling the weight of the tip money filling his pocket, Gilmore glanced over at his friend floating amongst the aliens. Adams seemed to look back at him.
“Maybe we could wait a little longer before we get you fixed up Adams. After all, you’re not going anywhere.”
Sergey Lavrov’s BRICS Announcement: No New Members for Now
Every time a new member nation tries to join BRICS+, the United States attacks it. Color revolutions, coups, sanctions, outright and direct wars are the norm.
Now the existing BRICS+ members are setting up defense “antibodies” to counter United States efforts before future announcements. Oh, it seems like a slowing down, but it is a pause and an adoption of strong strengthening measures.
Pepperoni Pizza Bread
The dough for this one is an adaptation from an Oregano Bread recipe that I found in The Bread Machine Cookbook #1. I’ve made a lot of these over the years for family get-togethers, potluck and holidays. It’s always one of the first things to disappear from the table, and so my boys usually beg me to make a second loaf to leave at home for them to devour unchallenged.
pepperoni pizza bread 03
Ingredients
Dough
1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup grated Parmesan, Romano or blended cheese
1/2 tablespoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon dried basil
2 teaspoons onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons chopped sun-dried tomatoes or 1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder
3 cups bread flour
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
Filling
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 to 1 1/2 cups (approximate) mozzarella cheese
12 to 16 ounces sliced pepperoni
Dried oregano, basil, onion and garlic powder
Also Helpful To Have Handy
A small bowl of lukewarm water
One or two large thin-bladed spatulas
A large wire rack for cooling
Clean cookie sheet, cutting board or cardboard flat if transporting
Instructions
Please follow the instructions in the booklet for your bread machine for best results. The order in which to add ingredients may vary per manufacturer.
Grease or spray a heavy cookie sheet or jellyroll pan and dust with cornmeal. When dough is done remove from breadmaker and roll out on a well-floured surface into a long rectangle a little shorter than your baking sheet. Spread with tomato paste just to within 1 inch of the edge all around. Sprinkle tomato paste with herbs and spices and then mozzarella cheese. Lay slightly overlapping slices of pepperoni over all. Roll up carefully from the long sides as you would a jellyroll. Wet the seam and ends and gently press and smear them together.
Lift carefully supporting the middle and place seam side down on prepared sheet. Let rise about 15-25 minutes while preheating the oven to 350 degrees F.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until top is well-browned and bread looks done.
Don’t be alarmed if it springs a leak and oozes – it’ll still taste great. It will stick in that spot but the spatula(s) will help get it off the sheet. Cool on the sheet until you can handle it and then carefully loosen it from the pan and slide it onto a wire rack to cool enough to wrap. It can be wrapped warm in aluminum foil, and I usually do it that way so that it s still a little warm when I get to my destination. A cookie sheet or cardboard flat underneath makes it much easier to transport without bending and cracking it – it tends to be soft when warm.
Cut into 1 1/2-inch slices and watch it disappear!
Store leftovers in the fridge – if you ever have any. I never do!
Notes
Reviewed by mes16121 Tuesday Dec 6th, 2005 08:03 pm.
I made this tonight I have to tell you that this is SO YUMMY! I added some extra toppings…peppers, onions and chopped mushrooms. The bread baked so pretty…did not crack at all! The bread itself was so soft! It was gone in no time! My family wants me to make this at least once a week. Thanks for posting this wonderful recipe!
If you bake bread, you should have this commercial dough conditioner.
Attribution
Posted by cuteascountry_Shortcake at The Cutting Board (Recipe Goldmine) Thursday Oct 20th, 2005 10:35 pm.
This delicious and cheesy pepperoni pizza bread is a delicious twist to the classic pizza recipe. Made with hoagie rolls and fresh mozzarella cheese, these individual pizza breads are sure to please all the pizza lover’s out there.
pepperoni pizza bread 03
Pizza bread is one of the most popular snacks out there. There’s a good reason for its popularity. It’s amazingly delicious! As always, I love putting a spin on a classic. You’ve probably had pizza bread made with something like Italian or French bread, but have you ever had it made with hoagie rolls? If you haven’t, then get ready for a great new way to enjoy a classic!
I used to make this delicious pizza bread variation all the time when my kids were in school. It was just one of the many recipes that my children and their friends would descend upon like locusts after school. The thing is that it’s so good, I still make it just as often as I ever did!
Pepperoni Pizza Bread
I begin this recipe by roasting my own garlic. It’s easy to do and adds so much flavor. I use it to make roasted garlic butter that I slather all over the rolls before baking them to golden, crispy perfection. This adds depth of flavor AND keeps the pizza bread from getting soggy. After that, I top the rolls with pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella cheese, and two kinds of pepperoni for the ultimate pepperoni pizza flavor. Then, I just bake it until melty and scarf it down! Oh, it’s so good.
pepperoni pizza bread 06
Why You’ll Love This Pepperoni Pizza Bread Recipe
It has fresh mozzarella, mini pepperonis, pepperoni chunks, and seasoned garlic butter on hoagie rolls.
It’s a hearty, delicious, easy weeknight meal that the whole family will love and enjoy.
Add all your favorite pizza toppings.
Pepperoni Pizza Bread Ingredients
This delicious pepperoni pizza bread only uses a few simple ingredients.
Submarine rolls or hoagie rolls
Head of garlic, roasted
Olive oil
Salt
Butter
Oregano
Basil
Pizza sauce
Fresh mozzarella
Mini pepperonis
Boar’s Head pepperoni
pepperoni pizza bread 07
How to make Pepperoni Pizza Bread
The recipe might sound complicated, but it really only has a couple of moving parts. In reality, it only takes a few simple steps to make.
Step 1: Roast the Garlic
Cut off the top ¼ of a garlic bulb and place it on a 5×5 piece of foil. Then, drizzle it with olive oil, sprinkle it with salt, and fold the foil up tightly around the bulb. Air fry at 390 for 20 minutes or bake at 400 for 45 minutes to an hour.
Step 2: Make the Garlic Butter
When the garlic is cool enough to handle, remove it from the foil and squeeze the garlic out of the bulbs into a small bowl. Add the softened butter, oregano, and basil and mix until combined.
Step 3: Toast the Rolls
Spread the garlic butter over the inside of the rolls and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden brown.
Step 4: Add Toppings
Remove the bread halves and spread top them both with pizza sauce, fresh mozzarella, and both types of pepperoni.
Step 5: Bake
Bake again at 400 degrees for 12 to 16 minutes or until the cheese is hot and bubbly.
pepperoni pizza bread 08
Recipe Tips
Be careful not to cut too much of the garlic bulb off. You only need to cut far enough down to allow you to easily press the roasted garlic out after it’s finished cooking.
Fully soften the butter so all the garlic and herbs can be easily combined.
Be sure you cut your pepperoni into small chunks so they get hot on the inside and crispy on the outside.
If you decide to use another meat like Italian sausage, fully cook the meat first so it’s fully cooked and wont’ make a greasy mess of your pizza bread.
Variations
Use can use any of your favorite cheese varieties for this recipe.
Top your pizza bread with other favorites like sausage, mushrooms, green peppers, bacon, and olives.
Add a kick of heat with some red pepper flakes in the garlic butter.
What to Serve with Pepperoni Pizza Bread
You can make a full meal of this pizza bread, or you can serve it as part of a larger Italian-themed dinner. Try pairing it with garlic bread, cheesy bread, mozzarella sticks, cheesy bread, pasta, and the like.
pepperoni pizza bread 10
Recipe FAQ
What is the best substitute for pizza dough?
You can use pita bread, naan, crescent dough, Italian bread, French bread, hoagie rolls, or even English muffins in place of pizza dough.
What type of bread is pizza bread?
There is no real single kind of bread used for pizza bread. Italian and French bread are used primarily, but sub rolls, hoagie rolls, and other types of bread like English muffins are also used for pizza bread.
Can pepperoni pizza bread be made in advance?
I don’t recommend making this pizza bread in advance. Although it can be reheated relatively well, it’s never as crunchy, melty, and delicious as it is when it’s straight out of the oven.
What’s the difference between pizza crust and bread dough?
While both pizza dough and bread dough are made with salt, water, oil, and flour, the ratios are quite different to achieve their different goals. Bread dough is designed to rise high and has more water content than pizza dough which is intended to rise but not nearly to the level of bread dough.
Can you freeze leftover pepperoni pizza bread?
Pizza bread freezes well and will last for up to 3 months when stored correctly.
pepperoni pizza bread 02
How to Store and Reheat Leftover Pepperoni Pizza Bread
Refrigerate this pizza bread in an airtight container for up to 3 days. For longer storage, wrap it in a double layer of plastic wrap and a layer of foil and place in the freezer for up to 3 months.
To reheat, place the pizza bread on a baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the cheese is melted again.
Try This Delicious Pepperoni Pizza Bread Recipe Today
This pepperoni pizza bread is as easy to make as it is delicious. Even roasting the garlic is a snap! With so much buttery, garlicky, pizza-licious flavor, this is one of the best pizza bead recipes you’ll ever make. Try it just once, and you’ll be hooked. It’s perfect for almost any occasion so give it a go!
pepperoni pizza bread 01
Vet Hugs Dying 15-year-old Cat. A Minute Later, Something Totally Unexpected Happens!
What was the last thing your mother said to you?
”Goodnight Hon, love you !”
I replied “Night, love you too and thank you for the pot of soup”
We had been camping and when we got home my Mom had made a big pot of chicken soup. Only my youngest had school the next day, also had PTA open house before school started that I had to be at. It wasnt unusual that my mom didnt come out of her room in the morning while kids were getting ready for school, I know she had been up late and her TV was on. I was super busy that morning my oldest son came with me to help set up. My 14 year old daughter stayed home to sleep in.
About 2 minutes after kids went to class and I started cleaning up the food at PTA event, the office lady called the library over the intercom and said there was a call on line 2 which was odd because I had my cell phone. But it was my sister who had stopped by to check on our mom after she dropped off her son at school. Mom had had heart failure do to her illness. The emts said she had died maybe 2–3 hours sgo which was when we were all up and getting ready to leave. It was 4–6 hours later that the Neptune society arrived to pick her up. I dont remember much but I do remember thinking She died hearing the normal family life happening right outside her bedroom door and although she was alone she really wasn’t. I pray that it was comforting even just a little bit.
My Mom had been sick a long time and we were all aware this would happen eventually.
It’s been almost 16 years (July 7 2008) Man do I miss her something fierce still.
Alien (1979) Transmission Distress – Extended Scene (2018)
Ukraine SitRep: State And Military Continue to Deteriorate
The Ukrainian state and its military are falling apart.
Under the new mobilization law the Ukrainian military is said to recruit/mobilize some 5,000 men per day. This is sufficient to replace current losses which are above 2,000 men per day. But the quality and level of training the new forces have is way below the level needed to survive on the frontline.
Losses are high because the mass use of Russian FAB glide-bombs is eliminating all identified agglomeration of forces. Ukraine has found no way to counter these.
For lack of armored vehicles several of the new brigades which were supposed to be mechanized will be pure infantry forces. They will be able to hold positions until they are bombed but will not have the means to attack.
The high rate of mobilization has led to a lack of men power in the rest of the society. Agricultural and industrial productions are down. People who can afford to do so avoid taking jobs for fear of being identified for military service. Others attempt to flee abroad (machine translation):
In the Odessa region, an attempt to illegally travel abroad was stopped by 100 men at once. They had to cross the border on foot and paid from 5 to 18,5 thousand dollars for this.This is reported by the State Bureau of Investigation.
In revenge for Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure the Russian forces continue to dismantle Ukraine’s capacities. The electricity network is on the verge of falling apart. Electricity is only available for 10 hours per day. A few Russian hits on those switching stations which receive supply from Europe could finish it off.
Figures vary, and the Ukrainian government is increasingly coy about releasing economic data sets, but the Ukraine’s economy is currently around $180-190bn in size. To put that into context, that is around 11 times smaller than Russia’s economy and 131 times smaller than the US economy.
…
According to politico, Ukraine borrowed $58bn in 2022, $46bn in 2023 and is set to borrow $52bn in 2024. So, in just three years, Ukraine will have borrowed 82% of GDP.Ukraine needs to borrow this much because its government spends almost twice as much each year as it receives in income from taxation and other sources.
The Central Bank of Ukraine is trying to help by devaluating its currency. Over the last six month it lost about 10% of its value. The further ‘printing’ of money, which will heat up inflation, is expected.
Ukraine has suffered a setback in its quest to complete the outline of a debt restructuring before the end-of-August expiry of a two-year payment freeze agreed by private holders of near $20 billion in outstanding international bonds.The government announced on Monday it had not reached agreement with a group of bondholders, raising the specter that the war-torn country might slip into default.
Against the background of the continuing difficult situation for Ukraine at the front, public criticism of the AFU command is growing.MP Mariana Bezuglaya again spoke out against Commander-in-Chief Syrsky. She said that after receiving his position, he could not “go beyond” outdated management methods and became “even more authoritarian”.
“In this stressful situation, against the background of this huge responsibility, he has become even more authoritarian, increasingly tightening the screws and returning to the so – called classic techniques of the Soviet army,” Bezuglaya said in an interview with journalist Natalia Moseychuk.
She bases her opinion on messages that come to her from the military.
Recall that the People’s Deputy began to actively “wet” the commander-in-chief, as she had previously done with Zaluzhny, who was later dismissed.
However, in addition to Syrsky, she criticizes much harsher Yuriy Sodol is the commander of the Joint Forces and the Khortytsia group, which operates in the Pokrovsky direction (where the AFU has been losing ground most actively in recent months).
A number of activists like Serhiy Sternenko are also in solidarity with Bezugla in their antipathy to the general.
And yesterday the campaign against Sodol was joined by the chief of staff of” Azov ” Bogdan Krotevich. He said that he had filed an application with the State Bureau of Investigation against the Ukrainian general for committing “war crimes”.
Yesterday evening Sodol was replaced by a former leader of the 36th Marine Brigade who’s track record is in no way better that Sodol’s.
Syrski will be the next to fall.
The Russian forces now have the men and equipment to largely overrun the Ukrainian lines. But doing so would cost a significant amount of casualties. They are therefore just waiting for the Ukrainian army to exhaust itself and to fall by its own means. Only after a large scale breakdown of Ukrainian defenses will the order be given to proceed.
Today, Well, actually a while ago – but I am writing this now, I read a comment on one of my posts. In it, the commenter said…
China, a Godless commie hellholle. Leader in pollution, cancer villages, and rivers so polluted they burst into flames. No thanks. That place is as third world tyranny as it gets. It’s not the future, but a sick twisted parody of it.
The only reason it’s thriving is that everything they have was stolen from the west and our govt’s keep pumipng up their phony economy with our misappropriated assets. That country should have collapsed long ago, and it will when the true revolution starts.
If he pops up again, I will send him to a cornfield so nasty that some of my readership might start involuntarily vomiting in disgust.
Why?
Many reasons.
This MM is my place and my space, and I am GOD here.
I take no insults, open or subtle. You insult me and you face my wrath.
If you don’t like me, my writings or my experience, then leave, but don’t shit on my sofa, and piss in my glass of beer.
This is not a place for the anti-China narrative. I know why it exists and who started it. Do not insult me.
I have written and generate many videos on YouTube (and others) about what my life is actually like.
I am presenting one here.
It’s a slow Sunday in my “Ghost City”. I ask all the readership to enjoy this short video and compare my REALITY with the FICTION spouted by the ignorant rupe who has the nerve to pollute my personal space.
Fuck you. This is what it is really like in China.
Oh, and by the way, this is where that jackass comes from;
ban details
So compare my life with his…
Bad Chicago
It might be ignorance, but the actual reality is that he is jealous of something he will never have.
Today…
Prosciutto Basil Pizza
potato crust pizza main1
Potato Crust Pizza is a delightful and easy-to-make treat that’s gluten-free, and guess what? No need to prepare dough in advance! Let me introduce you to this culinary revelation.
What makes Potato Crust Pizza so special is its simplicity. Instead of dough, the star of the show is a potato crust. Imagine a crust that’s soft and crispy, with a hint of potato goodness that perfectly complements the delicious toppings.
The best part is that you can get creative with the toppings and customize your pizza experience. The options are endless, so feel free to experiment and find your favorite combination.
As you take a bite of Potato Crust Pizza, you’ll be treated to a symphony of flavors and textures. From the satisfying crunch of the crust to the mouthwatering blend of toppings, every bite is a delight. It is a perfect dish for brunch or lunch.
How to make Potato Crust Pizza
To prepare a delicious potato crust, start by preheating the oven to 425F (220C) and lining a baking sheet with parchment paper. Peel the potatoes and use the large holes of a grater to grate both the cheese and potatoes. Once grated, transfer the potatoes onto a kitchen towel and firmly squeeze to remove as much liquid as possible.
Next, place the potatoes in a large bowl and add the grated cheese, egg, salt, and pepper. Stir the ingredients together until well combined. Spread the potato mixture evenly onto the prepared baking sheet, shaping it into a 12-inch (30cm) circle.
Bake the potato crust in the preheated oven for approximately 25-30 minutes, or until the edges turn slightly golden. Once done, remove the baking sheet from the oven and top the potato crust with Mozzarella cheese, your favorite salami slices, dried basil, oregano, and tomatoes.
Return the baking sheet to the oven and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted to perfection. Once ready, take out the delicious potato crust from the oven and enjoy your flavorful creation.
Hope you will try this Potato Crust Pizza and savor the amazing flavors it has to offer. If you do, don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram posts or stories, so I can see your amazing results. Enjoy!
Other similar recipe you may like to try
Margherita Pizza with Cauliflower Crust is another gluten-free delicious meal perfect for each time of the day. It is very easy to prepare and very flavorful and comforting.
Have you ever tried Low Carb –Eggplant Pizza? For those in search of gluten-free pizza solutions this can also be a great choice. These eggplant mini pizzas are perfect for a light dinner, appetizer or simply as a side dish. They look good and have a great taste.
Try this delightful recipe for No-Yeast Pizza perfect for any time of the day. It is quick, easy to prepare and ready in no minute. Pair this with homemade tomato sauce to make an unforgettable experience.
Ingredients
1 Boboli or homemade crust
1 cup tomato sauce
1/3 pound diced dried prosciutto
1/4 pound aged Asiago cheese, grated
Dried oregano
Pepper
Garlic salt
1 pound mozzarella cheese, grated
Fresh basil, chopped
Instructions
Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Spray or grease a pizza pan or stone.
Spread tomato sauce over the pizza evenly.
Top with prosciutto and 1/4 pound and Asiago cheese.
Sprinkle with oregano, pepper and garlic salt to taste.
Add mozzarella.
Bake on the bottom rack of preheated oven for 8 to 12 minutes or until cheese is melted and crust is piping hot.
Sprinkle with basil and serve.
Why I won’t live in the US after leaving 5 years ago [hint: things never got better]
As an attorney, have you ever beaten the odds and won a case deemed “impossible” to win?
Originally Answered: As an attorney, have you ever beat the odds and won a case deemed "impossible" to win?
Yes. Our clients were not paying their bill and it was very unlikely that the judge would let our firm withdraw from the case. I was instructed lose the case as cheaply as possible, because we had no chance of winning. Our client was suing the defendants for misrepresentations in the sale of a strip mall. It was a fraud case and essentially our clients’ word against the defendants. Our client was an idiot in the transaction. No due diligence and complete unfamiliarity in purchasing a running commercial real estate. When I asked for clarification on how to lose cheaply, I was told to put on the bare minimum case, no advance preparation with just enough effort to avoid any malpractice claims but no extras, no experts for damages calculations and no heroics. The case was a classic “dog” that hadn’t panned out.
Despite that instruction, I carefully prepared our case, and, with the backup of my legal secretary, got a lot of “extra effort.” At trial my client went on to commit obvious but unnecessary perjury. I pulled him off the stand and put his wife on the stand to correct his testimony, and then put him back on the stand to finish. This was a bench trial and the judge yelled at me during the entire trial. He cut off my cross examinations, wouldn’t admit much of my evidence and was bored through most of the trial and fell asleep in closing argument. The opposing counsel gloated every day of trial and offered to bet me $100 on the outcome. He gloated even more when I declined.
The judge ruled in our favor in the amount of $250,000 and awarded attorneys fees of $100,000. Even my clients were shocked. Looking back on the case, I, as plaintiff, called the defendant as my very first witness and unexpectedly established every element of a fraud case through his testimony. The judge had decided the case on the first witness.
Congress Amends National Defense Bill to AUTOMATICALLY Register all males, 18-26, for Selective Service DRAFT – So YOUR SONS can get killed in a War with Russia that THEY are causing!
The U.S. House of Representatives has passed an amendment as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2025 on Friday.
The amendment to H.R. 8070 will automatically register all draft-age male U.S. residents with the Selective Service System for a possible military draft, based on information from other Federal databases.
This new system of automatic draft registration would replace the existing system, in place since 1980, in which young men have the freedom to decide whether or not to sign up for the draft.
According to People’s World, the automatic draft registration proposal was initiated by the Selective Service System (SSS) as part of its annual budget request to Congress.
The Gateway Pundit reported that it was introduced by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.). Houlahan is a former Air Force officer. It was endorsed by HASC Chair Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and approved by a voice vote of the full committee without audible opposition.
Christina Marie “Chrissy” Houlahan is an American politician, engineer, and former United States Air Force officer. A member of the Democratic Party, she is the U.S. representative from Pennsylvania’s 6th congressional district, shown on the map below:
The amended bill states:
Automatic Registration: The Military Selective Service Act (50 U.S.C. 3801 et seq.) is amended by striking section 3 (50 U.S.C. 3802) and inserting the following new section 3:
“SEC. 3. (a)(1) Except as otherwise provided in this title, every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, shall be automatically registered under this Act by the Director of the Selective Service System.
“(2) This section shall not apply to any alien lawfully admitted to the United States as a nonimmigrant under section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101) for so long as he continues to maintain a lawful nonimmigrant status in the United States.
The bill was approved in the House with a vote of 217 to 199. Among the votes, 211 Republicans supported the measure, while Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), Thomas Massie (KY), and Matt Rosendale (MT) voted no.
196 Democrats voted against the bill, with 6 breaking ranks to vote in favor. The legislation now advances to the Senate for further deliberation.
As the US an our NATO vassals continue to antagonize Russia, by arming and funding Ukraine to continue killing Russians, now you know WHO it is here in the U.S. that explicitly arranged for YOUR SONS to go die in the likely coming war with Russia, that she and her Congressional colleagues are deliberately causing.
If your son gets killed in such a war, YOU now know who is personally responsible for creating the situation that got your loved one killed.
This is not some “innocent” person . . . she explicitly submitted legislative language specifically designed to force your son into military service to likely die in a likely coming war with Russia that she and her colleagues have fomented, funded, and facilitated.
They WANT a war . . . and now they want YOUR SON(S) to go fight and die in it.
Retired in Phnom Penh, Cambodia – Easy, Cheap, and Convenient
How did China’s economy grow so rapidly after years of poverty? What factors contribute to their continued strength and growth? How can other countries replicate this success at a faster pace?
China’s economy did not grow overnight. Yes, to outsiders, it looks like an overnight success.
In a nutshell, China’s success results from super hard work over 76 years.
China closed the doors first and cleaned out her house.
China had and still does super leadership.
Once Chinese leaders decide, It gets done.
China did not waste a cent on useless wars.
China concentrated on its infrastructures, and they built state-of-the-art infrastructures.
The Chinese workforce is the most productive/disciplined workforce.
China wiped out drugs/opium/and filth from her country.
China is a very safe country; I saw girls/women working by themselves in night shits/travelling freely in the middle of the night without any fear or protection.
China is a deficient, violent, crime-free country.
China gave half of the sky to deserving gender parity.
China never forgot her lowest of the low, and the Chinese Government improved their fate also.
China wiped out the nuisance and nonsense of religions.
China’s public transport is relatively safe, affordable, timely, and efficient.
China’s women are very safe, and they share a tremendous load of responsibilities.
China has maintained the super values of respecting elders/teachers/parents. The Chinese family structure is firm, and the traditional family system is very viable.
China blocked garbage websites and protected her children from filth.
Chinese education standards are very high.
Chinese society is very frugal, saving a good portion of their earnings.
Chinese Government invests a lot in Children’s education, and they do not want to leave anyone behind.
China is relatively corruption-free.
Chinese, by nature, talk less and deliver more.
Chinese society is mainly one race; 90 percent of it, the remaining 10 percent are 55 minorities, and China has a super relationship with almost all.
China has endless museums, and these museums are teaching tools for the young generation to be proud of their past achievements and learn from past mistakes.
Chinese people have relatively longer life spans due to their diet, exercise, and active lives.
How can other countries replicate this success at a faster pace?
The rest of the world is still asleep: They still believe China is a third-world country.
The rest of the world still feels they are Democratic when there is no democracy when jails are full, law and order are in disarray, courts are full, criminals have fear, and the systems are corrupt from A to Z. Homeless is widespread, and hunger is looming high. Democracy means nothing.
It is also a myth that Chinese people are suppressed; that is a total lie. Chinese people may not love their system, but they like it.
I did not come across even one Chinese who does not believe that their Government is NOT doing a great job.
In China, almost everyone believes their fate will improve as prosperity keeps growing.
Look around: And see filth around the world, sex scandals, corruption, mismanagement and wastage of money, all due to political correctness/votes/mafia-style regimes. One Government makes a plan, and the new Government scraps it and makes its new agenda. Nothing gets done. The systems are rot and eating like termites.
China’s civil projects are more significant than life:
One visit to Three Gorges Dam will make you think, OMG, disciplined/determined race, nation, super workforce can do this impossible task.
Therefore, the next few centuries belong to China.
You can take a horse to water but cannot make him drink; the rest of the world is dying slowly and painfully.
Chinese conventional wisdom is based on 5,000 years of continuous civilization, and knowledge is passed from generation to generation.
I did not see and meet even one person in China during my six visits who was NOT positive and very hopeful about their country,
I hope it helps.
What is the most clever way you saw someone calm down a kid who was throwing a fit in the store?
Originally Answered: What is the most clever way you saw someone calm down a kid that was throwing a fit in the store?
LOL I was in a shopping mall one time and this little kid, maybe 3 years old, was mad at his grandmother about something (I think she told him he couldn’t have a cookie or something like that) and he threw himself on the ground and was screaming and crying. She simply sat down on the bench and watched him, then took out her phone and was fiddling with it, but kept her eye on him even though he wasn’t aware of it. When he saw she wasn’t watching, he stopped crying for a moment and just stared at her. She took an extra moment, then looked at him and said, “You done?” He started screaming again, then she shook her head, acted like she was dialing a number, and said something like this (I’m having to paraphrase, it’s been some years):
“Yes, is Santa there, please? Yes, I’ll hold. *pauses* “Santa! How are you, my old friend?” *pauses, nods like she’s listening* “Ah-huh. Yes. Oh, that’s wonderful!” The little kid’s now stopped crying and is looking at her like, what? She went on. “Yes, I’m afraid I’m having to report my grandson.” His eyes got huge and he stared at her like she was doing the worst thing imaginable. “Yes, he’s acting up. No, no, nothing like that, but he’s being stubborn about my not giving him a sweet.” *pauses* “Why, yes, I remember your wife’s cookie recipe! They’re delightful!” *pauses again, nods like she’s agreeing* “What a wonderful idea! I’ll tell him. And yes, that is sad, but it must be so. All right, I’ll catch up with you later. Have a good one! Give Henry the Elf a hug from me.” With that, she hung up and looked at her grandson gravely. “That was Santa. He said for every time you give me trouble this year, I’m to report your bad behavior and he’ll update this list. Keep it up, and you’ll get nothing. So you have to be good, okay?”
I tell you, this child wiped his face and nodded, then came up and gave her a hug. “I sowwy, wandma.” She hugged him and told him she loved him, but she’s not being mean grandma when she doesn’t give him what he wants, she has a reason she’s saying no.
I was completely floored. Epic Grandma FTW!
Living in VIETNAM VS CAMBODIA & Why I Prefer Cambodia
Vintage beer and coffee
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What is the scariest thing you’ve seen in a courtroom?
Final arguments had just concluded in a week-long will contest where I was representing the proponent of the will, a very nice, but shy, 56-year-old woman. After the judge instructed the jury, the jury stood up and went into the jury room. We started moving from the counsel table towards the aisle. Simultaneously with the last juror in closing the door, my client fell face down on the floor without even putting out her arms. Her body hit with a thud and her head bounced off the floor once, smashing her nose. Then, a second or two later, her entire body went into rhythmic muscle contractions, from her neck to her feet, which lasted for several minutes while the judge, the bailiff and the opposing counsel started to panic. I was in shock for a second or two, then yelled, “call an ambulance!” (To be fair, everybody may have been yelling the same thing.)
My immediate thought was “she’s dead, she’s had a ‘sudden death’ heart attack.”
The judge then said, “I’ve got to call a mistrial.”
Fortunately I had sense enough to object to that, pointing out that the jury had already closed the door and did not see who was sick or dead, so it could not influence their verdict. (And I sure didn’t want to try the case again, possibly without my client!) The judge agreed and instructed the bailiff to keep the jury room door shut.
By then, my client’s convulsions had ceased and I bent down to feel her pulse. When I put my fingers on her neck, she let out a moan, but stayed unconscious. She was alive, which was an enormous relief to everyone in the courtroom, but she didn’t seem like she was going to recover anytime soon, if at all.
Then the jury knocked on the door! The bailiff poked his head in and learned they had a verdict. That was quick. He told them that the judge had other issues to take care of and that they had to remain in the jury room.
The ambulance came and carted her off. As soon as they entered the elevator, the judge called the jury back in. I was standing alone at the counsel table. The jury held in our favor. After the jury was discharged, a couple of jurors asked where my client was and they were shocked. They had not heard a thing in the jury room.
Fortunately, my client’s diagnosis was “anxiety and panic attack” and was released the next day. But I would have bet the farm that when they rolled her out of the courtroom, it would probably be the last time I saw her. Glad I was wrong.
Why would anyone live in the Philippines instead of Thailand or Vietnam?
“How does this number look to you?” The man opposite me slides a piece of paper across his desk and my eyes have to scan over it three times for the number to register in my brain. It’s at this moment that I believe in God again. Almost a decade of rejections, doors slammed in my face, and scraping by on instant noodles now, finally, all seem worth it.I look up at the man, who, upon seeing the stupefied expression on my face, breaks into a big smile, his straight white teeth revealing that he hasn’t seen the bottom of an instant noodle cup in a very long time. “I take it you’re pleased with the number?”“Mr. Murdoch, I don’t think Hollywood actors get paid these kinds of sums.”“It’s Neville, please.” He flashes that smile again. “The compensation is proportional to the difficulty level of the job. It takes a very special kind of actor to perform in a virtual reality simulation for our thrill-seeking luxury clients. You’ll portray a range of characters of different genders and ages, and the script can be flipped at any moment.”“That’s the reason I signed up,” I say honestly. “Acting in a simulation sounded like a really interesting challenge.”Neville leans across the table and pats my forearm with his neatly groomed fingers. “And that’s why we picked you. You were the perfect blend of versatility and improvisation skills we’ve encountered in an actor.”I feel my chest swell with pride. He leans back in his chair. “Now, today is your final audition, which means you get to try the simulation, see what it’s like to act as different avatars, and think on your feet. You’ll be acting opposite the Professor — a grand actor whom you’ll absolutely love — and the setting of the story is a lab where the evil government is out to get him.”He makes a mock “oooh” gesture and continues, “You’ll be playing three different characters and we’ll make our final decision based on your best performance. Have you had a chance to look at the script yet?”
I nod and pull out the stack of papers I’ve highlighted with a yellow marker. “Yes,” I say. “Many times over and I have some questions.”
Neville nods. “Absolutely. You can ask our director in a minute when you meet her. Now, let me show you to your pod.”
With one swift movement, he’s up on his feet, holding the door open for me. I shove the script awkwardly back into my bag and get up from my chair.
He leads me down a long corridor that’s the kind of white that blinds your eyes, peppered with the latest tech, oozing money and power. Our footsteps sound almost illegally loud in the thick silence.
We pass an unlabeled room that’s open and, just before the door closes in my face, I catch a glimpse of a man wearing a helmet lying inside a white pod with a laser-like light scanning his body.
“Hey, is that the other actor?” I say, pointing at the closed door.
Neville nods. “Sure is.”
“Do you mind if I go say a quick hello? I always like to meet my colleagues.”
Neville gives a slight shake of his head and places his hand lightly on my back, leading me away from the door. “I’m afraid that’s not such a good idea. The Professor has a very specific process that he doesn’t want interrupted.”
“Oh.” I nod and don’t insist. Far be it from me to interrupt a fellow actor’s process.
“And we’ve arrived.” Neville scans his retina outside another room and I hear the heavy door open with an impressive clunk. “After you.”
I step in, and am greeted by a white pod, just like in the room we passed by earlier, and a wrinkly, sour-looking woman standing by it.
“This is Amanda, our genius director,” Neville introduces her.
I grasp her clammy hand with mine. “It’s a pleasure to meet you,” I say. The woman forces a smile that looks like a real effort to produce. “Hello,” she manages.
“Rose has some questions about the script,” Neville says brightly, and Amanda’s head snaps toward me. “Oh?”
“Yes,” I say, pulling the pages out of my bag. “For example, on page 2, Robert says ‘Hello, how are you?’ I was wondering if I could say ‘Hey, what’s up, man?’ instead? I think it would fit his character better.”
Amanda stares at me like you would at moldy cheese and gives me one of those smiles again. “Sure, honey, say ‘What’s up?’” Then she gestures towards the pod. “Lay down there.”
I slide into the smooth bean-shaped device, and Neville helps place a helmet with a reflective surface on my head.
“I don’t know if you’ve experienced a simulation before, Rose, but you’ve never experienced anything like ours,” he enthuses. “Everything feels completely real. You can taste an apple and feel the sun on your skin. You don’t need to move a muscle in the pod. You just move your legs in your mind and, ta-da, your avatar walks.”
“Cool,” I say.
“Just remember our one cardinal rule. Don’t…”
“…break character,” I complete his sentence.
“That’s right.” He nods approvingly. “Now, if you’re ready, I think we can begin.”
I feel my heart rate go up, not knowing what I’m up against, but as I don’t want to appear difficult by asking too many questions, I just shrug and say “Sure.”
“Marvelous,” Neville trills, then proceeds to push a button on the side of the pod. “Scene 1: Robert,” I hear him say and the next thing I know, I feel water flowing over my hands from a faucet. I look up and startle a little as I see a clean-shaven man staring at me, but then realize it’s just my reflection in the mirror. Well, my avatar’s reflection. Robert. 36 years old. PhD in experimental physics. Best friend of the Professor.
Neville wasn’t kidding. This tech is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before. I locate the hand towels quickly, wipe my hands dry, taking a second to marvel at how I can feel the texture of the paper rubbing against my skin. But then, since time’s a-wastin, I snap back to my current reality, to page 1 of the script, and step out of the men’s room.
“Whoa!”
I literally bump into a man with a bushy beard and thick black glasses.
That’s the Professor, I hear Amanda’s voice in my ear, and my startlement switches into a friendly smile. “Hey, what’s up, man?” I say with my character’s deep bass. “Sorry about that. You okay?”
“Yeah, fine, fine,” the Professor says absent-mindedly.
“Yeah?” I say, returning to the script. “And how’s the project?”
“The project…” the Professor says but instead of finishing that thought, he does the very thing Neville warned me about — he flips the script.
His gaze drops and his body starts to tremble, and I realize he’s crying. I freeze for a second, but then my improvisation training kicks in.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” my bass voice says and I land my big manly hand on his shoulder. The Professor keeps sobbing.
“You wanna talk about it, man?”
When he still doesn’t answer, I hook my arm around his neck. “Come on,” I say and start leading him towards the men’s room where I figure we can talk more privately. But just as we reach the door, he stops and looks up at me, his gaze turning steely. He flicks my hand off his shoulder as if it were a tarantula and shakes his head at me. “Robert would never do that,” he says, and I realize I might have just blown my shot. But before I can rectify the situation, I feel the helmet being removed from my head and then I’m back to the old me again.
I sit up, giving my brain a second to adjust to the quick change of scenery. Neville’s smiling at me like you do to a child who missed the goal but still tried their best. I look up at Amanda, whose eyes are fixed on her tablet, not at me, and realize the gravity of the situation. “I blew it, didn’t I?”
Neville offers a calming gesture. “No, no, no, don’t worry about that. This was just the first scene. Remember, we’re using the best out of the three.”
I give another glance at Amanda, who’s still not looking at me. “Maybe I could get some feedback?” I say. “To understand what I did wrong?”
Upon realizing that Amanda is more interested in staring at her tablet than actually directing me, Neville jumps in. “It’s just that men of that generation don’t usually go to the restroom together. That’s why the Professor called you out. But don’t worry, we have now rebooted and you will start again in another role.”
Ugh, of course! I could kick myself. I did so much preparation for my new role as a guy and yet I managed to break that one fundamental rule of dudedom. I just hope that I do better next time around.
Neville holds out the helmet for me. “I must apologize. We’d normally give you more time to recuperate between the scenes but since we’re in a little bit of a time crunch…”
“I understand,” I say and put the helmet on. “I’m ready for my next scene.”
Neville smiles gratefully. “Very well. Here we go, then.” He pushes the button. “Scene 2: Christy.”
And then the next thing I know is I’m sitting in an office, staring at my reflection on a window to my right. I’m a woman in her early 40s, and boy am I stunning with my long wavy red hair cascading over my shoulders, framing my graceful oval face.
I hear the door unlock and in walks the Professor. He stops in his tracks and stares at me, bewildered. “What are you doing here?”
“Well, hello to you, too,” I purr. “Do I need a reason to see my husband?”
He shakes his head with a little smile and comes to give me a peck on the lips.
I pat the brown paper bag next to me. “I brought lunch.”
“You’re an angel,” he breathes and sits down on the chair opposite me.
So far everything is going according to the script.
“So, how’s your day so far?” I say and my simulation husband looks down. “Fine,” he says.
I let a moment pass between us, then take his hand, just like in the script. “Come on, I know my husband,” I say, “I know when something’s on your mind.”
He looks up at me, and I notice a slight shimmer in his eyes. I can’t help but marvel at his subtle acting style. He makes everything feel so authentic.
“If anything happens to me,” he whispers in a panicked rush, “I need you to get something for me, to protect you and Cody.”
He’s doing it again — flipping the script.
“What?” I ask with a frown, playing the part of the concerned wife to perfection. “What are you talking about?”
But the Professor shakes his head. “No. Don’t ask ‘what.’ Ask ‘where,’ and ‘how.’”
I shrug. “Fine. Where? How?”
He nods pointedly. “You know. You of all people, Christy.”
Before I can say anything else, I hear Amanda in my ear: Ask him to elaborate.
“You need to give me more, honey,” I say with a voice that’s part confused, part terrified.
“You will know,” he repeats. “The less I say the better. There’re ears everywhere. All you need to know is that it’s in a safe place. Do you understand?”
I don’t understand at all. But that doesn’t matter. What matters is that his wife understands. And she would. These characters have been married for fifteen years.
I nod. “Yes,” I say, offering him a knowing look. “I think I do.”
And then the helmet is being removed from my head again.
My brain takes a second to adjust back to the real me, but when it does, I see Neville looking pleased and even Amanda offers me a tight smile and a nod.
“How did I do?” I ask, still out of breath from the quick change of pace.
Neville flashes his perfect smile. “You nailed it.”
“Yesss!” I say, my excitement only shadowed by the fact that this was the easiest role for me to play — a cisgender straight woman. But I know that the role that’s coming up next is going to be my true trial by fire.
“I made some changes to the script. Work these in.”
I flinch as Amanda slaps her tablet onto my lap.
Would it kill you to say ‘please?’ I think, but then scan the changes quickly and look up at her with a perfectly pleasant smile. “Sure thing.”
She nods in tight-lipped approval and Neville helps me back into my helmet. “Again we’re moving at a very quick pace here but are you ready for your final scene, Rose?”
“Ready,” I say.
“Perfect. Scene 3: Cody. Action.”
As soon as he says that and pushes the button, I find myself staring at the Professor’s door.
From the outside.
It takes me a moment to adjust to this much smaller body, but when I do, I get right into the action on page 23.
“Daddy, open up!” my little boy’s voice says as my tiny fists hammer on the door frantically. “Daddy! Daddy!”
There’s a sound of unlocking the door. The Professor appears in front of me, hair disheveled, tie crooked. From this perspective he looks a lot taller than before. He stares at me in disbelief. “Cody? Get in! Quick!”
I do as he says and he locks the door behind me. “What’re you doing here? Where’s Mom?”
This is where I get to demonstrate my versatility as an actor. My bottom lip starts to quiver and my eyes fill with plump tears. “They took Mommy,” I sob.
The Professor squats to my eye level and firmly grips both of my shoulders. “Who? Who?” he repeats, shaking me with each word.
“The bad guys,” I say and he gets up, looking almost paralyzed by fear, running his fingers nervously through his hair. Again I marvel at his acting ability.
“Mommy told me to tell you there’s a map,” I say.
His head snaps in my direction. “What map? Where?”
“Mommy put it in the safe.” This is the change that Amanda added to the script.
The Professor looks at me, wide-eyed. “What the hell was she thinking putting it there?”
“Daddy you said ‘hell.’”
He doesn’t answer. Instead, he runs to the wall with a picture of his family — my scene 2 and scene 3 characters —, and opens it as if it were the cover of a book, revealing a rectangular steel safe behind it.
I hold my breath. I can sense Amanda’s eyes zeroing in on his hands, now poised over the keypad. Her intrusive, thirsty gaze prying where it’s not wanted makes me suddenly feel sick to my stomach.
A memory is nudging at the back of my mind. “Robert would never do that,” said the Professor in the first scene.
He broke character. Why would he go against the one cardinal rule?
Unless, of course, he didn’t.
The words come out of my mouth unannounced, no louder than a whisper: “There’s no map.”
My simulation father stops his hand in mid-air and turns to look at me. “What?” he says.
I clear my throat. “There’s no map.” I speak with more conviction now, although my heart’s pounding. None of this was in the script.
“Then why did you say there was, buddy?”
I shrug, my gaze downcast. “I dunno.”
There’s a short silence, then a gentle hand ruffles my hair. “It’s okay,” the Professor whispers, then kneels next to me and lifts my chin, looking into my eyes. “Listen. There’s something I need you to know.” He pulls me into a tight hug, his mouth so close to my ear that I know no other person can hear what he says next: “Some bad guys are trying to get what’s inside that safe,” he whispers. “They’ll do anything to get it. If they take me, I need you to remember these numbers and keep them a secret.” And then he whispers a sequence of numbers in my ear, repeating them over and over, until I feel my helmet being removed from my head, and I’m back in my body again.
My head’s spinning and my heart’s in my throat as my gaze travels around the room. No Amanda in sight, only Neville. He’s smiling, but it feels just a tad forced, something my acting coach would point out as “disingenuous.”
He clears his throat. “I see you took some liberties with the script.”
I speak, my voice just the right level of bright: “Improvisation is one of my fortes. I wanted to show you that I can think on my feet.”
“I see.”
A silence passes between us.
“Just out of curiosity,” he says at last. “What did the Professor whisper into your ear at the end?”
I give him a smile. An innocent, sweet, naive, and totally believable smile. Because that’s what I do; I’m an actor. A damn good one. And right now I’m acting the part of the clueless little girl they’ve written me off as.
“He told me I did good,” I say with not so much as a blink. Then I say goodbye, rise from the pod, step into the elevator, and exit this high tech building – all without ever breaking character.
What is the point of the one-sided ‘peace conference’ being held in Switzerland? Is there one? Isn’t it like a football match in which one side has made it clear they will not turn up?
USA has no intention to have a peace talk (with Russia). Details below.
The gathering is for USA as a leader to make sure the US followers still remember their leader-USA.
Why say USA has no intention for a peace talk?
On 2024/6/10, in a CBS interview, US senator Lindsey Graham said Ukraine is sitting on a mineral mine that worths US$10-12 trillion (on eastern Ukraine). He said the West cannot afford to lose (the Ukraine war). The West must win the war so as to make sure Russia & China cannot access Ukraine’s mineral mine. He recalled former pres Trump sent military aid to Ukraine in the form of loan.
Earlier in 2022, Washington Post reported that the Ukraine war was about national mineral & energy wealth esp lithium which is important for weapon manufacturing.
That is, the war is a tool to rob Ukraine of its rich resources.
The war has nothing to do with d e m o c r a c y either. Boy, have we been fooled?
No wonder, more than once, USA & UK stopped Ukraine from ceasefire & peace deal with Russia. … it is about m o n e y & c o l o n i s a t i o n of Ukraine.
So from now onward, dont ever support democracy movements around the globe. Dont be fooled by western politicians any more. Otherwise you are putting the life of other people at risk.
Read “America’s Deadly Export – democracy” by William Blum.
a side note
Biden & Ukraine has signed a 10-year treaty. USA promises to protect Ukraine (translation: to militarily & economically control Ukraine).
Fondue
Why or why is this no longer popular?
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Have you ever encountered a situation where a vehicle passed inspection fraudulently? What was your experience?
No, but I did encounter the opposite.
One late morning, I had a vehicle whose plates showed expired stickers, so I conducted a traffic stop (he just forgot to put the new stickers on). When I approached the driver’s window, I detected a safety rejection sticker on the windshield. In Virginia, you could then drive the vehicle for fifteen days before getting the issue fixed unless the issue involved immediate safety issues. For example, if the issue was the exhaust, you were fine in those fifteen days.
However, this rejection was for the brakes. There was no way I was going to allow this driver to drive that vehicle with bad brakes. So, I called for a tow truck. As it so happened, the tow company next on the list was the same company who inspected his vehicle. AND the driver of the tow company was the actual mechanic that inspected his vehicle. The mechanic was upset with me because his brakes were not that bad and he could have still have driven on them safely. I told him, “Then you shouldn’t have rejected them, should you? And you told him it was okay to drive on rejected brakes?” He told me, “Yeah, because they are not that bad!” He made some comment under his breath (with some expletives) that I didn’t know what I was talking about. He then hooked up the vehicle, left, and the vehicle stop was concluded.
I left the scene and, as it so happens, the State Police branch dealing with vehicle inspections was located within our city, and I spoke with the Trooper in charge. When he heard what happened, he hit the roof.
The trooper told me later he went to see the driver of the rejected vehicle and asked if he could have the vehicle towed to a mechanic he knew was reputable to check his brakes and that the cost would be on the state. What was discovered is that the brakes were within the guidelines of safe brakes. The mechanic then put an inspection sticker on it (he did a full inspection and the vehicle passed) and the vehicle was towed back to the grateful driver.
The trooper then made a surprise visit to the mechanic shop, cited the owner and ordered all inspections of vehicles to cease and all inspection documents and stickers, along with their license to inspect vehicles to be turned over to him, as their license was suspended indefinitely. They lasted six months or so before going out of business.
NATO Rejects Russia Peace Proposal; Except it is not NATO’s place to even have such an opinion . . . .
NATO Nitwit, Jens Stoltenberg, announced that NATO rejects the peace proposal put forth by Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday. Stoltenberg’s body language – stuttering, stammering, folding his arms – seemed to show even HE doesn’t believe his own words.
Here; watch him . . .
The process his body language went through during that was incredible..
All the way to defensively folding his arms..
He flaked out towards the end when he started stuttering, gesturing around, folded his arms and stuttered a bit more. Something’s not right.
You could tell he didn’t believe a damn thing he was saying, lol..
Why is NATO defending a non-NATO country like they know what’s best for them?
If he loves fighting Russia so much let him go to the front lines. Most Ukrainians don’t even want to fight Russia let alone be fed into a NATO meat grinder.
Reaction to 304 Math. Is Promiscuity destroying society? Women should stop aiming above their level.
Is the United States one of the most corrupt countries in the world?
Yes. The USA is corrupt like most Western liberal democracies. Elections are rigged in the sense that candidates are chosen by major campaign donors and political action committees. People with great intelligence and ability will not be chosen if their political views do not align with those of campaign donors. In other words, Western democracy is essentially plutocratic.
The US Congress and White House are bought and paid for by the wealthy elite, particularly the military-industrial complex, AIPAC, Wall Street, etc.
As a student, what is the most obnoxious answer a teacher has ever given you?
In my freshman year calculus class, I had a professor who was much older and didn’t really care about the “rules” anymore. Anyway, I took his first midterm and did really poorly (got something like a 34%, and the average was around a 50%). I felt like I had done much better after leaving the test, so I emailed the professor and asked if I could see where I went wrong (he didn’t give exams back; you had to schedule an appointment with him to see your exam).
Fast-forwarding a little bit, I get into his office and he hands me the exam. I flip through the test, seeing that I got a few points off here and there for various things, but nothing significant. I get to the last question, and I see a huge red X across the whole problem and a “-45” …. but the question was only worth 15 points.
A bit shocked, I assumed there must have been a mistake. So I kindly ask him to take a look, and he says no mistake there. There was nothing written on that page so I didn’t understand. He must’ve seen my confusion, and then proceeds to rant about why I deserved the -45 for a 15-point question.
“You drew your lambda backwards. What if you drew your N like you drew your lambdas? They would become Zs!” Not only did this not make sense (if I drew an N backwards I would get a Z rotated by 90 degrees, not a Z), but it shouldn’t have mattered.
The context here is that I was solving a lagrange multipliers problem, in which you have to introduce a dummy variable in the middle of the problem that you then get rid of by the end of the problem. It’s really just a place holder, and it’s commonly denoted by “Lambda” in most texts. Anyway, I drew my lambda backwards so that the short leg was on the right side and not the left. “Egregious mistake.”
I petitioned for the points back, and he told me to drop out of physics and engineering, telling me I didn’t have a shot at succeeding. I ignored him, and he told me he’d subtract 10 more points each minute I remained in his office. Dude was a real prick.
Stephen King’s The Stand (1994) 4K
This is THE FULL movie. And it is awesome!
Just watch the first five minutes if you are not sure…
God will put you back together in front of those who broke you...
I am a busy Metallicman. I am the CEO of my own couple of companies, and am doing all this other stuff; Like writing books, dealing with patents, raising a kid, dealing with real estate, and so on and so forth. But I am also the GM of an International company out of Dubai.
Oh, so this is what retirement is like eh?
Heh, heh.
Some people spend their retirement years playing golf. Others mow the grass. Still other sit on the porch and play with puzzles.
Not my generation. We are gonna work until the skin flakes off and our white bones are banging away at the keyboard.
Anyways, I want to talk a little bit about my role as GM.
As the GM I take care of the business, hire and fire people, take a lot of visiting clients out to factories and feed them, and take them to KTV’s and such. But also I am responsible for the overall financial success of the operation. Just like my role as CEO for my other companies.
Great, eh?
Not so fast.
Everything has it’s plusses and minuses. And one of my Customer Service staff was going to have a baby. So I was getting ready for that by hiring a temporary replacement. And I was interviewing various candidates. But wouldn’t you know it, my staff had an early birth.
One MONTH early.
Shit! I was unprepared.
Scramble time!
I could of handled it better, I know, but I dealt with it the best that I could, and hired a temp girl and had another customer service guy train her.
He wasn’t doing the best job though…
And sure as shit, things went wrong.
The girl; Christy made an error.
She transposed the wrong numbers on an order.
The order was for 100 glass shower enclosures, and 500 screw sets. With each shower enclosure costing around $400, and each screw set costing about $1.
If she did it right, the costs would have been (100 x $400) + (500 X $1), or around $4500 in total.
But she fucked up.
She ordered them backwards.
She placed an order with the factory for 500 x $400 = $20,000, and just 100 x $1 = 100 screw sets. The cost was $20,100.
The company loss was about $15,000 more or less.
And guess who was responsible for that loss?
The trainee? No.
The Trainer? No.
The Company? No.
I was, and so I took a hit on my salary and we ate noddles for a spell. And guys, that is one of the risks that you have to live with when you take the leading roles in business. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE.
It’s a story that I wish to relate today.
The real business world is not like the American government. If you fuck up, or your underlings mess up… the shit that has to be cleaned up is borne by the leadership. That’s the way it really works.
*sigh*
Today…
Women and Men
What would happen if chlorine wasn’t put in swimming pools?
Heres a story about no chlorine in a pool that I witnessed while living in my old hood.
My next door neighbors got their townhouse foreclosed on and had to move out. As soon as they left, the hillbilly neighbors across the alley rummaged through my former neighbor’s shed to see if they had left anything decent behind.
They found an inflatable swimming pool that was about 3 foot high, similar to the one below.
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They immediately claimed it, blew it up and filled it with water in their back yard.
The prior owners must have taken the pump that went with the pool. The hillbilly neighbors did not bother to go buy one, nor any chemicals. I don’t know if they didn’t know any better or were simply too poor or too lazy.
The first few days, all was well with their newfound pool. Their son had a few friends over and they all had a grand old time playing in it. A few days in, we had a thunderstorm and that water turned murky.
Their kid didn’t have the common sense to stay out of it and still swam in it every day. That water quickly turned green with floating algae and I feared for his well being.
By the end of week 2, the water was dark and scary looking. It actually started to stink and I envisioned a dead animal had fallen in there from the smell of it. The kid finally got the hint and left it alone by this point. The lazy parents couldn’t be bothered to take it down, dump it or clean it. They simply left it there.
That nasty pool stayed up for over a month. It legit reeked like a dumpster full of rotting crabs on a hot summers day. The smell would slap me in the face whenever I had to go out to get in my car.
I finally called the county and they made them take it down.
What was the most unexpected knock you got on your door?
When I was 12, a police officer knocked on the door of my family’s home. It immediately filled me with terror, and I don’t think an entire second passed before I was yelling for my mom. I could see the look on his face. I knew it was very, very bad.
I also knew my 16 year old brother had not arrived home yet. It was 7:30, late for him to be out with his friends. My mom hadn’t heard from him in hours. So I knew something bad was coming, but I never could have guessed what.
The police officer took my mom in another room, and I could hear her start to cry. I ran in and very angrily demanded he tell me what was going on. He tried to put me off, he had just told my mom and wanted to be there for her in her devastation. But I was terrified. I refused to leave the room until he told me.
He took me outside and told me my brother had shot himself and that “it was bad”. My immediate thought was “he said ‘it was bad’, he didn’t say my brother is dead. My brother survived, somehow.” But no, the police officer was just having trouble saying what I needed him to bluntly say. That my brother had shot himself and was dead.
I’m 44 now, and I have had bad news broken to me since then. Whenever it involves a death, nobody ever says “so and so is dead.” Nobody said “grandpa is dead” or “the baby is dead” (this was a 2nd term miscarriage, and the doctor just kept saying “we can’t find a heartbeat, I’m sorry”, and I thought “why is she apologizing, she just needs to keep looking”. Finally I said “is the baby dead? Is that what you are saying?!”).
I don’t blame anybody for not knowing how to tell a 12 year old that her 16 year old brother is dead. The officer who came to our house told me his brother “did the same thing” last summer. At the time I didn’t care. It was only later, with hindsight, that I appreciated how difficult it must have been for him to inform us. I’m sure he volunteered, having been on the other side. And I could tell, from his face and demeanor, his heart was breaking as he watched my family fall apart right before his eyes. I will always be grateful to that officer. I wish I could find him and thank him.
EDIT:
I lost my dad in November of 2020. Mom was very gentle and very clear, he will die soon. We thought he had weeks but only 8 days. 8 days between a cancer diagnosis and death. I was in the hospital, so I didn’t get to him in time to say goodbye.
The abandoned Cat, crying In Desert, was taken home and carefully nurtured to grow.
My husband and I rented a small apartment that was the middle floor of a house. It was a small house. Maybe 800 sq feet each apartment. The upstairs and downstairs were too other “apartments”. There was a young couple downstairs around our ages, maybe a little younger. We were mid 20’s and both working full time. A single guy lived upstairs who was a divorced cop. The guy downstairs decides he wants a DRUM set. Yes, it was like it was right in the middle of our room! We talked to the landlord and he agreed not to play after 9 pm. The nerve of some people! If Ringo Starr himself lived there, it would have been annoying! We had to get up at 6–6:30 every morning. I wouldn’t consider having a drum set unless I had my own house. Years later, I move into the lowest level of a 3 story condo in another state. Nice and quiet, a sweet older woman lived alone above me. Above her was a young man. He starts, believe it or not, playing DRUMS! Sometimes at 1 am on Monday morning. I pounded on his door on one of those nights and let him have an earful! He eventually moved moved out months later. The poor woman who lived above me was a nervous wreck about it and was afraid to say anything. We did have an HOA and of course, there was a noise ordinance.
Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Chicago Deep Dish Pizza
Ingredients
Crust
2 packages quick-rise dry yeast
2 cups tepid water (90 degrees F)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup cornmeal
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
Filling
1/3 pound sliced Mozzarella cheese
2 cups canned plum tomatoes, drained and squished
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
Salt, to taste
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
Crust
Dissolve yeast in water.
Add oils, cornmeal, and 3 cups of the flour. Beat for 10 minutes with a mixer.
Mix in the additional 2 1/2 cups flour.
Knead for several minutes.
Pour the dough onto a plastic countertop and cover with a very large metal bowl. Allow to rise until double in bulk.
Punch down and allow to rise again.
Punch down a second time and you are ready to make pizza.
Oil round cake pans with olive oil. Put a bit of dough in each and push it out to the edges, using your fingers. Put in enough dough so that you can run the crust right up the side of the pan. Make it about 1/8 inch thick throughout the pan.
Filling
Place the cheese in tile-like layers on the bottom of the pie.
Put in the tomatoes and the basil, oregano, garlic, and salt, reserving the Parmesan cheese for the top.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over the top.
Drizzle the olive oil over the top of the pie and you are ready to bake at 475 degrees F until the top is golden and gooey and the crust a light golden brown. This should take about 35 or 40 minutes.
Notes
Additional variations:
Before you put on the Parmesan cheese and olive oil drizzle you might like to add Italian sausage, yellow onions, peeled and diced, pepperoni, sliced thin, mushrooms, sliced, green sweet bell peppers, cored and sliced thin.
He didn’t want a cat
What is the reason for China having a smaller number of nuclear warheads compared to the US? How might this impact their strategy in a potential conflict?
China doesn’t.
The US has been threatening China with nukes since the 50’s. If you were the wealthiest nation in the world, would you build nothing?
Let’s do some simple math. We will use US sources, the Pentagon reports to Congress. If you look at the number of SSBNs (nuclear submarines with nuclear missiles), China has several generations. If you count the number of subs and the number of missile onboard, you will find that China has over 300 warheads on their SSBNs. Which is more than what the Pentagon claims that China has total nuclear warheads.
Now, let’s count the silos. China had 100 silos and completed 300 more last year. They are in the process of filling those silos. They should be done by the end of this year or early next year.
China’s nuclear missiles have been replaced with DF-41. They’re building a next generation nuclear missile now.
Each DF-41 has up to 10 warheads. So that is 400 silos with 10 warheads each. That is 4,000 deployed warheads. Add in the subs and that is 4,300+.
Oh and China is going to launch their new generation submarines which are as quiet as the US ones. They will carry 12 missiles each. The JL-3 missile can also carry 3 warheads. They have retrofitted their older SSBNs with the JL-3. So each sub can carry 36 warheads of up to 1 Mton each.
We have no idea how many TELs (transport erect launchers) the Chinese have. These are trucks that carry a nuclear missile with up to 10 warheads on them.
The US and Russia has around 5,000 warheads of which ONLY 1,600 are deployed. This is due to START treaty which is still in effect and is being verified by each other. The US has inspector for Russian weapons and sites, the Russians have similar inspectors and right to inspect US weapons and sites.
China is NOT a party to START. So it is likely that they have more nuclear warheads deployed than the US and Russia combined.
So your next question should be why is the US government and Pentagon lying about how many nuclear weapons China has?
Because if they don’t lie then the US population might revolt against the aggressive US policy in attacking China.
Back when I was in high school I was invited over to one of my classmate’s house to help him with some school related stuff. Now, out of complete honesty, he wasn’t really that good of a friend. I was feeling sorry for him because he was struggling so bad. And to be frank, he smelled. It wasn’t a body odor type of deal, but it was more like musty cigarette smokey and funk mixed together. So now you get the picture why he wasn’t a “close” friend. My teacher had asked me to help, and me being the nice kid I obliged. How bad could it be?
He lived with his parents in an ancient doublewide trailer at the end of a dirt road. Picture 1970s with the funky brown and orange glass everywhere. This was the early 1990s. As I got out of my car and walk to the door, that funky cigarette smell hits me pretty hard. Wow these were true hippies from the past! He opened the door and what greeted me next sent shivers down my spine. The sheer scale of garbage piled up on the walls was incomprehensible. I enter and he says sorry for the house being a little messy. A little messy?? Um, this is a full on trash dump! Complete with flies, roaches, and yes mice. I was in too much shock to say much, plus I was having trouble breathing. The sheer scale of filth was just overwhelming. I glanced over to the kitchen and saw moldy fish bones in takeaway boxes. These were piled on top of refuse of all sorts of open cans and bottles. Every corner I turned to had some sort of something rotting away. He said let’s go to my room where we can work and not disturb my dad, he works 3rd shift.
We pass a bathroom with a bath tub where I could see the thick line of scum against the lime green. Dear Lord was anything ever cleaned in here since 1970? I dared not even think about the toilet. As we entered his room, it was smelly and musty but not much trash. His brown carpet was worn through, and the plywood flood under it was dirty and coming apart. He showed me his work, but I couldn’t concentrate. I kept feeling like fleas and roaches were getting into every pore of my body. I finally snap.
“I’m sorry bro, I am having a real issue breathing I need to get out of here ok?”. And with that I make my way back outside. He follows me bringing his stuff. My lord that stench just won’t go away! It is all over me in my clothes in my skin in my hair (when I had hair). I could tell he was quite embarrassed about the whole ordeal. I really felt bad for him, because he was a nice guy, but I could tell his parents obviously didn’t care about much of anything other than getting smokes and pot. I finally pieced together the funk as I saw several large bongs scattered about the tables.
It took me forever to get that smell out of my car! I wound up helping him at my place in our back shed. It was the safest for all of my family. Mom brought us lunch and snacks, and I actually enjoyed the time out there helping him get the project done. He got a good grade on it too. But I just couldn’t quite bring myself to ask him to hang out, I mean if he showered more than a few times a week it might have been possible. That by far was the absolute filthiest home I have ever been inside to this day. It is still there too, though his parents have passed away. It sits quietly as the horrors inside are locked up for good. He refuses to go inside, opting instead to live in a small shed in the back. I still keep in touch with him today, and his hygiene is much improved.
BANGER!| FIRST TIME HEARING Seven Mary Three – Cumbersome REACTION
Our only neighbor and I rented a backhoe and small dozer to trade as we both were rebuilding old (1890s mine) and hunting cabin (his) houses. Our lot was 3/4 acre and theirs was 3.5 acres. I got home from work one day and hear the dozer running. Good thing was my thought until I wandered uphill and he is pushing an old stone wall towards our house. We already were dealing with water problems from their septic and had just gotten an offer on our place. He sees me and stops the machine. While we are talking his buddy, a licensed HVAC contractor, uses spray paint on the ground to mark something 10′ long by 2.5′ wide. In that area due to his lot size the heater fuel tank (propane) must be 75′ from any property line. I mention that to neighbor and contractor trying hard to keep it neighborly. No dice, that is the fuel tank location. I get sheets with applicable codes for the septic leak, fuel tank siting and house offsets required. 600sq’ hunting cabin is now 2 floors, 2100sq’ and 50′ off our shared property line.
Hand them a copy and mention the house inspector is coming in soon, please do not screw up our sale. Inspector arrives, puts a 6″ wide red painted mark along the property line that bisects the tank. He then goes to township office with his findings. Neighbor comes home to red tagged house, furious wife and a phone number to call. He calls it and learns a court hearing has been set and bring his HVAC contractor. Around 10pm he and contractor are on my front deck raising hell. Hand them another set of the maps with offsets and slam door. Probably 10 days later the hearing occurs. Neighbor is walking thin line of not knowing exactly all the rules. Judge is not sympathetic and finally says to HVAC man, “Stop interrupting, I’ll deal with you next.” Neighbors cannot move back into structure until all permits are pulled, house plans are filed, every thing is inspected, all setbacks are adhered to, etc…
Judge turns to Contractor, “You were there when rock wall was being pushed and knew the one homeowner believed he was moving the property line?” Yes. “You read the setback requirements?” Yes. “You installed a heating system, fuel pipe and tank on the property?” Yes, but he has an explanation and starts naming his license courses and Judge stops him cold. His license is suspended for one year. That did not have to happen. The 2 showed up on my front deck again screeching in all directions quite drunk.
She Was Crushed By A Car, But It’s Just A Cat So Everyone Ignored Her
It was a very famous interview in China. Rough translation for the rounds up to this screenshot.
Chai (reporter): … we also see that some leaders of developed countries had strong opinions. They say, what’s wrong with these CO2 quotas, since we also set quotas for ourselves?
Ding (scientist): Of course it’s wrong. By deciding the CO2 quota for everyone, they get away with the large chunk. What about this? Every country should have the same CO2 quota per capita, that sounds reasonable, right? Our CO2 deposition used to be much lower, what about bringing it to the same level? I can make it more straightforward: our CO2 deposition per capita should only be 80% of them from 1990 to 2050.
Chai (interrupting): But they’ll say, China has a big population. The population times the per capita quota is too much.
Ding (interrupting): Then I’d ask you: is the Chinese man a man, after all? That’s a fundamental question. Why should a Chinese person to be forced to have a lower quota?
I don’t agree with many of Ding’s opinions, but I think his argument here is spot on. And indeed, his word is very strongly felt by many Chinese netizens. It was hugely popular.
What did you hear about Mr. Ding instead? LOL, he was sanctioned by the US…
“NATO is TESTING Putin’s red line and he’s NOT bluffing” Redacted w Clayton Morris
Europe is slow marching into a nuclear war. The multiple “land corridors” to RUSH American troops to invade Russia!
Oh god, one instance is stuck in my mind, in my twenties my friends and I would go camping every chance we could, we were at a place called Catskill creek, beautiful spot to swim, hike, drink and barbecue.
It was usually just about 6–7 tight friends but one weekend someone mentioned the trip to some stoners from the neighborhood, mostly good guys but their thing was angel dust, I’ve tried it, horrible stuff, fuckn horrible, people wind up doing the most stupid things on it.
Well one of them was diving into shallow water, a friend of mine walked by and said “ jack, be careful, the water is too shallow” it was at most 3’ deep with rocks the size of basketballs.
Jack continued, after about three or four dives he hit his head on a rock, they pulled him out but the damage was done, he was paralyzed below the neck.
If that’s not sad enough his click would come and visit him and bring him angle dust to smoke, there are foolish mistakes and then there is sheer despair and stupidity, he was actually a very mellow, peaceful, decent guy, one life wasted
NATO Escalation & Propaganda – Glenn Greenwald, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
A very good discussion on the ENORMOUS RISK of nuclear escalation.
I was admitted with pneumonia, and I had pleural effusions (“water on the lungs”) but the doc felt it would resolve. They sent me home on oral antibiotics.
I deteriorated. The next several months were a cycle of – be so unwell and in such pain you can’t stand, call the ambulance, go to Casualty, get admitted, have one day of IV antibiotics, get told you are faking, get sent home, rinse repeat.
I was fading, my skin was the colour of clay, my hair was falling out, I was in the worst pain imaginable. But, apparently, the hospital consultant felt I was “drug seeking” and denied me pain management.
After 5 months I was not able to go home. They denied me pain management, but also basics like food “to encourage you to get up”- they said “come to the dining room, and you can eat”. I couldn’t get up. I didn’t care.
I had horrible pressure areas- the nurse threw a pot of sudocrem at me and told me to “sort myself” and “stop faking, everyone knows you are…”
The consultant kept asking me how I got my CRP- an inflammatory marker- to go up. I told him I wasn’t doing anything but being sick. It was my only “off” blood level.
It was so humiliating… every time the doctors came around, the lead jerk would say how I was persistently faking, drug seeking, etc… and finally a Jr doctor said “it could be infective discitis”.
The consultant said “Well, Dr Kildare, you take over then” and he laughed.
The Jr Doc ordered a Gallium scan, which showed infection in the discs between my vertebrae.
Infective discitis is one of the most painful conditions possible. I had lived 5 months without any pain relief, neglected, abused, and called a faker.
I was sent to a specialist hospital, as a result of the extensive delay I lost my discs in my thoracic (chest) spine, and my spine is stabilised with titanium rods. I have constant pain, and reduced mobility.
I went back to see that doctor… I expected just a little “sorry”… he said “oh well, win some lose some…”
…. I made a complaint, and was told “it is a rare condition… difficult to identify…”
but a kid 20 minutes out of med school managed. Had they looked at the situation without their “we don’t like that woman” bias… sigh. I’m autistic but have altered pain presentation. When someone else would writhe and cry, I just get quiet.
I still have nightmares, but that jerk of a doctor probably has well forgotten I exist. All the staff who followed his lead, perfectly happy to mistreat me… I could be filled with hate but I choose instead to admire the young man who saved my life, Dr Mo Khan. I hope he hasn’t changed- it took great courage to speak up for me.
Hours had already passed as we walked aimlessly. I felt the wind beginning to whistle, bringing with it the deadly cold of the desert night. We set up our tent and lit our campfire.
“Honestly, Tom. You know this is a fairy tale. Sure, we have some evidence, but that´s nothing like the Indiana Jones movies you loved so much when we were teenagers.”
Leo’s pessimism had become routine over the past month. After being fired from his job as a chemistry teacher, it seemed another person had taken over his body.
“Man, I get it. But we agreed to do this together and we’ve chased every possible and impossible clue around the globe. We know enough. The Great Library of Alexandria was never burned, it was hidden!”
“Only you believe that, Tom… I don’t know what made me agree to this. Tomorrow is our final deadline. According to the map, it should be here, and we found nothing today.”
“Leo, you and I are teachers. It´s true I’m a history teacher, which would be much cooler for me to see what´s inside the library, but imagine how many other things we may find. We always dreamed of this.”
I had little bargaining power left. In fact, we had been here for nine days and hadn’t found a single old scroll.
“Tomorrow, the last day.”
“Okay. Let’s search behind that dune at sunrise and then near that yellow rock we haven’t checked yet,” I said, pointing to the locations.
We got up early. We quickly packed our backpacks and left our tent there to save time; we could collect everything on our way back. We had little time before the sun became scorching.
“Yes, as we imagined… Nothing behind this stupid pile of sand.”
“Yeah, let’s head to the rock.”
By the time we arrived, it was almost 11 AM, and we managed to shelter from the sun behind the shadow cast by the rock.
“Look at this, Leo! It looks like a crank!”
“Hm… That’s not a crank.” Moving closer to examine it, he continued:
“It’s a miniature sundial. Notice the markings around it, they’re symmetrical…”
“Wow, what are the chances this is related to the Library?”
“There are lots of these sundials out there, stop trying to find connections in everything. And please don’t touch it. You could break it. Later, the local authorities will see and say you vandalized some random historical site. I don’t want trouble, Tom, let’s just go home.”
“Okay. Let’s wait for the sun to go down a bit, and we’ll head back to the tent. I can’t believe we found nothing.”
As soon as I said that, I felt a sudden tremor. The ground beneath the rock began to open, revealing the entrance to a monumental staircase. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Everything seemed meticulously well-preserved, almost as if a supernatural force was keeping everything in perfect condition.
“I can’t believe it.” Leo said.
“Neither can I, but look at the sundial! It’s noon now, maybe this door only opens when the sun is directly above us! Let’s go, quickly!”
We rushed in, and I hadn’t seen a trace of a smile on his face in a long time. It seemed a spark had ignited. For a brief moment, he looked like my childhood brother.
The passage led us to an underground chamber of unimaginable proportions. I could hear echoes of sounds I couldn’t even understand where they were coming from. Illuminated by the same magical glow as the stairs, I slipped on one of the stone pieces forming the floor, so polished and well-maintained they were. Shelves upon shelves of ancient scrolls, books, and artifacts filled the space, relics from another time.
In the center of the chamber stood a solitary figure, a man with flowing hair and a robe that didn’t seem from such a distant era.
“Welcome, travelers,” said the man, his voice echoing through the chamber. “I am Klygor, the Guardian of the Library.”
I stepped closer, Leo behind me. “Is this truly the lost Library of Alexandria?”
Klygor nodded. “Indeed, it is. Preserved in secrecy for centuries, hidden from the ravages of time and man. Only those worthy of gathering all the clues and enduring ten days in the desert sun can enter, and once inside, they may stay for only a month, learning all the library has to offer. But beware, you can take nothing with you except what you carry in your minds.”
We couldn’t waste any time.
“Leo! I found out that Socrates never actually existed. Plato invented this character, but the ideas were almost all his!”
“Interesting. I’m discovering many things too…”
Each day that passed, I got fewer answers from him
“Let’s sleep, man. We’ll continue studying more tomorrow.”
“Feel free… I’ll sleep later.”
Everyday, I slept and woke up with him already reading and searching for new things. But it seemed the more he read, the more his soul faded. Like a drug addict, the more you use or smoke something, the greater the amount needed for the same effect.
He was searching for something that wasn’t there.
“Leo, what are you looking for? Talk to me.”
“I… I want to learn more. The only thing I know how to do is learn.”
“What do you mean?”
“Everyone tells me I don´t know how to be a good teacher. Maybe they are right.”
” Yes, you do like learning new things, but you always loved teaching!”
“No, Tom. I don’t know how to teach and never did. I was just very good at grasping things at first glance.”
We had reached our last day.
“Hey, Klygor. Where are you!?” I shouted.
“I am here, traveler Tom. At the foot of the Staircase, awaiting your departure… Time is running out.”
“Leo, it’s time. Let’s go, we’ve seen everything we needed, we have material to tell people for ages!”
“Wait, Tom. I’m just finishing this piece of parchment. It seems interesting…”
“No, man!! We don’t have any more time, let’s go!”
“I have nothing to do out there, Tom. It’s the second time I’ve been fired, schools always say I lack the necessary teaching skills.”
“What are you talking about? Every week while we still lived with our mother, we received letters from students thanking you, saying you changed their lives. I never received anything like that!”
“You were never fired.”
Silence. I had no response to that.
“You taught me everything I know about the art of teaching. If you don’t know, I don’t know either.”
“None of that matters… That’s not how the world works, and you know it. Sometimes, I feel I should have just kept quiet and accepted teaching the way the principals wanted.”
“Leo… what’s worth more, a student transformed for life or a happy principal?”
“Huh? tell me, now. You always – ”
“Gentlemen, I must interrupt. If you don’t leave within moments, one will have to stay and become the new guardian of the Library. That’s what happened to me almost 90 years ago. I was so focused on some revelations completely different from our History, that I didn’t notice the suns rising and setting. When I realized it, the former librarian had already left, sealing here forever. You’re the first I’ve seen in all this time. I’m doing you the favor of letting you decide; I don’t want to leave here with negative energies from having tricked someone.”
“Give us five minutes!”
“I’m not the one controlling the magic of this place. I’m waiting at the top of the stairs until the final moment.”
“Leo, it’s now, let’s go!”
“I’m not going, and you know it…”
“Please, I don’t know how to teach without your advices!”
“Tom, I found a spark of happiness here. Knowing that at least learning is something I’ve always been able to do and no one could take that away from me… ”
I heard the sands starting to assemble. I ran up as fast as I could, and at the last moment, I turned to see him one last time.
In the distance, I could see, with the same sad face, he opened another book.
Chicago Style Stuffed Pizza
Chicago stuffed pizza
Ingredients
2 (14 inch) soft pizza crusts
6 ounces pepperoni slices
6 ounces Italian sausage
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 green bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red onion, cut into thin strips
1 can pizza sauce
8 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/8 cup Italian seasoning
2 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Spray a 12 inch deep-dish pizza pan with vegetable oil.
Place 1 pizza crust in pan and have crust come up sides like a pie.
Add all listed ingredients into pizza pan, adding seasoning to top.
Place second crust on top and use a fork to blend top and bottom crusts together like a pie. Cut off any additional crust.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.
Shorpy
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Have you ever walked into your home and known something wasn’t right? What happened?
I’ll never forget that one evening when I walked into my house and instantly knew something was off. It had been a fun day out with friends, and by the time I got home, it was already dark. I pushed open the door, expecting the usual cozy vibe, but something felt wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first. I took a deep breath and looked around. Everything seemed normal, but there was this weird tension in the air. Then I noticed the living room window was slightly open. I always lock my windows. Always. A chill ran down my spine. I moved closer and saw the lock was broken. My heart started pounding. Did someone break in? I grabbed my phone and called the police, trying to stay calm. While I waited, I did a quick walk-through of the house. When I saw my bedroom door ajar, I almost lost it. But when I peeked inside, it was empty, and nothing seemed to be missing.
The cops showed up and checked everything out. No one was there, and nothing was taken. They thought maybe someone had tried to break in but got scared off when I came home. They told me to change the locks and be more careful. That night, I barely slept. Every little noise made me jump. Over the next few days, I got new locks, installed a security system, and even got a dog for extra protection. Gradually, I started to feel safe again.
Visiting a Japanese Maid Cafe to Meet a Famous Maid
Fun fact: When I was in court fighting the charges that I was a dangerous and evil sex offender, they used my YouTube videos to point out that I was a dangerous person with weird and strange fetishes. This was one such video that they used. I don’t remember if it was this one, but yeah it was something like this.
This was about 20 years ago. Was working night shift so was home during the day.
Had two bicycles hung upside down in the garage, and had left the garage door open after doing some chores (my bad).
Well, sitting inside and heard a noise, but didn’t connect it to the garage. By chance, went out the front door and saw one person riding my blue Trek with Rock Shox up the street, and another young man walking next to him. Started off at a run after them, and realized that if they bolted, there was no way I was going to catch them (early 50’s and 240 lbs.)! So checked the garage, and noted that they had stolen one bike, but left the other! So grabbed the other one and lit off after them.
By that time, the two had separated, and the one on my bike rounded the corner out of sight. But I caught up to the other one. Remember, I was on a bike accelerating for a block, weighted 240, and hyped up on adrenaline. He never heard me coming, and crumpled like a wet bag of crisps. Denied everything – yea, right.
But it gets better! As I’m yelling at him, my neighbor drives by. And guess what – he’s a detective for the local PD. Explain what is going on, and he takes the kid away in handcuffs!
Think that’s good? It gets better! The other neighbor across the street saw the whole thing, including the one kid going into the garage and stealing the bike. So with that information, we have them on theft and tresspassing – which raises it to felony. We’re now talking big time trouble.
OK, back to the detective that now has the kid in handcuffs. He had come home for lunch, and was heading back to work for the afternoon. Honestly – I can’t make this up! Literally, the first thing on his afternoon docket is to work on a bicycle theft ring in the city. Honest! And I just delivered his key suspect. Wish I could have put a ribbon around his neck for my detective friend.
But wait – it gets better! The guy (juvenile) spills the beans on the whole ring. Turns out, it was a steal to specifications ring. Someone puts in an “order” for a blue mountain bike with front suspension, then they go out and steal it. And now they have all the information on the ring.
Good enough? It gets better. They arrange a bust at the home in a neighboring town and coordinate two police jurisdictions to raid the house just before 6 PM. Remember this is less than 5 hours after my bike was stolen! And lo and behold – they recover over 200 stolen bicycles including mine! They had already taken off a few minor parts (seat bag with contents, pump) so I was able to give a description of what was there. The two minors had to reimburse me for that. Plus the ringleader had to also reimburse me for the items from prison. So actually got the bike back and reimbursement for the other items twice. Asked, and court said to keep both.
And another nice twist? The Judge called me. Said that the ringleader(s) had to go to jail for the felony thefts – no other option there. But he asked what I thought was appropriate for the juveniles. First thought was to lock em up, but that wouldn’t do any good. So my recommendation was that they both had to complete High School with at least a “C” average. Keep them off the street, give them some skills for the future, and set them on a positive path. Judge loved the idea and said he would try to put that in.
That’s the last I heard. Hope it went that way.
But I got my bike back the same day, got reimbursed for the items no longer attached to the bike – twice, and hopefully made a positive difference in two lives that were headed the wrong direction.
I am a Thai-born Chinese. I don’t know about other Chinese Thais. Everybody has the right to identify oneself with a culture.
My grandpa and great grandparents were Chinese peasants and staunch nationalists. My grandpa hated Mao to the bone. Yet he always said to me that:-
Without China and Thailand, there would not have been us.
He was too old and I will live long enough to see the “peaceful” reunification of China. “Please witness that auspicious moment for me.”
I love and still miss my grandpa, who passed away in an accident in Thailand while I was studying overseas. He gave me $100 bill in a pink envelope with his beautiful handwriting wishing me a success. I still keep that envelope. He didn’t live to see my graduation. I boarded first plane back to pay homage for him with tears all over my face throughout the course of that long flight. And I was not shy at all. Every time I look at the map of China and hear the word that means “China” in whatever language, China means my grandpa, my grandparents, my great grandparents, my parents, my root, my ancestors, my compatriots, my brethren.
Anyone can call me a nutcase. Fine. I don’t care because I keep promise to my grandpa that I will witness the Peaceful Reunification of China for him. He will be watching it from heaven above.
I don’t need Xi Jinping or any Pan-Blue telling me to love PRC and RoC respectively.
I’ll do everything to help the people on both sides of the Strait understand each other and unite as One China.
It can be People’s Republic 人民共和國, Republic 民國, Federal Republic of China 聯邦共和國 or just plain China 中國. I don’t mind singing a new national anthem or raising a new flag. As long as it’s a unified, strong, prosperous, and peaceful China.
中國萬歲, 中華民族萬歲
UN demands U.S. remove ILLEGAL China sanctions
Washington has enforced a number of illegal unilateral sanctions against China’s Xinjiang region since 2021 which, among other things, subvert the internationally recognized idea of “innocent until proven guilty,” assuming that any and all goods produced in Xinjiang, or even partly produced in Xinjiang, are tainted with so-called “slave labor,” forcing accused entities to prove they are INNOCENT which is all but impossible. Finally, though, someone is speaking up for China. That person is Professor Alena Douhan from the UN, who recently visited Xinjiang and is now calling on the US to immediately remove its illegal sanctions. Will it work? And how has the Western media reported on the UN’s statement? Today we’ll investigate.
I had a friend in high school named Andy. Andy was a super good-looking guy, the kind of good-looking where when he was a sophomore and a metalhead, even senior cheerleaders thought he was hot. He was also a nice guy, and the only one in his close circle of friends who never did hard drugs — PCP and heroin use were common among those guys.
After high school, Andy moved to Florida, and as far as I know he was happy down there. He took some acting classes and got cast in some TV commercials — like I said, super good-looking guy.
But then his mom, long divorced, began having health problems. Andy’s brother helped her out, but Andy decided to move back to our shitty hometown anyway to help his mom. (Andy’s mom was a regular customer at the bank I worked at. She had problems with her hands so we would let Andy and his brother sign checks for her.)
I had lost touch with him when he moved (no social media in the 90s), but after he moved back we’d chat a lot when he did his mom’s banking for her. She wanted us to date. I liked Andy, but he was so good looking that I couldn’t imagine him ever really wanting to date me, plus a good friend of mine had dated him in high school and it ended badly. So we just chatted and casually flirted.
Being back home meant that Andy ultimately started hanging out with his old friends, most of whom were still doing a lot of drugs. His best friend, Alex, kept trying to get Andy to try heroin.
Just once, man, you won’t get hooked from trying it once.
So Andy — the guy who’d never touched anything heavier than weed or beer — decided to try heroin. Just once.
And he OD’d.
And he died.
He was 23 years old.
I was hit hard by Andy’s death, but the hardest thing for me was seeing his mother. She was so heartbroken. All she had were her boys, and now one of them, her baby, was gone. All because of one single decision.
Andy didn’t just ruin his own life, he ruined his mom’s, too — the person he loved so much that he gave up his happy life and moved back to the town he couldn’t wait to get out of in the first place.
For the record, Alex ended up being hit by a car and killed in his 30s. He was high and walking in the middle of the road late at night; the driver just didn’t see him until it was too late.
Another of their close circle, John, tried over and over again to kick heroin. He died of an OD when he was 28. (John had been turned onto heroin by his own mom, by the way. Nice, huh?)
Heroin is an epidemic in my hometown today. It’s reached a crisis level. We’re talking about a mostly middle- and upper-middle-class town of 7,000 people, here, by the way, not Skid Row.
I’ve tried a number of drugs in my life, and been a recreational user of a few in the past. But heroin, like meth, is one of those you couldn’t pay me to ever try. Not even once.
Because I remember John. And Alex. And most of all, Andy… who was only gonna try it once.
Add oil to a large heated skillet; stir in chicken, taco seasoning mix and cayenne pepper and cook until browned.
Stir in first amount of taco sauce and remove from the heat.
On a large plate, place flour tortillas; divide and spread with refried beans, being sure to cover the entire tortilla.
Add the chicken mixture over the beans and sprinkle remaining taco sauce, grated Monterey Jack cheese and grated Cheddar cheese on top.
Bake at 375 degrees F until the cheese is bubbly, about 10 minutes.
Remove and cut into wedges.
Serve with shredded lettuce, mashed avocados, and diced tomato.
RICHARD WOLFF ON HOW RUSSIA JUST DEALT FATAL BLOW TO NATO SANCTIONS WAR WITH CHINA AND BRICS HELP
Richard Wolff joins the program to discuss his view on how Russia sanctions have not just backfired but are actually fueling breakneck economic growth, China's newfound economic confidence despite US tariffs, and the collapsing economic infrastructure of the U.S. empire and its dollar hegemony.
Sure. But places with cheap labor usually have a shortfall in other conditions.
Such as
Talent. Educated professionals, management etc.
Law and order. And a populace that respects authority.
Infrastructure. Roads, communication networks, bridges, factories, housing, services. Very expensive and time consuming, not to mention knowledge-intensive.
Stability. It can be political, societal, even physical. For example, Bangladesh suffers from yearly floods, disrupting the economy.
Ecosystems. Very few products are made in a single factory. China now has critical mass in symbiotic, cooperative production. The modern smart phone or laptop is a prime example, which extends beyond China into East Asia.
I can go on, but you get the gist. You cannot depend on just cheap labor. China is paradise for manufacturers. Otherwise it won’t have become the world’s factory.
Travel some. Even places like Malaysia or Taiwan can look positively stone age compared to China when it comes to manufacturing.
Vintage art
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What is the strangest garage sale experience you have ever had?
One Saturday morning, two men in a truck pulled up into our driveway, got out, and knocked on our door.
The year was 1971.
My father answered the door.
One of the men said, “We’re here to pick up the bed.”
“What bed?” my father asked.
They didn’t know what bed. They were given an address and so, here they were.
“Where’s the bed?” they asked, rather insistent about their orders.
We had had a yard sale several weeks before, but no beds were offered for sale. My father thought perhaps there was a neighbor who had a bed that needed refurbishing or broken down needing removal.
The men puzzled my father but he could make no sense of what they asked. He told them to try at the Vann house across the street.
Dr. and Mrs. Vann had six children. Maybe they had extra beds with one that needed to be picked up. My father was sure there were some broken beds in that house with four boys and two girls.
The men left.
My father didn’t give it a second thought.
Until several weeks had passed by. Dad saw Dr. Vann in the grocery store.
“Hey! Dutch! Did those guys come get your bed?”
In the middle of the grocery store, Dr. Vann began to curse my father. Loudly. The cussing didn’t bother my father. He didn’t understand why Dr. Vann was so angry at him.
“It was you! You! You, SOB!” yelled Dr. Vann.
Turns out Dr. Vann answered the door that Saturday morning when the two men in a truck knocked at the back door saying they were there to pick up a bed. Dr. Vann’s wife wasn’t home and neither were any of the older children who might have known which bed was meant. Dr. Van thought and thought about which bed they could possibly mean. Then he remembered his wife had an old bed in the basement. He led the men down there and showed them the bed and how to take it out using the basement door, rather than go back through the house. He watched the men load the bed and drive away.
When Mrs. Vann returned, Dr. Vann told his wife that men had come for the bed and he gave them the one in the basement.
She screamed.
Mrs. Vann ran down into the basement and to her horror it was true! Her husband had given away an authentic antique French Rococo hand-carved bed handed down to her from her late mother. The bed was in storage until Mrs. Vann found the appropriate mattress.
“What was the name of the dealer on the side of the truck?” she begged.
There was either no name or Dr. Vann had gone blank. Mrs. Vann called all the furniture restorers in the area, but to no avail.
The men in the truck were never seen again.
Luckily, we moved the following month. I don’t think Dr. Vann ever forgave my father.
I don’t think Mrs. Vann ever forgave Dutch.
A stray cat that is too weak to stand, staggers for help..
When I was growing up in the small town in Western Pennsylvania there was a guy… a curious fellow.
We called him “Bicycle Bill”.
He would ride all over the place in the town on his bicycle, and because of that he was really unusual. He didn’t own a car. He was an adult, but didn’t drive or own a car. And he didn’t go into town often. Only to mail a letter or two and get some groceries.
he was a hermit, and lived in a shack in the woods with about ten dogs, and a dirt floor and a perpetually smouldering fire in the corner.
The shack was literally a shack built on a dirt floor against the side of a hill. Two ends were open to the elements with a old rug that he could pull down in Wintertime. On the one end was a bed which consisted of a pile of old clothes and a couple of old quilts and completely dog and flea infested.
He had piles of batteries all over the place, and clutter and junk.
It was dark inside. You could barely see, and of course, it stank. Dogs, old junk, and what not. And ol’ Bill, probably took a bath once a month at best.
The guys would sometimes bring him food, or a beer or two. He smoked marijuana but I never shared a joint with him. He would offer us some of the food he made, after the dogs had their fill. But, we would always politely decline.
Most people left him alone, but when me and my (stoned) friends would come around we would talk with him. And in doing so he would warn us about the dangers of the Nazi’s and mind control…
I don’t know what happened to him.
But every now and then I think of him.
Bicycle Bill.
A local hermit.
The man who lived alone with his dogs in a cabin in the woods.
Today…
What are your thoughts on the assertion by US senator Roger Wicker that China’s disdain for Taiwan’s values are on full display during China’s military drills near Taiwan?
US politicians?
They just equate anti-genocide in Gaza to antisemitism.
They use force to pin down peaceful protesters.
And …
After WW2, from 1946-2001, in 55 years, there were 248 wars in the world. USA instigated 201 ie 82% of all wars. Not counting non-military riots & coups. In 200+ years since US independence, there were less than 20 years when USA was not in a war. Worse, it is US vassals who shed blood & lose life for a US-instigated war for US benefit only.
USA wants wars to …
1, make $$$ … $$$ by arms sale & post-war construction
2, slow down or suppress China’s fast development which, in US words, threaten US security ie US hegemony.
US politicians have no right to say anything about anybody because they are the global bully. USA is the one who supplies weapons to, say, Israel, to do genocide in Gaza
Back to Taiwan.
On 5/21 China sanctioned former Republican congressman Mike Gallagher who works for MIC to lobby Taiwan to buy more US weapons.
5/22 China sanctioned 12 US defense-related entities & 10 top people ie China sanctions US arms sale to Taiwan.
5/23 a series of action
1, announcement to world
China Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told the world: (my translation) Taiwan dares to secede. … China will launch an operation to suppress secession & foreign interference of Chinese domestic affairs. China’s operation meets UN Charter & intl conventional practices. China’s operation is absolutely necessary, reasonable & legal.
China urges USA to stop supporting Taiwan independence & stop interfering China’s internal affairs.
China is determined to fight any action that threatens China’s sovereignty & integrity of Chinese territory. (I add) UN does approve suppression of secession.
3, With posts, China informs Taiwanese that China targets Taiwan independence gang & not ordinary people. With details which cities to target. Written in traditional Chinese for the convenience of Taiwanese & with pictures. So that Taiwanese Defense cant hide info from the public.
One post lists Lai’s 5 biggest lies.
4, One post shows 6 Chinese powerful weapons. Analyst said the weapons are to show to USA because subduing Taiwan does not need powerful weapons.
The U-Boat that sank because of a toilet
I’m not even kidding.
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What had happened was that U-1206, had recently received a brand new toilet. This was a far more advanced model with an improved plumbing system which allowed it to be flushed at greater depths. The downside, was that it was complicated to use, and only a few members of the crew were trained as “flushing specialists”.
Unfortunately, the crew members ended up misusing the toilet on U-1206, which by the way, happened to be cruising at a depth of around 60m at the time. The misuse caused a large amount of sea water to start flooding the submarine. To add insult to injury, the sea water began flooding the submarine’s batteries, which caused them to release chlorine gas (it’s rather toxic stuff), forcing the submarine to surface.
Once surfaced, the submarine was spotted and bombed by British patrols, which forced the crew to scuttle the submarine. A total of 4 men were killed and 46 were captured.
So yeah, the German submarine that sank because the crew didn’t know how to use a toilet. Definitely not the way to go.
China’s Change 6 Has BIGGER Space Missions Than US Thinks
Russia Early-Warning (Nuclear) Missile Radar ATTACKED
One of Russia’s absolutely key over-the-horizon, nuclear-early-warning radar sites has been hit by drone attack, BLINDING Russia from missiles launched at them from . . . the Middle East.
The 818th Separate Radio-Technical Unit at the Armavir Radar Station located in Krasnodar Krai, Russia is now knocked-out. Here are images of the two gigantic radar buildings at that radar site (Click on image TWICE to fully enlarge):
The map below shows where this particular station is:
Armavir radar station small 2 large
Normally, the entire Russia early-warning radar system provides the coverage seen in the graphic below:
Russia early warning radar array COVERAGE
Armavir radar station medium
With the damage to the two radar stations at the Armavir Radar Station, there is now a GAPING HOLE in Russia’s early-warning system against nuclear attack.
Russia is now a sitting Duck for a nuclear first strike, not only against their Strategic Nuclear missile silos, but also against all the major population centers inside Russia.
Russia Early Warning Radar Attacked 1
Submarine launched nukes from the far eastern Mediterranean Sea, land-launched or even air-launched missiles from Turkey, from ISRAEL, Sub-launched missiles from the Red Sea, ALL can no longer be detected by Russia.
The coverage map below is highlighted below to show the unimaginable scope of the GAPING HOLES.
Of course, this is being credited to Ukraine, but the radar stations that were hit DO NOT COVER UKRAINE. Clearly, this hit was concocted by the US/EU and NATO; they are the ONLY entities that benefit from this. (Correction: There is another beneficiary . . . Israel . . . can now launch ballistic or nuclear missiles at Iran, and Russia will not be able to warn Iran.)
Why would we do this? Unless . . . . we’re planning a nuclear first-strike upon Russia!
Worse Danger Now Than the “Cuban Missile Crisis”
Today’s attack opens the door for a full, complete, and absolute DECAPITATION ATTACK upon Russia. We can now hit ALL their strategic missile silos and take out ALL of their national government and they wouldn’t even know the missiles had been launched until it was too late.
How long will the Russians wait – with themselves completely vulnerable– before they have to decide to “Use them or Lose them?” We may have just FORCED the Russians to launch a nuclear first-strike.
By any realistic measurement, this is now an “Existential Threat to the existence of Russia.” We could literally be like the song “On the Eve of Destruction!”
Notice too, this was done on the big “Memorial Day” holiday weekend here in the U.S. Many Americans are traveling to the beach, to the mountains, away from home, away from all their money and preps.
BASIC INFO ABOUT ARMAVIR RADAR STATION
Armavir Radar Station is an early warning radar station near Armavir in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. It is a key part of the Russian early warning system against missile attack and is run by the Russian Space Forces. There are two radars here – one faces south west and one south east. They provide radar coverage of the Middle East. The satellite image below shows the station from above:
Russia Early Warning Radar Site Satellite pic
The station is located on the former Baronovsky Airfield 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) south west of the village of Glubokiy and 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) south west of Armavir.
The station was described as starting to operate at the end of 2006 and then entering “experimental combat mode” in 2008.
On the day in 2009 that Russia lost coverage from radars in Ukraine it was announced that it had “begun operations”.
In May 2012 it was announced that it would go on combat duty before the end of 2012. In December 2012 it was announced it will be in the first quarter of 2013.
On 6 June 2013 it was commissioned by order of the President Vladimir Putin visiting the Central Command Post of the Russian Armed Forces. There is a planned second segment, which will overlap zone of the Gabala radar station lost in Ukraine.
2013 ballistic launch in Mediterranean
On 3 September 2013 Armavir detected two US/Israeli ballistic test launches in the Mediterranean towards Syria.
Now, they can’t detect those anymore. Or our missile subs launching from the eastern Med, the Red Sea, The Gulf of Oman, or even south of the Horn of Africa off Somalia. Russia are now sitting Ducks.
Hal Turner Snap Remarks
I earnestly hope you have taken my long urged advice to have Emergency food, water, medicine, a generator, fuel for it, communications gear like CB or HAM, and all the little emergency things you need like flashlights, batteries, portable radio with spare batteries, FIRST-AID KIT, gas grill or spare charcoal and lighter fluid, a manual can opener, and so on. Looks to me like time is up.
China isn’t dumping dollars. They’re dumping banks, and setting up a new financial system.
The island of Taiwan awoke yesterday morning to find itself surrounded by the China Navy. The Chinese government says this is an “exercise” but Taiwan believes an invasion is coming. So does the USA.
From the Chinese government:
Taiwan surrounded large
As a result of China’s military moves, Taiwan deployed its Coast Guard, which is now in a sort of Mexican Stand-off with China’s (much larger) Navy:
China naval exercise
Taiwan Air Force announced that 10 F-16 fighter jets will be activated if Chinese aircraft enter the adjacent region. F-16 Block 20 warplanes were seen loaded with air-to-air equipment at the Hualien air base in eastern Taiwan:
Taiwan CG Mexican standoff w china
To emphasize how serious the situation is, Taiwan, for the very first time, deployed Anti-Ship Missiles on its coast, and raised the missile launchers into launch position!
Intelligence sources told me that at the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Chinese Leader Xi Jinping, which took place in Beijing last week, military adventures were among the topics the two leaders discussed.
The Intelligence guys say that China sees Trump is making a very hard run for re-election, and they know they will not stand any chance of taking Taiwan if Trump gets back in. So they have to act before the US election in November.
Taiwan F 16s air to air payloads
China also knows that the US is seriously weakened now due to our supplying Ukraine with weaponry to fight Russia. So short of missiles is the United States Navy, that when a Destroyer or Missile Cruiser returns to port from sea duty, its missiles must be taken off the ship, to be placed on another ship which is going OUT to sea duty, because the US Navy does not have enough missiles to load all of its vessels!
Moreover, they say, Joe Biden is seen as a dementia-addled incompetent.
All these things add up to China making a move against Taiwan sooner rather than later.
The U.S. seeing what China is doing, has dispatched the USS Ronald Reagan Aircraft Carrier from its port in Japan. The Ronald Reagan set sail from Japan late Wednesday night, and arrived in the Philippine Sea on Thursday.
The vessel is within air strike range of Taiwan and the Chinese fleet surrounding Taiwan. But the Reagan is also now within range of China’s hypersonic “ship killer” missiles.
Very dangerous things going on. Just one small mistake by anyone, could cause this to escalate into immediate war.
Russia Dropped Devastating ODAB -1500 Vacuum Bomb at 120 ATM Pressure
“I’m 5’1 and it really makes me insecure about the way I’m perceived by society.”
I’m a 19 year old dude, who’s lately been feeling really bad about my height. I’m just about 5’1 ft and it really makes me insecure about the way I’m perceived by society. I’m fairly buff and I do amateur bantamweight MMA, but I still find myself self-doubting my masculinity.
I sometimes have extreme periods of self-hatred where I trash my room or feel the urge to punch in mirrors that reflect my image. I can’t for the life of me get over my height; I feel that I’m unlovable.
I’ve increasingly been relying on money and alcohol for happiness as they are the only thing that brings semblance of security. I know it’s not healthy, but it’s the only thing that calms me during my mental breakdowns.
I’ve also tried seeing therapists about my problems but I’ve pussied out of all 6 of my meetings; I feel like they’d look down on me or dismiss my issues.
First off, let’s get one thing straight: your height doesn’t define your worth as a man or a human being. Period. End of story. Anyone who tells you otherwise is full of shit and probably projecting their own insecurities onto you.
Life is a giant mess of uncontrollable factors, and your height is just one tiny piece of that chaotic puzzle. You’re 5’1”, and yeah, society can be a dick about things like that, but guess what? You’re also a buff, bantamweight MMA fighter. That’s badass. Seriously, think about it – you’re out there training and fighting, and that takes guts, determination, and a hell of a lot of strength, both physically and mentally.
Now, onto the main issue: self-doubt and insecurity. It’s normal to feel down sometimes, but trashing your room and wanting to punch mirrors? That’s not helping anyone, least of all you. It’s time to channel that anger and frustration into something constructive. You’ve got the discipline from MMA, use it to tackle your mental health too.
Here’s the thing about masculinity – it’s not about how tall you are or how others perceive you. It’s about owning who you are, flaws and all. Being a man isn’t about towering over others; it’s about standing tall in your own skin, no matter what. So, you’re 5’1”. Own it. Wear it like armor. It’s part of what makes you, you.
Money and alcohol might give you a temporary high, but they’re a band-aid on a wound that needs stitches. They won’t bring you real happiness or security. You’ve already recognized this, and that’s a crucial step. You know it’s not healthy, so it’s time to find healthier outlets. Your love for MMA is a good start – it’s a great way to vent out the frustration and also keep you disciplined.
And about those therapists – I get it, opening up to someone can feel like you’re exposing your vulnerabilities. But that’s the whole point. Therapy isn’t about being judged; it’s about finding someone to help you navigate through the storm. If you’ve pussied out of 6 meetings, fine. Start with one. And if you don’t like the therapist, find another. This is about you, and it’s worth the effort.
Self-hatred is a dark hole, but here’s the light: the fact that you’re reaching out means you want to climb out of it. That’s strength. That’s masculinity. Start by accepting yourself as you are. Height and all. Look in the mirror and instead of seeing what you lack, see what you’ve got. See the fighter. The determined guy who won’t back down from a challenge.
The bottom line is this: your height doesn’t determine your value as a man. Your character does. Your actions do. The way you treat yourself and others does. Focus on being a good fucking human being and the rest will fall into place.
It won’t be easy, and you’ll have to work at it every single day. But trust me, it’s worth it. You have the power to create an amazing life for yourself, regardless of your height. So stop making bullshit excuses, get your ass in gear, and make it happen.
Keep fighting.
Chinese Kindergartens
A one minute video clip. Well worth the time to watch. From my personal stash.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgRMd-UqXFc
Beef Ragout with Grilled Bread
This dish can be made in a slow cooker or the stovetop. Canola oil is used to make both the ragout and grilled bread because of its neutral flavor and heat tolerance. The ragout is served with bread to soak up the hearty and flavorful broth, but it can be served with pasta or polenta instead.
12 slices whole grain Italian bread, sliced on bias, about 1-inch thick each
1 tablespoon canola oil 15 mL
Instructions
In large, nonstick skillet, brown each side of beef roast in canola oil. Place roast in slow cooker.*
Add onion, garlic, Italian seasoning, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and red wine. Cook on LOW heat for 8 to 9 hours (or on HIGH heat for 4 to 5 hours) until beef is tender and has an internal temperature of 145 degrees F (65 degrees C).
When beef is cooked, shred with a fork.
To prepare grilled bread: Brush bread with canola oil and grill for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, until toasted.
To serve, top ragout with parsley. Serve with grilled bread.
Notes
* If preparing on stovetop, use a large pot (8-quart) and bring ragout ingredients, except parsley, to boil and simmer covered for at least 30 minutes.
Nutrition
Per serving: Calories 340 Total Fat 10 g Saturated Fat 2.5 g Cholesterol 60 mg Carbohydrates 29 g Fiber 7 g Sugars 9 g Protein 25 g Sodium 210 mg Potassium 640 mg
What’s the most unreasonable request you’ve received from your boss?
I was employed as a contract employee at a big corporation from 1980–82.
About 2 months before my contract was to be terminated-something my boss neglected to tell me at the time-he came to me with a request that was unrealistic and ,frankly, border line crazy. He asked me to complete a project that normally would take 4–6 weeks in 2 weeks. No room for discussion or negotiation. Just DO IT. (The project was done at the request of another district and my boss was the middle man.)
Anyway,by coming in early,working through lunch, putting in long overtime hours,and coming in on Saturday,I did the impossible. I finished the project-with 2 days to spare. Elated,I left a note on his desk informing him of the good news. I admit I expected a Thank You or a Well Done.
His reaction was beyond appalling.For a week there was dead silence. It was as if none of this had even happened. Finally,he approached me and said. “You remember that project you finished last week?” I said.”Yes,of course.” He answered. “Well,I just submitted it…2 days late,as we just can’t have the other district make such unreasonable demands on us.”
So Ralph, if you happen to be reading this,it’s been over 40 years but I still haven’t forgotten your vile behaviour that day. To me you’re still the biggest POS in the world!
Some of my favorite family pictures from the 1960s
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What is your worst “Karen” story?
Not sure if this really qualifies, but what the hell.
I’m at a large retail store, driving through the parking lot looking for a space. I see an empty spot ahead, and start to turn into it, only to be greeted by another car honking it’s horn, sitting in the space across from it. The guy inside is waving his hands furiously and gesturing at me, while the woman in the passenger seat attempts to cover her face. I finished parking and got out, and gestured to the other driver with upturned palms and a “what’s wrong?” expression. I was actually concerned the guy might have been in some sort of trouble, or needed help, but I wasn’t expecting what happened.
He shut his car off and thrust his door open, actually hitting the SUV beside him, and screamed “You asshole!” before even getting out of the car. I started to get the picture before he even said the next words. “You did that on purpose”, he asserted, then flung some profanities I won’t type here as they’re too explicit, although one of the tamer ones was calling me a “cousin fucking redneck motherfucker”. Real class-act, this guy. During this tirade, his (presumably) girlfriend had also exited the vehicle, and now had the look of someone who wished they could physically become invisible.
I listened to his rant about my deliberate and personal attack against him which I perpetrated by parking my car, and preventing him from pulling through spaces, to wit, he would now have to reverse out of his parking space…which was just an unforgivable inconvenience.
I guess it’s a sign of getting older, or wiser, but probably just older, that this guy didn’t make me lose my shit on him. It wouldn’t have been too long ago that I’d have smashed his face two words into his second sentence.
Instead, I let him get the whole rant out, nearly a full two minutes of it. He made a hell of a scene, and by the end of it…I was laughing. Not on the inside, I was laughing in his face. He didnt like being laughed at, apparently, and stepped back shutting his door so he could approach me. He had his hands up at shoulder height at this point, looking like he might take a swing at me. I took a step closer and said in a decisively stern tone “Let me get this straight. You got out here yelling at me, because you don’t know how to drive a fucking car and that’s somehow my fault, is that right you little prick?” and I leaned in so close our noses almost touched. I could smell alcohol on his breath. He stepped back, and didn’t swing (Big surprise, someone acting like a loud douchebag).
He instead walked back, or rather stomped like a little kid pitching a fit, back to his car (which the girl was no longer in, but instead standing beside with her door closed) got in and slammed the door. He motioned to the girl to get in as he started the engine, she shook her head no, and he put it in reverse and slammed backwards out of the parking space…and into the big 4×4 pickup behind him to his right. The tow hitch obliterated his back bumper, and didnt let it go. He was in a full rage again at this point and drove away, leaving the accident, his (presumably) girlfriend and to the credit of universal karma, his bumper with license plate behind.
This entire exchange lasted a bit less than five minutes, but it’s five minutes I’ll treasure.
Beef Roast with Sour Cream Gravy
Crock Pot Pot Roast Feature 1
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) chuck or pot roast
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon oil
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 teaspoon dill weed
5 or 6 small potatoes
5 or 6 carrots
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large onion
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon dill seed
Instructions
Coat roast with 2 tablespoons flour, salt and pepper. Brown in oil in skillet.
Put roast in slow cooker. Add water and vinegar.
Sprinkle 1 teaspoon dill weed over meat, then add potatoes, carrots, onion and salt.
Cook on LOW for 10 to 12 hours or on HIGH for 6 hours.
To make gravy, pour off 3 tablespoons drippings, add 1 tablespoon flour and heat.
Measure rest of drippings, and add water to make 1 cup. Add to flour mixture and heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Add sour cream and 1 teaspoon dill weed. Heat to boiling.
US Threatens to Shut Down EUV if China Reunifies Taiwan by Force
Can remotely disable chip fabs…? Really! I pretty much doubt it.
In Saving Private Ryan, is Upham the biggest scumbag in movie history?
I only met my Grandfather a handful of times in my life. My father never really talked much about him even though he was alive for the first half of my life (He died in 2000). The stories I heard were of a very tight man (he never spent money on anything – including his family) that bordered on absurdity.
What I didn’t know until the day after he died was that he not only saw active combat in WW2 but served in Patton’s army during the Battle of the Bulge! I was incredulous. How could nobody have told me before that day? His story (I thought) would be incredible.
When we were cleaning out his house after his death, I found a box under his bed. It was the first time I had ever been in his house—he never wanted visitors. In this box, he had two Lugars, several Swastica pins, SS emblems, an army medal for bravery on the battlefield, and other items taken from German soldiers.
My uncle came up behind me and yelled,” We found ‘em,” and my dad and other uncles entered the room. My uncle looked me in the eye and said, “Do you know what these are from?”
I responded, World War 2? – but I didn’t know he had actually done anything; after all, nobody had ever told me anything about his past. Then, my Uncle told me in a quiet tone that my grandfather manned a 50-caliber machine on the back of a jeep during the war. During routine patrols, he spotted two SS soldiers trying to infiltrate their lines under barbed wire.
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He had the jeep stop, and they shined a spotlight on the soldiers. He then “turned them to hamburger” with the 50-caliber. There was no surrender in the Battle of the Bulge – it was kill or be killed, no prisoners. He had killed two stuck, defenseless men and was even awarded a medal for it.
I had watched Saving Private Ryan a few years before this occurred and was in the middle of the HBO series Band of Brothers when it dawned on me that this event changed him into who he became.
He was forever scarred by what he did and did not feel like a hero. In truth, he came home to raise a family but ended up withdrawing from society and getting divorced by my grandmother by the time I was born. My grandmother was the most Catholic person I knew, and when I was a kid, I remember her fighting her excommunication from the Church. That’s how badly she wanted out of that marriage—she suffered excommunication to get away from my grandfather.
In truth, he viewed himself as a very flawed man who did not deserve to be around people. He pushed everyone out of his life to live his last 20 years as a hermit. He could never get over what he did to those German boys stuck under the barbed wire, and he never felt worthy of the medal he received for his “bravery.”
During his funeral, it was the first time I ever saw my father cry, but then he went to hug my mother’s father for over a minute. He then exclaimed that my mother’s father became his true father as his dad was never really a father. He didn’t drink, but he had a nasty temper and put his children through hell growing up, taking out his past on them whenever he was triggered. But he was still crying over the father he never had the chance to really know.
Saving Private Ryan made me realize what war really was and what it did to people. It made me realize it wasn’t about heroes and villains but about who survives till the end. After that day, I realized what the Iraq war was going to do to another generation of boys in 10 years, and I shuddered. War should always be the last option. Not only does it kill and maim, but it leaves psychological scars that last generations.
What China just did to the U.S. Military is SHOCKING and Taiwan is in Trouble
Why does the West in general, and America in particular, want China to reduce its overcapacity production?
This is Tonya Harding Syndrome
“Tonya Harding Syndrome” is a metaphorical expression that originates from the scandal of Tonya Harding, an American figure skater. Tonya Harding was a promising figure skater, but her career was ruined because she was involved in a planned attack on her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Her husband and others participated in the attack in order to weaken Kerrigan’s competitiveness before the Olympics, so that Harding would have a greater chance of winning. In the end, Harding was banned from figure skating for life.
Later, the concept of “Tonya Harding Syndrome” was used to describe the behavior of those who take unfair means to hurt their opponents in competition because of the fear of losing their advantage. It is not only applicable to individuals, but also can be used to describe similar behaviors that may occur in competitions such as companies, institutions, societies or countries. The essence of this behavior is to destroy fair and decent competition.
Back to the question itself:
If an American company can make 100 products at a cost of $10,000 and in 1 month, the Chinese can make 300 products at the same cost and time, and their quality has reached the same height. This allows them to reduce prices to half and still make a considerable profit, so who will buy American companies’ products?
Americans find that they can’t compete with them even if they try their best, so they expect the Chinese to slow down, otherwise they will shoot.
This is why they hope that China will reduce its overcapacity production.
Just another hypocritical cover for Tonya Harding Syndrome
Taking High-Speed Train In China, 2024
What is the most satisfying passive-aggressive thing you have ever done to a really mean or rude person?
I had a horrible experience trying to buy a new Honda at a local dealership. I told them what I wanted, but they kept trying to up sell me on a different model. Then it was switching sales guys, to the hard core close. etc. etc. I understand sales and all the BS really doesn’t bother me since it’s part of the game. However, after reaching a price and completing the paperwork, I drove out with the car.
I was happy until Jennifer from the office called me three days later at work. They made an error and didn’t collect money on some specific fees listed in the contract. I was pretty sure I paid everything listed. I told Jennifer I needed a couple days to review the contract and look at the check I wrote to determine if I owed money. She became a belligerent bitch, yelling about how I have their money and need to come down right now and pay. I told her I would review the contract and pay them if I owed them money. She called at 9:00 am the next morning being a bitch again demanding money. Later that evening, I reviewed the contract and they didn’t total up the doc fee correctly, and owem them $394.00.
I called Jennifer and told her that I did find the error, would pay the amount, and asked if she could please tell me when she left the office so I could pay her personally. I waited to 4:50 pm on Friday night (Jennifer works an 8-5, M-F) and paid her $394 in nickels. I had broken the seals on the bags from the bank which meant they needed to hand count all the coin.
I had brought a book, took up residence in their customer lounge, and waited for them to complete their count. I enjoyed watching Jennifer and 4 sales persons make little rows of nickels. After over 90 minutes they brought me the $0.45 in additional funds I added to see if they would accurately count it. My back up plan was if they said it was all there, I would inform them that I actually included extra money and couldn’t remember how much, so they would need to recount.
Member of British Parliament: “We are already at war with Russia; They won’t tell the people until July or August”
VIDEO BELOW shows British MP Andrew Bridgen confirming on a radio show today: “We are actually at war with Russia now… They’re not going to tell the people probably until July or August; maybe later.”
“The whole thing’s a pantomime in Parliament… It’s not a race between the blue and the red team to see who crosses the finish line. This is a baton handover on all the big issues: Net Zero, Covid response, the WHO, the trans agenda.”
We have a natural right to defend ourselves from the people doing these things, that are going to get us bombed, our families killed or injured, our way of life, destroyed.. It is our right, it is our DUTY to take action.
The Death of Fast Food ….. Part 2
Hungry MM
My wife came home and told me that she was very hungry at 3 o’clock this afternoon. She was playing sports with her first graders at school. She even developed some symptoms of hypoglycemia, such as physical exhaustion, sweating and palpitations. So she told the children: You wait for me a little bit, I will go to the school gate to buy some food. Then, incidentally, she asked the children, are you hungry? As a result, all the children shouted, yes, we are hungry! Some of them stood up and said, teacher, I want some bread! I wanted some 饼（pie）!
So my wife went to the food shop near the school gate and bought a lot of bread and 饼（pie） – she said it cost a lot of money. And asked the store owner to help her distribute the food into dozens of small portions. Then she bought herself another cake.
When she returned to the classroom, all the children returned from the playground, screaming for food. So my wife turned the PE class into a food tasting class. She was still hungry, so after she had distributed the food, she began to eat. Just began to eat, a few children have finished their food, said to my wife: Teacher, really delicious! I also want to eat! The wife looked at the children, He could not bear to eat the cake himself and shared the rest of his food with the children.
So when she came home this afternoon, she was too hungry to walk. Luckily, I had already prepared dinner. That was the story of the day – a group of seven-year-olds, turning a normal class into a food tasting class, while my wife endured hunger all afternoon.😂😂😂
This is the protagonist of the afternoon pie:
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Ps. The first graders have lunch in the school canteen, but they always eat very little. One reason is that some children are picky eaters. Another reason is that the food in the canteen is sometimes not very good. In addition, children are always excited when they eat. Sometimes they eat only a little and say they are full.
Has someone ever unjustifiably reported you to Child Protective Services? What was the outcome?
Yes, I had given someone who I thought was a good friend a place to stay(at the house I had just bought-my first home mind you) she and her bf were gonna sleep in the garage/studio apartment for a week or two, mind u I had just moved in myself 3 days before she started staying there….anyways 1–2 weeks turned into 5–6 months and I was like chick u gotta go. Like I need my home to me and my two kids. Now it was no secret she had a huge drug problem. But had been keeping straight while at my house. When she left everyday, who knows what she was up to but around me and my kids she seemed normal. Well she didn’t like being told to leave so the day she finally left(3 weeks later) she called cps and told them that I was an IV meth user. Now the funny thing is is that I’m 200 pounds at 5 foot six. I’m healthy as a horse never done meth and definitely not an IV user so when DCF came to my house the first thing they asked me, if I use meth and if I use intervenously. I stepped Back and motioned to my body and said really do I look like you’re average meth user let alone IV meth user? She laughed and said she needed a urine sample. To which my response was to call my lawyer. I called my lawyer as soon as she left he said just give them a piss sample. You’ll be fine. You don’t use drugs. Who cares get it over with. So I called her she returned, took a sample and tested me positive for amphetamines although I’m on Adderall. She was new. Two weeks later her and her supervisor show up at my house and test me again to which I came back positive for amphetamines not methamphetamines and the supervisor said that’s all we needed to see. So we’re taking your kids into custody. At that point I lost my shit. I called my lawyer. I called my therapist. I called my mom. My mom had to drive an hour to me, at which point dcf granted my mom custody for two weeks and I was not to be alone with them until my blood test got done and finalized so everyone could see I wasn’t on meth but simply taking my prescribed amount of adderall, but because they were so dumb and didn’t have any pharmacology courses under their belt, they had no idea the difference between amphetamines and methamphetamines on the UA they gave me twice. I got my kids back with flying colors. I had no reason to doubt it but all of this over the word of a stupid bitch that got everything she could ask for living in my home for six months for free , but because she felt slighted, she decided to have me lose my kids. She’s called DCF five times but DCF now comes to my house first off a little because I kind of put my foot down The time they know the kind of game she’s playing she has called DCF on every single person she’s ever lived with come to find out. Oh yeah, she’s now doing 7 to 15 years federal for identity, theft, and check fraud And using Stolen credit cards that she stole directly out of the mailbox. She’s a winner isn’t she? Be careful your friends are always in the ass when you least expect it even if you are a mom that doesn’t do drugs or have any issues there still a chance you lose your kids. Get a lawyer The first CPS is involved. Good luck, Godspeed.
Why I Live in China and REFUSE to Move Back to America
Today is a real treat. I have found some 1980’s videos on YouTube that are classics. And I am presenting them here.
The first is the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic “Predator” under some kind of foreign bullshit name.
The second is a “Boy and his dog” which is a classic dystopian flick that I first watched in University.
Take the time to enjoy them both.
have fun.
Life is too short.
Today…
Has there been any occasion where an airline captain conducted himself so poorly the first officer had to take over control of the aircraft?
In 2012, Jet Blue Flight 191 was in flight between New York City and Las Vegas.
The first officer became suspicious of the captains mental state when the captain made statements like: “We need to take a leap of faith”, “We’re not going to Vegas”, and “I can’t be held responsible when this plane crashes.” He lectured the FO about a range of subjects that were not making sense.
The FO persuaded the captain to leave the cockpit and then hard-locked the door. He then contacted the flight attendants who recruited several able bodied passengers to restrain the captain in the forward galley. The captain’s mental state continued to deteriorate. He screamed about subjects such as 9/11 and terrorists and convinced all involved that he was having a mental breakdown.
An off duty Jet Blue pilot was travelling in the cabin and assisted the FO in diverting the airplane to Amarillo Texas which was only 20 minutes away.
The captain who had suffered the breakdown was arrested for “Interference with a flight crew”. He was subsequently judged “Not guilty by reason of insanity” and released to psychiatric treatment and supervised by a probation officer.
Later, this captain sued Jet Blue on the grounds that the airline should have known he was having mental problems but did not ground him, causing him to lose his career. The captain did not prevail.
The passengers on the flight sued Jet Blue for allowing the captain to operate the flight when they should have known he was not fit to fly. The company settled for an unspecified sum.
I am sure there are many other instances where an FO has taken control, even momentarily. When I was an engineer on the 727, the first officer applied the brakes when the captain almost missed a hold short line while taxiing. It was no big deal and the captain thanked him. If there are more serious cases, the airline and maybe the FAA would handle it without alerting the press. I’ve heard rumor of captains having mental problems but I’ve never seen anything written about it.
As part of my preflight briefing for the copilots, I ask them to be strong and assertive with me if they see that I’m making a mistake. If the mistake will lead to an unsafe situation and I am not responsive, I ask them to take control of the airplane if necessary to correct the problem. There will be plenty of time to talk it over later. The copilots at my airline are all highly qualified to be captains themselves and are only awaiting an opening on the captain’s list. It’s hard to put my ego aside, but the safety of flight is our first priority.
What was a gift that made you speechless?
In 2014, while serving as a contract interpreter for our troops in Afghanistan, I had the pleasure of meeting an emissary of the Saudi Royal family who was doing “ridealongs” to observe our rules of engagement with the Taliban. Everyone called him Sheikh, literally “elder” in Arabic, the honorific title for the ruler of a tribe. He was an oddly prissy man for the job; but, I never saw him cower or jump/hide from close by gunfire or incoming RPG rounds. He was a studious person and read a lot while deployed in the field.
During one of our excursions by helicopter, I was sitting adjacent to Sheikh and observed a beautiful Rolex on his wrist. It looked like a stainless watch with a brown bezel and light blue face. No expert; but, I recognized it as being one of the Rolex Daytona style of watches. Holding his wrist and admiring the watch, I made muted (over the sounds of the helicopter) signs of thumbs up and smiled. I thought no more about it.
About a week later, I was coming in from a field operation and was told I had a package awaiting me inside the Green Zone at the front desk of the American Embassy. I made my way through the security checkpoints and to the person I had been directed only to be handed a box about half the size of a mailbox. I opened the box to reveal the beautiful Rolex Sheikh had been wearing. I was like whoa! and immediately slipped it on to my wrist. It felt heavy and looked gorgeous.
The watch was not in fact stainless. It was the Rolex Cosmograph 116506, their 50th Anniversary Platinum with ice blue dial and brown ceramic bezel.
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Sheikh had returned to Saudi Arabia and left this watch as a gift. Apparently in his culture if someone admires something you have, you gift them with it. Speechless hardly describes my reaction. There was no return address, I didn’t know Sheikh’s real official name to try to track him down and in the hush, hush, Afghan theater OpSec had no leads or further info. I was shocked to learn the value of this beautiful timepiece.
This is something I would never wear and would be an absolute waste on my arm when a $50 Seiko could replace it for functionality. It was an incredibly generous gift; but, in no way deserved by me. An NGO I had worked with in Kabul, cared for orphaned children. I put the watch on an auction site with the proceeds going to support that worthwhile organization. Hopefully maybe one day Sheikh will return and see his gift’s ROI.
On A Trip To Italy My GF Wanted To Stay Behind And “Find Herself”, Has MELTDOWN When I Leave Her
“Imagine what will happen to the Anglo-Saxon hegemony if all this vast space from Lisbon to Beijing is connected by a new Silk Road.
Imagine what will happen to the European Union, whose citizens will see that it is possible to develop and live in prosperity without trading their sovereignty, without betraying national interests, and without killing people.
No matter how much the Americans demand from their vassals, they take turns going to China to see Xi Jinping.
What does that say?
It shows that no matter how foolishly they act, they are still looking forward.
They understand that China is unstoppable, and much will depend on China in the future.”
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Excerpt from the address by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko at the 7th Belarusian People’s Congress in Minsk, April 24, 2024.
What are the facts about girls that guys don’t know?
We knew which man is staring us with good or bad intentions
We are not dramatic on periods, periods cramps almost kills us
We like genuine compliments like “sundr lgri ho” pyari lgri ho”
We stalk the profile of the stranger before replying him
Not every girl wants expensive gifts some wants books, jhumkas and a chai date
When we are sharing our problems just patiently listen to it, we don’t want solution, we want someone who can listen us
Every second girl has faced sexual harrasment in their life
We don’t wear make up to impress other guys, we do make to look in our eyes, to feel confident
We don’t want your attention, we want your love, respect and care
If you going to rant out in your dms, we never going to judge you
Oily hairs are the reason of cancellation of plans for us
Pimples are our biggest nightmares
We have great stalking skills
We are very body conscious, if we ever ask you” am I looking fat?” Just answer it positively, don’t reply no, you are looking beautiful
We can look very intelligent at one point and after sometime we can like dumb who don’t know anything
We observe everything literally everything
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy is popular all over America. It’s a staple dish on diner menus.
biscuits sausage gravy
Yield: 6 servings, 2 biscuits each
Ingredients
Biscuits
3 cups self-rising soft wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
Butter, melted
Sausage Gravy
1 pound breakfast sausage (mild or hot)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
3 1/4 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon salt or seasoned salt
2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Instructions
Bisicuits
Combine first 3 ingredients in a large bowl; cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is crumbly.
Add buttermilk, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead lightly 4 or 5 times.
Roll dough to 3/4 inch thickness; cut with a 2 1/2 inch biscuit cutter. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet.
Bake at 425 degrees F for 12 minutes or until golden.
Brush tops with butter.
Split biscuits open; serve with Sausage Gravy.
Sausage Gravy
Brown sausage in a skillet, stirring until it crumbles.
Drain, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings in skillet. Set sausage aside.
Add butter to drippings; heat over low heat until butter melts.
Add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly.
Stir in seasonings and sausage. Cook until thoroughly heated, stirring constantly.
Notes
This recipe is easily doubled.
What is the most surprisingly cool thing your parents did?
My dad could never have been described as cool. He was firm, autocratic, proper, emotionally disabled, distant, non-communicative, uninvolved and mostly grumpy.
When my parents split up and mom moved out, my brother and I were a bit at sea. We’d been close to our mum, but we were now stuck in the house with a dad we barely knew.
My brother, being older, started acting out a bit, and this never ended well for him. One afternoon, as tensions between my dad and him began bubbling up, I steeled myself for the usual and inevitable torrent of verbal abuse my brother was about to receive. Instead, my dad did something completely out of character.
He told us to grab a few glasses each from the kitchen, and he took us into the courtyard out back.
Dad pointed to a concrete tub-shaped structure in the corner.
‘Throw the glasses in there! As hard as you can!’
Whaa..?
‘Go on! It’s okay. Throw them, and make it count.’
My brother and I looked at each other, bemused. He was asking us to purposely break drinking glasses? Had he finally lost his marbles?
My brother went first.
He threw his arm back as far as he could and unleashed glass number one against the brick wall. It shattered into pieces into the tub!
I threw my first glass ‘like a girl’, hesitantly and with no chutzpah! It didn’t even break, so I retrieved it.
Meanwhile, my brother had turned into a full-on Yankees pitcher, and he hurled glass number two. SMASH!
One by one, we took our frustrations out on those poor glasses. Shards everywhere. We were giggling like hooligans.
I believe even my dad was smiling.
When we went back into the house, the atmosphere had dramatically changed. My brother seemed calmer. My dad seemed calmer. I was young, only 10, but I understood my dad’s motivation behind the exercise.
He lacked the emotional skills to support my brother and me with words, so he found a more practical way to let us express our frustration.
In his own inept way, he did a cool thing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger Jungle Films | Forest Reptile – Preditor
Full movie!
Great blazy glory!
I have seen this movie 200 times so far. This movie is never boring. This is Arnold Schwarzenegger's best movie.
What is the best comeback you used on someone?
I’ve never been known to be one of those types who are always wanting to fight someone or use violence in any way. In my whole life, I’ve only been in 1 physical altercation since I was a kid. I always relied on wits and common sense, and I had no problem simply walking away from a confrontation for the most part, especially, if it was a trivial disagreement.
There is a great story about the one fight I was in as an adult. However, paraphrasing Douglas Adams, this is not that story.
This is the story about a good comeback.
It was over 20 years ago, I was in my early 20’s. The restaurant I worked at had a bartender who was somewhat a bully to most of the staff because his regulars were always around the bar and he would get a laugh out of them by making rude remarks to the rest of the staff. Waiters and Waitresses, kitchen staff, hostesses, etc.
I was waiting tables, working the outdoor patio section where drinks are commonly ordered. I submitted the tables drinks and went to the bar when I thought they’d be ready. He hadn’t even pulled the ticket from the order yet and it was past the time for the drinks to be ready. I got his attention as he was flirting with a regular and asked for the drinks. He went back to his nature of being a total ass hat and said something like I could fight him for it, if I found it that important.
I said “Ya know everyone is really getting sick of you treating us all like this, and if this can fixed by you and I stepping outside, I’m totally game”.
His regulars looked at him to see how’d he react.
He said “If we gonna fight, let me call my family”
My response, very calmly
”You ain’t got to do that, the hospital will call them for you”.
His regulars all laughed and he got angry at me, I just kept staring.
We both kinda got into “restaurant trouble” for our remarks, but nothing ever happened.
I never gotten anymore bad attitude from him though. Either by our warning, my willingness to step out with him, or my remark. We were civil after that, but never friendly.
What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned in life so far? 😁
I learned two lessons that year. One was don’t do something truly stupid. The second was you reap what you sow.
I was a junior in college. I’d dropped out for a year so all my friends were graduating while I had another year left to fulfill my requirements. There were four us girls and someone suggested driving to Florida for spring break. All the college students who could were headed for Fort Lauderdale. My college was in northern Indiana so it was a bit of a hike driving there.
Now, my parents supplemented our education very heavily. For 5 years, two of us were in college at the same time so those were expensive years for them. Going to Florida would cost us $100/each. That was a significant amount of money back then. I was not about to ask Dad for the money. I worked very part time but I didn’t have $100 to spend.
“I’ll loan you the money,” Sandy said. We had a great time but, by definition, loans must be repaid and I did. It took me 6 weeks but I repaid the money.
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Now, for stupid. It was someone’s less than stellar idea to drive straight through. At that time, straight through was a 24 hour trip. We were supposed to drive in shifts but, by ten o’clock, two of them baled and two of us were stuck driving. I can clearly remember the road ahead becoming increasingly blurry and my eyes blinking for longer periods of time. We took 30-minute shifts but it’s a miracle we didn’t crash.
Now, for the bright side. Sandy graduated in May and her graduation gift was a new car. Yes, her parents had that kind of money. Would I like to buy her old car. The car you see above is the car in question. I had another year in school. I couldn’t possibly afford a car.
But her father remembered the $100 I had borrowed and repaid. He said I was good for the loan. In fact, I didn’t have to make payments until I graduated and obtained employment. His terms were beyond generous and I paid the loan in full.
So, within the span of two months, I learned two lessons. I wish I could report never making another stupid mistake but we humans are prone to them and I’m no exception. But I also learned that you reap what you sow for better or worse.
Fun and unique comics
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What is the craziest thing you’ve found in an old coat pocket?
Many years ago, late on a cold and snowy January night, my husband and I were out at a nice Italian restaurant in Greenwich Village and were last to leave, around midnight. At the time my husband was wearing a beautiful full length navy cashmere Ted Lapidus coat that had been his father’s — a VERY expensive coat. When he went to retrieve his coat from the rack, there was one navy coat hanging, but it was not his. My husband was furious that someone had taken his good coat. But I reached into the pockets and pulled out a set of Porsche keys! I assured him that he would be getting his coat back shortly and indeed, first thing in the morning, the restaurant called to arrange an exchange. Personally I would have preferred to have the Porsche.
Exposing The True Nature Of The Sprinkle Sprinkle Effect On The Relationship Market
Her real name is Leticia Padua. One of the hardest lesson I had to learn is that "Women don't Love You, She Loves what you can do for Her".
*groan*
Have you ever caught on to someone trying to scam you before it was too late?
I worked at Borders Bookstore (now defunct). Ten minutes before closing time, a gentleman comes to the Café, and asks if we could do him the “favor” of putting his bag of groceries into our refrigerator. He mentioned that he had milk in the bag, and didn’t want it to spoil while he browsed for books. Sounds simple enough, right? Again: AFRAID OF MILK SPOILING. IN THE TEN MINUTES BEFORE CLOSING. I said NO.
Not because my “scam meter” was buzzing (yet), but just because I remembered that it’s not only against the rules… it’s also a Health Code violation to have personal or “outside the system” food stored with our legitimate items for sale to the public. I had recently taken a Food Safety Course (required for managers who may work the cafe, but not required for the rank & file baristas), so those rules were fresh in my mind.
So what does Mr Milk-Panic do? He goes to someone else in the cafe to ask the same “favor.” I saw that, left the counter to repeat my “no” to both the customer and the barista before an employee said something they would regret.
What next? He walks to the other end of the store, finding a random book-seller to ask the same thing. Fortunately, we had started using radio headsets, so I got the request in my headset. Okay, so NOW my “scam sensor” is fully engaged. Dude hasn’t even started browsing for books yet, and in the 5 minutes left before we lock the doors, he is ANGRY that his fresh milk may spoil (but not concerned enough to just go straight home – hmmmm….). So now I made it clear on the radio (all the employees could hear, but not the customers) that the cafe fridge is NOT to be used for any customers’ personal food, or someone could get fired…PERIOD! Suddenly the “nice” manager was being the mean one, and the customer finally left, yelling some obscenities which didn’t seem to match the “nice man asking for a small favor” persona.
The next day’s staff meeting, the general manager had printed out an emailed scam warning: someone was going around, store to store, asking to refrigerate his bag of groceries. Then… he doesn’t come back for them. Not until a week or more has passed, when it would certainly have been thrown away. Upon hearing that his precious “milk” had been tossed out, the customer would then claim we had thrown out hundreds of dollars’ worth of groceries. He would demand CASH for it… or threaten to report us to the Health Department for allowing outside food into our fridges.
Pay attention to that small, nagging feeling!
What is the biggest turn-off you’ve ever had on a date?
Met a guy on OKCupid who seemed cool. He had a professional head shot as his profile picture and was pretty well spoken, so I met him for dinner.
Everything was okay, though I didn’t really see it progressing to date #2, when he commented on my shoes.
“I wouldn’t really go with those shoes next time you wear that dress,” he said.
I thought he was joking and laughed, not at all offended because I’m the first to admit that I know nothing about fashion. Nope.
He continued: “No, seriously. I’m the type of man who needs to know that his woman will not only always look good, but will take my advice when it comes to what she looks good in.”
Crickets. Then he added, “I’d be glad to take you shopping if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’re pretty enough, just need some help with outfits.”
Um, thanks? I did my best to finish the date graciously and deleted his number literally as I walked to my car in the restaurant parking lot.
Funny, bizarre, and definitely a turnoff.
20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH 🎬 Exclusive Full Sci-Fi Movie Premiere 🎬 English HD 2022
Movie time!
The first U.S. spaceship to Venus crash-lands off the coast of Sicily on its return trip. A dangerous, lizard-like creature comes with it and quickly grows gigantic.
Ray Harrihausen’s creations were so way ahead of their time. I understand he worked virtually alone and spent huge amounts of time bringing his horrors onto the screen, a true genius.
What did the job interviewer say that made you NOT accept the job offer?
“What business is McDonald’s in?”
The three 20-something young men sat across a table from me. I’d just returned to the States from a couple of years living abroad, and it was time to find a job. Back then (18 years ago), the newspaper classifieds were still a pretty good resource for job hunters. The description had been a bit vague (classifieds were usually short), but the promised wage was decent, so I sent in a résumé, and got an interview.
When I arrived, I waited in a stairwell outside a sparsely furnished office with another guy about my age (20-something), until my interview slot (the last one) came. When I entered, after the usual greetings, that was the first, and only, question asked.
The trouble is, I recognized the question, and its source. Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad books were growing in popularity, and a friend had shown me a passage in which Ray Kroc, owner of the McDonald’s chain, asks a class of Harvard MBA students that very question, receiving predicable answers such as “restaurants,” and “hospitality,” only to reveal that he considers himself to be in the real estate business.
I’ve always considered Kiyosaki’s approach to personal wealth to be irresponsible and well beyond my risk-tolerance level. He was very trendy at the time, and the fact that this question constituted the whole of my interview was a huge red flag for me. In my mind, it communicated:
That this company was following financial trends rather than principles,
and
that the company would probably be long on charisma and short on discipline
Combine that with the lack of concrete detail about the job, and I was more than a bit wary.
I answered the question properly, finished with pleasantries and small talk, and drove away. I received a call-back before I’d gone a single mile; I’d gotten the job. They explained that it was a sales position (something I wouldn’t have bothered interviewing for if I’d known), and started talking about a starting date.
“Actually, I’m not really interested,” I said.
There was silence on the other end of the phone. Finally, he just said, “Okay, thanks!”
That was it. I still feel like I dodged a bullet with that one.
“The world has already changed—and not in the way that people overseas wanted.
But what do they want? What is their endgame?
The United States, having launched a sweeping attack on all undesirable countries simultaneously (you know this axis of ‘evil’: from Belarus to North Korea, including Russia, China, Iran, and others), realized that they made a mistake.
They brought together the disobedient Russia and their archnemesis, China.
By exerting pressure, they pushed these two states together: Russia, with extensive resources and a powerful defense industry, and China, with enormous economic and human potential.
They realized that they could not handle this union.
But the United States found a way out: they instigated a conflict in Europe, in Ukraine, and put it on the shoulders of the European Union and NATO, promising to help with money.
The goal is to distract, get Russia bogged down in the war with Ukraine, weaken it with the war and sanctions—as Russia will be too busy to build an alliance with China.
Meanwhile, they wanted to deal with China and drag others whenever possible into this showdown: AUKUS [Defense alliance of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States], which is a new NATO in the Pacific, and then Japan and South Korea.
This is the essence of the U.S. strategy to assert its dominance in the world.
After that, everything will be over: they will throw everyone under the bus, like they did in Afghanistan.”
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Excerpt from the address by Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko at the 7th Belarusian People’s Congress in Minsk, April 24, 2024.
Temu and Shein are next in line on the chopping board.
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China’s Temu Takes Over 17% Of US Market Share, Cutting Jobs From American Amazon And Decimating Small Businesses
China's Temu Takes Over 17% Of US Market Share, Cutting Jobs From American Amazon And Decimating Small Businesses
Caleb Naysmith
Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 4:49 AM GMT+8
China’s Temu Takes Over 17% Of US Market Share, Cutting Jobs From American Amazon And Decimating Small Businesses
With rising inflation, American consumers are increasingly turning to the Chinese e-commerce platform Temu for their shopping needs. With its enticing tagline “Shop like a billionaire,” Temu has captured 17% of the U.S. market share, posing a challenge to traditional American retailers such as Amazon.com. Spend less. Smile more.
Inc., Dollar Tree Inc. and Five Below Inc. The rise highlights the lucrative and disruptive nature of startups.Owned and operated by PDD Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:PDD), Temu offers a wide range of products, including home decor, pet supplies, beauty and health products and clothing. The platform is known for its competitive pricing, often offering significant discounts on items compared to prices on Amazon. Coupled with Temu’s discount codes, consumers can enjoy even greater savings.
Temu has even become the No. 1 Shopping App on Apple’s App Store, surpassing Amazon, Target Corp. and Walmart Inc., which currently hold the third, fourth and eighth spots, respectively. The No. 2 shopping app is Shein, another Chinese retailer.
Orders purchased on Temu are shipped from China and are estimated to be delivered within 10 days. However, in a bid to compete with Amazon’s fast delivery, Temu opened its marketplace to U.S. warehouses last month. Shopping from these sellers can significantly reduce shipping time, giving U.S. retailers the ability to handle fulfillment and shipping directly.
In December, Reuters reported that Temu was successfully challenging U.S. dollar stores like Dollar Tree and Dollar General Corp., accounting for nearly 17% of the market share in the United States. According to data analytics firm Earnest Analytics, this compares to 8% for Five Below, 43% for Dollar General and 28% for Dollar Tree.
In January, Amazon announced it would lay off 5% of its Buy with Prime workforce, which equips retailers with fulfillment and delivery services.
“Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to eliminate a small number of roles on our Buy with Prime team. Buy with Prime is a top priority for Amazon, with strong adoption from merchants and positive feedback from customers, and we will continue investing significant resources in Buy with Prime to build on that momentum,” an Amazon statement said.
The ripple effects extend to discount stores like Dollar Tree and 99 Cents Only Stores, both of which have announced significant closures and employee layoffs.
Citing changing consumer demand and economic challenges, 99 Cents Only Stores is shutting all 371 locations in Arizona, California, Nevada and Texas. Dollar Tree plans to close 1,000 locations across its Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores.
The new American dream is to leave
"I live in New York and he is 200% correct. The majority of us are living paycheck to paycheck. I am also moving out of the country soon. America is on a fast decline. Our government does not work for us."
“I realize that this government in Washington—speaking as it does for the American people—has effectively said that it rejects any relationship with Moscow on the basis of conditions that we do not set.
In other words, unless the Russians all agree to adopt whatever we tell them is appropriate for their society and government, unless they remove the people that currently govern them, unless they put their arms down, join hands, and sing ‘Kumbaya’ with us, we can’t get along with the Russians.
Well, sending this kind of money towards Ukraine at this stage signals to the Russians that any hope of a relationship with Washington is dead.
That’s why Foreign Minister Lavrov, within the last 48 hours, was interviewed and asked what would happen if there were negotiations, and whether Moscow was still receptive to negotiations.
He said, ‘Yes, we will be receptive to negotiations but keep in mind two things:
First of all—just because we negotiate, we will not stop fighting. We will continue until we have achieved all of our objectives militarily.
Secondly—and very importantly—we are not going to cease hostilities for even a brief period of time because we know that we are going to hold what we’ve won.
Effectively, the facts on the ground have changed and we are no longer willing to talk about trades in what kind of territory we’re willing to surrender to you in order to have peace.’
It’s over, and we’ve made fools out of ourselves and, worst of all, we’ve made fools out of NATO.
NATO looks weak and stupid.
The Ukrainian state is ruined.
Whatever emerges after this will be a rump state and that rump state will effectively be a demilitarized zone—a DMZ—and in it will live Ukrainians that can tend to their fields and go about their lives, but there will be no military power that threatens Russia.”
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Excerpt from remarks by retired U.S. Army colonel Douglas Macgregor in an interview with Judge Napolitano, April 23, 2024.
When did the negative perception of masculinity begin?
This is a byproduct of the American “Woman’s Rights” movement.
The initial intention was for gender equality, where women would be treated as equals with men. Eventually, a more radical sub-branch of the movement took control and steered the movement towards an anti-male bias. Over the years, they acquired wealthy and powerful contributors, and used their positions in government to fund and control the narrative. Resulting in the destruction of the American male.
This women’s rights movement in the United States has gone through several stages.
Each stage has been marked by specific goals, accomplishments, and challenges.
First Wave (19th Century – Early 20th Century)
– Focused on legal issues, particularly women’s suffrage (the right to vote).
– Key events: The Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott; the adoption of the 19th Amendment in 1920, granting women the right to vote.
This initial stage is often erroneously considered to be reasonable, but a look at the amendments to the constitution clearly show that the movement removed the stable “Head of the Household” voting role towards one where anyone can vote. Thus, this movement, during the FIRST WAVE, significantly altered the federal government and the spending trajectory of the United States.
Demographics changed substantially. Voting profiles changed radically, and a “nanny state”
became the norm, as the female voters started to demand a government that took on a parental role; thus a government with a greater role in the lives of Americans.
Second Wave (1960s – 1980s)
– Emphasized a broader range of issues, including equality in the workplace, education, reproductive rights, and legal rights.
– Key events: Publication of “The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan in 1963; the establishment of the National Organization for Women (NOW) in 1966; the passage of the Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
– Advocacy for reproductive rights, including the landmark Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade in 1973.
During this wave, the “rights” of women altered the workplace, the Geo-political scene, the educational system, and the kinds of movies and shows on televisions and extracted out of Hollywood. It was during this wave that the notion of a traditional family was discarded, and men started to be depicted as buffoons and useless clowns.
There is a direct correlation between divorce rates and the implementation of pro-feminist initiatives. This was the era of the destruction of the family. As the women entered the work-place, forced layoffs, firings and short-duration employment became the norm.
Third Wave (1990s – Early 2000s)
– Focused on diversity and intersectionality, addressing issues of race, class, sexual orientation, and gender identity within the context of women’s rights.
– Emphasized individualism and a more inclusive approach to feminism, acknowledging different experiences and perspectives.
This wave turbocharged the fall of traditional values, and the “career women” entered the work force with government sanctioned privileges that harmed the male roles. The court systems, and child service systems became co-opted by this movement and became hostile to males.
Laws and rules, from family law to corporate law favored females. Lower skilled females were engaged in once-dominant male activities to meet hiring quotas. The result was a gradual decline in the quality of the American work-force.
Fourth Wave (Mid-2000s – Present)
– Characterized by the use of digital and social media to advocate for women’s rights and mobilize anti-male activism.
– Focus on sexual harassment, gender-based violence, and the #MeToo movement.
– Greater attention to intersectionality, considering how various aspects of identity intersect and impact the experiences of women and non-binary individuals.
It’s a real problem.
The damage has already been done.
Presently, in the United States and it’s proxy nations, under the LGBQ+ rainbow flag, the male gender is ridiculed, minimized, and berated to a point where various social phenomenons have occurred. To include…
Young men in the 20s have stopped dating.
Young men tend to be virginal, while young women engage in serial promiscuity.
The “Soft man” era where men have “checked out”.
A drop in college and university admissions for men.
A push back on dating with the “drizzle drizzle” movement.
American men are leaving the United States as “passport bros” and not returning.
The changing demographics and the ten year forecast for citizens within this toxic anti-male environment is contentious. Historically, very BAD things happen when large sections males in a nation are hurt, abandoned, ridiculed and disparaged.
It will be very bad.
Apple-Cinnamon Pile o’ Pancakes
apple cinnamon pancakes 3 1200×1800 1
Yield: 5 servings (2 pancakes and 2 tablespoons syrup each)
Ingredients
1 cup Apple Cinnamon Cheerios cereal
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup chunky applesauce
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
Maple syrup or maple-flavored syrup*
Instructions
Heat griddle or 12 inch skillet over medium-low heat or to 325 degrees F.
Pour cereal into plastic bag and seal. Crush cereal with rolling pin or can of soup. Pour crushed cereal into large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients, except syrup, just until moistened.
Pour batter, a generous 1/4 cup at a time, onto hot griddle. Cook for 2 minutes or until edges look cooked and bubbles begin to break on the surface. Flip pancakes and cook other side until golden, about 2 minutes longer.
Serve with syrup.
Notes
* Tasty topping: Skip the syrup and top instead with warm apple pie filling or a sprinkle of brown sugar.
What is the worst part about being a man?
No one cares.
It’s time I told you about my Uncle RK.
My late uncle.
A victim of sexism and neglect his entire life.
When he was just a boy, he was expected and pressured to get good grades in school – which he did. On the contrary, they let my mom slack off and had no expectations for her.
Eventually, he ended up placing within the top 200 in a nationally ranked exam and going to one of the most prestigious colleges in the country for peanuts – thanks to a large scholarship.
During his college days, when he visited home, no one bothered to greet him. His own mom forgot he was coming once and ended up giving his room to some relatives for a short stay.
In his early twenties, he was falsely accused of sexual harassment. After spending a few months in jail, my grandmom made a hefty payment to the accuser’s family, who agreed to drop the charges.
He struggled to find employment after college thanks to his criminal record.
After being forced into an arranged marriage, he was stuck with an emotionally abusive wife.
After losing another job at age 30, he got depressed. The humiliation he received from society and from his wife for being unemployed was unbearable.
In July 2000, he killed himself, by jumping off an apartment. Everyone chalked it up to his mental instability. To this day, I still hear them saying that he was a weak and pathetic man who couldn’t handle life.
I think you got it by now.
This is the worst part of being a man: No one cares.
No one cares if you feel lonely, if you feel neglected, if you are falsely accused by a woman, if you have an abusive wife, if you lose your job and feel worthless or if you kill yourself.
My uncle RK is a lot like me. He’s introverted, sweet and sensitive person. He’d never harm a fly. He used to take great care of his little sister (my mom) and show affection to his older brother.
He’s also a genius. He managed to build a working generator when he was just a boy (remember this was before the internet). He was always the smartest guy around.
He was cool too. When he toured Japan in the nineties, he brought back some novel electronic gadgets, among them was a digital dictionary.
I wish I had met him.
I wish he was alive. We could have talked about so much. He could have been a mentor to me.
Rest in peace. Uncle RK – 1969–2000.
A Boy and His Dog | Post-Apocalypse | Don Johnson | Classic Drama Film
I cannot believe that this entire film is free on youtube. It is a great watch. Take the time to enjoy this fun, and very funny, Classic Drama Movie: A Boy and His Dog – A young man and his telepathic dog wander through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
One of the strangest “crazy” memories of my old dog PP was what he did when we would go for a walk.
Sure, like every dog, he would stop at every tree to take a leak. That was the normal. And quite expected. The damn dog wouldn’t ever pass up a good tree to pee on. The younger tree being preferred over an old one.
But the strangest thing was when we crossed a road.
Sure as shit, as soon as we were in the middle of the road; the exact middle… he would stop aggressively smell everything and take a dump right then and there, and the cars would come up and stop honking telling us to get out the way. Sheech!!
Apparently, the streets… the roads… all smelled like a sewer to that dog.
Makes you think.
Sometimes I wonder what life would be like if I had an operation and was able to improve my ability to smell things better. Ugh. It might not be anything that I might want to experience!
I’ll tell you what!
Today…
What’s the best revenge you’ve gotten after being fired or let go from a job?
I was employee number 7 for a software as a service company. I put my blood sweat and tears into building their business. When things were small, I worked in the basement of my boss’s home. When things got bigger, I trained other employees (in QA, in support, in project management) in how our stuff worked. I’m not a water-walker, but I was generally well-thought of by those I trained.
Fast forward a couple of years: after training and building out my department including supervising and managing those I trained because there was no one else to do that, they hired a guy to manage the department I had been de facto managing for years. Fine. I simply refused to train him. I was always too busy. Not my finest hour, but my avenues for advancement in this company were now firmly entrenched.
My passive aggressive routine eventually lead to me being laid off. The founders were puss**s about it, and wouldn’t call the out what the real dynamic was. I didn’t care. I left.
When I got laid off, 2 other people (in a company with barely over 10 employees) I had trained quit immediately (without input from me) because of the message that my firing signified to other employees. Later, in my new job, I recruited away several employees from this company just because I knew they were great. My motivations were not necessarily revenge, I put good opportunities in front of good people I knew. I got them more money and better benefits because they deserved that. That this inconvenienced people I didn’t like was just delicious icing on the professional cake.
I didn’t set out to get revenge. I did the right thing all the way around in my pro experience with these jokers. They experienced it as vengeful because that’s the only idiom they had for people who were no longer friends to them. I hired people away from them as they didn’t care about their employees. What I did wasn’t vengeful or difficult. I provided objective evidence that you suck, and why those I took from you should objectively evaluate you that way. Cheers.
If you read this, you’re probably all “so?” I get it. This particular company had industry and application specific knowledge that one had to internalize to be effective. It generally took 6 months for people to find their feet. When I took several senior people, it was a purposeful shot across their bow.
In the past 6 months, apart from its citizens, soldiers, economy, reputation in the world, etc., what else has Israel lost? Will the sacrifices of more than 35,000 Palestinians be wasted, or will Netanyahu & company definitely have to pay for it?
In the 1990s or 1980s or 1970s – The People across the world trusted the United States
They trusted the US with their Gold, with their Dollars
They trusted the US Senators and Congressmen and the Western Media implicitly
Including me
If CNN said Saddam and his sons were raping women and killing kids – the world would believe it implicitly
If BBC said Gadaffi killed people who were rude to him, the world would believe it implicitly
Thus when the US said Israelis were the good guys, the world believed them back then
Today the World no longer trusts the US. The world is frightened of the United States
The US is the equivalent of an Insane Lunatic holding a button to 6 Keys of RDX and threatening to blow up everyone
Nobody trusts the US with their money or gold
Nobody trusts a US Senator or Congressman anymore
Even their own people
The World now knows the Israelis are insane religiously talmudic nut jobs who are demented enough to kill women and kids in their quest
Virtually a carbon copy of the same terrorists they condemn
Netanyahu is like a serial murderer with a knife in his hands and everyone is wary of him
Today’s world doesn’t trust the US. They aspire for the end of the US and Israel and the West without a world War and rise of a new world
Every passing day, people are less frightened of the US or Israel anymore
Apple Butter Muffins
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Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
3/4 cup apple butter
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 cup skim milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup raisins (optional)
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients (the first 7 ingredients) and make a well in the center.
In smaller bowl, combine wet ingredients (the next 6 ingredients).
Pour wet mixture into the “well” of the dry ingredients and stir just to combine (10 to 15 strokes). Fold in raisins with as few strokes as possible.
Spoon batter into 12 muffin cups (if you don’t use muffin liners, spray the pan with cooking spray).
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until cake tester comes out clean.
Remove muffin tin to cooling rack and cool for 5 minutes before removing muffins from tin. (Do NOT let muffins cool completely in the tin.)
Printing money
What are some interesting facts about the handover of Hong Kong to China on July 1, 1997?
The official handover ceremony was held at 11:30PM at the Convention Centre in Wanchai. At the time of the ceremony, the Convention Centre had not yet been completed. (It was completed in 2000.)
Officially, Beijing never recognized British control of HK, although it recognized all treaties which were made. So, for the British, the challenge was “How do you arrange protocol when the Chinese refuse to recognize the handover?” The official Chinese term for the handover was 中國政府對香港地區恢復行使權 The translation of this is “The Chinese government recovers sovereignty over Hong Kong and its regions” Notice that there is no mention of any handover in the Chinese or mention of British sovereignty over Hong Kong.
Because there was no recognition of British sovereignty over Hong Kong, the Chinese and British officials did not talk to each other, shake hands or acknowledge each other after the ceremony began.
The ceremony had to follow a strict schedule: the British Union Jack HAD TO come down before 12 midnight on June 30, and the PRC and HKSAR flags had to run up immediately after 12 midnight on July 1.
Because the ceremony was indoors, there was no wind to make the flags wave. So the Chinese punched holes in the back of the flag poles, and put powerful fans at the base to blow air up through the flag poles and out through vents so that the flags would wave.
After Prince Charles and Governor Patten spoke, Governor Patten and his family immediately took the Union Jack and boarded the Queen’s yacht HMS Britannia, which was right outside the Convention Centre. The Chinese president and government officials then proceeded with the second Chinese half of the ceremony. The Chinese officials did not acknowledge the British officials departure from Convention Centre, and the ceremony continued without interruption.
By the time the Chinese half of the ceremony ended, the HMS Britannia had already left dockside.
At exactly 12 midnight, just as the Chinese flag was rising in the Convention Centre ceremony, 12 Chinese military trucks full of Chinese military personnel drove across the Hong Kong border without stopping at Chinese and HK customs. These were the first Chinese military personnel to be stationed in what was formerly the Prince of Wales Building in Central, and would become the garrison for the PLA in Hong Kong.
All the troops on the trucks were chosen from their units two years previously in 1995, and since then had practiced for this moment. All were EXACTLY 190 centimeters tall. All were ordered to stand at attention while the trucks drove at 60MPH to their destination without stopping. They were ordered to keep their eyes looking straight ahead even if HK residents waved at them as their trucks drove through HK.
Although the PLA soldiers carried guns, they were all unloaded.
The next day’s papers in China all had the same photo of the Chinese flag waving in the Convention Centre ceremony. No photos of the British flag waving, taken before 12PM midnight, were shown in any Chinese papers.
By July 1, China had recovered sovereignty over Hong Kong after 157 years of British administration. Not a single life was lost in the process.
The US has no more technologies to put sanctions against China. As for the Chinese-made products such as the world most advances Huawei 5G, smartphones, solar energy panels, China made EVs, shipbuildings etc are 100% Chinese technologies. Why?
I’d like to give a short and oblique answer.
In one word, margin.
In one sentence: the curse of quarterly earnings.
The whole problem with American manufacturing is margin, because of skyrocketing cost and paradoxically, expectation.
Look at the magnificent 7. They are all, to a fault, either internet or chip giants with sky-high IP- or service monopoly-enabled margins and valuations.
Unfortunately, the backbone of the economy isn’t high-tech, or high margin. The only way they could survive was to lower cost, and find new revenue streams.
They solved the first problem by relocating out of America, and the second partly by selling to the rest of the world. This was why globalization became such a buzzword, because rich Western media trumpeted the model.
For a few decades, everyone benefited, until the rise of the internet boom threw balance sheet expectations out of whack. Investors not only demanded dividends, but also capital appreciation, and the stock buyback became mandatory in the 21st century. Intel for example spent in excess of 100b on stock buyback this century, and it hasn’t had a leading edge node chip for almost a decade.
Unions and collective bargaining wrecked havoc on company finances and HR turnover. Just ask GM, which is still paying down pension commitments dating pre-GFC. Elon is adamant about a no-union Tesla, and has taken aggression action against unionization. Otherwise, it would have faced immense blowback in its recent retrenchment exercise.
Meanwhile, CEO compensation have been shooting for the moon, and THE KPI to meet is the company’s stock price. The easiest way is to sell sexy growth stories for the public to stomach inflated earning multiples. In a world where the global competition is rapidly catching up and with few greenfield markets left to exploit, margin expansion requires cost-cutting. Which explains Boeing’s woes today, letting go of senior engineers, and allowing standards to slip, while contracting away key components that Boeing used to make inhouse.
One final example. The loyalty program of Delta Airlines is worth more than its market value. In other words, the equity value of physical airline operation (planes, brand, landing slots) is negative. Understand how loyalty miles turn a profit for airlines and you’ll have the answer to the question posed.
It’s over-financialization, and the stock market, silly.
Its all about ME ME ME
What did you do that was unusually honest, and turned out well?
One sunny day I was leaving Wal-Mart, and I spotted an envelope which appeared to be a bank envelope. As I got closer to it, I could tell that there was something in it, and there wasn’t anyone around. Finally, I got to a point where I could grab it, and I continued to my car parked nearby.
I got in, closed my door, and proceeded to inspect the envelope. To my surprise, there was cash. Not just a little bit of money, but some good money. There were some hundreds and some fifties. My heart skipped a beat, and I was overjoyed by my good fortune. I sat there for a minute in disbelief. I waited around for someone to come looking for it, but to my surprise, no one was around, and it was just me and the envelope.
Next, I took the cash out the envelope to give it a good count and go and treat myself and pay on some bills. I flipped through hundred after hundred to find $820 worth of cold hard cash, but there was something else in the envelope… A receipt. A receipt from Chase bank. The funny thing is the balance was there, and it was enough that this guy was not even going to miss it.
Without even thinking, no debate, I simply decided. I went straight to Chase bank and handed the teller the receipt. She proceeded to track the transaction, and minutes later, I was being thanked on the phone by a grateful gentleman.
I drove to a nearby Citgo gas station and handed him back his envelope with all the cash. The guy appeared to be in disbelief. He told me he had written it off as a loss and got screamed at by his spouse. He handed me a $50 bill, we exchanged business cards, and he thanked me again, and again and we went about life.
Since then, my fortune has not changed much. Yes, I could have really used the money, but I continue to work in my business serving clients. When I share this with my friends and my family, I simply state that it was not my money. I did what anyone should do given the opportunity.
NEVER install these programs on your PC… EVER!
What are some mind-blowing facts that sound unreal but are actually true?
1. Dogs can smell cancer.
Researchers have found that dogs are able to pick up on a specific scent that cancer produces in a person – which is undetectable to humans. So if your dog is acting strange around you, you may need to get checked out by a physician.
2. The shortest commercial flight in the world lasts just 57 seconds.
The Loganair flight between the two Scottish islands of Westray and Papa Westray lasts just 57 seconds. At a distance of 2.7 miles, it’s the shortest commercial flight in the world.
3. Humans are the only animals that enjoy spicy foods.
There does not seem to be any health benefits to eating painful peppers, so the best reason some have suggested is the thrill factor – no different than the fact that we are the only creatures that like rollercoasters and scary movies.
4. Stars and celebrities use online platforms to find a lover too
Real Housewives star Rachel Lugo met her new boyfriend on this site. And now they seem to be engaged. Ben Afflect was using Raya to find dates..etc.
5. Cotton candy was invented by a dentist.
Cotton candy isn’t exactly great for your teeth. But actually the machine that makes this sweet treat was invented by a dentist named William Morrison, despite he looked after peoples’ teeth for a living.
6. On eBay, a man tried to sell New Zealand.
People try to sell some unique and weird things online since e-commerce became popular. But in 2006, one man kicked the eccentric nature of the digital marketplace up a notch by trying to sell an entire country—New Zealand, to be exact—on eBay. And New Zealand is sold.
7. Tins of air were sold to commemorate the abdication of a Japanese emperor.
When Japan’s Emperor Akihito abdicated the throne in 2019 to let his son, take over, it was the first time that an abdication had taken place in Japan in 200 years. People who were selling tins of air for about $10 USD, to commemorate the hand over in rule and the end of the Heisei era.
8. A man once ate an entire airplane.
In 1978, a French man named Michel Lotito started eating a Cessna 150 airplane. Lotito developed an unique tolerance for eating dangerous objects due to a condition known as pica, which leads to an appetite for non-nutritive items. In 1980, he finished consuming the last of the airplane.
Where are they?
What is the oddest conversation you’ve had with a telephone scammer?
My granddaughter called and told me she had been arrested. I asked which granddaughter was this, because I didn’t recognize her voice. “Oh Grandma! You know who this is! It’s me!” “Ummm…no, sorry. I really can’t figure out which one of my grandchildren you are. I’m sorry, honey, just tell me who you are and I’ll help you as best I can.” “Oh Grandma! (Sounding hurt and sad). I really can’t believe you don’t recognize my voice!” “I’m sorry baby girl, I don’t have my hearing aid in, so your voice is so soft, I can hardly hear you.Tell me your name and it’ll be okay.” Softly and with a lot of sighing, she says a name. “Gee…sorry sweetheart, I KNOW you aren’t one of my grandchildren.” “GRANDMA! How could you say that!?! It’s ME!” “How do I know you aren’t one my grandchildren? Simple – I DONT HAVE ANY, YOU IDIOT!” Stop being a scammer and go get a decent job. Shame on you!”
What is the saddest thing you have seen a parent do to their child?
It makes me shudder to share this. I was an elementary school bus driver and I have to say I ran a pretty tight ship. I had a fairly new student on the bus, about 10 yrs old, and he kept misbehaving in a way that really jeopardized his safety, like jumping in the aisles, standing up in the seats and such. I finally wrote him up, which meant a phone call home. Well he lived in a low income apartment building and there resided some seedy characters as well. Apparently his father figure, step father, was one of them. The next morning as I pulled in to pick him up, this bully of a man, the step father, cigarette in mouth, no shirt, mullet…was screaming through his ciggy while dragging this child in a choke hold! The child was trying to break free as the man was obviously tightening his grip. The kids on the bus were horrified! He led the child to the door and threw him into the stairwell, leaving the boy gasping and coughing for air. The man took his cigarette out and said, “IF YOU HAVE ANY MORE PROBLEMS WITH HIM, YOU LET ME KNOW SO I CAN BEAT HIS ASS!” I slammed the Bus door and got the Hell out of there. I pulled over at the first opportunity to check on the boy. He was beat down emotionally as low as can be and so humiliated, I could feel it for him. I got him to the school and into the counselor then went straight up to the principal’s office. I slammed the door and bawled my head off. I reported the abuser and confessed the lesson I learned…sometimes there’s a reason a kiddo acts up. I should have had my eyes and ears open to what those symptoms were about. But he taught me. That little boy taught me compassion, and my bus got a little bit dirtier and louder after that incident without regret or remorse. I’ll never forget that boy who grabbed me by the heartstrings and taught me a lesson.
I don’t need a man
How does an average person detect propaganda in the modern news feeds we are all bombarded with?
Use your brain and ask questions. I’ll give you some examples.
This story:
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Kanthaswamy Balasubramaniam made a very good point. 40 babies? How did they find 40 babies? If I go to the local maternity ward in HK with the almost zero birth rate here I can’t find 40 babies. In the UK which had a fertility rate of 2.7 especially with Eastern Europeans and Bangladeshi women, I’d struggle to find 40 babies. And I knew a Somali woman with a clowncar vagina she had 6 kids.
He asked a question, and like that the propaganda fell to bits.
Second example
OMG look at this a huge protest in Myanmar!
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If you ask questions, something seems not right. Lets think about it shall we?
Why are the signs in English, they speak Burmese there.
Why are the signs all the same, that speaks of somebody paying for a print shop and at an average salary of $500USD a month, full lots of large full colour printouts aren’t cheap. I had to organise last year’s clan feast and full colour posters cost a fair chunk of change.
Example 3
Read carefully.
Strip out any adjectives.
Man murdered.
Man brutally murdered.
Look at the voice that is being used:
Children died.
Soldiers kill children.
What have you discovered when you cleaned out a vehicle you have just purchased?
Not me, but a younger friend who was a victim of abuse, and a struggling single mom of two.
She received a tax refund, and went looking for a decent used car. She found someone selling one, and the car was really dirty and trashed, as it had come from an estate auction type of situation. The seller refused to clean it up or reduce the price, which was a bit much, and it also badly needed a brake job, which they did not disclose.
So, my friend went to get the car, was really disappointed that it needed money invested in it, because she had no more left.
As she was driving away, she took a moment to look in the console storage area, and found like $800 in cash, likely left there by the elderly, deceased, previous owner. If the seller had bothered to check the car and clean it, it would not have been there. His laziness was her deliverance. It was enough to fix up and register the car, plus start insurance payments.
Cold War 2: US officials call to overthrow China’s gov’t, expand military budget to $1.4 trillion
Delusional Americans. Jeeze!
What’s the hardest prison habit to break after being released?
11 years served.
For me it was how I reacted to disrespect. In prison if you are disrespected, it can be an instant fight. Certain words ARE an instant fight. Some of these words are used normally on the street, and it’s no big deal. My sister called me a punk not long after I got out, and I almost punched her. Punk has a completely different meaning in prison, and it’s very bad. It’s also an immediate fight if someone calls you a punk in prison. There’s no questions asked, no further argument. You immediately start swinging. The day after I got out, someone cut in front of me in line at the store, and I talked nasty to them. I didn’t even realize how inappropriate it was for me to talk to them like that, until 20 minutes later.
Second hardest was wearing my shower shoes (flip flops or sandals) when I would get in the shower. Let’s just say, prison shower floors are NASTY, and you do NOT take a shower barefoot.
Edit:To all those people who haven’t been in prison. I don’t want to hear any smartass remarks about reactions to disrespect being stupid, or signs of low intelligence. Prison makes you that way, because that’s how you survive. If you want to keep your property, booty hole, and life, you WILL be that way in prison. Simple as that. People who serve a lot of time, get those behaviors ingrained into them. It’s called PTSD. Google it. And just so y’all know what punk means, in Kentucky prisons, it’s someone who is so scared, that they do sexual favors for someone else, hoping that person will protect them. “I’m scared, I think I will let this guy pound my ass, so he will protect me” That’s a punk.
What are they trying to do?
Shorpy
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What is the most savage revenge you’ve seen a renter get on a sleazy landlord?
I once rented an apartment from the daughter of a good friend of my father. Rent was month-to-month while my new house was under construction. The apartment was run-down, but liveable for a couple of months. There was the usual first and last month rent and damage deposit. No lease.
When we moved out a couple of months later, we gave thirty days notice and requested return of the damage deposit, but the husband of the landlord notified me that the damage deposit would not be returned and that we had broken the imaginary lease. He listed several things to justify his actions. We lived there for a couple of months, but he listed things like worn carpet, etc. which were totally bogus. He refused to let me talk to his wife who was the actual landlord, saying he was in charge of the situation. I considered taking him to small claims court, but remembered who his mother-in-law was.
I called her and explained the situation. Her son in law was at my door the next morning with an apology and a check for my deposit. What a sleazebag.
What are some mind-blowing facts about men?
1. Men can go for hours without thinking about anything.
2. Most men own three pairs of shoes.
3. 50% of men say they would feel comfortable if their girlfriend had a lesbian lover.
4. A man speaks about 2,000 words a day; a woman, about 7,000.
5. It’s easier for a man to buy a bathing suit.
6. Women have two types: depressing and more depressing.
7. Men have two types: sexy-cool and horrific-speedo.
8. Love can help men quit smoking. If a man suddenly quits smoking, he may very well be falling in love.
9. Men are 150% more likely than women to use dating sites.
10. Physical intimacy is even more important for men than for women, who may value verbal communication or emotional intimacy more.
11. On average, men are more colorblind, but their eyes also perceive motion better.
12. Most men would rather take a bullet than buy tampons at the supermarket.
She seems like a nice lady
What is the most disrespectful thing someone did to you while you were on an airplane?
It actually happened before we got on the plane. I was travelling alone from Toronto Canada to London Uk. I had loads of bags with me. I’d checked in my big suitcase but I also had my small suitcase, a backpack and a hold-all with me. My hold-all has my laptop and other electrical in it and I was terrified of it getting damaged. I got to the departure lounge early so I sat close to the door but also away from people. I picked an area that wasn’t crowded and saw one gentleman sitting there. He was sat the the middle of the row of seats, so I wanted to give him space. To his right there were three empty seats and to his left there were four. I went to the left and sat on the last seat, putting my electrical bag on the seat next to me and trying to keep all my bags in a little area around me. Normally I wouldn’t have put it on the seat but there were a lot of kids running around and I was worried my laptop would get kicked.
A man came over to where I was sitting and asked if anyone was sitting in the seat next to me/ my bag. It wasn’t clear which. There were a lot of other seats available with no one sitting next to them. I said no.
He sat down in the seat right next to my bag. His husband/ boyfriend joined him a few minutes later. They both look super grumpy.
The first guy turns to me and says ‘I thought you said someone was sitting there’
I said, ‘no, I told you no when you asked me’
’then why can’t you be less fucking dumb and move your bag so I can sit there?’
‘Why? You could have sat anywhere else and I wanted to give the gentleman over there space and myself space’
basically he wanted to sit in that seat. It wouldn’t mean not sitting next to anyone in any configuration of where he sat on the bench but he wanted that seat because reasons? There were loads of seats available where he and his partner could have sat with no one on either side of them. He basically started anmassive tirade at me saying I saw stupid and a complete uneducated idiot who didn’t know anything in public. People looked at me and I have really bad anxiety so I almost had a panic attack.
I don’t remember exactly what I said at that point because my fight or flight anxiety mode started going off and I got super dizzy. I do recall saying something like ‘yes, clearly I’m stupid and my science degree confirms it’. And then telling him to fuck off when he wouldn’t stop bothering me.
I wanted to leave but I didn’t want to give in now as he’d been rude to me for no reason. I wasn’t hurting him and he’d just started having a go at me over nothing. If he’d wanted me to move my bag he could have asked politely but I was tired from travelling from my university in Peterborough to Toronto after a day of classes.
I got onto the plane and sat down.
Like ten minutes later the people behind me sit down and it’s the dude and his partner. They immediately start bitching about me and calling me a dumb whore etc. I started crying and called my mum to tell her what had happened.
May I also point out at this point that I was a 20 year old lone student and these men were in their thirties. I just wanted a calm journey home.
I ended up talking to an air stewardess and telling her what had happened. I asked to move seats because I was so upset. She told me once we took off I could sit wherever I liked in the area of the plane and she would keep an eye on them. I ended up able to sit in a row where a lady and I were the only people in a four seater. We sat on the furthest points on their side, both napped, and she told me she’d be my travel mum and if they were mean again she’d tell them off.
Yes I didn’t need my bag on the seat but I’m always prepared to move my stuff if someone needs space. I have osteoarthritis so I often can’t hold heavy things on my lap and my legs were in a lot of pain already so I tend to put bags next to me instead. I also get paranoid of being robbed if I don’t have everything closer but to the side. I just feel safer when I can block my items in with my suitcase and I can hold onto the suitcase at the same time. I just don’t feel the men handled it fairly in response to what was happening.
NB: 1. The carrier I was flying on does not have the two bag limit. You are also allowed a laptop bag. My laptop didn’t fit a standard size so it went into a sportdirect hold-all that wasn’t too big and was cleared by the crew. My backpack was small and just had my passport, money etc valuables you wouldn’t put in the checked bagged. I wasn’t being abnoxious with the amount of stuff I had, it was well within my limit and I kept it as much out of everyone’s way as possible.
Also clearly someone couldn’t read as I wasn’t worried my laptop would be stolen while in the air, but at the departure gate.
Furthermore, I am apparently not allowed to call my mother if I’m upset and should stay at home. I want to clarify that I was studying abroad as part of my degree. I was returning home to the UK. I don’t think it is a bad thing to be able to share things with your mum if you’re upset and unsure what to do in a situation. It was only my second time flying alone and I have severe anxiety. I was like 19 at the time and hadn’t ever lived in another country, but clearly there are some assholes on Quora.
Some AI generated pictures
Default dark skinned beautiful curvy woman wearing a tshirt wi 0
Default tree house cozy bunk dark bedroom with circular windo 1
What happens to old people who don’t save up for their retirement?
My mother in law turns 93 this year. She lives in Saskatchewan Canada. She had absolutely no savings when she retired, she had been a single mother supporting her kids and grandkids, and had nothing left over.
So each month she receives $784 in Old age security and $1065.74 in guaranteed income supplement. She lives in a one bedroom apartment, the same one she moved into 30 years ago. It has all the amenities you expect in an apartment. Her family have updated her furniture and TV etc over the years. It has a recreational area on the main floor. The Regina housing authority takes 30 percent of her gross income each month as rent and utilities, or $554 as rent. Leaving her with roughly $1300 a month, minus taxes. Taxes aren’t much, less than $75 a month. So she has about $1200 a month to spend for groceries, clothes and entertainment.
She always has extra money to give a little here and there to family, including a large lump sum she saved up for 20 years, for each of her great grandkids weddings.
I don’t know that I would be as lucky today, to find a nice centrally located apartment, but it’s possible, at least in Regina Saskatchewan. Fortunately I have a nest egg.
She has managed to prepay her funeral and burial costs.
She spends a lot of time with her grandkids and great grandchildren. Her grand daughter provides her frozen home cooked meals. She goes for coffee with friends, but unfortunately she has lost a lot of friends to old age.
What men want
What have you seen that made you think, “Wait they can actually do that?”?
I know more about alcohol than the average bear.
While working on my ChemE degree at Michigan State I took coursework towards a specialization in Beverage Science and Technology. Over the years I have brewed beer, made wine and cider, and distilled whiskey, rum, gin, vodka, and brandy (legally, of course…)
Hell, I even tried my hand at drowning in it. 0/10, not recommended.
I don’t drink like I used to and I sold off all of my alcohol making equipment years ago, but I am still fascinated with the history, culture, and science of booze.
It suffices to say that I am not often surprised by anything to do with alcohol. I mean, sure, we’ve come a long way in some of the finer details of production, but in general alcoholic beverages are made in much the same way as they have been for hundreds of years.
In general, vodka production is about as tough on the environment as vodka itself is on your liver. Most vodka is made from grain or potatoes which must first be mashed (requiring heat/energy) to convert basic starches into fermentable sugars, it is then fermented (releasing carbon dioxide), and distilled to a high degree of purity (lots more energy), before being filtered and watered down to drinking strength.
Being that traditional vodka production necessarily evolves CO2, it’s pretty much impossible to make a carbon-negative vodka. That it has been achieved at all is pretty surprising. How they pulled it off is beyond surprising, it’s mind-blowing:
They make it out of air.
Yes, air. Specifically, carbon dioxide. The Air Company, out of Brooklyn, NY, has figured out how to make ethanol using nothing more than air, water, and solar energy. No mashing, no fermentation; just air, water, and sun.
Each bottle is made from the carbon dioxide equivalent of the daily uptake of eight trees.
I would have never guessed that this would be possible. The solution to global warming has finally arrived: We all just need to drink more vodka.
The earth will thank you, unfortunately your liver probably won’t.
Cheers!
Edit: You know how you write an answer and it languishes at under 100 views for weeks until you all but forget about it but then it gets shared to Gold Medal Answers and suddenly you wake up to a bazillion comments and you can’t possibly answer them all? My apologies to those who I can’t address directly, but I’d like to clear up a few questions here:
No, I am not affiliated in any way with the Air Co. and this answer is not meant to be an endorsement. I have not even tried the vodka and can’t say anything to whether or not it is even good. I think that the concept and chemistry are amazing, though.
There have been some comments about what it actually tastes like. Again, I haven’t tried it but it’s a valid question. While vodka is theoretically nothing but water and ethanol, it certainly is more than that in practice. Distillation is not a perfect separation, most fans of vodka can taste flavors from the source material. I am a fan of neutral vodkas, but none are completely neutral. This one might be…or maybe not. There might be some side products that can be tasted. I’d love to find out for myself if anyone can get their hands on a bottle (*wink wink*).
“Carbon Negative” is not the same as “Violates the laws of thermodynamics”…
For anyone interested in the chemistry, my guess is that the process is a commercialized version of this: Scientists Accidentally Turned CO2 Into Ethanol, but I don’t know for sure. If any chemists out there know better, let me know (I am not a chemist, just a lowly chemical engineer…)!
Cajun Catfish with Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad
Fried catfish paired with a delicious Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad…yummy!
cajun catfish honey dijon
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad
5 cups baby Yukon gold potatoes, cooked and quartered
1 medium red onion, diced
1 1/2 cups celery, diced
1 cup bacon, cooked, drained and chopped
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon Creole mustard
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce to taste
Cajun Catfish
4 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish Fillets
1/2 cup fish breading
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
1 1/2 to 2 cups frying oil
Instructions
Potato Salad
Combine all ingredients and mix well.
Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper and hot sauce. Cover and refrigerate.
Cajun Catfish
Combine fish breading and Creole seasoning in shallow bowl. Coat catfish in breading, lightly shaking off any excess.
In a large skillet, heat oil over high heat. Fry catfish until golden brown, approximately 3 minutes per side.
Place on paper towel to drain.
Serve immediately with Honey Dijon Bacon Potato Salad.
Rent is too high
What has a car salesperson said to you that resulted in you immediately leaving?
“Please don’t touch this car”. A salesman told me once. I worked at a car dealership in Florida and I wanted to buy a car. A nice little Volkswagen with teeth. The sales manager told me that if I ever needed a car to come to him and he’ll handle it. So I did and he told me to work with this one gentleman and that when I found the car I wanted, to let him know and he’ll speed it on through. So I went on my lunch break with the salesman he recommended and when I got to the car I wanted, a brand new 2004 VW R32 (at the time). So I found the one I liked, silver and I said that I wanted this one and proceeded to open the door (I had been eyeing them whenever they came through the shop on pre-delivery inspection).
“Please don’t touch this car.” I said, “what?” “Please don’t touch this car unless you intend to buy it”.
I didn’t fuss, I walked away and got into my car and drove across town to another VW dealer and bought the car there. All the Volkswagen guys in that area more or less knew each other from meeting at VW training school or from the racetrack plus I used to work with some of them.
I said don’t prep it, don’t clean it just take the sticker down and let me take it the way it is. Don’t even gas it up. Maybe I spent 20 minutes there, I had my own financing so it wasn’t a hassle. Their sales manager was blown away when I told him what happened to me not half hour earlier. I drove back to work and parked it in the employee parking lot. Went into the break room to eat a sandwich. That rude salesman from earlier walked in and tried to offer me a deal. I said “I already got the car.” He said, “really, from who?” I said, “from XYZ Volkswagen”. He looked at me weird. I dropped the keys onto the table with the id tag still on it. “Wanna see the receipt?” He walked away.
The sales manager comes and asks what happened and why didn’t I come to him first. I had nothing against the sales manager at the dealership I worked for but I told him “every single time I’ve tried to buy a car from any dealership I’ve ever worked for I’ve gotten a hassle from the sales department, every single time – cash deal or otherwise. I agree to the price, I buy the warranties and extras, why isn’t my money good enough?” He was speechless.
Come to find in the next week the owner of the dealership was highly upset I bought a car from another VW dealer. I told him the story, all he could do was apologise. Did you know that the following month the owner threatened (off record) to fire anyone who bought a car from another dealer? Talk about punishing the victims of his hostile sales department. Since that day, whenever I go to a dealer to buy a car, I go to the weakest salesperson and give them their fastest sale ever. The big shots can go pound it.
What’s the fastest you’ve ever seen someone fail a marriage?
Two different times within 3 hours of being married.
The first time the bride and an ex-boyfriend were caught, *ahem*, having relations together by a member of the groom’s family.
Lots of screaming, yelling, and drama. The bride and ex-boyfriend were both escorted out. The groom was sitting in the corner surrounded by his family in tears. What seemed to make everything worse was the music kept playing.
The second was a bit more interesting, to say the least.
First of all, neither the bride nor groom seemed interested in the planning. The second thing was that every meeting we had, the best man AND maid of honor were there too.
Day of the wedding and the groom gets caught with the best man. The bride was pissed, but not for the usual reasons. What she said when she found out was,
“I can’t believe you two couldn’t wait until tonight!”
I swear you could have heard a pin drop. Come to find out, both were from very strict conservative and Christian families. Both were also homosexual. So they worked out a deal to “marry” but live their lives how they wished. Even more drama at that one. We escorted the bride, groom, and their significant others (for a lack of a better term) out of the area.
The Monday after, I just looked at my boss and said,
“That was one hell of a coming out party, wasn’t it?”
Free speech
Why are Chinese manufacturers’ products not as good as Japanese manufacturers’ products but less than half the price (electronics)?
Misinformation spouted by an ignorant.
Most of the “Japanese” products that are sold in the West are actually made in China.
As are most products made in Germany, the UK. Korea, France, and Italy. If you spend any time in Chinese factories you will tour the Chinese warehouses where the products are boxed up for shipment to the rest of the world. And there, you will see them… large cardboard boxes with the words “Made in Japan”, “Made in the USA”, “Made in Germany” and “Make in the UK” proudly displayed inside the Chinese warehouse.
Sanity Check
If you want to provide a more in-depth study, then please compare which nation uses the most cardboard Shipping boxes. After all, once you manufacture a product, you have to ship it. This requires a cardboard box.
You will be surprised at how tiny that number is for Japan, and other nations in the West.
Can the US take action against Chinese ships if they are registered in other countries?
The U.S. can do whatever the hell they so chooses but the real question is that does it fall faster into oblivion? Right at this moment the image of the U.S. is that of lacking confidence and weak mentally and unstable to think straight!
That U.S. the present day image of the U.S. let alone it is getting ridiculous by the day. Using a fighter aircraft to shoot down a 1000 bucks weather balloon l floating across the U.S. costing them millions to trying to did armed a teeny booper social media and calling EVs. A security risk!
Investors and business partners watch for confidence and risk in dealing with a mature economy and the US looks and sound like a mentally unstable nation to have a serious relationship! So can you do what you want? Sure yes especially if you can print money freely but at what cost? This is what smart person ought to think!
Everyone in the world knows it is a Singaporean tanker run by Indian seaman but if you feel like fooling your own citizens that you still can do shit it is easy. But you are losing credibility by the day!
The REAL Reason No One Wants To Work Anymore
Damn! This is amazing! It really is. This is dark. And it is truth.
We cannot continue to allow the corporate model within a society. It is toxic to society. As we are experiencing right now.
It was in the late 1980’s. I was a worker drone; an engineer in a automotive electronics company. This company was (probably) what they based the comedy “Office Space” from. It was just like that. Cubicles. Many bosses connect to crazy dotted-line org charts, and frequent reorganizations and lay offs. It was a very stressful job, and a very stressful time.
At that time, my wife was going crazy.
I did not find out until years later, but she had a mental illness that doesn’t hit until the person is in their late 20’s. She had a Schizoaffective disorder. This is a mental health disorder that is marked by a combination of schizophrenia symptoms, such as hallucinations or delusions, and mood disorder symptoms, such as depression or mania. Yes. She was both schizophrenic and had bipolar mood swings. Lordy.
So, I would work in a crazy work environment, while my wife would sleep. As soon as I got home, she would unload all of her insecurities, issues, past traumas, and everything else on me. TO make matters worse, she was getting worse and worse over time. I had no one to talk to. No one to confide in. No outlets. I was on my own.
We were walking down to street. I used to take her out of the house to get some air. Sort of how you would walk a dog. Then we would go back into the house. (Where it would continue to about five am, at which point I would take a shower and leave for work. )
Anyways, I was seriously stressed out. And she was going on and on and on about this fight she had with her girlfriend back in seventh grade when she was a young girl. And she started accusing me of not listening. And then suddenly…
I snapped.
Everything got numb. It was like I was wrapped in a warm blanket of cotton. Oh, I heard her rant on and on and on and on. But the droning was distant. I was just numb. I was comfortable, you know, but really in some kind of spacey world.
Then she turned me around, and slapped me hard in the face.
“Aren’t you listening to me? This is about ME! Not about you. Don’t you hear what I am saying? What is the matter with you?”
I just looked back at her.
She continued yelling at me, and then after about a half an hour or so she realized that something was seriously wrong. She led me to the car and drove me to the hospital….
…
Long story short. I was prescribed anxiety medicine, and on a treatment plan.
She was then placed in a mental hospital for observation, where she ended up staying for three months. (The first of many such in-patient stays.)
My job found that my illness was not covered by the health plan, and so I had to plan myself, and eventually they laid me off.
But I will NEVER forget what it was like being in a serious health crisis and my “loving wife” yelling at me about being so selfish and not caring about her needs, while I was in a SERIOUS medical emergency.
Totally oblivious.
That’s most people in the world today.
Today…
What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?
I got in trouble in 7th grade for cussing in a teacher’s class. Was sent to the office and got suspended out of school for two days. While I was going up to get my bookbag the spanish teacher and her friend the language arts teacher were trying to dogpile me. I found out later she had lied and told her I cussed her out. They didnt say anything inappropiate but they were definitely trying to unsettle me with their words to me. Saying things like were not idiots and you better respect us. After I got back I thought that was it as my grandmother had forced me to write a letter of apology to my spanish teacher. No I was completely wrong.
I had the language arts teacher next grade. Everything I did was graded harsher than anyone else’s assignment. She wouldnt let me do a biography of my choosing even though I wanted to do ALice Cooper but she allowed another kid to do a report on the Sid Vicious. He was rumored to have killed his girlfriend and later killed himself. But doing a report on a born again Christian rocker is too much. I once went all out for my midterm assignment. Looked up evidence based arguments and cited everything. Got a C for it. I remember getting a lot of Cs. I looked at another kids assignment and he had two pages with no citations when the requirement was four pages. He got a higher score than me. Thankfully, I was able to pass the class and say goodbye to that witch. GFY Ms. Evalsky if youre reading this.
As soon as I was out of that class I got As and Bs in all my language arts courses in High School. I also Aced every class in college just about. Psychology is a major that is report heavy. But Im just imagining all of that Im sure.
The west makes up most of the world’s higher standards of living, and trade volume., even though it makes up only 15% of the world’s population.
When the US talks about a values-based rules system, it says that it wants to retain that privileged position, and will not give it up without a fight.
Putin said that he represents the underdogs who consider this system to be unfair, and that is what the Ukraine war is all about. Of course, there are other factors, but he is trying to appeal to a wider audience.
China agrees, but does not want to get loud about it because it wants to continue trading with the west as long as it can. Why walk away from money?
But China is also trading with the 85% of the world which make up the Global South. What has China done for the Global South?
When it comes to network infrastructure, it has made it affordable with Huawei equipment, the company the US Commerce Department hates so much.
China makes Android and Apple phones, making them accessible to anyone who can afford them.
It sells electric automobiles and solar panels to anyone who can afford them.
It is selling weapons and armament to anyone who can afford them.
It goes on and on.
Anything you can buy in a developed economy you can now also buy in a Global South economy. ANYTHING.
Why did this happen? Because China made the products affordable and was willing to sell them to anyone with the money.
GAME CHANGER.
I have a saying:
In the end, big numbers win.
That means, the 85% wrest a lot of their power, influence and buying power away from the 15%, no matter how much the 15% resist.
This explains the times we are living through.
Pre-Flood Mega Quarry Discovered in Utah
Will jobs that moved to China be brought back to the US as President Trump promised?
I was on a flight from China to Vietnam with a guy whose job was to oversee production of furniture for Pottery Barn. He was going to Vietnam to find a cheaper factory because the Chinese factory was getting too expensive. He said he liked Vietnam but it looked like he would eventually end up in Africa when Vietnam became too expensive. Bottom line: slapping a tariff on Chinese goods will move jobs to cheaper countries. Slapping a tariff on the whole world will still move those jobs to cheaper countries until the tariff is greater than the cost differential.
So let’s do the math. Let’s say it costs us $100 to make something in America in an old-style labor intensive factory, but only $25 to make it in Vietnam and ship it to America. If nothing else changes, the tariff has to be close to $75 to shift production to America. That’s 300% and that’s not in the cards, so no, those jobs aren’t coming back that way.
The only other way to shift production to America is to decrease the cost of production in America, which means the new factories have to be much more automated than the ones that shut down. And that means few of the old manual jobs are coming back and few new jobs will be created.
Up to 85% of all jobs lost in America have been lost to automation, not China. This is the real story. America is producing more than it ever has, but with fewer people because automated process can be just so much more efficient.
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Very Accurate
Have you ever completely snapped? If so what did you do?
Here we go folks!
I used to be a tire technician for a couple years. I was debating leaving, although I loved the job. I guessed I probably would have stayed at least one more year, maybe 2.
got a new manager, who had only been in Canada for less than 2 years. He was presented to us as university graduate with a business degree and 10 years experience running a tire shop in his home country, also at another shop during his first 2 years in Canada. He “worked” in our shop for barely 3 weeks. In that time, we found out he lied about everything. He didn’t know a single thing about tires or the industry at all, and never had business schooling. This info was reasonably forgivable, if he didn’t act like he knew everything. I kid you not, this man did not know how to sweep with a basic broom!
This man almost dropped a semi truck on me while I was working underneath it. The only reason I’m alive is because I secured the truck prior. He wasn’t supposed to be involved with the truck whatsoever. This was completely unexpected. Like a jump scare. In the aftermath, I gave him mercy and left it to the higher ups to rheme him out.
However, later that day, he denied falling asleep for an hour in the customer chairs! We had pictures of him dead to the world passed out. In his argument with our real boss, he caused boss such strife that he left for the rest of the day. We all had major respect for boss, so this was my last straw. I gave fake boss chance after chance, I had enough. The last hour of the day I went off on him. Told him he’s a fake and an incompetent idiot. He kept defending his actions as high and mighty, he didn’t know when to be honest and apologize. Most of the problems would’ve been fixed with sincere apologies. He didn’t even care that he almost put me 6 feet in the dirt! I berated him for an hour (for context, no one who I’ve known has ever seen me rage until now, and I have never yelled in anger at anyone except for my sibling when we were young. I am a docile man). Fake boss quit with not a single word to the company. I subsequently quit 2 weeks later, also due to other circumstances.
What’s the most ridiculous thing a coworker told on you to your boss for?
My coworker complained not only to my boss but to HR because he felt that I discriminated against him.
The guy was a slacker who thought that work was a place where he could go and be paid to socialize, so I didn’t care for him from Day One. I trained him and then told my boss I’d prefer to have nothing more to do with him, and she honored my request by making him the site tech for our building and Central Office.
I was a Computer Support Tech who covered prison units that were a good distance from our office, so I spent most of my day out of the office, at a prison or traveling to a prison. One of the prisons was a four-hour drive from our office, so when I had to go there I’d put in 12–16 hours that day. Because the state prohibited hourly employees from working over 40 hours in a week, this meant that I’d, either, have Friday off or be able to go home early on Friday.
I only visited this prison once a month so there were months when there was enough work for two techs, and I’d arrange for someone to come with me. One month the motormouth wanted a long weekend and he knew that I was making my monthly trip to the distant unit, so he asked me to take him along. At the time I didn’t have much to do — four hours of work, tops — and I told him this. A few minutes before end of day the day before my trip, I received a call from the warden asking if I’d have time to install ten network printers they’d received. Suddenly, I had enough work to justify taking someone to help, but motormouth was nowhere to be found, and I arranged for another tech to meet me at 0400 so we could head to the prison.
Motormouth found out that morning that I’d taken someone with me and immediately started whining. He whined to our boss and then went to HR and filed a complaint, claiming that I discriminated against him by refusing to take him with me. HR shot the complaint down quickly — after talking to my boss — and they never even discussed his complaint with me. My boss, who knew the entire story, told me about it the next day and it gave me another reason to dislike the jackass. I avoided him entirely after that.
The MAGNIFICENT RISE of Passport Bros in Modern Dating | Why Men Travel Abroad to Date Women
Why isn’t it allowed to take home food from a buffet?
Buffets operate according to an unwritten rule named The Huffnecker Rule.
The Huffnecker Rule came into effect in 1957 at Big Tom Huffnecker’s Buffet in St.Louis, Missouri. Big Tom’s was a popular local spot loved by everyone. Big Tom’s had great food and no one left unsatisfied. Everyone also loved Big Tom, he was a gracious host who performed magic tricks for his customers as he roamed the dining room visiting with his guests.
One day a local ne’erdowell named Aunty Becky rolled into Big Tom’s. Being a gracious host, Big Tom welcomed Aunty Becky and entertained her with a fancy card trick. Sourpuss Aunty Becky just shined him off and made a beeline for the buffet. Never had a customer treated Big Tom so rudely, he made a point of keeping one eye on her as he roamed the dining room.
Aunty Becky made multiple trips to the buffet, heading back to her table with a gigantic plate full of food each time. He quickly discover that she was packing the food into her purse and pockets. The grease from the fried chicken soaking into the bottom each.
“Get out of my restaurant!” Big Tom hollered, pointing towards the door. Aunty Becky held her ground though. “It’s a buffet” she said, “I can take all the food I want.”
That’s when Big Tom uttered those famous words. “You can take all you want, but you have to eat it all here.” he said. “That’s the rule, The Huffnecker Rule!”
And so it was written. You can take all the food you want from a buffet but it has to be eaten there. That’s the rule, The Huffnecker Rule. You shall abide.
When have you been in an accident where the other person involved blatantly lied to the police about what transpired?
Yes, and their lies turned a fairly straightforward collision claim into a six-month battle.
My beloved ’99 Ram diesel got T-boned by a Ford Expedition that had blown through the red light.
The problems started when the other driver claimed that she had the green and that I had jumped the red light. None of the other drivers that had seen the crash stuck around once they ensured we were all okay. I had no dash cam. It was the word of 20-year-old me versus a 40-something Mom with a small child. There were no skid marks leading to the crash, indicating she made no attempt to brake, which gave credence to the idea that I had unexpectedly pulled out in front of her. The police report listed me as at fault and I was cited for failure to yield and careless driving. And my truck was totaled. Not a good day.
I immediately contacted my insurance agent and started the claims process, informing them that the other driver had lied and that I had no way to prove it. The insurance company got a lawyer for me, but the agent suggested right off the bat that I check with the businesses at the intersection to see if they had any security cameras that covered the road. They did, and the manager of the gas station there was sympathetic to my situation and provided copies of their camera footage that looked out over the lot and included the intersection.
The other driver filed a civil suit for damages and medical bills against me. Armed with video of the crash, my insurance refused to pay out, and refused their settlement offers or arbitration. My lawyer got the court date for the two traffic citations delayed until after the start of the civil proceedings, so that the other driver would have no knowledge of the outcome of those tickets before going to trial. The trap was set for Mrs. Expedition.
The court date comes, and Mrs. Expedition gets on the stand, and under oath, tells the same version where I jumped the light causing the collision. She then went into a woe-is-me spiel about her neck and shoulder pain since the crash.
Finally my lawyer gets a chance to cross examine, gets her to repeat her version for the court again…but when she gets to the part about having the green light, my lawyer asked “if you had the green light, can you explain this?” and plays the tape.
The tape rolls, we can see the cross light is red, and the first car in line from my lane proceed through the intersection, then the second, and then me in my truck. Just before the crash, the lawyer pauses the video, and plain as day, we can see her looking down at the phone in her hand, completely oblivious to the fact she is 0.25 seconds away from 8000 pounds of truck.
I don’t know whose face was more priceless — her lawyer’s when he realized he’d lost the case, or hers when the Judge put her in jail for 3 days for contempt. She was later charged and convicted for perjury and sentenced to 60 days. It took every ounce of self control to not jump up and yell “gotcha bitch!” I had to be content with looking more smug than Jeremy Clarkson:
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Her case was tossed, and before we got out of the courthouse, her insurance offered to pay all of my insurer’s legal bills as well as a $30,000 payout for a truck worth $17k if we wouldn’t counter sue. I took the deal. Thirty grand and getting to see the bailiff put her in cuffs? Good day.
EDIT: for those who asked why the plaintiff was surprised or didn’t know the video was coming, my lawyer did turn over the video to their lawyer during discovery. On several DVDs with hours of footage from many cameras from the business, and without marking the few seconds of footage we would actually show in court. My lawyer was banking on the fact they would not review all the footage. If they had, they would have settled out of court. My insurance company wanted to bust her for lying on a sworn deposition. As I wrote in one of the comments: don’t get cheap lawyers or cheap condoms if you don’t want expensive surprises.
What happened to US Rail?
How do introverts live their life?
We express more in text than in face-to-face conversations.
People tend to think we’re masterminds. Little do they know while I’m sitting there quietly, picturing a smoking squirrel on a unicycle wearing a bunny-hairband.
We don’t feel compelled to go out every weekend and spend money we don’t have.
We don’t need anyone to entertain us. We’re satisfied with our own company.
We’re good listeners – even if we prefer that someone else START the conversation.
It may take longer for us to give an answer, but it will be a well thought out answer!
We tend to think more deeply, even if we can’t always express those thoughts well in words.
It may take time to win us over, but once you have, we’re loyal to the end.
We do well with friends who are grieving because we’re comfortable with silence.
We don’t have to deal with other people’s bullshit or drama. I have one friend who is a no-drama type person, and I’d prefer them to 10 friends.
We can keep a secret. (Who are we going to tell?)
Without the need to fill space with a conversation, we notice things around us that others don’t.
We excel in the art of people-watching. It allows us to learn things about people, their interactions, and human nature in general.
Women on Women
What did you learn when you worked at Google?
One of the big things I learned is just how shitty people on the Internet are.
If you build a tool that can be misused in any way, someone will figure out how to misuse it. Those people will take the useful thing you’ve built, and they’ll find ways to harm or harass other people with it. This is more true the more generally useful you’re intending your tool to be. A tool that’s used by thousands may have one bad actor using it; a tool that’s used by millions will have a thousand.
If you manufacture hammers, it’s not irresponsible of you to make a hammer that someone can use to kill another person with. We accept that it’s pretty much inevitable that blunt objects can cause blunt-force trauma. (As William S. Burroughs put it, anyone who owns a frying pan owns death.)
But those are simple, concrete, tangible objects. A lot of people who design software systems never imagine that someone would use the thing they’re building to harm another person. It’s extremely irresponsible to build a feature like location-tracking into a phone without also considering the ways in which the information that it generates can be misused by bad actors.
This is something that engineers and product managers at Google worry about all the time.
Also, you have to not only worry about your product being misused, you have to worry that the things you build to keep it from being misused don’t punish people who are just trying to get things done.
I’ve been haggling with a colleague for weeks about rolling out an anti-abuse feature that we’ve built. We have no good model for accurately assessing the risks of false positives, and it’s still possible for us to deal with the problem it automates away manually. If we turn the feature on, it will decrease the risk that we’ll miss disabling an abuser’s account by X%, but it will increase the risk that we’ll accidentally disable a non-abuser’s account by Y%, and getting the account reinstated will take Z hours of work by the user we’ve unfairly disabled. What values of X, Y, and Z are the ones at which you say, “Yes, let’s do that?” No one really knows. But we’re pretty sure that if we’re wrong, we’ll hurt enough users that Twitter will tell us.
This is an extremely common scenario at Google. The terms “false positive” and “false negative” get thrown around so much by some teams that it can be hard to follow their conversations. (Fortunately, the bathrooms at Google provide a handy mnemonic. When the soap dispenser fires soap into the sink because your hand passed within a foot of it, that’s a false positive. When the faucet doesn’t dispense water even though you’re frantically waving your hand back and forth under it, that’s a false negative. So, there’s another thing I’ve learned at Google.)
False positives and false negatives go hand in hand with another aspect of working at Google, which is scale.
A colleague of mine put it this way: “For most teams at Google, another way of saying ‘this happens one time in a million’ is ‘this will happen two or three times today.’”
A common benchmark in site-reliability engineering is “five nines,” or a system that works 99.999% of the time. But there are only 86,400 seconds in a day. Your site can be down for almost a full second every day and still have five nines of reliability. Hundreds, or thousands, of user operations will fail in that near-second. What’s your plan for dealing with that?
I have heard tell of teams at Google that check their system’s performance against its SLOs, and if they’ve had too much reliability at the end of the month, they deliberately bring the system down for a second or two, just to make sure that all of the mitigations that other engineers have built to accommodate that failure rate actually get triggered. It’s like testing your fire extinguishers to make sure they still work.
This is stuff I never, ever had to worry about before coming to Google.
Baked Chicken and Dumplings
Baked Chicken and Dumplings
Ingredients
Vegetable cooking spray
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 boneless skinless chicken breast halves, uncooked
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, coarsely chopped
1 (10 ounce) package frozen sliced carrots
1/2 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
2 (13 3/4 ounce) cans chicken broth
Instructions
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Coat a 2 1/2 quart casserole with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, combine milk and oil.
Gradually stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Mix well into a dough consistency and set aside.
Place chicken breasts in bottom of casserole.
Cover chicken with onion, celery, and carrots.
Evenly sprinkle sage and pepper over vegetables; pour broth over dish.
Using the dough mixture, form 2 inch balls and drop into casserole.
Cover tightly and bake for 1 1/2 hours.
Is Taiwan the Chinese Ukraine? Is there any other neighboring country that China could invade and get little reaction from the global community?
Taiwan is not sovereign. It is not a UN member, or an observer state.
EVERY, and I repeat, EVERY, nation on earth implements the One China policy. No first world nation recognizes Taipei as the seat of the China government. All of them, and this includes the United States, pursue diplomacy with Beijing instead.
Today, only 11 states recognizes Taipei in lieu of Beijing. Comprising less than 0.5% of the poorest and most isolated humanity—Belize, Eswatini, Guatemala, Haiti, Marshall Islands, Palau, Paraguay, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tuvalu—are all without exception tied at the umbilical to American largess and patronage.
When Taiwanese leaders drop by Washington, they do not fly direct. The trips are framed as stopovers from diplomatic visits to Belize or Guatemala.
Ukraine is a full UN member, and votes at the UNGA.
What Chinese Ukraine?
As for land grab, let’s put the house in order and fulfill the terms outlined in the Cairo Declaration of 1943, the Potsdam Declaration of 1945 and the Treaty of San Francisco of 1951 first.
History owes China that much, at the minimum.
Otherwise, continue playing the deliberate fool stoking war at every juncture.
Scott Ritter & Andrei Martyanov: Russia has Demilitarized NATO and Ukraine is FINISHED
Have you ever met a dangerous person and not known it at the time?
My daughter. I boxed in the Navy, before and after, and loved the sport. My daughter, when she was about five, went with me to the gym and asked about it. She began taking boxing lessons when she was either six or seven, I forget. She did look a bit weird in those HUGE gloves and head-gear.
She boxed throughout her teen years – loving it.
A few years later she was on a date with a “new” boyfriend when she returned home about 9:30 at night, alone, but in his car. “What happened?” I asked her.
“He got fresh with me after I told him to leave me alone,” she said. “But he didn’t stop and put his hands on me, quite inappropriately,” she added.
“Yes,” I said. “And then what?”
“I pushed him back and decked him,” she said flashing a sly smile. “I left him unconscious in a ditch and took his car home. It’s outside, the keys are locked inside.”
A day later the car disappeared and we never heard from the SOB again.
Blind Ranking Men Shortest to Tallest
What’s something that sucks about being a man?
Going Anonymous because this is a story of someone I know personally, and I want zero chance that this gets back to him since he still doesn’t like talking about this nearly a decade later.
During college I was friends with 2 cousins who for sake of anonymity were named Blake and Nate. After a night out to the local bar for pool, Blake and Nate had too much to drink. Blake is a big guy, he had little issue holding his alcohol, but Nate is very slender and was absolutely drunk beyond conscionable thought after an equal number of rounds. Later into the night, as everyone was packing it in, Blake had noticed that Nate had disappeared. Blake assumed Nate made it back to their apartment safe, however as he stepped out of the tavern he spotted his cousin Nate being escorted/carried down an adjacent hill toward town by a rather large woman he had seen Nate speaking with on-campus previously. Thankful he didn’t have to personally carry Nate’s drunk person a half mile in the opposite direction, Blake let Nate’s “friend” deal with his semi-conscious cousin and began walking in the opposite direction toward his and Nate’s apartment.
Afterwards, Nate made it clear to us that this woman had frequently harassed him on-campus with sexual advances which he had at numerous times rebuffed. Nate didn’t remember a thing from that night, only that he woke up in her empty apartment with no clothes on. Campus police were utterly disinterested in investigating, practically laughing him out of their office saying that he must have been more conscious than he remembered or cared to admit because the notion of possible rape committed by a woman towards a man seemed utterly ridiculous. I still can’t imagine the dread Nate went through over the following 3 months fearing that this woman might be pregnant (he couldn’t remember what happened or if it was safe, he only knew he was naked). He feared that she might demand that he take responsibility for acts he could not physically consent to and that no court would take his claim seriously enough to dismiss legal obligation or allow him to elect termination on grounds of rape. He was panicked that the mistake of drinking past blackout would force him to trade further education for a forced life of child support payments following a sexual act he did not consent to, want, or even remember. All of this seems an exceedingly rare and alien cornercase until it is someone you know.
The worst part of being a man is knowing that society doesn’t take these problems seriously when faced by a male because it is assumed that as a man you cannot be the victim of a woman. The shame that if you as a man are a victim and expressing your pain then you are deserving of scorn or heckling.
The Most Depressing Graph EVER!
Had you ever had a neighbor that you just stayed away from for some reason?
Back in 1985, my now ex husband and I bought a farm at the edge of a village of around 700 people. This town was not the most welcoming to strangers that were not born or lived here forever. They even seemed to marry people from that small village. Girls would marry a boy and their sisters would marry his brothers. The kids would be double first cousins and all look alike.
There were several people that were weird enough that I wondered if there was something wrong with the water. We had an alcoholic neighbor that was a Vet of 2 wars that lived on the hill in a house owned by his family. The yard was filled with old machinery. I had to go inside once because he was in the hospital and he asked me to get some things. He used to pick up Friday night fish and eat it at the table and shove the Styrofoam container off the table. The house was trashed beyond belief. The roof was open because there was a fire. Stuff scattered everywhere. He could be mean and he could be nice depending on his mood. We never knew what to expect when he came over. The stories he told about the things he experienced in the wars gave me an understanding of his crazy moods. He is dead now. I believe he drank himself to death.
We had an old hermit that lived in his falling down house by himself. His parents had died years ago and he never had a job but worked for cash under the table. There were holes in his floor and one day he fell into them and couldn’t get out for several days. he had to have them amputated and moved into housing provided by the state. He died there.
We had a next door neighbor that was bat shit crazy. He went really nuts after his wife left with their kids. She went into hiding as she was fearful of him. His father died a day or 2 later in a horrible farm accident and it sent him over the top. The state decided it was cheaper for him to live with his mother than an institution. He was abusive towards her, stole from her. He harassed people in town and generally made himself a pain in the ass to everybody. He hated me for trying to protect his mother from his abuse. Called the cops on him a time or two when he was abusive to her. Every once in a while, the cops would come and haul him off the the mental ward when he went off the deep end. A week of peaceful quiet for her. He dragged his mother everywhere when at the age of 91, she just wanted to go to church and then home. She developed a blood clot in her leg (I always believed it was because he would drag her out and about) and she refused to amputate her leg. He went nuts and made a huge scene at the hospital. She died soon after. He ended up permanently at the mental institution. He died a few years later.
We had a guy that changed his legal name to a famous singer because he once had the slightest resemblance to him. He was a greasy looking slimeball. I don’t remember if either worked. There was a story going round that when she gave birth to their son, there were maggots in her genital area. She was one of those moms that her punk thug of a son could do no wrong. If he stole stuff-it was your fault for having it for him to take. The boy went to jail for molesting young pre teen kids. He was forced to take a class for sex offenders. He told the doctors treating him that his dad was molesting chickens. Dad ended in jail for that offense. He eventually got out and was forever known as a chicken fucker. He is dead too. His wife left him. The son got out of jail and was not out long before he was killed by 2 guys who wanted to know what it was like to kill someone.
The last one was my closest neighbor. My kids would bike to school. He lived around the corner from us. My kids told me that he stands in the window and he looks naked. Being that we were new and did not want to upset the apple cart, I told the kids to stay away from him. Turned out, he was molesting the neighbor girls next door who told their parents. They reported it. When the dust finally settled, he was a serial child molester going back about 30 years. His own grandchildren great grandchildren and anyone he could get his hands on. His name was Lester and everybody called him Lester the Molester. I was rather pissed that for whatever reason, nobody ever turned him in even though the whole town supposedly knew. His wife was in the next rom and it was said that she was aware of his misdeeds. He ended up in prison for less than 5 years before he was moved to a nursing home to die. His wife is gone as well. I moved away 25 years ago, but my ex husband is still there-drinking the same water.
1920s Sweetheart Antique Toaster In Action
It’s so gorgeous and intricate. Very lovely.
The Oil Paintings of Alan MacDonald
There is seemingly no element too exotic to inhabit an oil painting by Alan MacDonald, whose works traverse cultures and histories to present something always elegant in execution. At the base of MacDonald’s work seems to be a need for adventure, exploring inspiration and varying perspectives in each work.
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Alan9
Alan8
Alan6
SONY DSC
Alan4
Alan3
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A Chinese guy told me to go to his house to make dinner because Wuhan is so cold now. Should I accept or not? I’m afraid I’m Muslim.
Hi, Youssra Ary. Thanks for the very interesting question.
You posted this question on February 5.
It would have been colder in Wuhan then (today is March 24).
I just got back from Wuhan and the weather was quite pleasant.
Around 10 – 15 °C during the day.
Very nice.
It’s really beautiful in Wuhan now.
The cherry blossoms are in full bloom now – it’s all a very lovely sight to behold.
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Took this picture in 东湖樱花园 (East Lake Cherry Blossom Garden).
The cherry blossoms are so pretty!
main qimg 831379969b95c43fe3d849a97ee63b7d
Okay, now let’s get down to brass tacks regarding the premise of your question.
China has about 20 – 30 million Muslims.
There are food establishments selling halal food around every corner.
In fact, there are several times more food establishments selling halal food in China than there are McDonald restaurants.
There are 2 halal restaurants near my apartment, but no McDonald’s.
There are 3 halal restaurants around my game studio.
And the best part is, these halal food establishments are frequented by non-Muslims and Muslims alike.
I have several colleagues who are Muslims, so in addition to halal food deliveries + bringing their own food from home, these 3 halal restaurants offer them quite a bit of variety in terms of their food choices during lunchtime.
For myself and most of my non-Muslim colleagues, we’ll head on down to one of these halal restaurants at least once a week.
I don’t think there are any non-Muslim Chinese colleagues at my game studio who hasn’t been to a halal restaurant.
These halal food establishments are just that ubiquitous.
And they serve up some pretty tasty fare as well!
Just look out for these two characters: 清真
If you see these two characters, it means the food will be halal.
See picture below:
main qimg 426ca91b500b9ea9c5c67d6c093ef14e
Those working in the halal food establishments will either be Uighur Chinese, or Hui Chinese.
Uighur Chinese and Hui Chinese make up the two largest Muslim groups in China.
The picture below was taken in a halal food establishment in Kashgar, Xinjiang.
It is run by Uighur Muslims.
You can get a good and filling halal meal here for under 20 yuan (2.80 USD).
main qimg 302786d4b6f3f33701677233fbad8134
This picture was taken in a halal food establishment in Yangzhou.
You can see from the sign at the back, the two characters 清真, denoting that this is a halal food establishment.
The proprietess is a Hui Muslim from Linxia, Gansu.
Many of us Chinese are already very used to eating halal food.
I eat halal food at least once a week.
Actually, the commonly held belief is that, if you want to eat really good beef, mutton, and lamb, you head on over down to a halal food establishment because the people who work there are very good at preparing these meats.
But if you like chicken too, don’t worry.
They serve that as well.
Say hello to 新疆大盘鸡（Xinjiang Big Plate Chicken):
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My only concern with your going to your friend’s house in Wuhan to prepare a halal meal is…
Wouldn’t you have to bring your own cooking and eating utensils?
Please correct me if I’m wrong here, but I though that, as a Muslim, you’re not allowed to use cooking and eating utensils that have been used to cook and eat non-halal food?
Men Are Avoiding Marriage And The World Doesn’t Understand Why
Girls and Fruit
This is from one of my AI text to picture experiments.Enjoy.
Default a beautiful stunning Chinese woman wearing satin dress 0
Default a beautiful stunning Chinese woman wearing satin dress 1
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 3(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 2(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 1(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 0(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 3(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 2(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 0(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 1(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 3(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 2(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 1(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 0(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 0
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 1
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 2
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she has 3
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(5)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2(5)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1(5)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0(5)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(4)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2(4)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1(4)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0(4)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(3)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(2)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3(1)
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 0
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 1
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 2
Default a beautiful stunning woman wearing satin dress she is 3
Have you ever accidentally opened someone else’s email and found something interesting?
My wife opens all the mail. All of it. She always has, and she lets me know if anything comes that I need to take care of. It’s a fine arrangement for me, I prefer not to have to sort it out. Many years ago, she was sitting at the kitchen table opening mail while I was across the room at the sink filling a glass. I heard a snort, and a “what the…” I turned my head to look at her. She was looking at me with that look…guys, you know what I am talking about…like laser beams of pure hate, fury and evil all rolled into one. Her head was about to split open and reveal Satan himself. She had opened an envelope and found a dirty magazine inside, which she was now holding up. It was not just any dirty magazine, either, like a Playboy or something, it was extra nasty stuff.
“WHAT IS THIS?!?!” she growled through gritted teeth. “Why would you do this? And, WHY would you have it delivered HERE?!?”
I was just standing there with a glass of water. Flight or fight mode was kicking in. “Honey,” I said, very calmly while taking a sliding step toward the door, “What makes you think I would do that? How long have you known me?”
“Well, who else would do it? It wasn’t ME!”
“Honey, have you checked the delivery address?”
Well, it so turned out that the mailperson had transposed the house number and delivered this package intended for our neighbor to our house by mistake. “Well,” she said, trying to calm down, “Ok, ok, you are right.” Her blood had boiled so hard it took her quite a few minutes to calm down. Even after realizing her mistake, she was still mad and would not look at me. About 1/2 hour later she nicely asked if I would drop it off to the neighbor.
Why did my top performing employee quit after write up?
Some years ago I was a bankruptcy specialist at a large financial institution. We’d been purchased by this after the original company n had been purchased by an entrepreneurial operation who took as much as they could get and then sold the remains.
Very little of this affected me or my particular job other than we’d been relocated to this financial institution’s headquarters so my 40 something mile commute became closer to a 70 mile commute (round trip).
So we had a department meeting one day to be told that our department was going to be split in half. One half was going to remain pretty much the same under the leadership of the overall department head. The other half was going to be strictly litigation focused.
Now I’d gotten really good at the bankruptcy part. I’d actually completed a legal assistant degree while working there and had taken a couple of bankruptcy classes. What I had never learned was litigation. My new boss knew that, but never offered any kind of training, assistance, nothing.
In addition, I was told that I was to assist the half of the office still doing bankruptcy. Like me and litigation, none of them had ever done bankruptcy.
I tried, I really did. I gave the cheat sheets, proof of claim templates, everything I could. But over a year later, I was still getting basically the same questions as they had at the beginning. I gave them information sheets explaining the different types of bankruptcies and how they were handled. Nothing seemed to actually stick as I would be asked to do a lot of the work.
I was probably spending about 75% of my workday on bankruptcy and wasn’t learning anything about litigation. So I finally went to my direct boss to ask how long I would be expected to “help” the other people in the office. I told him that I wasn’t really clear on the ins and outs of litigation because I was constantly being asked to handle bankruptcy.
He reminded me that our annual review was coming up and both heads of department would be conducting them. Since our overall boss was in charge of the group handling bankruptcy. He suggested I bring that up in the review.
Well, it was a setup. After a somewhat wishy-washy review, I was asked if I had any questions so I asked about my assignment to “assist” the new bankruptcy team while they were supposedly learning the ropes. I didn’t outright criticize any individuals, but I did point out that the basics still seemed to be misunderstood and I wasn’t effectively able to work on litigation.
Clearly he’d been warned I was going to ask this. He sat up in his chair, his cheeks got all red, and he began huffing and puffing. He started by accusing me of not training them. I was prepared enough that I’d brought copies of all the training paperwork I’d provided, all of it created by me mostly on my own time at home. He literally pushed it away and started pulling out printouts from our computer system.
He started with about six or seven printouts from individual bankruptcy cases. I looked at them. In every case, these were bankruptcies filed after I was no longer in the department so of course my name wasn’t in the notes.
Oh, but he’d thought ahead. Next he pulls out a dozen or more bankruptcies dating back over a year or before the department divided. I looked at those and each and everyone of them had notes under my name stating that they had been sent to outside counsel. About six months or so before the changes, we (my previous bankruptcy coworker and I) had been told that all new bankruptcies where the overall value of the company was over a certain amount (I think over $250,000) was to be sent directly to outside lawyers and we were not to touch them. Yes, every one had been sent to outside counsel. As for my question as to how long I was to be “assisting,” I was told “until I tell you otherwise.” Honestly I didn’t really mind that answer but I was concerned about eventually having a bad review over not accomplishing more in litigation.
My review ended up with some phrasing about how I wasn’t cooperating with the “overall department strategy,” and I started job searching immediately. I was out about six months later.
Scott Ritter: Putin Rejects Neocon’s China Agenda – What Will Happen Between Russia and NATO?
https://youtu.be/w1iQNmsgHeM
What was the moment you realized that life had passed you by?
I was given a hint life was passing me by when I was buying a movie ticket. I was asked if I wanted a senior discount. I was 50 years old. I was shocked. I started getting AARP ads in the mail at the same age.I realized then society viewed me as an old person.
I always thought I had all the time in the world to accomplish anything. I had a few hints earlier about life’s uncertainty when a 27 year old friend was killed driving home from a grocery store three blocks from her house. Once a 34 year old neighbor came home for lunch, went for a quick jog, and dropped dead from a heart attack.
Those events happened to other people: not me.
I looked in the mirror and realized I was not young anymore. Delusion is powerful. Feeling immortal is an emotion I always had.
In 2012, I was told I had Parkinson’s disease. No worries… I thought, you can live a long time with this disease. Recently I was told I actually have MSA which is a cousin of Parkinson’s. You die sooner having this disease.
Do what you’ve dreamed about now. Want to be an actor? singer? own your own business? How about taking a trip? An uncle once told me he and my aunt saved their money so they could see the world when they got old. They never knew he would get sick and die soon after he told me about their plans.
No matter what age you are, follow your heart now. Marry, have children, do what you want to do to make your life complete. You’re not immortal. You won’t be young forever.
One day you’ll wake up and be me.
Baked Honey Mustard Chicken Breasts
Honey mustard chicken 4
Ingredients you will need
Chicken breasts: I always opt to use boneless and skinless breasts for this honey mustard chicken. A lot of recipes use thighs, but I like the leaner versatility of a chicken breast or you may even use chicken tenders.
Spices: We use a mix of spices here including paprika, mustard seed, ground mustard seed, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. These flavors all pair so well together and also help to complement the honey mustard.
Olive oil: A great neutral vegetable oil that can be used at high temperatures, high-quality olive oil has natural aromatic flavors that are robust and so delicious.
Honey: The sweet portion of this sweet and savory chicken recipe comes from the honey. It’s a natural sugar, not too sweet, and also has an excellent flavor.
Chicken stock: Just a few tablespoons of chicken stock gets added to the marinade. This helps to keep the chicken moist while baking. You can also use vegetable stock if you have it.
Mustard: We are going to be using two mustard in this chicken recipe to take it to the next level: Dijon and whole grain. While providing an excellent flavor, the whole grain mustard also provides some texture to our honey mustard chicken breasts.
White vinegar: In addition to the tang from the mustard, white vinegar provides an additional tanginess. You could also use apple cider vinegar here.
Sriracha sauce: I like a little bit of spice to my honey mustard chicken recipe, so I add a touch of Sriracha. You can adjust this to your taste buds, or omit it altogether if you’re not of fan of the heat.
Thyme: A small handful of fresh thyme finishes this dish off. It provides some color to garnish and top off your baked chicken.
Ingredients
6 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup prepared mustard
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Sprinkle chicken breasts with salt and pepper to taste and place in a lightly greased 13 x 9 inch baking dish.
In a small bowl combine the honey, mustard, basil, paprika and parsley. Mix well. Pour 1/2 of this mixture over the chicken and brush to cover.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Turn chicken pieces over, brush with the remaining 1/2 of the honey mustard mixture, and bake for an additional 10 to 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.
Honey mustard chicken 5
Men blind dating
What makes Chinese people proud of their country? What are some unique aspects of China that contribute to this pride?
How about everything? Its culture, its rich history 60% of all human endeavours result as a an outcome of Chinese history! It don’t resort to US and European barbarism, hypocrisy, plunder and murders to get to where it is today! It survived despite of the atrocities the Japanese and western powers did to China! Today it does not tell anyone to to change to the Chinese systems. The west slaughtered millions to impose its ways! Today it turns deserts into farmland and cultivate wind and solar energy in excess of the entire world combined!
What is the most shameless thing you have ever seen a teacher do?
When I was in the 7th grade in math I continually got Ds on all my scores. One day I watched the teacher grade a girls test and saw exactly what she missed. She got a B+. BTW her family owned one of the largest grocery chains in the nation. When he graded my test it turned out I missed the exact same question in the exact same way as the girl, I got a D. I was a very tiny boy and mild . I said nothing as I always respected my elders. The very first week of 8th grade we were given a standardized math test. Not once had I studied outside of the class room. I tied for the highest grade on that test against over 700 eighth graders. The person I tied, studied very hard and becam the valedictorian of our high school. When I saw my test score I realized just how biased the teacher was against me. For the very first time in my life I confronted an adult.I went to see him and said, Mr Ziegler, I want to show you my 8 grade standardized test scores. I explained that my score tied with another boy for highest in the entire 8th grade. He then said “ oh, you must have really studied during the summer”. I told him No, I had not even opened a book from the time I left his class and the time I took the test. I turned and walked out without saying another word.
That was 70 years ago and only a few years ago I realized why. I was a blond haired, blue eyed boy. My name was the same as the head of the Waffen SS and this was only a relatively few years after WW2 and the fall of the Nazi regime. BTW my German heritage moved to the USA was in 1840.
When I was a young boy, perhaps 6 years old, we lived in a housing complex in Bridgeport, Connecticut. I used to play with the other kids in that complex. One of my boyhood friends was this kid named Joe.
His father was a scientist from Germany. And after world war II, he emigrated to the United States with his parents. They were a nice family, and the father and Joe could speak very good English, but his mother could not. But she was pretty nice.
Joe was named after the Americans allowed him to come into the USA. He was named “G.I.Joe”. I kid you not.
Anyways he had his father’s German soldiers helmet, and a German army issue gas mask that we both played with.
He was a lot of fun. Joe and I did many things together, and we ran about getting into all sorts of things. Good times for young boys. Ha ha.
Anyways, in his basement, his father had rows and rows of cages with bunny rabbits. yeah, his father was using them for experiments that he ran out of his house.
He fed them. He tended to them.
He injected them…
Now that I am older, and knowing about “Operation Paperclip”, I wonder just what kinds of experiments his father was doing to these rabbits. Makeup? Bio-weapons? Aspirin? I don’t know.
What I do know is that my father would periodically take me over to Joe’s house and I would get to pick up the rabbits from time to time. Both Joe and I were too young to notice anything wrong about the set up. But today… knowing what I do know… I wonder about it.
Many innocent things in my past… well are exposed to the understandings of experience when you get older.
Today…
Ukraine Dropped Explosive On Nuclear Fuel Storage Facility
Ukrainians dropped an explosive on the nuclear fuel storage facility at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.
Russia sent an urgent report to the IAEA.
Absolutely ZERO additional information is available at this time.
No word of any radiation leak . . . no word about ANYTHING. Just that it happened.
More if I get it.
This $7.3 Trillion Bombshell Threatens To SINK The Dollar
Transgender – The Inability To Distinguish Facts From Wishes
Matt Taibbi opines on the latest piece of transgender nonsense:
The Dumbest Cover Story Ever – Racket News, Mar 13 2024 New York Magazine’s “Freedom of Sex” is the ultimate example of the lunatic nihilism that’s consumed America’s intellectual class
New York Magazine has a new cover story, by the trans writer Andrea Long Chu: “The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies.” A jeremiad in support of the idea that children must have absolute political agency, it makes the Unabomber manifesto read like a Shakespeare sonnet. The money passage:
We must be prepared to defend the idea that, in principle, everyone should have access to sex-changing medical care, regardless of age, gender identity, social environment, or psychiatric history.
A lot of the piece is standard-issue woe-is-me fuck-everything cartoon nihilism you’d hear from any laptop-class liberal arts product, arguing for a generalized smashing of the patriarchy, among other things by attacking the biological conspiracy to produce those units of material labor value known as babies. Complete abolition of norms would be an “impossible task,” Chu notes sadly, but that doesn’t preclude their “collective reimagining” by an alliance of intersectional victims working toward a Marxian paradise free of “oppressive systems,” which of course include the nuclear family.
The nihilism Taibbi points to is also the major theme the French anthropologist Emmanuel Todd takes on in his book “The Defeat of the West”.
American leadership is failing: That is the argument of an eccentric new book that since January has stood near the top of France’s best-seller lists. It is called “La Défaite de l’Occident” (“The Defeat of the West”). Its author, Emmanuel Todd, is a celebrated historian and anthropologist who in 1976, in a book called “The Final Fall,” used infant-mortality statistics to predict that the Soviet Union was headed for collapse.
…
Mr. Todd is not a moralizer. But he insists that traditional cultures have a lot to fear from the West’s various progressive leanings and may resist allying themselves on foreign policy with those who espouse them. In a similar way, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union’s official atheism was a deal-breaker for many people who might otherwise have been well disposed toward Communism.
…
Mr. Todd does believe that certain of our values are “deeply negative.” He presents evidence that the West does not value the lives of its young. Infant mortality, the telltale metric that led him to predict the Soviet collapse half a century ago, is higher in Mr. Biden’s America (5.4 per thousand) than in Mr. Putin’s Russia — and three times higher than in the Japan of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.While Mr. Todd is, again, not judgmental on sexual matters, he is judgmental on intellectual ones. The inability to distinguish facts from wishes astounds him at every turn of the Ukraine war. The American hope early in the war that China might cooperate in a sanctions regime against Russia, thereby helping the United States refine a weapon that would one day be aimed at China itself, is, for Mr. Todd, a “delirium.”
Back in January Todd expanded on the inability of distinguishing facts from fiction, which is also the basis of trans-genderism, during an interview with Le Figaro. From its English translation:
Q: Over time, haven’t you become a bit of a reactionary?I was brought up by a grandmother who told me that, sexually speaking, all tastes are part of nature, and I’m faithful to my ancestors. So, LGB, welcome. For T, the trans issue is something else. The individuals concerned must of course be protected. But the fixation of the Western middle classes on this ultra-minority issue raises a sociological and historical question. To establish as a social horizon the idea that a man can really become a woman and a woman a man is to assert something that is biologically impossible, it is to deny the reality of the world, it is to assert the false.
Trans ideology is therefore, in my opinion, one of the flags of this nihilism that now defines the West, this drive to destroy not just things and people but reality. But, once again, I am in no way overwhelmed here by indignation or emotion. This ideology exists and I have to integrate it into a historical model. In the age of the metaverse, I can’t say whether my attachment to reality makes me a reactionary.
The intentional denial of reality, as it is currently practiced in the West, is not a new phenomenon. It is the basis of neo-conservatism from where it has crept over to the progressive side.
As Ron Susskind wrote in his portrait of the first years of the Bush junior presidency:
The aide said that guys like me were “in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore.” He continued “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”
Karl Rove, the Bush advisor Susskind had quoted, displayed the same lunatic nihilism that is represented by those who argue that children, teenagers or people generally should can freely chose their gender. It is an attempt of “creating other new realities”. It represents a total denial of actual reality and of the common values derived from it. The Bush administration failed in its endeavor to create new realities in Iraq. The current regime in the West will fail likewise with regime change in Russia. So will others who deny realities.
The author of the Todd book review, Christopher Caldwell, adds:
Fighting a war based on values requires good values. At a bare minimum it requires an agreement on the values being spread, and the United States is further from such agreement than it has ever been in its history — further, even, than it was on the eve of the Civil War. At times it seems there are no national principles, only partisan ones, with each side convinced that the other is trying not just to run the government but also to capture the state.
I see a very similar denial of reality, followed by nihilism and a lack of values, at the top of the current European leadership. The loss of the common view of things is splitting societies on both sides of the Atlantic.
However, with regards to transgenderism, some sense of reality is still trying to survive:
“We have concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the safety or clinical effectiveness of (puberty suppressing hormones) to make the treatment routinely available at this time,” the publication by NHS England stated.
Puberty is a natural process which often includes a temporary confusion about ones identity. Blocking a kids puberty to further some ephemeral confusion some may have during those time is in my view criminal.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asserted his stance on gender identity in a speech Wednesday, stating it was “common sense” that “a man is a man and a woman is a woman” — a remark that sparked criticism from transgender rights activists and elicited fervent applause from attendees of the Conservative Party Conference.
I see myself, just like Matt Taibbi seems to see himself, as a progressive striving for a society based on some form of socialism and justice.
To then find myself on the same side of an issue as some staunch conservatives, and getting attacked for it, is mildly disturbing.
Is it really impossible to be reality based and on the left side of things?
Posted by b on March 14, 2024 at 11:24 UTC | Permalink
The United States is searching for what is believed to be a Russian nuclear submarine off the Delaware, Maryland, Virginia (DelMarVa) Peninsula and into Chesapeake Bay.
Sub-Hunter aircraft are deployed as shown on the FlightRadar image above.
This wasn’t something that I overheard, but my cousin did.
He was sitting on a train and overheard two girls talking, roughly in their early 20s. One of the girls had been asked to house-sit for a family friend who was away for 2 weeks and also look after their pet German Shepherd.
Things were going well for the first few days until she woke up one morning and the dog had died in its sleep.
This was in central London at the height of summer, and the girl didn’t own a car. The owners wouldn’t be back for about 8 days so she couldn’t just leave it in the house until then in case it started to rot. She read online that she should store it in a cool place, but there wasn’t anywhere suitable at their house as it was a very big dog. She also didn’t have many friends in the area and had no access to a car, so she had no idea what to do.
She googled where the nearest vet might be able to store the body until the owners returned, but it was two stops away on the tube. Even if a taxi agreed to transport a dead dog, she couldn’t afford to pay £20 for a London taxi, so she put the dog in a suitcase and took it on the tube.
A man offered to help her carry it down the stairs as she was struggling, and asked what on earth she had inside that made it so heavy (about 30kg). She was a photography student, so told him that she studied photography and had a lot of camera equipment inside. They chatted a bit about it and got on to the tube.
At the next stop, the man got off, but just as the doors were closing, he grabbed the suitcase and ran off towards the escalators as fast as he could. He was a petty criminal who thought he would cash in on the camera equipment. Before she knew what had happened, the doors had shut and she was on her way to the next station.
I’m not sure if they ever got it back, but there aren’t many greater images than the thought of this man returning home thinking he had hit the jackpot, only to open the bag and see a dead German Shepherd staring back at him.
Couples Therapy
Have you ever tried to annoy a scammer who called you? If so, what happened?
I don’t know if I actually “annoyed” the scammer but. . . . I have two stories, several years apart. Story One: My phone rang one afternoon about three years ago. When I picked up the receiver (landline), a voice answered that sounded like my cousin. When I said, “Larry?” he replied, “Yeah, Grandma, it’s me.” Immediately I knew it was a scam since my husband and I never had kids, ergo, no grandkids. But, I decided to play along. He explained that he was somewhere—I forget where exactly—in the Bahamas, where he and some friends had gone to hear a rock concert, and he’d been in an accident with his rental car. I asked him if he took out insurance when he rented the car; he said yes, but the way they did things down there was, you paid for the damages out of pocket, and then the rental insurance reimbursed you. I asked him how much he needed and he replied $3000, money he’d need to pay for the car, his hotel bill and airfare to get home. “Oh, Larry,” I said. “I’m sorry, but I just paid my quarterly property taxes (actually true) and have no more money.” Pause. “Why don’t you just ask Mom and Dad for the money?” He explained that his folks had told him not to go, but he went anyway, and now they would be furious at him for disobeying. “Oh, sweetheart,” I said in my most sympathetic tone. “Yeah, they’ll be mad at you for a minute, but you know they love you. I’m sure they’ll help you.” Another pause. “Larry, you go explain things to them. I just know they’ll give you the money. And then, please, call me back and let me know what happened. Okay?” “Okay, Grandma, I will.” If I do say so myself, I was brilliant. Move over Meryl Streep.
Story Two: This happened at least a dozen years ago, before I understood just what scammers were about and how they worked. I got a call from a guy (with an Indian accent) who said his name was Jim from “Microsoft” and that they had detected a virus on my computer. Coincidentally, I really was having problems with my computer and trouble accessing my email. I listened to his spiel and decided to allow him to take control of my computer. He said it would cost me $100 to fix. I agreed and he or his IT dept. went to work on erasing the virus, but not very well. The following day I got another call from “Microsoft” and the same spiel. I told him that someone else had called the previous day and I had agreed to pay the $100 to fix my computer, but as yet the computer still wasn’t functioning properly. This new guy named George (also with an Indian accent) said that Jim didn’t know what he was talking about, that there would be no charge to fix my computer, but that if I wanted, I could agree to a 6-month for $99, a 1-year for $199 or a two-year service contract for $299, my choice. I told him I was confused, but he advised me not to deal with Jim ever again and that he, George, would really fix my computer, which took about 5 hours (I guess those guys worked on commission and they were having a fight over which one would get the credit for my computer work.) Well, it turned out that George actually did fix the problem—I wonder how THAT happened—and now he wanted to get my credit card number so he could charge me for my choice length service contract. I told him, honestly, I didn’t have a charge card available, but to send me a bill and I would send him a check for the amount. He reluctantly agreed, but I never did get the bill. In retrospect, I don’t know how or why my computer actually did work after that, and I never heard from that particular “Microsoft” bunch ever again.
U.S. Gov ADMITS They Are Readying “Kill Chain” Around China
Has anyone at your workplace ever been fired for something they said or did?
4 years ago, she was in procurement and I was in sales. We worked in a trading company. (let’s call her ‘Jane’ here.)
Me: ‘Can you please share the price of the inquiry from X company?’
Jane: ‘OK, I will send you an email in 10 minutes.’
Me: ‘Cool, thanks!’
20 minutes later
Jane: ‘Sorry the price sent 10 minutes ago was wrong.’
Me: ‘Oh shit, we already quoted the client. Let me give him a call real quick. Please make sure to send the correct one this time.’
Jane: ‘Ok, sorry bout that.’
20 minutes later
Jane: ‘Hey…. I apologize. But the price was still not correct.’
Me: ‘……(sign) Alright, let me call the client real quick. Meanwhile can you please please prepare the correct price and send it out ASAP? ’
Jane: ‘I will. This time, it will be correct.’
Me: ‘Awesome, if my help is needed, you know where to find me.’
20 minutes later
Jane: ‘Hey……’
Me: ‘Hey…..’
Jane: ‘It’s about the price.’
Me: ‘Please don’t tell me, it’s wrong again.’
Jane: ‘……..’ (she nodded)
Me: ‘………..Alright, please go back to your seat first. We will talk later.’
I called a flash meeting with her manager and mine. Went through all the communication between Jane and the supplier. We found out that Jane chatted with the supplier via WhatsApp only without asking for email confirmation so of course price could change at any time. We gave her a chance to explain and she couldn’t.
A few months later, I heard Jane had resigned. Or should I say she was pressured as the company did not want to pay compensation? Whatever it was, her skills were not suitable for the position. It was best for her and company.
Bobcat story
What are some psychological facts that people don’t know?
The mere exposure effect: The more you see something, the more you like it. This is why advertisers repeat slogans and brands use familiar logos.
We tend to believe people notice our mistakes or imperfections more than they actually do.
The sunk cost fallacy: People are more likely to continue an endeavor the more they have already invested in it, even if it’s no longer worthwhile.
Social loafing: People exert less effort when working in a group than when working alone.
The more witnesses to an emergency, the less likely any one person is to intervene. Everyone might be looking to see if someone else will take action first.
The confirmation bias: People tend to seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs and disregard information that contradicts them.
How information is presented can influence how people perceive it. Frame your speech nicely….organizing speech is as important as the speech itself.
The in-group favoritism: People favor members of their own group over outsiders.
The placebo effect: A belief that a treatment will work can actually produce positive effects. Some medicines are just flavored chewable but due the outer packing and doctor’s prescription, patient believe it as cure and thus see tangible results.
People are seen as more likeable after they make a minor mistake. They became humble and look for someone who doesn’t judge them on thier mistake.
The false consensus effect: People overestimate the extent to which others share their beliefs and attitudes.
The Dunning-Kruger effect: Unskilled people tend to overestimate their ability, while skilled people tend to underestimate theirs. You think you can be a chess grandmaster, but many a times a grandmaster thinks is not worthy of being one, although he is 100times better than you.
The cryptomnesia effect: Unconsciously plagiarism where you mistakenly believe something you created is something you heard or experienced before. Pathetic ! You thought you heard this story somewhere but in reality it was your own creative innovation.
People tend to attribute positive events to themselves and negative events to external factors.
People perform better when they are being cheered on or believe they are part of a team. Yes! you can do it. We are all there for you, Give it your 100%
Scampi
The cooked garlic-butter combination may be poured over French bread and served with shrimp as a side dish.
Scampi
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
4 pounds headless jumbo shrimp
1 lemon, divided
2 cups butter
1 teaspoon salt
6 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon finely-chopped parsley
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
Instructions
Thoroughly wash shrimp. Peel and place side by side in glass baking dish, making sure shrimp are not on top of each other.
Squeeze juice of 1/2 lemon over shrimp.
Slice remaining 1/2 lemon into 6 finely sliced pieces and place in baking dish.
Melt butter.
Finely chop garlic and place in butter.
Add salt and chopped parsley to butter and garlic mixture.
Sprinkle pepper over shrimp, then pour butter and garlic mixture over this.
Cover tightly and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
Serve with cooked pasta if desired.
Hostage Negotiation
A Chinese person just told me about a ‘frog in a well’. What are some other Chinese sayings that non-Chinese people might be unaware of?
that it would take an entire series of books to cover them. I send blog posts from a Chinese language site to my students who have an interest in ancient Chinese wisdom. So I’ll share a few of my favorite and the actual meanings.
for people who are interested in the Chinese language as well as culture.
But for those of you who aren’t sure what an idiom is, Chinese idioms, called (Zhōng guó chéng yŭ 中国成语), are well-known sayings or proverbs alluding to famous Chinese stories and historical events. They are not only a key part of Chinese language learning but are also priceless in understanding Chinese culture. Chinese idioms are deeply rooted in legacies and traditional culture, making the Chinese language more rich and fascinating. Each Chinese idiom carries profound meaning too. Some of the meaning can’t be understood from the context alone, so I’ll try to expand on the origins and significance.
“鸡毛蒜皮 (jīmáosuànpí)” may have a literal meaning of “chicken feathers and garlic skin” but the meaning has a logical reason. It is used to express that something is not important, or is simply worthless.
The story goes that a long time ago, there were two neighbors: One who lived in the East sold chickens for a living and one who lived in the West sold garlic for a living. Both families had a rather hard life. The family that sold chickens got up early to pluck “鸡毛（jīmáo) chicken feathers”, and as a result, the entire floor was covered in chicken hair. The family who sold garlic also woke up early, but to peel garlic, and their entire floor was covered with “蒜皮（suànpí) garlic skin”. The two families had originally lived in harmony. However, they did have a source of conflict, the wind.
When the wind blew westward, from the East, the “鸡毛（jīmáo) chicken feathers” would be blown into the western neighbor’s yard, while when the wind blew eastward, from the West, “蒜皮（suànpí) garlic skin” would be blown into the eastern neighbor’s yard. The two neighbors often quarreled over such nuance. At one point, the conflict between the two neighbors escalated to the point where they both fought, and eventually went to court to settle the provocative matter. The Judge learned that they were arguing over such a small issue, and said: “Such a small provocation is not worth being settled in court. You have wasted my time, therefore you should be punished.” Some people said the judge was unfair, while others said the ruling was fitting, and that both claims seemed to make sense. Later, the story spread, and eventually “鸡毛蒜皮 (jīmáosuànpí)” became known as a phrase that denotes trivial, unremarkable things or very small things.
“对牛弹琴 (Duìniútánqín)” is used by Chinese people to describe someone who is explaining something complicated to a fool, or sometimes this idiom is used to describe a person who is trying to tell something to the wrong audience.
It literally means to play the harp to a cow…
During the Warring States Period, there was a musician named Gongming Yi, who played musical instruments very well. There were a great number of people fond of listening to him play, and who respected him greatly.
One day, Gongming Yi saw a cow when he was relaxing in the countryside. He thought, “Everybody compliments my music. Why don’t I play some music for this cow?”
He played a piece of elegant quaint music for the cow, but the cow just kept grazing the grass with its head down.
He played another piece of joyful music, but the cow still kept its head down to graze the grass and totally ignored him.
Gongming Yi showed off all his skills, but the cow still ignored him. He was disappointed and started to question his ability until a passerby said to him, “It’s not because your ability is inadequate. It is because the cow can not understand music at all.”
The moral of the two stories are useful but hard to understand from context but it helps to know the background information.
Self Belief
How do I understand Chinese culture?
Fascinating question.
Having lived in China for several years, and being married to a Chinese wife, I think my first impulse is to say, “don’t expect to ever fully understand Chinese culture.”
Not because they are so hard to understand, but because that thing we call China is a huge place, with a long history, and it would be wrong to expect to ever fully grasp what it means to be Chinese, or do things the Chinese way.
All that hedging aside, I do think you could be pragmatic about it.
Presuming you are simply trying to get on in modern day China’s culture, I would give you the following list of tips:
Know your place; in China, family always come first. Then come relatives and old friends. New friends are welcome, but won’t be prioritized.
Food is China’s unofficial religion. You will be asked “have you eaten?” in the same way you will be asked “how are you doing?” in the anglosphere, and they mean it. Never downplay the importance of a meal. They dedicate an amazing amount of time, resources, and energy to making, eating, and procuring meals. If you’re French, you’ll understand.
“Saving Face” is everything. There are a hundred ways in which the Chinese can acknowledge or humiliate you, and it all boils down to small details like who sits where, when do you get to speak, what sort of dishes are served… if you can read that code, you know your place with them.
Negotiation; the Chinese will offer you a choice even when it is clear what you want. It’s one of the prime directives of China. The other person must always have a choice. That way, you may find yourself playing cat and mouse with other pedestrians many more times than you would in the western world, because one indication of intended direction just isn’t enough; no, you will have to swerve around fellow pedestrians in the last moment, because they will keep offering you options till the last second. Whenever I sit in a restaurant with my wife, she drives me crazy with the question “… or would you like THAT dish instead?” To which my retort tends to be, “no, goddammit! I want the thing I said I wanted the first time!”
Final agreements are not final. How many times did we put a final signature under something, only to find ourselves reconvening over a lavish meal for a complete re-negotiation.
Change your spokesperson, and you start from scratch. The Chinese build relations with a company or institution based on a personal, individual relationship. Take that person away, and you are back to zero.
Wastefulness is a sign of idiocy. I have yet to see a respected Chinese person with a wasteful attitude. Economy and efficiency are the pillars of Chinese success, and those who are successful there will possess them.
Nature is beautiful – but only few have a realistic understanding of nature. Instead, there is a highly domesticated image of nature in China, sporting talking, vegetarian cats, highly polished flower arrangements, and so on. The Chinese romanticize nature, but don’t understand it.
Outlooks are strangely short term and long term at the same time. The business world expects fast turnarounds and quick growth, while politics and others allow for long time spans for things to develop.
On the whole, I like Chinese culture. When you are there, you feel a new mellowness, surrounded by abundance and the dynamics of an old culture that is mercifully pragmatic and philosophical.
Rory Gallagher-Bad Penny (Rockpalast 1982)
Have you ever gotten a second opinion from a doctor that was drastically different than what you were originally told by your first doctor?
In 2011 I had an excruciating pain in the left side of my back. I called 911 and was taken to the ER where they diagnosed kidney stones, gave me a blood thinner and did a CT. The on call urologist came and said I had renal cell carcinoma and said to make an appointment to have the kidney removed asap. He said you have two kidneys and survive just fine on one. I did some research online and saw that Cleveland Clinic did an operation where they could remove half a kidney. I saw another Nephrologist in town first who confirmed the cancer diagnosis and the conceited little twerp said they can’t do the half kidney because the lesion was in the wrong place. I went to Cleveland anyway and made an appointment with the doctor who wrote the kidney textbook med students use. He did his own CT with dye and said, “Ya know this isn’t taking the dye like renal carcinoma would, let’s wait and do another CT in three months. If it is cancer it’s slow growing so it’s not a big risk.” I went back home to California and returned three months later for another scan. This time the lesion had actually reduced in size and the Cleveland doctor said the lesion was actually “a cyst that had burst” not cancer. Today, 11 years later, I have two good kidneys because I got the second opinion. Choose your second opinion from a place like Cleveland Clinic that does research if you can.
I just got fired. Now my former boss (the one who let me go) is asking me where some important documents are. How should I respond?
I just got fired. Now my former boss (the one who let me go) is asking me where some important documents are. How should I respond?
The word “toxic” gets thrown around far too often, I think. And yet, I can’t really think of any other word (except for possibly “hostile”) that describes where I used to work. The company no longer exists, having been acquired a couple times over, but I still am hesitant to name it because the industry is rather incestuous and the people are still around even if the company isn’t.
Nevertheless, perhaps this story can act as both a cautionary tale as well as a moment of schadenfreude.
After I had been with the company for about a little less than a year, they hired a new WorldWide VP of Sales who is about as close to pure evil as I ever experienced (and this is coming from someone who worked at Apple!). When he came in, he brought with him a series of sycophants who were as insane as he was malicious.
I was low enough in the food chain to have zero influence or power, but high enough that I was in an extremely vulnerable and visible position. As this VP began clearing house of the long-time veterans of the company, it was only a matter of time before he got to me.
For all the writing on the wall, I was still unprepared for when it happened. I naively believed that the work that I was doing was critical and that I was irreplaceable (at least at that moment). I had the sole responsibility of developing the documentation and training materials for a set of equipment that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars – each.
For those that don’t know, much of the material that is sold by large corporations (Cisco, HPE, Lenovo, etc.) is not designed or built in-house. Often other companies make various components that fit into the equipment; in some cases they make all of the equipment and these larger companies simply rebrand the whole shebang. This was one of those cases.
My company had created an entire portfolio that was going to be rebranded by another multi-billion dollar conglomerate. This was the largest deal they had ever signed with this company, and it was a Big Deal™. Not only did the information had to be 100% accurate, but it had to be branded with the other company’s logos, document rules, etc. On top of it all, the material was highly technical.
It took eight months of 10–12 hour days to complete. The launch was set for November 9. I had non-stop travel booked through the following March to travel world-wide and train the other company’s sales force on the equipment, how it worked, and so on. I was the only one scheduled to do this. I figured there was no way they would let me go with so much on the line.
Little did I know.
Back to the evil VP. He was notorious for walking around the office at around 7 p.m. to see who was still there, or who had “left work early.” My cubicle was just outside of his office, so there was no way he would have been able to miss whether I was there or not.
As it happens, my job was to be a road warrior, so I wasn’t supposed to be there. In fact, if I was in the office, it meant that I wasn’t doing my job!
Remember when I said that he brought some insane people with him? Well, one of those idiots remains to this day as the worst example of corporate nepotism I’ve ever seen. The man was an ADD basket case on crack. He was brought in as a VP of Public Relations, and then added a VP of Marketing title when the WWVP of Sales fired the original guy. All of this, and he couldn’t spell to save his life (he once wrote that he was a “VP of Pubic Relations” on his email before realizing that he could save a signature to automatically insert it. No, I’m not making that up).
Anyway this idiot was incensed that I was “never” in the office. Despite the fact that it was my job to be a road warrior, he was livid. And, because he was a good little yes-man, he decided he would make up all kinds of stories that he “imagined” I was doing because I wasn’t in the office. As I said, my cubicle was right outside of the WWVP’s and so he would pass by an empty cubicle several times a day.
So, without me knowing, their plan was set in motion irrespective of the actual work that I was doing.
Remember that the official launch of this product portfolio was November 9? Well, after working for so long on developing the materials, working with the bigger company, and essentially exhausting myself, I decided to take a week’s vacation at the end of October in anticipation of the upcoming launch juggernaut.
I traveled back to England (where I had lived before getting this job) to visit friends and family. I told everyone where I was going, kept a paper-trail, even had a team dinner the night before with the Business Development Manager (“<BDM>”) responsible for the overall relationship and dollar figure with the big company and talked about my holiday plans. Everyone knew where I was going, when, and why. I thought it was all good.
Big mistake.
Halfway through my week in vacation, I got a phone call from my manager.
“J, sorry to bother you on your vacation,” he began. I could tell that something was wrong.
“No problem,” I said, knowing that there was definitely a problem.
“Did <the BDM> know that you were going on vacation this week?”
“Of course,” I said. “We had dinner the night before and I told him all about it, plus it has been in my weekly reports for the past month.”
“Okay, well, <the WWVP> asked <the BDM> where you were today and he said he didn’t know.”
My blood ran cold. I knew what this meant. I actually wondered if I needed to change my flights and return back to the States. I asked my manager (who I truly liked and respected) if I should do that. If he’d said yes, I’d do it.
“No,” he said. “You enjoy your vacation. You deserved it. We can sort this out when you get back.”
As you can imagine, I didn’t enjoy the rest of my holiday. Not one little bit, Sam I Am.
The following Monday I was back in the U.S., and back at work. My manager – who lived in Colorado – had flown into town and met with me. I was surprised to see him.
“Let’s go get some coffee,” he said.
“Okay,” I said. “But I have a standing meeting with <BDM>. I’ll -”
“Don’t worry about it,” my manager said. “He knows.”
I followed him out the hall, past the break room, down the stairs, through the lobby, and out the front door. All the while, he was asking me about my vacation, about visiting friends and family in the U.K., and so on. Small talk. Innocuous. Terrifying.
The local Starbucks was closed. The donut shop had run out of coffee. It was starting to look like a very strange Terry Gilliam storyline as we looked for a place to sit down and chat. Time was getting on, and so we somehow found ourselves inside of a grocery store that had an internal food counter. We got two coffees and sat in the only two chairs – green plastic patio furniture set up in front of the counter. It was surreal.
He looked around, fully aware that this wasn’t ideal. “Not exactly what I was hoping for,” he said. “I’m sorry about this.”
“Just… tell me,” I said.
He was incredibly apologetic. I actually started to feel bad for him. “<The BDM> threw you under the bus,” he said. “He claimed that he had no knowledge that you were going on vacation, that you hadn’t told anyone, and had just disappeared.”
Once again, I pointed to my weekly reports as well as the ten witnesses at the dinner the night before I left. He simply shook his head, sadly.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “The WWVP wants you gone. They were going to fire you while you were in England, but I convinced them that wouldn’t be a good idea.”
We both knew what he meant. It was a recipe for a lawsuit, and the company was highly allergic to lawsuits. Especially of the employment kind.
He proceeded to lay it out for me. I could either go on a Professional Improvement Plan (PIP), or I could willingly take a not-so-generous “mutual separation” package. If I went with the plan and failed to “improve,” the package would be completely off the table.
“While I cannot legally suggest to you what to do,” he said, “I can tell you that they have made up their minds.”
I thought about the launch materials. “That’s going live in a week,” I said.
“I know.”
“What am I supposed to do with all that work?”
He swallowed and tried to keep his voice and face neutral. “They want you to destroy it.”
I was aghast. “They want me to what?!”
He slowly shook his head. He couldn’t believe it either. “<The BDM> doesn’t trust you,” he said. The words stung, but the level of projection was astounding. The BDM had shown himself to be untrustworthy repeatedly (not just in this regard), but knew how to play the political game much, much better than I.
“They don’t want me to give it to anyone else to take over?”
That’s when he said the most bizarre thing of all, and it was obvious that it pained him to say it out loud. “No,” he said. “It’s no one else’s job.”
“What about <a Technical Marketing Engineer on the team>?” I asked.
“That’s not his job.”
“What about all that training with the big customer?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“That’s not your problem any more, J,” he said.
The final piece of the floor fell out from underneath me. Not only was I being fired, but they were willing to sabotage multi-million dollar contracts to do it.
The paperwork was straightforward. I would receive a month’s salary in exchange for walking away. The termination papers were unequivocal – all company material, all of it, was to be completely destroyed and I was to keep no record of any of it. The penalties for holding on to “confidential company information” were severe. They may have been allergic to being sued, but they chomped at the bit to be the ones suing.
There was nothing I could do but comply. I deleted all of the materials I had worked so diligently on for the year, wiped the laptop clean, and returned everything that belonged to the company. Included were technical manuals, instructions, sales training (both technical and business), networking diagrams, demonstration videos, and lengthy email exchanges between me and the other company that detailed the milestones and directions that they wanted (which were extensive and involved). All gone.
Since then, people have asked me how it felt to have destroyed almost a year’s worth of work. The truth of the matter is that it actually felt like a huge weight had been taken off my shoulders. It had been incredibly stressful, and I knew that the upcoming months were going to be equally (if not more so) tense. While I had been on a deadline for the launch, there were going to be quotas to fill, sales cycles to adhere to, revenue projections to achieve, and so on.
As my manager said, “not my problem.”
Less than two months later in the beginning of the new year, I got a phone call from my (now former) manager. “J, I have a question for you, and I want you to answer with only a yes or no,” he said.
I had a feeling I knew where this was going. “Okay,” I said.
“Did you keep any of the training materials?”
“No,” I said truthfully. “I was told to destroy them, so I did.”
It was probably more than I should have said, but on the off chance they were forcing him to call me from a recorded line (the call waiting had the company name, not his personal number), I wanted to be clear as to what happened.
“Thank you,” he said flatly. “That’s all I needed.”
“However,” I said, “I’m willing to recreate the materials for a consulting fee.” I was half-joking, because I needed the money. I doubted they would consider it for even a second, though.
Keeping his voice even, he replied, “I’ll tell them that, but I don’t think they’re going to take you up on it.”
With that, he hung up. Indeed, they didn’t take me up on it, but then again I didn’t expect them to. After all, they had screwed themselves over before, why stop now?
I never expected to hear anything else. I was persona non grata at the company, evidently, but I had seen that when they had been letting people go month after month. Once people were gone, they were practically erased from collective memory.
I heard the rest of the story about two months later, and it was glorious.
I happened to have lunch one day with the Technical Marketing Engineer that I had proposed giving the launch materials to (but was declined). It turns out that the fallout was nothing short of spectacular.
It turns out that my former company had never bothered to communicate with the big customer that they had let me go. In turn, none of the dozens of training sessions were cancelled. The company had flown in sales and engineering staff for these multi-day training sessions only to find that my company was a no show.
No training meant no sales. No sales meant no revenue. No revenue meant quotas being unmet. No quotas meant penalties.
One of the stipulations of the contract was that if X amount of solutions were not sold by the end of the fiscal year (which ended for that company on January 31), my former company would be forced to pay $1.5M in “make good” penalties.
That’s why my ex-manager had called in the beginning of January – he knew that these deadlines were coming up. The week before the end of January, the <BDM> was feeling the pressure from the WWVP because he was getting nastygrams from the big customer about the no-shows and lack of training. That meant that the <BDM> had questions to answer.
“How could this have happened?” the <BDM> was shouting on the staff call. “How could we not have been prepared for this? We knew about this for over a year?”
“Are you kidding?” one of the engineers had responded. “You fired the guy who did it!”
Sadly, for me, there was not much joy to take from this other than a bit of petty schadenfreude. This was in the middle of the severe US recession and I wouldn’t find another position until the middle of the year.
The damage to the relationship was irreversible and possibly incalculable. The portfolio had cost hundreds of millions to develop, but I don’t believe the sales ever crossed over the million-dollar mark. It certainly didn’t recoup the substantial investment. The big customer company forced new rules to protect themselves (they had already been publicizing the launch date themselves, only to have to beg off their customers).
About a year after I got a new job, the entire technology division of that product portfolio got sold off to another company. The reputation of my former company in this technology was shot beyond repair. All in all, they took a bath of several hundred million dollars in the investment.
Is it all because they fired me? Oh, hell no.
It is, however, the butterfly effect of what can happen when ego, corporate policy, politics, and unmitigated insanity drives decisions without understanding the consequences.
Nevertheless, whatever you do, do not hold on to the materials when they tell you to destroy them. Not only could you find yourself on the business end of a legal hissy fit, but you may also rob yourself of some spectacular avenge-by-proxy scenarios.
A Chinese road
Is there any hope for reconciliation between Taiwan and mainland China?
Any hope for China-Taiwan reconciliation? It all depends on USA
Let us look at the Ukraine war.
Putin told a former US journalist (if I remember correctly, his name is Carlson) that:
Before the Ukraine war started, Russia & Ukraine had signed a peace agreement & not went into war.
But … we all see the Ukraine war because … right away, former UK PM B Johnson went to Ukraine in person to push Ukraine to go into war (by provoking Russia).
We all know UK & USA are co-conspirators of the Ukraine war.
When China proposed Ukraine-Russia reconciliation. Again right away, US president Biden went in person to Ukraine to support the war … USA wants the war to continue.
Both USA & UK want the Ukraine war, so that they can make money & at the same time weaken Europe’s economy
Back to Taiwan.
It is not up to Taiwan to decide its future. It is USA.
USA will never let Taiwan-China reconciliation to happen.
1, Taiwan is a cash cow for USA to sell out-of-date weapons & a cash cow for US politicians to shout support so as to get an appearance fee. It is easy money. Dont even need acting skills. Just shouting empty support is enough.
2, Taiwan can be used as a tool by USA to irritate China. Like a mosquito or fly that bugs you.
See, USA+UK have successfully bugged Russia to use military.
USA+UK are the trouble makers in the world. Look at Latin America. Mideast, SCS, even Europe thru Ukraine.
Those corrupted Taiwanese politicians are happy to serve USA too. It is a 2 way corruption.
WoCuDaDeMa
What is the wildest reaction you have seen to someone getting fired?
I’ve been a partner at a CPA firm and a CFO and COO in for profit companies. I’ve hired and fired a LOT of people over the years.
One termination that stands out is when I was hired to turn around a high-tech manufacturing Company. During our review of expenses we discovered that one of our middle managers was using the Company’s shipping department to ship products for her ETSY business. It wasn’t a ton of money, about $10K per year, but people knew she was stealing so I decided fire her.
Over the years I’ve learned to write a script for myself and the HR manager. Our plan was to read our parts, hand her the termination documents, and then escort her out of the building.
As soon as we entered her office she knew she was getting fired. She was angry and belligerent during the entire process, yelling and shouting. At one point, she pointed to one of her drawers and said she had copies of everything and could prove that she had paid everything back. She said that multiple times.
I was pretty confident that she was lying so I would simply wait for her to stop and then continue on with the termination script. That really pissed her off. She wanted us to engage with her. So what should have taken 15 minutes took a terrible hour. The HR manager and I watched her pack her things in a box and then we escorted her out of the building.
After she was gone we both walked back to her office to check her drawer … and it was completely empty. She was full of shit to the end.
Having a conversation
What would you do to fix plea bargaining in the US justice system?
The TV show is intense. Heart pounding music slows in the background for the conclusion. The camera, with soft focus filter, closes in on a tiny woman who has been charged with murder in the first degree. Her husband of thirty years was an abusive sonofabitch who beat her to within inches of her life. She’s still wearing a cast from his last attack. She’s frightened, mascara smeared, eyes wide.
The hard boiled, fry-em-all prosecutor softens his voice for the first time in fifteen episodes.
We’ve got you cold in a case of murder one Mrs. MacSuffers. But, it’s the holidays and I’m feeling generous. I’ll let you plead down to a case of aggravated jaywalking.
TV’s portrayal of plea bargains is always fun. On the flip side there’s the tatted-up gang member who’s been caught selling drugs in a kindergarten, but pleads out to a case of having a wildly inappropriate waistline on his saggy pants…
So what is it? Is plea bargaining a safety valve for the wrongfully charged, or an escape mechanism for the horrifically lucky?
Neither.
I understand that in some states plea bargaining works (sort of) like what we see in the movies. But, in the federal system it’s not like that at all. It’s more like being told you’ll be forced to eat a gallon of vomit with possible extra courses, or simply open up and eat a spoonful of live meal worms (while smiling).
In the feds there is no bargaining. The prosecutor tells your attorney what sentence they’re willing to offer in exchange for not having to go through the work of a trial. There’s no counter offer. Take it or leave it. Like a water monopoly, you must submit to their will.
There’s a reason monopolies are frowned upon…
Notice there’s no judge in this entire affair. Judges are irrelevant to plea bargains. All power in the court is handed to the prosecutor. If the accused takes the plea, it’s taken to the judge as a package deal. All the robe has to do is sign on the dotted line and another case is removed from the docket. Since the judge is usually a former prosecutor… it feels like the right move.
So… how to fix this system? You can’t. Plea bargaining is morally corrupt. You can’t negotiate with a guy that’s holding a gun to your head. Telling someone that if they use their constitutionally guaranteed rights, you’ll make it painful as all hell, is a violation of what the framers stood for.
But plea bargains are a necessary evil! Without them the system would grind to a halt!
‘xactly. 😉
First off, while the use of plea bargains goes back to the 1800’s, most places in the US didn’t consider plea bargains palatable until the 1960’s. Plea bargains became mechanized “justice.” We gave up our rights in exchange for… well… for putting more people behind bars.
This meat ain’t gonna grind itself!
So what happens if we ban plea bargains?
It becomes tedious for the system to take someone through the judicial process. Shouldn’t it be cumbersome to deprive a person of their liberty?
Prosecutors can no longer go after every single case that’s brought to them. They would have to pick and choose and make sure to go after the worst cases. I’m not at all opposed to a triage system.
Lots of lower level cases might be tossed out. These would be nonviolent, victimless, cases where the accused has no prior criminal history. If you think they’re getting off scot free, then you don’t have any experience with this system. Just an accusation is life altering.
Our prisons would shrink in number and size. The percentage of our GDP that we spend on warehousing human beings would drop to the level we see in other countries. Those funds could be put into worthwhile endeavors like education. The net effect being a lower crime rate over a long time line.
Plea bargaining isn’t the root cause of the evil that is our “justice” system, but it’s one of the largest cogs. I’m all for tossing a boot in to see how the mechanism crunches to a halt.
Free Owl
What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?
If you are borrowing it for the third time, you need one of your own.
If you’re the only one who shares the ride, sit in front.
Don’t steal each other’s best karaoke songs.
If you’re posting a picture on social media, make sure everyone looks fine in it.
If someone has legally changed their name, don’t ask what their ‘real’ or original name was.
Don’t ask a date how much money they make. If you do care, go to dating sites that verify people’s income.
If you receive an invitation to a party, don’t bring along a date/friend/child/pet/whoever that wasn’t invited.
Don’t touch people without permission, even if they’re pregnant or have cool hair.
Don’t make plans with other friends in front of friends who aren’t invited.
If you have two friends over, who don’t know each other, you don’t leave them alone.
If someone is paying for your food, don’t order something expensive.
When someone insults themselves, disagree.
If the damn world hates China, why can’t countries boycott China until they remove Xi Jinping from power/Disband the CPC/Make Taiwan a country? If China really is the “Great Satan”, then maybe we should start treating them like one.
It may have been possible if the United States or United Kingdom or other nations thad not committed too many atrocities across the world.
Take Serbia
Everyone remembers the 1999 bombings as if it was yesterday. Everyone remembers the role the US had in breaking up of Yugoslavia and knows if the US had wanted to, they could have done so peacefully
Vucic is pro europe and pro US but he knows he simply can’t be anti Russian or Chinese
In Serbia, China is a friend who builds railways and who suffered when their embassy was bombed in 1999
Russia is a greater friend and between 65% to 81% of the masses support Russia openly
Guess what?
MOST OF THEM HATE THE UNITED STATES
So no matter how much Blinken bleats about the risks of China and Russia
Serbians will say “Look. Even if they destroy all of us, we would rather trust them than trust you”
The closer EU comes to US, the more suspicious the Serbians become
Take India
In 2021, Modi was leaning to burn bridges with China completely or to the maximum
Yet when India needed the West for Vaccine materials, they flatly refused and imposed export restrictions on their surplus vaccines and materials
We didn’t forget
They demanded our chloro quinine tablets and we complied putting our Rheumatoid arthritis patients at risk for 6 months
They didn’t lift a little finger
Not to mention the farmers protests where they demanded we don’t impose protectionism and export wheat despite a shortage in India back then (Modi didn’t)
So we simply dont trust them an inch
Take African Nations
The Westerners have plundered, looted and enslaved them for generations and generations
How can Africa trust them at all?
Many Africans LOATHE the French or British
Many Africans LOATHE the United States
They have ruined Libya, Sudan and other nations by provoking Civil War and stealing resources
The Africans cannot ever trust them and regard China and Russia as what we call attractive parallel powers so that they can make Independent decisions and not have the West meddle in them
Best example was Niger
When they kicked out the French, Macron went with his tail between his legs because if he had pushed a war, more African nations would have gone closer to Russia and China
Take Vietnam
Vietnamese remember Agent Orange and it’s use on Civilians from 1968 to 1973
Hoàng Phan would have more details but they were terrible to the Vietnamese
You really expect Vietnamese to jump and trust the US because an Indian origin Nut case Vice President shakes her booty and gives a silly little laugh and says “Freedom and Democracy”
NOT A CHANCE
They want to do things Independently which means they will keep China close and do trade with China and if the US plays too many games, become closer to China and Russia
Take the Middle East
In 60 years, the Middle East remains a war zone because of the United States
The Arabs LOATHE THE US WITH A VISCERAL HATRED
I mean “Want to see your children choke on their blood and die screaming for mommy” type of hatred
Not the “I want your girl to break up with you” type of hatred
Iraq, Syria were both destroyed only because they chose to follow a path that the US didn’t like
Others complied because THEY WERE TOO SCARED OF THE US
As Russia and China grow in power and as the US grows weaker – the Arabs are slowly sharpening their knives and waiting
Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah are KICKING ASS against the vastly superior forces arrayed against them through a lovely mix of Strategy and Geopolitics
Take South America
The US claims South America is their sphere of influence
The US has blockaded Cuba
The US has sanctioned Venezuela
The US threatens Brazil from time to time
The South Americans HATE THE AMERICANS OR ENVY THEM OR BOTH depending on the situation
Mexicans go to Texas and California because they argue it was their country once
So as I have shown you, you have Europeans, Africans, Middle Easterners, Asians, South Americans who have no fondness for the Americans and downright hate their guts at times
They have no bone to pick with China or Russia
China and Russia keeps the world neutral and that these nations like
The Alternate is to allow these Evil Demons to allow their hegemony to continue as overlords
So whose the real Satan here huh???
Taquitos
These are the best taquitos! I like to serve them with guacamole and sour cream for dipping. They’re certainly not traditional taquitos, but they are delicious.
DSC01412 1400×2100
Ingredients
Pork, beef or chicken
1 can Mexican beer
Garlic salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Cumin (comino), to taste
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 can or jar chile verde
Melted cheese for drizzling (optional)
Instructions
Add all ingredients except melted cheese to a slow cooker.
Cook for 8 to 10 hours on LOW.
Drain juice.
Put filling on corn tortillas and roll up. Secure with a wooden pick.
Fry until tortilla is crispy. Remove wooden pick to serve.
Drizzle with melted cheese, if desired.
Damn
Why does China want to gain control of Taiwan so badly? If Hong Kong is an indicator, any perceived economic benefits China may expect would diminish once they took control & many markets that trade with Taiwan would stop if China was in control.
They don’t realy want control of Taiwan, they don’t want the USA to have control of Taiwan, that is the red line, that can never be crossed, China is quite happy with the status quo. They have said that often enough. As far as markets stop? Are you dreaming? China is Taiwans biggest trading partner. If Taiwan was governed by the mainland their trade would almost double, AND Taiwan would be far FAR richer, because they wouldn’t need to buy a single out of date weapon from the U.S., they would save BILLIONS. That much is obvious. Also there would be no need for Taiwan to have its own military, that would be another huge saving. Just that the poor DPP would be no more, that’s why they are so set against it.
What did your mom do that became the stuff of legend?
When I was a boy, I had real problems with certain foods. I couldn’t have butter on anything or drink milk straight (milk on cereal or chocolate milk was fine).
Over when I wad left with a bunch of kids at a get-together, lunch was served and included butter on everything, and everyone was expected to drink their milk. (This had happened before and I knew to stay quiet, not really eat anything, not make a big deal, get something later, etc.) One of the supervising women noticed, however, and felt the need to make an example of me and insisted that I eat everything up right in front of everyone. I told them that if they forced me to eat it I would get sick and it would be their fault.
Boy! did that lady get pissed when I said that! You know what happened next! She forced me to eat that food and I got sick all over the table with all the food on it and, boy, did the stuff hit the fan. My mom arrived just as the lady opened up on me. Mom looked puzzled as I had handled situations like this before with no problems. Mom announced who she was, told the lady (not unkindly) to quit yelling at me, and asked, “What is the problem?”
The lady threw me under the bus and said how outrageous it was for ”a child” to dictate what he/she would eat and look what I had done! My mom paused a minute and said very slowly, “I can’t believe my son wouldn’t have told you he would get sick if he ate these things and he should have, and I am sorry . . . . . .” and then all the kids started shouting, “He did tell them, he did!” (I did have some loyal friends.) My mom looked up and said, “WHAT?” “He told you?” “and you still made him eat it?!” The lady says, “Well, well. . .it’s not up to him to tell us. . . .” Mom’s face got red. “You are an idiot and should never be left around children! If you or anyone EVER IGNORES something my child says, there will be hell to pay! Do you understand me?! This is all your fault, and yet you blame a child! How despicable!” Mom tore into her for a few more minutes, and then looked down at me, and I will never forget, she looked right into my eyes and said, “It wasn’t your fault, Spencer. They should have listened — it was their fault, they can clean It up — we’re leaving!” She grabbed my hand, and we held our heads high as we walked gracefully to the car.
I know that I was not all in the right on this one — it’s hard for me to judge — but tas an example of a mom sticking up for her child, that day shone brightly. That kind of thing stays with you forever.
Years of prep
I am traveling to the US and I have a 16 hour layover at Heathrow Airport in London. How should I spend my time at the airport?
I have been avoiding answering this question for a long time due to the fear that people might exploit the option and the UK might put a ban of sorts in place in the future. *kidding
But I guess it’s time to let the secret out. Brexit is already through!
So, back in 2016 when I was travelling to Indiana for my internship I had a layover of 23 hours in Heathrow. Don’t ask me how but just know that “Indian dads have a mind of their own and never let them book tickets for you” lesson learnt the hard way.
Like everyone else I was going through Google and Quora reading up on what to do in the airport or can you get out without visa or what kind of visa is needed. Most of the content just beats around the bush and doesn’t provide any valuable information to come to a conclusion. The proper way would be to get a visa but let’s be honest, who likes to spend that much money for just a day? While surfing through the internet one line struck my mind and stayed: “it depends on the immigration officer.”
When I landed in Heathrow, all I was hoping for is to ask and who knows what will happen. After filling out the immigration card and contemplating for 15 minutes I finally made my way to the immigration line. My heart was racing with excitement and fear at the same time. I get pulled over often maybe it’s my beard or the sheepish looks.
Immigration office -Imo
Myself – me
After initial hi and how you doing, I hand over my passport
Me- I don’t have a visa and was wondering if I could go out to spend my layover outside
Imo- I don’t understand
Me- I have 23 hours of layover and wanted to see if it’s possible for me to go out and visit few places.
Imo- looks at the cop standing near by and he walks up to the counter
Cop: where you coming from ?
Me- India
Cop: where are you going ?
Me- to Indiana via Chicago
Cop: show me your onward journey tickets
Me- *hands over the ticket
Cop: what’s your purpose of visit?
Me- I’m going for an internship/training with a golf club in Indiana.
Cop: you play golf
Me- a little bit but I’m more related on the management aspect
Cop: who is your favourite player
Me- Tiger woods
Cop&Imo- no way! He is my favourite player too.
Cop: what will you do if you go out?
Me- I’m an horticulturist and would like to visit the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew?
Cop: oh Nice and shakes his head at the imo and cop says have a nice day
Imo- stamps my passport and says I have visa for 2 days and make sure that I’m back for my flight.
Me- thank you so much and was showing all my 28 teeth at him.
I went out visited Kew Gardens, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Thames Bridge and few other places. It was one of the best days and even though I was tired I had to use the opportunity to its fullest.
I strongly recommend that people not approach immigration officer if your layover is less than 10 hours.
A fruit of feminism
What do you say when you run into an old boss who fired you?
As a teenager, I worked as a busboy at a Mexican restaurant for $4 an hour. It wasn’t much, but it covered my gas money and car maintenance (my parents wouldn’t pay for those things, nor should they). The general manager loved my impeccable work ethic and my honesty!
But one day, a new assistant general manager appeared, an intimidating red-headed woman who seemed perpetually angry. One Saturday, I worked from 10:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. as scheduled. I was about to leave when the new assistant manager told me to stay until midnight (to cover for another busboy who didn’t show up). I had other plans. This was incredibly late notice! Most people would have just walked out. But instead of complaining, I dutifully worked the entire 14-hour shift.
I got really hungry, and very tired, because she wouldn’t allow me to take a 15-minute break. I was too young to know that breaks were mandated by law. I wasn’t allowed to even take one minute off during that 14-hour span. As a taller than average teenage boy with a huge appetite, I became extremely hungry by 10:00 p.m. after no food for 12 hours. I was cleaning up the happy hour all-you-can-eat buffet when I spotted two burnt potato skins leftover. Nobody had eaten them because they were essentially inedible. They were about to be thrown in the trash. So I ate them.
The red-headed assistant manager called me into her office and yelled, “You stole company food!” I replied calmly, “But it was being thrown away, and you didn’t give me a lunch break nor a dinner break.” She didn’t know I was one of their best workers. She simply said, “You’re officially terminated.” She never even gave me a chance. And I’ve never forgotten that moment. It reaffirmed why I was going to college the following year on a full ride for mathematics and another full ride for violin. That college degree would allow me to have a career in an intellectual field where I’d be respected, rather than doing physical labor for the rest of my life with a boss who treats employees like servants.
My final reply to her was this. “The general manager will not be happy.” And indeed, he was furious the next day when he heard I had been fired. So he promptly fired the assistant who had fired me. A few years later, I earned my master’s degree in mathematics and never had to bus tables again!
POPA CHUBBY – Hey Joe ! Rockpalast [HDadv] Nov. 2011
After I left Prison, I was released to the custody of my father. And unfortunately that included me living in the same house with that psycho witch; my step mother who despised me to no end. She actually loathed me.
Anyways…
I would, while in prison, write letters to my father. In one of those letters, I talked about the food that they served us. I told him that I was so tired of the non-stop beans that they served us. It was a mix of Global (human canned dog food), lima beans, pinto beans, black beans and okra.
Anyways, it wasn’t all the time, but often enough that it was a real problem.
Well, as soon as I was released to my father’s custody, his psycho wife made dinners for us all. The meals were ridiculous. Bean soup. Mashed beans. Pinto beans and rice. Bean casserole. Three bean salad. Bean sandwiches with sprouts… bean dessert.
…what was her problem?
Every day. Every morning. Every lunch. Every dinner.
Day after day. Week after week.
Later on, months later, I figured that she wanted to make my stay as uncomfortable as possible for me. And on Christmas eve she kicked me out and the truth became apparent.
Ah. One of the reasons why it sucked to be me.
Every now and then I remember this, and I shake my head. You know, some people are so crazy, so unstable, that they will always surprise you in how absolutely rude and shitty they can be.
I’ll never forget the bowl of beans with sugar and milk that she made for me one breakfast.
Have you ever bought a car that didn’t run and found that it was an easy fix?
We bought a Saturn at auction a number of years ago. I was desperate for a vehicle that was cheap. It seemed several things we owned were breaking at the same time.
We went to the car auction and looked around. We picked out several possibilities, looked them over and then we prepared to bid. They all went higher than I hoped. In came the Saturn on a tow truck we hadn’t looked at from the it doesn’t run section.
Bidding was introduced at $800. no one bid. They tried $700., $500., and finally someone bid $100. and it raised from there $200. and then $300. My husband turned around and looked at it. Not only did it have no battery but no battery cables. The paint was scratched up both sides. I heard $300. going once and my husband raised his hand. Auctioneer said $400. he soon said, $400. going once, twice, sold. I looked at my husband and said please tell me you didn’t just buy that car that doesn’t even run and we know nothing about. He said Yep.
So the paperwork was complete. We walked out back and looked at it. It had been previously stolen and the battery was removed, cigarette holes burned in a few places in the seats. The letters B i t c h were clearly scratched into the paint on the trunk. I joked it had my name on it.
The battery was still good on my old car. We drove home (approximately 3 miles) and got the battery and stopped on the way back and bought the connectors. Went back and installed the battery and drove it home. It ran great. My husband buffed the trunk lid the following day.
I drove it several years. It got hit once at an intersection. The man at faults insurance paid me $800. It was only a little cosmetic damage that I didn’t care about. I drove it a few more years, money improved and I sold it for $500. and bought another car. I was prepared to go lower but they were glad for $500.
I saw the Saturn a few years later. Still going strong. They said it once needed a part they installed themselves but otherwise dependable.
"People often think I'm joking when I say Global South with my mouth full.
Because we were once known around the planet as poor countries, then as third world countries, then as developing countries, then semi-developed countries.
And now we are developing countries...
No sir, we are now the economy of the Global South, we want to give ourselves a chance so that the Global South, which has part of what the world needs today, can occupy its place in the economy, in politics and in world culture.
Obviously, the BRICS are an exceptional opportunity.
We think it is possible to bring other African countries into the BRICS. We think it is possible for other African countries to participate in the G20, but we are just getting started.
We are just starting out and, at the G20, in Brazil, one of the things we want to discuss are the financial institutions that have existed since the UN was created, such as the IMF and the World Bank.
Whether these institutions will serve to help finance the development of poor countries or whether they will continue to exist to suffocate poor countries.
Africa, I don't have the precise number, but Africa has a debt of around 860 billion dollars. In other words, a debt that is practically unpayable by several countries.
Our suggestion is that the funds that lent this money—or the financial institutions—should take into account the need to transform part of this debt into a productive assets so that this money, instead of returning to the institutions that lent it, goes back by building railways, highways, hydroelectric plants, thermoelectric plants.
That is, something that means the development of the continent, that goes back to education, to a university, a research institute."
Excerpt from remarks by President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva at a press conference during visit to Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, February 18, 2024.
Israel Quietly ‘Retaliates’ For Iran’s Retaliation Attack
The current exchange happened after Israel, in clear violation of international law, bombed the Iranian consulate in Damascus.
The aim and success of last night’s attack is yet unknown:
Israel carried out retaliatory strikes against Iran early Friday morning local time, reportedly targeting locations in the west of the country. Explosions were heard in the city of Isfahan, prompting commercial flights to divert from their routes.Senior US officials speaking to ABC, CBS and NPR confirmed the strikes.
…
Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported at around 5:30 a.m. local time (10:00 p.m. EST Thursday) that explosions were heard in Qahjaverestan, northeast of Isfahan.
A senior Iranian military official in Isfahan told the Islamic Republic News Agency that the explosions were caused by Iran’s air defenses that fired at a suspicious object east of Isfahan. Isfahan’s international airport is located just northeast of Qahjaverestan.
Two discarded first stages of Israeli ROCKS aero-ballistic missiles have been found in Iraq. ROCKS, a derivative of Sparrows ballistic target rocket, are air-launched, stand-off, air-to-ground missiles.
They may have hit something near Isfahan or they may have been taken down by Iranian air defense.
No Iranian or Israeli officials have commented the attack. The IAEA said that no Iranian nuclear facility has been hit.
As both sides are currently silent, and as there are no signs of further escalation, the strike will likely conclude the current exchange.
As a consequence of its strike in Damascus Israel has lost its escalation dominance. Iran managed to penetrate its external security screen just like Hamas had penetrated Israel’s internal security screen on October 7 2023 when it broke out of Gaza to collect hostages.
Those who moved to Israel because they thought that it could provide them with security should reevaluate their decision.
What are some possible reasons for Westerners to have negative views towards China/Chinese culture/people, despite not having personal experience or fluency in the language?
The Chinese are not arrogant or domineering in the world, nor do they bully others. They are also cautious when traveling. Why do Westerners still have negative views of the Chinese?
This negative view is not accidental, but inevitable.
Of course, there is no need for Chinese people to care about what Westerners think of China. After all, who doesn’t have a butthole?
1. The image trap under the hegemony of public opinion
Good impression or bad impression, how is it generated?
Obviously, this requires an input type of cognition, and then each person makes a judgment based on his or her own moral standards. If it is consistent, it will be a good impression, and if it is not consistent, it will be a bad impression.
Therefore, Westerners have mostly bad impressions of China, which has a lot to do with their “cognitive input.”
In fact, the West has been working tirelessly to discredit China for many years in terms of “cognitive input”, even starting hundreds of years ago.
The first is the deliberately created negative cultural symbol.
In fact, at the beginning, Westerners had a good impression of the Chinese.
According to the rumors brought back by various missionaries and sailors, China is an ancient, mysterious and civilized country.
China has a splendid culture and numerous scientific and technological inventions, and can also produce exquisite porcelain, silk, tea and other products.
On the contrary, Europe at that time was filled with corrupt churches, tyrannical nobles and autocratic monarchs. So at that time, Westerners admired China.
However, the Opium War broke all this.
In the Opium War, China suffered a complete defeat, which also allowed Western countries to completely recognize China’s reality.
Westerners are shocked to find that China is so weak, its officials are so ignorant, its people are so poor, and its technology is so backward!
In the hundreds of years since then, Westerners’ impressions of China have changed from one extreme to the other, thinking that China is an uncivilized and barbaric country.
Later, in order to beautify their aggression against the East, Western countries created the “Yellow Peril” theory.
The term “yellow peril” originated from the history of the Mongol Empire’s conquest of Eastern Europe. At that time, the Mongolian army burned, killed, looted, and destroyed civilization in Europe. Their barbaric behavior brought a huge psychological shadow to Europeans. Since China recognizes the Mongol Empire as one of the Chinese dynasties, it is naturally a barbaric and cruel country that will bring disaster to Europeans. This Yellow Peril theory directly gave birth to the biggest negative cultural symbol about China-Fu Manchu.
In the novel “The Mystery of Dr. Fu Manchu”, Fu Manchu is the leader of a Chinese evil organization. He has a bald head and long braids, a Qing Dynasty dress, thin eyebrows and long eyes, and a cunning face.
Fu Manchu’s biggest hobby was to kill white people. He “used insects, bacteria and venom to cause more casualties in a week than Hitler did in a year.”
The appearance of this image completely embodied the Western world’s fear of the mysterious East at that time.
Subsequently, with the addition of Hollywood screenwriters, Fu Manchu in the movie was even more terrifying than the one described in the book.
Indulging in murder and various tortures, these horrific plots have become the childhood shadow of generations of Europeans and Americans.
Subsequently, the Asian people represented by China, together with the evil-doing Fu Manchu, became a cunning, cunning, cruel existence that posed a serious existential threat to the white people.
This is how Western countries use cultural symbols to completely vilify the image of the Chinese people. As a result, when Westerners mention the Chinese, the first impression that comes to mind is the cunning and insidious Fu Manchu. How could they have a good impression?
The second is ideological incompatibility.
As we all know, China is a socialist country and believes in communism.
Communism advocates the elimination of private ownership of the means of production and calls on the proletariat of the world to use revolutionary violence to overthrow the rule of the bourgeoisie.
Capitalism is a social system based on private ownership of the means of production.
This determines that there is naturally the most intense ideological conflict and opposition between the two.
Since the birth of communism, Western countries have tried their best to vilify communism, causing people to feel disgusted with communism and have faith in and dependence on capitalism.
In this way, the authority of the government can be maintained, its political rule can be consolidated, and the capitalists can continue to legally exploit the proletarian masses.
Therefore, Western countries use all kinds of methods to discredit communism.
For example, Western countries took advantage of the public’s antipathy toward Hitler and deliberately confused Nazism (full name: National sozialismus) with socialism, combining historical inducements to arouse people’s antipathy and fear of communism.
For example, in 1948, high-level officials in the United States issued multiple documents one after another that clearly discredited the Soviet Union. Its ultimate goal was to rule the world by any means necessary and encourage its allies to vilify Soviet communism around the world.
Through the export of strong ideology, the United States teaches children to hate and fear communism from an early age.
So no matter what you say, no matter how much communist theory they read, they think it’s “brainwashing.”
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States shifted its target of vilification to China, which still adheres to the socialist path.
For example, the English abbreviation of the Communist Party of China is CPC (the Communist Party of China), which emphasizes the Communist Party of China. However, Western media have always called it the CCP (the Chinese Communist Party), emphasizing China’s communist attributes.
This is actually a discourse trap that deliberately leads the public to unconsciously associate CCP with the image of communism that has been vilified in the past few decades, creating a negative image.
The third is that the United States manipulates public opinion to smear China out of anti-China needs.
In fact, during the honeymoon period between China and the United States in the 1980s, the United States had a relatively friendly attitude toward China. Even Fu Manchu was banned at that time.
But with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the United States labeling China a new generation enemy, this organized smear campaign motivated by anti-China began again.
At the beginning, the US anti-China propaganda mainly focused on “human rights violations” and “Tibet issue”.
After China’s economic aggregate ranked second in the world in 2010, Western countries were worried that China would threaten them, so they began to create the “China threat theory”.
The “China threat theory” covers a very wide range and can be related to anything.
For example, they say that China’s development of normal national defense is to disrupt regional balance and create the threat of war.
For example, they say that China’s population is too large, which will bring a crisis to the world’s food supply and cause food shortages.
For example, they say that everyone in China has a family car, which will cause environmental pollution and bring ecological disasters.
For example, they say that the Chinese engage in hacker activities and accuse Huawei and ZTE equipment of “endangering national security.”
For example, they say that China’s Belt and Road Initiative has created a “debt trap” for relevant countries.
For example, they say that China’s Confucius Institute is a spy agency and a cultural invasion.
For example, they say that China’s police cooperation with other countries is setting up “foreign police stations” to threaten its own nationals.
Even when Chinese people eat meat, Western media say that the carbon dioxide brought by Chinese farming will cause global warming and threaten all mankind.
According to the Western media, everything the Chinese do is wrong and threatens all mankind.
The purpose of this kind of strange, varied and negative reports that exceed the imagination of the Chinese people is to use “deceptive information” and “false propaganda” to offset China’s positive influence in neighboring countries and even in the international arena.
Suppress China’s international image and create obstacles for China to go global.
After all, in the face of a China that has been smeared as “doing everything with conspiracy”, any country that wants to cooperate with China will have to do it in its heart.
How can people in Western countries have a good impression of China when they are immersed in this information cocoon of anti-China public opinion every day?
2. Conflict of interest
If the media’s exaggeration is an external cause, then the conflict of personal interests is the internal cause of the deterioration of foreign people’s impression of the Chinese.
The first is the hostile attitude brought about by industrial competition.
Although the Chinese ideal is a unified world, in the real world, there are indeed stratifications.
In this pyramid-shaped world, it can basically be divided into 6 levels.
The top one is naturally the United States, with a per capita GDP of over US$60,000.
Next are the moderately developed countries, with per capita GDP of about US$40,000, such as Germany, France, the UK and Japan.
Next are the junior developed countries, with per capita income of US$20,000-30,000, such as Greece, South Korea, Spain, etc.
Next are relatively developed developing countries, such as China, India, and Russia.
Then there are some developing countries that sell resources, such as Venezuela, Egypt, etc.
Finally, there are some small and poor countries that cannot even sell their resources.
The total global GDP in 2023 will be approximately US$93 trillion. Among them, the overall GDP of developing countries is US$36 trillion, and the total GDP of all developed countries is approximately US$57 trillion.
What about population? The total population of developed countries is only about 1.1 billion. Except for the United States, which has more than 300 million, and Japan, which has just over 100 million, none of them exceeds 100 million.
In other words, developed countries, which account for less than 18% of the world’s total population, control two-thirds of the world’s total wealth!
If you were reborn in a developed country, you would have enough food and clothing, and receive basic benefits even if you didn’t work. If you are reborn in a small, poor country at the bottom, having enough to eat is just a luxury. Is this fair?
It’s unfair, but this is the reality. Developed countries and developing countries are completely different from the same world in terms of people’s living standards.
So how did these two severely separated parallel worlds come into being? The reason is simple: industry.
If we look at developed countries, we will find that they always have at least one or two trump industries.
Even if some low-end industries are transferred out, high-profit high-end industries are still firmly in the hands of the United States and its allies.
In this system, the United States controls high technology, finance, military industry, aerospace, biopharmaceuticals, computers, agricultural machinery, etc.
The UK controls higher education and finance, France controls nuclear power and passenger aircraft, Germany controls precision machinery and chemical industry, Japan and South Korea control semiconductor raw material manufacturing and automobiles, etc. Basically, each is in charge of its own business.
What are the benefits of this system?
On the one hand, it can leverage the advantages of each country, reduce product costs, and ultimately serve the United States.
On the other hand, since the allies of the United States are smaller in size, giving them some industries can easily ensure prosperity at the national level, lead a good life, and no longer have incentives to develop advantageous industries that threaten the United States.
Why can Westerners work 4 hours a day, drink coffee for another 4 hours, go on vacation to the Mediterranean, sunbathe, and pick up girls, but you can’t? And they are still not satisfied with this and go on strike at every turn! Because their high-end industries support this kind of life.
Their country, relying on its technological and industrial advantages, can live a good life comfortably after seizing its ecological niche. As long as a developed country builds a plane, people in developing countries need to use their hard work and sweat to create 700 million shirts in exchange. Other developing countries can only be locked in agriculture, animal husbandry, mineral resources and low-end industries forever.
In terms of profits, low-end industries can never compare with high-end industries.
This system has been running stably for decades, and the United States and developed countries have been lying on the top of the pyramid, selling sand for the price of chips, and sucking the blood of developing countries for decades.
But they never expected that China would appear.
China is different from other countries in that it has too many people and low-end industries cannot give Chinese people a decent life.
Even if the United States provides some high-end industries to China, China will not be able to become a developed country like South Korea, which has a smaller population.
Therefore, what China is pursuing is the upgrading of the entire industry, using the rise of various industries to cover more Chinese people and allow everyone to live a better life.
No matter how many pearls you have in your industrial crown, we’ll find a way to get them.
Moreover, China has the most complete industrial chain in the world.
China graduates millions of science and engineering students every year. It has a huge domestic market, strategic support at the national level and the national sentiment of “Do those gentry certainly have blue blood?” engraved in the Chinese DNA.
This means that as long as the Chinese want to do something, there is a high probability that they can do it.
Therefore, when the Chinese are no longer satisfied with sewing buttons and knitting clothes, and start to upgrade their industries, the comfortable days of Western countries will come to an end.
China’s industrial upgrading also has a magical ability. No matter what high technology is conquered by China, it will immediately become a bargain.
Then when we return to foreign markets, we can immediately reduce the dimensionality of foreign manufacturers and attack them without even having to compete.
For example, Western countries used to sell dyes used in the textile industry for hundreds of thousands of dollars per ton. After we mastered the core technology, we directly sold it for 10,000 CNY per ton, killing most of our international peers.
There are also white goods. In the past, every Chinese household was proud to have a Toshiba TV. As a result, now that China’s white goods market is all over the world, Toshiba is about to go bankrupt.
The same goes for LCD panels. In the past, China could only rely on imported LCD panels to make color TVs, and most of the profits from a color TV would be taken away by foreign countries. Now after China’s breakthrough, it has directly captured 80% of the world’s LCD panel share, and the price is so low that LCD panels can be installed above toilet urinals.
Also, China broke through the shield machine, and Germany’s Waldrich Coburg Machine Tool Factory closed down.
China made a breakthrough in pen tip steel, and Japan’s Shimomura Seiko suffered a sharp decline in profits and was on the verge of bankruptcy.
China started making mobile phones, and Nokia and Motorola went bankrupt.
China’s practice of using low prices to completely overturn the market structure once a technological breakthrough is really unbearable to Westerners.
China has destroyed so many monopolized industries in the West, making life for Westerners less comfortable. How can you expect them to have a good impression of China?
Let’s take a look:
Why were Western countries not as anti-China in 2010 as they are now?
Has the anti-China voice in Western countries suddenly become louder since 2010?
Isn’t it because China has started industrial upgrading and its GDP has surpassed Japan’s?
The second is that the rise of China has changed the international order and caused an imbalance in the mentality of Westerners.
Western countries like to talk about a saying: rules-based international order.
What exactly is this “rules-based international order”? To put it bluntly, it is the international order established by the United States after World War II by taking advantage of its status as the biggest winner in World War II.
In this order, the United States can recruit a “team of allies” to arbitrarily interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and launch color revolutions to overthrow other countries’ governments at will.
In this order, the United States has bound the U.S. dollar with gold and oil successively, making the U.S. dollar the world currency, and the United States can harvest the world’s wealth through the U.S. dollar tide.
In this order, the United States and its allies maintain strong military strength and bully other countries wantonly.
They can use a test tube of white powder as an excuse to bomb Iraq at will, killing and injuring millions of people, and if other countries build a new warship, they will be slandered as a “threat to regional peace.”
Simply put, the biggest principle of this order is to always maintain American hegemony.
After this order is established, everyone in Western countries will be a beneficiary of this order.
They can treat immigrants from other countries with an arrogant attitude and leave all the dirty work to immigrants.
They can draw high profits from developing countries by entering into unfair contracts through the economic advantages maintained by their hegemony.
They can go to developing countries at will, show off their identity as a Westerner, and attract countless women to throw themselves into their arms, and then abandon them.
Even in the face of a terrorist attack, as long as you show your identity as “I am an American”, you will most likely enjoy priority evacuation and special protection.
Over the past few decades, they have taken this kind of treatment for granted, as if they were born with this kind of treatment.
But they didn’t expect that China would appear.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has repeatedly declared that there is only one international order, and that is the basic order of the United Nations.
Obviously, China is willing to integrate with international standards, but it is not willing to be subject to the basic order of the United States.
China seeks a fair and just international order from the perspective of everyone in the world, not an international order dominated by the United States.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, every child in Gaza should live to adulthood.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, underage girls in Thailand should not become the playthings of white people.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, Africans should not starve while guarding their fertile land.
In the international order advocated by the Chinese, South American children should not face the only two options: drug trafficking and football.
This is China’s original intention of building a community with a shared future for mankind – hoping to seek the sharing of development rights, development opportunities and development results, so that the results of world construction and development can benefit people of all countries more and more equitably, and truly achieve win-win sharing.
But this has undoubtedly touched the cake of the people of developed countries. You have changed the world order, so how can they continue to lie at the top of the pyramid and dominate?
It’s like a rural person who enters the city and feels inferior when looking at the high-rise buildings in the city. When he meets the city people, he feels inferior to others. The city people feel that everything is taken for granted.
However, when a rural person who comes to the city becomes literate through self-study and feels that he and the city people are both human beings and there is no distinction between superiority and inferiority, and demands to be on an equal footing with the city people, do you think the city people can accept it?
Therefore, Western people naturally do not have a good impression of China, which has taken the lead in “undermining the international order.”
Third, the successful path of Chinese-style modernization has completely overturned the only successful path of the West for a long time.
For a long time, there has been only one successful path to human development, which is Western-style modernization.
This was the only correct path proven by practice, and it became a model for all countries to learn from.
To a certain extent, Western-style modernization has dominated the process of human modernization.
But strangely enough, there are many countries that follow the path of Westerners. Whether it is political system or economic system, they are basically planned according to the Western model.
But today, not many countries have really reached the level of modernization in the West. On the contrary, some countries are getting worse and worse, and even go bankrupt.
Why is this so?
To put it bluntly, the other side of the Western modernization process has been deliberately hidden.
Since the Age of Discovery, the West has embarked on global capital expansion and colonial activities.
Ship after ship of silver, ship after ship of black slaves, and ship after ship of opium helped the West quickly accumulate a large amount of wealth, and also planted the root of poverty and backwardness in other regions.
With capital, coupled with the technological monopoly created by the first-mover advantage and the trade hegemony brought by the advantages of international rules, Western countries can easily seize high profits and play a game of scissors.
Therefore, despite the hype about Western modernization, it actually only requires you to comply with the international order established by Western modernization and the unfair international wealth distribution behind this order.
But they never expected that China would stand up.
China knows very well that copying the Western development model will not achieve modernization at all, so China has developed Chinese-style modernization.
China chose to rely on its new national institutional advantages and scale advantages to change from a free flow of funds to a government-guided capital flow.
Through rural revitalization and urbanization, China’s advantages of huge population and large cumulative effect have been used to help rural areas get rid of poverty and promote common prosperity.
Facts have proved that China was successful, and it took several decades to go through the path of modernization that took Western countries hundreds of years.
Today, both its economy and military strength have reached the point where it has surpassed countless developed countries.
China has provided a model to all countries, a model that can still succeed without following the path of Westernization, which has strengthened the confidence of all countries in the world that are interested in developing their own modernization.
When other countries see China’s success, they will naturally pursue their own modernization instead of following suit under the deception of Western scholars.
But in this way, the modernization theory that Western countries have maintained for decades will go bankrupt.
To put it simply, the rise of China has completely destroyed Westerners’ institutional and theoretical confidence.
Therefore, we cannot expect Western people to have any favorable impression of China, a “heretic” that does not follow the Western path and is leading more countries to abandon the Western path.
Therefore, there is no need for Chinese people to consider what Westerners think! You can’t change them either!
As winners, do Chinese people need to consider the thoughts of losers?
Have you ever lost any respect for someone instantly?
I was in the ninth or tenth standard.
Our Maths teacher was excellent in teaching maths in logical way.
I had a great respect for her teaching excellence.
Since I loved Maths and scored good marks, students who had problem with maths would come to me in the short interval for clearing their doubts in some difficult problems.
Those students were day schoolers , while I was in boarding.
In short interval when I was explaining Maths, they would offer me some food to taste which they brought from their home.
One particular item jowar roti(it is called jonna rotti in Telugu) with smoked brinjal chutney(baigan ka bharta) was my favorite. So whenever any of those girls brought those items, they would invariably offer me.
One day when I was explaining some problems to the girls, the teacher saw us.
After some time I was called into the staff room.
I was scared. “Did I do any thing wrong by explaining maths to those girls?” I thought.
“It is a good thing you are clearing the doubts for those girls. I appreciate you. You are saving my time” she said.
My respect for her increased.
“But why do you eat from their (mentioning their caste) tiffin boxes? Stop eating from now onwards”
My entire respect for her came crashing down in a minute.
From then onward, I respected her as a good Math teacher but never considered as a mentor.
RV Life is FINISHED! | 7 HARSH REALITIES Why RVer’s QUIT
Southern Fried Catfish
Fried Catfish Recipe 8 scaled
Ingredients
6 small catfish
2 cups buttermilk
2 cups cornmeal
Salt
Ground pepper
Instructions
Shake cornmeal, salt and ground pepper in a paper bag.
Heat oil to 360 degrees F, halfway up the sides of a cast iron skillet.
Dip catfish into buttermilk, then into dry mixture in bag.
Fry for about 2 1/2 to 3 minutes on each side (5 minutes per every inch of thickness).
Serve with Hush Puppies.
What kind of people will not succeed in life?
I had a good friend, Matt, growing up through high school.
He was a bright kid, did well on tests and stuff. But his parents, who were wealthy, kept giving him everything.
He never had to work during the summers (which is common here in the States). Anytime he needed anything, they handed him wads of cash. Anytime he made a mistake they bailed him out, never held him accountable.
Over time he just lost all motivation.
It hurts me to write this, but – here we are 34 years old, and he still hasn’t finished a college degree and literally lives in his parents’ basement. So much wasted potential already.
Spoiling a kid is the worst thing a parent can do.
She’s absolutely full of shit
Have you ever bought something from a yard sale or second hand store only to discover it was worth significantly more? What was the item you purchased?
Years ago, my husband stopped by a yard sale looking for old canning jars (which he collects). When he was getting ready to pay for his new treasures, the man running the sale asked him if he wanted a bottle he had – it was only $5. So my husband bought it. He put it in the back seat of his truck and headed for home.
When he got home, he noticed the vivid green coloring to the bottle so he took some pictures of it and uploaded pictures of it to a collector’s group he belonged to. One person offered him $100, another $200. Finally, someone messaged my husband and asked him if he even knew what he had. Turns out it was an old Binninger’s whiskey bottle and the second one known to exist. They offered to pay for transport to their facility and take it around to some collectors’ shows, then auction it off so it could get some exposure. My husband paid for the shipping and agreed that they could auction it off.
That bottle sold for $6000. The auction house got 10%. So $6000 – $620 (600 to the auction house and $20 to buy and ship) = $5380.00. Not a bad traffic
What is the best random conversation you overheard?
This was actually half of three conversations that were all connected.
A few years ago I was on holiday in Pisa. One day we were travelling back to Pisa by train after a day out and we were sitting near a young Italian.
When he started speaking to someone on his mobile, I did pay attention at first but I then found that I was understanding what he was saying without trying. I decided to practise my aural comprehension and started listening.
He was asking someone to meet him at the station and I assumed that it was his sister, since many young Italians live at home.
Anyway he said something like:
”…… if you could come and meet me at the station … I need to buy a birthday present for Mamma…”
I could not hear what the other person said but I realised he had received a negative response because he said “OK” in a tone of resignation. I had a vague suspicion that asking for help to choose a present was just an excuse and his real concern was getting a lift home. He then said something like:
”I’ll see you at home then ….. or maybe you could come and pick me up at the station …… Ah, OK. I’ll see you at home then”
I noticed that when he asked about being picked up at the station he spoke with exaggerated casualness, obviously wanting to give the impression that he had only just thought of it although it was his real reason for phoning.
After his request had met with another refusal, he phoned someone else and suggested meeting at the station before going to a bar. This person also declined.
A few minutes later the young man’s mobile rang and I just knew that the second person wanted to arrange something for another night. When he answered his mobile, I could half sense and half hear the other person suggesting that they meet another time. The young man did not want to arrange anything and ended the call very quickly.
Personally, if I had been in the other person’s position, I would not have bothered with that young man again. He seemed really self-centred.
Shorpy History
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Why do some foreigners think that the Chinese are living in disasters and that the government is against its people?
It is the nature of commercial media that it reports only shocking bad news. Good news is of no interest to anybody. Commercial media has one job: to delivery a large audience to advertisers. To maximize the audience it must minimize the daily shock value.
It ‘s not just foreigners, newspapers in Singapore, HK and Taiwan report China like it is a complete cycle of violence, corruption, and sex, because that is what sells newspapers and attracts audiences. My relatives in HK won’t visit because they are too frightened to come to Suzhou. Despite us being in the SIP which is virtually crime free.
Government media would like to correct the balance. But they also are under pressure to deliver audiences to justify their huge budgets, so they too become superficial and concentrate on human rights, labour regulation failures, and corruption.
China tries to bring in its own message via publications and CCTV, but this is seen as propaganda and so viewership is limited to overseas Chinese.
What was a loophole that you found and exploited the hell out of?
I’m torn whether or not the share this because this “loophole” still exists.
When I was an undergraduate, I noticed that publishers would send professors copies of their textbooks. Some unsolicited. Some upon request.
A light bulb went off. As a new semester approached, I would find a copy of the previous syllabus and get the ISBN number or I’d just go to the bookstore and copy it down. All I really needed was the publisher’s name, the title and the author. I would Google the publisher and look for a customer service number or a request for review copy number. Then, I’d call and say, “Hi, my name is Charlie and I’m calling for Dr. Jones. Do you have any review copies of this textbook that you can send me?” (I used Jones as a pseudonym here but the person whose name I used was real). And then when they confirm that they do, I’d ask if there were any ancillaries that would accompany the book.
They would send the book, solution set and test bank directly to me at the department office. After my first semester, I didn’t pay for a single book in college.
I would exercise caution doing this. I think this worked for me was because I provided free tutoring to students and every one of the faculty members in the department knew me.
What are the lessons people most often learn too late in life?
1. Money might not buy happiness but it does make sadness comfortable.
2. The fuller your phone battery is by the end of the day, the better your day was.
3. Having a small circle is cool until your two friends are busy.
4. World history unfolding seems so unreal until you experience it first and it becomes too real.
5. If an object is large enough, it becomes a location.
6. Never run for a bus or a relationship. Because when one leaves, another arrives.
7. May you attract someone speaks your language so you don’t have to translate your soul.
8. Some people don’t realize how hard you are riding for them, until you park.
9. Everyone wants you to go the extra mile, but seldom gives you the gas to do it.
10. Randomly hearing your favorite song is more satisfying than putting it on yourself.
According to the plan, it was supposed to carry back 2 kilograms, but the density of the lunar soil is based on public information in the United States. The U.S. public information is incorrect. The actual lunar soil density is smaller than that disclosed by the United States.
In this way, under the same volume, the mass decreases: 2 kg → 1.731 kg.
This scientific parameter must not be wrong! Get it wrong and the mission will fail. Fortunately, the Chinese do not trust the United States and have margins when designing.
2 possibilities: Deliberately publicizing wrong information to mislead others. The second is that the United States really doesn’t know what is wrong. Therefore, the United States keeps asking China for information and lunar soil. China ignored it!
I am not qualified to say that the US moon landing was fake, I can only have doubts.
Some Problem discussion :
1. The Soviet Union also used unmanned missions to land on the moon, obtained the lunar soil, and found water, while the United States said there was no water. The Soviet Union was not confident and could only believe that the lunar soil it obtained was contaminated. Now, no one from China has landed on the moon to obtain lunar soil, proving that the lunar soil contains water.
2. The ironclad proof of the American moon landing is the installation of a lunar surface laser corner reflector . The distance between the earth and the moon can be measured on the earth through the lunar corner reflector. However, the United States installed two corner reflectors manually, and the Soviet Union installed three corner reflectors with automatic machines for unmanned lunar landings. At the same time, the Soviet Union’s corner reflectors can also measure the distance between the earth and the moon. The effect is the same, how can it be “irrefutable proof”.
3. Zhang Benan , deputy chief engineer of China’s aerospace industry , publicly stated that according to the internal assessment of the US Apollo moon landing, the reliability rate was less than 50%. If China followed the American moon landing model, it would be impossible to succeed. Look, Chinese scientists always speak in direct manner. If the success rate of a project is less than 50%, can it be successful? However, there were 6 Apollo moon landings, 5 of which were successful. Science is not feudal superstition. We talk about projects based on facts. We do not take personal feelings and evaluate rationally!
4. When the United States landed on the moon and returned to the earth, it did not master the ” Qian Xuesen ballistic ” re-entry technology and returned to the earth at the second cosmic speed , which would have killed all the astronauts. However, the three astronauts are not dead, they are alive. what happened? The United States has not yet mastered this technology. In 2022, NASA made big claims early, claiming that Orion was the first manned spacecraft in history to use a jump return method (i.e., “floating”) to reenter the atmosphere. This is actually a ” semi-ballistic return ” and is not fully understood. But how did they return to Earth in 1969?!
5. China and the United States, no one has landed on the moon, and some people have landed on the moon. Comparison of lunar surface pictures:
main qimg 9f3133a555bfba4b50b4547c58bb3bce
China, lunar surface, lunar soil is dense and discolored. United States, on the lunar surface, the lunar soil is like a cement pile, loose and does not change color. (Picture below: Moon landing announced by the United States)
main qimg da27dfb27dc0d274dda5f095a428ba41
There is another picture, below: Ground simulation training taken by the United States (published by the United States), take a look
main qimg 4ae1eed93956631e2abf65cb90cd3e78
In the ground simulation, the astronauts were held by two wires behind them, and the scene was almost the same as if they were on the moon… If you go to the studio and the wire ropes are blurred, you would think that they are on the so-called moon….The picture below shows the lunar surface taken by China’s Chang’e 2 , which is believed to be the remnants of the American Apollo 11. However, it is a shadow with a resolution of 70 meters. It does not prove that “someone landed on the moon”. A lunar rover? American flag? where? Where are the footprints? No one has ever landed on the moon, so we can throw something down. It’s pitch black, what are you looking at? ?
main qimg 31564713a11c1dfe16ed8e2776cbed29
Even if no one lands on the moon, we can still create this huge pile of ruins with nothing visible. 2002 American TV show, the host who questioned the moon landing insisted that astronaut Aldrin swear to the camera with his hand on the Bible, declaring that he had truly left footprints on the moon. If he refused, it would prove that the moon landing was a hoax. Aldrin remained silent for a long time. But the host continued to ask, saying that if you don’t swear, “you are a coward, a liar, and a shameful thief.” Faced with such verbal provocation, an angry Aldrin punched the host, but he still refused to swear in the end. Later, Armstrong and other three other astronauts who landed on the moon also refused to swear when they encountered similar situations. That is to say, no one who landed on the moon has dared to swear according to the Bible that he landed on the moon. (There is a video, you can look for it) According to American law, pressing the Constitution and the Bible with your hands and swearing an oath are essentially testimonials, which are legally binding. Many people do not understand American law. The act of swearing on the Bible can be used as evidence recognized by the court. If you lie, it is ” perjury “; and perjury is one of the six major felonies and must be sentenced to more than one year in prison. There is no Execution outside prison and understanding outside court. Therefore, when Americans are forced to swear or testify, they can remain silent and refuse to answer. This is a form of self-protection and is recognized by law.
Conclusion :
1. We must use a “real scientific attitude” to talk about problems, instead of “because the United States is very powerful”. Everything it does is right and true. This is inappropriate. Discuss things objectively without any subjectivity; let alone use force to overwhelm others, “America is great, how dare you doubt it?” “Scientists from all over the world don’t doubt it, so who do you think you are?” “Whatever culture you have, you are worthy of doubting Apollo”…This is no longer interesting.
2. Not much to talk about, just two:
A. The United States has not yet mastered the “floating technology.” How did the people inside the lunar return module survive when it returned to the earth at the speed of the second universe? Entering the atmosphere at the speed of the second universe, the spacecraft can withstand at least 16G inside and outside, and the human body can withstand up to 10G. If it exceeds, you will die. How did these moon landings survive?
B. Just one. Of all the “moon-landers”, not one of them pressed the Bible and swore he would land on the moon. Why? When talking about things, convince people with reason.
Everyone is interested in the ground training of the American Apollo moon landing. Here are a few more pictures. These are all announced by NASA:
main qimg 38177cfc66c2d536c1f6d1042656d1e0
It is speculated that the Americans do not know what the real land on the moon is like. They relied on reasoning to simulate the lunar surface and thought it was similar to a cement pile. However, now China has landed on the moon, and found that the lunar surface is actually similar to the Gobi Desert. The picture below shows the first American moonwalkers. They firmly refused to swear by the Bible that they had landed on the moon. They either cursed, ignored, or remained silent. There were 12 people who landed on the moon, and no one swore an oath!
main qimg 76d19541d6cded34a9b542d57834c6f4
We Chinese, born in a secular society, keep a distance from religion or are indifferent to it. But Western society is different. Even after the religious reform, most Americans are Protestants, and they still have a strong respect for religion. Swearing on the Bible is a big deal to them. This is not an oath, it actually explains a lot.….
The latest video I saw was Aldrin talking to a little girl. He probably won’t live long enough to control it, so he told the truth. July 2018, an 8-year-old girl asked Aldrin: “Why hasn’t anyone gone to the moon in so long?”Aldrin accidentally said this: I don’t know, we haven’t been to the moon either!
main qimg 1373f1630f997ff87de6e1980af36ab7
Author Note :
USA empire of lies, Barbarian who think himself noble.
Onion Crusted Catfish
onion crusted catfish
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Catfish
8 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish Fillets
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 cup French fried onions, crushed
Pecan Sauce
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
Instructions
Catfish
Combine flour, salt, cayenne pepper and lemon zest in shallow bowl.
Dredge fillets in flour mixture and press in crushed fried onions, coating well.
Brown fillets over medium-high heat serving side down for 3 to 4 minutes.
Turn fillets and cook 3 to 4 more minutes or until done.
While fillets are cooking, make Pecan Sauce.
Place fillets on plate and serve with sauce.
Pecan Sauce
Melt butter in small saucepan until bubbly and slightly browned.
Add pecans and cook 1 minute to lightly toast.
Add lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. Remove from heat; add parsley. Spoon over fish.
What accidentally rude things do Americans do while traveling even without realizing it?
Senator John McCain told this story. He was visiting an African nation and was in the office of that country’s president, along with a Congressional colleague. The colleague proceeded to talk to the African president loudly and slowly, using exaggerated gestures.
“MY country is VERY BIG. We have BIG MOUNTAINS. We have BIG CITIES. We have UNIVERSITIES. Do you know what UNIVERSITY means?”
The African president stared at him a moment and then replied, in a normal tone of voice, “I think so. I have a daughter at Vanderbilt.”
Edit, May 5, 2023: Eighty-two thousand views in a week suggests that this issue resonates with a great many people. I am also reminded of this incident of a few years ago:
EDITORIAL: Well, that was embarrassing… — Acknowledging our assumptions
There are many ways to strangle communication. We can misinterpret, not pay enough attention, pay too much attention (to ourselves!), and of course assume. It is much too easy to do. A recent case …
Finally, I am reminded of the employee orientation I attended at an internationally known non-profit institution that attracts employees from all over the world. The institution is located in Tennessee. A young couple with obvious British accents said they were from the UK, and the person in charge of the orientation, having no idea what the UK was, spent the entire day thinking they were from Ukraine.
Retro Pictures AI generated
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Have you ever worked with someone who deliberately tried to get you fired?
Yes. My BEST friend…who I hired to be an assistant manager…and he succeeded. Out of the blue one day, the COO of the company (a bit of a tyrant, but was ALWAYS cool with me) tried to get me to resign for “theft” of property that had been missing before I ever took the position as a manager. I flatly refused and even laughed at him, I hadn’t stolen anything and I knew I was the scapegoat for something. I was fired with no cause given, it certainly wasn’t for theft even though that was the claim. Months later he (best friend) then proceeded to go after my Dad (who worked at the same company) and my dad resigned (he was already job shopping because the company was beginning to have strange issues). Turns out he (my best friend) was a two faced POS (even his own family has now disowned him). He apparently knew that the COO of the company was having an affair…and he used that info to blackmail the COO into putting him into my position and then my father’s position. It lasted about a year until the company president found out about the affair and gave the COO a second chance to clean up his act (the COO’s wife worked for the president and was just a wonderful person). The COO couldn’t keep it in his pants and he got fired. The President took over the COO’s position and began to get information from recently fired employees about how they were fired without cause because the “big supervisor” (guess who) found “problems” that didn’t really exist. The big supervisor would have to come to the stores and do inventories, etc., and while he was doing that he was rewriting sales agreements and contracts so that HE was now getting the percentages of the sales vs the now fired managers. Well, all of that caught up to him…AND it was determined that HE was stealing and blaming it on employees. He had a nice racket going. He got fired and damn near got put in jail. I eventually heard that he had BIG BIG money problems, a serious drug issue and other things. His wife divorced him, his two kids won’t speak to him, his brother and sister won’t even mention his name…. He moved away, married a gal that had a “history” and became persona non grata around these parts.
This is a guy I knew all of my life, who I trusted with my life and would’ve died for. His family is one of the best and his father was as good a man as I’ve ever known. He threw all of it away for money and to try to dig himself out of a problem of his own making. It broke my heart because I’d never been betrayed like that before.
PROOF EVERYONE IS GOING BROKE!
If the Chinese government was forced to choose between Made in China 2025 and One Belt One Road for investment, which one should it invest in?
I believe that Made in China 2025 plays better to China’s traditional strengths, which are:
Production and manufacturing capacity;
Innovation and adaptation;
A growing domestic consumer market;
Fast to market speed;
Domestic consumers who are quicker to adapt than other markets.
It will also stimulate science innovation at a time when the US, EU and Japan are not investing as much.
Moreover, China needs to move up the value chain because the US has shown that it is an unreliable trading partner, which means that China needs to be strong in all the areas which the US is currently strong in, and replace the US as the world’s most innovative and reliable trading partner.
There is an opportunity here because the Trump administration and Republican Party have turned against science investment and education, which means that there is a good opportunity for China to attract science talent to work in China on next generation products and services.
In order to do this, China needs to open up immigration, not just to ethnic Chinese from overseas, but to all talented individuals with special skills who can contribute to Made in China 2025. It needs to become the immigration destination of choice for people from all over the world, replacing the US.
OBOR mainly benefits the large Chinese state-owned companies which are strong in transport development and infrastructure. However, the big question is when will these huge infrastructure projects be paid off?
If their domestic markets take a long time to develop, this means that these governments in central Asia will be saddled with high levels of debt to China, and creating animosity towards China among their own populations. (This has already happened in Malaysia, where the new Malaysian government has asked to re-negotiate the terms of Chinese infrastructure projects in Malaysia.)
For these reasons, I think that Made in China 2025 is the safer investment, and will help Chinese science and industry move up the value chain, replacing the US.
More common than you can believe
Beef Brisket
Beef Brisket
Ingredients
1 (5 or 6 pound) beef brisket
Onion, garlic and celery salt
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 envelope onion soup mix
1 small bottle barbecue sauce
Instructions
Marinate brisket in a mixture of the onion, garlic and celery salts and liquid smoke. Rub in well and poke holes in meat to help tenderize it. Marinate overnight or at least 3 hours.
Make a pouch of aluminum foil. Put meat in it and add salt and pepper to taste and Worcestershire sauce. Seal pouch well and bake at 275 degrees F for 4 to 6 hours.
Open pouch and put onion soup mix and small bottle of barbecue sauce over brisket. Seal pouch again and bake 1 hour longer.
Refrigerate for 1 hour before slicing across grain.
What was your favorite prison experience?
A few years ago, pre-COVID, I volunteered to teach inmates at Folsom Women’s Facility how to code.
In preparation for doing so, I was sent a list of do’s and dont’s (well, mostly don’ts, especially since any “do” can be converted to a “don’t” by negating it).
Some of the don’ts were fairly obvious–no physical contact with an inmate, no passing of messages to/from inmates, no discussion of their crime or sentence, etc.
Some were less obvious (to me, at least) but made sense once I read them…
Do not wear clothing that resembles the clothing that prisoners wear (so no jeans, no blue shirts, no orange, etc.)
Do not wear clothing that resembles what custodial staff wear (forest green pants, tan shirts, camouflage)
And there was “Do not under any circumstances run.”
I had (correctly) assumed I would be escorted to and from the classroom, so I couldn’t imagine running. “What’s this about?” I said to myself for a millisecond, then I read further. If a violent incident were to occur, typically the only people running are the perpetrators. Or the guards rushing to quell the incident. You don’t want to be mistaken for an inmate causing trouble, so don’t run.
All of a sudden, the blood drained from my face. “What am I getting myself into?”
Reading further, it said that incidents were rare, but they do happen. I composed myself.
Further down still, the verbiage was something like this–if an incident did occur, the guards’ primary objective was to prevent injury to the staff. I would be a volunteer visitor, and my safety could not be guaranteed. Hmm.
I signed the form. I wanted to help.
It was a bit of a drive–San Francisco to Folsom. Stayed overnight in an Airbnb, and was ready to go early the next morning. Short drive to the facility, enjoyed the scenery, etc.
Then I pull up the road that leads to the facility. As I approach and look for the parking area, I see guard towers, barbed wire, etc. “Holy shit, what did I get myself info?”
I panic for a few seconds, then compose myself. “This is going to be fun. Teaching is my happy place. These folks could use my help.”
I had always assumed that in retirement I would work at the Humane Society, or part-time at Home Depot or the like. But the moment I stepped in the classroom and introduced myself, I instantly knew what I was going to do when I retired.
I could make jokes about inmates being a captive audience, but the fact is–they were there to learn. Much more universally than my corporate clients, some of whom don’t really want to be there, or if they do, they aren’t allowed to focus because their boss keeps asking them to do things, even though they are in class.
I went back several times and enjoyed each and every moment with those students.
But the question asked about our favorite prison experience. It was a LinkedIn message I received a couple years later, from one of my former students:
“I hope you remember me from Folsom Women’s Facility. You did a Python workshop for us, I enjoyed it and was inspired by it. I am out now and working. Thank you for the knowledge and encouragement!”
That.
More of that, please.
Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer for an unusual reason?
The plant I work in is a 24/7 365 operation. I’m an industrial electronics technician/mechanic and this particular year I got the short straw. So late on the 24th of December Christmas eve and I’m on my way to work. Then this cop pulls in behind me, lights n such, and pulls me over. I couldn’t think of a single thing I had done wrong and was thinking, wtf, I’m gonna get a ticket on may way to work a night shift on Christmas eve, seriously???. I was clearly not feeling like this was going to be a good day.
Now I like putting my skills to work in my personal as well as professional life. My favorite thing is building projects, enter the pickup truck I was driving at the time. For note, this took place about 20yrs ago.
The cop comes up and immediately said, ‘you haven’t done anything wrong’. Which clearly left me very very confused. ‘Are those solar panels on your bed?’. Yes, yes they are. You see I had built an electric truck out of an old Chevy S10. The solar provided some free charging. The questions being flying and on the side of the road on Christmas eve I pop the hood and give an impromptu lesson on electric vehicles.
10min or so later excused myself, work awaited. Oddest stop I ever had.
As a car salesman, what was the biggest discount you ever gave on a car?
I worked for a Kia dealer in the late 90s. They had something called retro money. It was an incentive to the dealer. Every car you sold in a month got you xx dollars from the manufacturer. The more you sold the larger the incentive, and it was retro to all the cars you sold that month. So if the incentive went from 500 to 800 per car you would get the extra 300 on all cars sold for the month.
It is the last day of the month and we need to sell two cars to hit the next level. It would mean an extra 35k for the dealer. We sold the first one by 10am. Then it was a ghost town. No customers etc. I get a guy looking at a Kia Sportage. Not really interested, blah blah blah. It’s nearly closing time and this guy is the only customer. He is one of those that doesn’t buy the same day etc. I was ready to buy a car at this point. We offer him a deal, no, another deal, no. We gave him the rebate off of invoice as well as the holdback, the funny money. The final offer was a 4,000 loss from triple net cost. It was about 8k off of sticker price. This on a car that had a sticker price of about 18k. HE WANTS TO THINK ABOUT IT OVERNIGHT. I tell him this deal goes away. Honestly, if he didn’t buy it, I was going to. He did buy it.
Drizzle Drizzle; men have flipped the script but women DON’T GET IT
As a Starbucks barista, have you ever been terrified of the name someone wanted on their order?
I work at a fast food place, not Starbucks, but yeah, I’ve had my share of gross assholes who want me to call them shit like “big dick” or “daddy.” In the immediate aftermath of the 2016 elections, I had a Latine coworker who was told several times to put in “Trump,” and once, “Heil Hitler.” Thank g-d I wasn’t in the store that day. I think I would’ve had a heart attack.
The absolute worst I’ve personally taken was this douchebag who told me to put his name in as Hail Satan 666, and when I called his order by item instead of name, he told me he wouldn’t leave the store until I called it. I refused and told him we only called real names (not true, but a convenient excuse). He was snickering with his buddies and told me that was discrimination because that was definitely his real name, and did I have a problem with his real name? Goodness, I hope none of that merry band ever procreate.
On the flip side, I had a dude that same day who gave me his name, and when I apologized and said we could only use real names, he got the BIGGEST grin, pulled out his wallet….
…..and I put in his name, went to the back, and when my manager opened her mouth to tell me off I said “ohhh, no. I saw his driver’s license. His name is really Bruce Wayne, and we’re gonna call it.”
Can you write something that will shock me to the core?
In ancient Rome, the punishment for patricide (killing one’s father) was to be drowned in a sack along with a viper, a dog, a monkey and a rooster. The reason? I don’t even know.
Alice Stebbins Wells was the first ever policewoman who joined the LAPD in 1910. Because she was the first (and only) policewoman, she designed her own police uniform.
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3. Gorgias of Epirus, a Greek sophist, was born in his dead mother’s coffin while pallbearers were on their way to bury her. Who has an explanation for this?
4. In the 5th century, St. Simeon Stylites spent 37 years on a small platform on top of a tall pillar in Aleppo, Syria. He did it for ascetic reasons but sometimes I wonder how even spending 1 year on top of a skyscraper without coming down will be like.
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5. One of the most well-known gladiators of ancient Rome, Carpophorus, fought exclusively against beasts. You think Samson in the Bible was a beast? Carpophorus was a monster! Carpophorus famously defeated a bear, lion, and leopard in a single battle. That same day, he slaughtered a rhinoceros with a spear and set a record of killing 20 wild animals no other man will even venture to go near. Even Hercules didn’t do this!
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American Reacts to First Time You Realized America Really Messed You Up | Part 2 | TikTok
Have you ever had a job where you did nothing for years and nobody found out?
I do now.
It grew out of quiet quitting. Most other hospitals in town pay about 30–40% more for my job. So after making this known I cut back my work to about 60% and nobody noticed or cared so I cut back even further.
I do about 6 hours of work in a given week.
I show up, I train my classes 1–2 days a couple weeks a month then I go wander around clinics and bullshit with a few people to look like I’m busy. Then I go back to my desk and sit. Thanks to Covid office emptiness I keep headphones on so it looks like I’m listening to music. I’m listening to books on tape or watching YouTube videos. I keep something that looks like work on one of my monitors so I look busy but I pretty much just sit. Sometimes I work on additional certifications for when the ship sinks and I have to go work somewhere else.
I work from home on Fridays, which is to say I sign in to Teams and watch Netflix for 8 hours.
If I can keep this up for 13 years and this poorly run mess I work for doesn’t bankrupt itself, I retire with a full pension.
How did your marriage end?
I have been married twice.
My first marriage ended with my wife’s bloody body in my lap.
She took only about a minute to die.
We had been married, exactly 5 years, she died on our anniversary. She was pregnant, so I also lost the person who would have been my firstborn.
My second marriage ended when my wife died in hospital, from cancer, while I was asleep, at home, she took just days short of 2 years to die.
We had been married 46 years.
I’m still trying to work out which was the worst.
The strange thing about all this is that my first wife died on the 17th of August 1963, at 0130 hrs.
My second wife died on the 17th of August 2013, at 0115 hrs.
I decided to not remarry as I would be depressed every year as August approached.?
PS. My birthday is the 27th of August.
What did your boss say to you during a meeting that resulted in you immediately resigning?
I came into work one morning at around 9:30AM and so was admittedly late. This was in the early 70s so flexible working was not a thing. My boss called me into his office, and gave me right bollocking. I resigned on the spot basically telling him that if he didn’t like it he could stuff his job.
This does seem to be rather high-handed of me, but the context is that I had finished work at 4 AM, destruction testing and debugging a programme suite I had written over the previous 6 months. I had just worked continuously from Friday 10 PM until Monday 4 AM surviving on sandwiches and copious amounts of caffeine citrate tablets so by the time I arrived at 9:30 AM on Monday I was still pretty strung out and probably resembled the crazy doctor in the Cannonball run.
I was incensed to be carpetted without being asked for an explanation. Two days later I had a new job with a 50% salary increase.
Have you ever seen a mass exodus after a respected employee quit or got fired?
I worked a $8-an-hour part-time job on weekends because I needed the money. Like all low-wage jobs, it was hard work, stupid policies, supervisors with a take-it-or-leave it attitude. It was a high-turnover position; people were always quitting and they were always hiring. We were always understaffed.
We were without a manager. Our team lead had been pressed into service without title or pay raise while they recruited the position. For months. As an employee formerly in our position, he was sympathetic to our viewpoints, did the job well, and was popular with us front-line guys. He applied and interviewed for the position he was already spending 40 hours a week doing.
He didn’t get the job.
On the new manager’s first day, our disappointed and bitter team lead quit. Fully 80% of the team followed him out the door. Many of us told our team lead that the only reason we hadn’t already quit was that we hadn’t wanted to make his job as our unacknowledged manager harder.
That didn’t stop the fucker from disappearing instead of repaying the $500 I had loaned him.
For years, the race we all hear about is to lower and lower node sizes. China (SMIC) decided that competing on this was a fools errand.
They are currently flooding the market with 28nm (and above), also known as “mature processes”. This is the same strategy they took in solar panels and batteries. By some accounts, they’ll have a third of this market in a few years.
28 nm is a limit after which transistors had to be redesigned for heat dispersion, data transfer and electric interference, expensive for minimal speed increase. Some think that it is better to keep that design. but use gallium, photonics and other tech to make chips faster. There’s also this interesting cost curve where 14nm is the inflection point where it starts to become more expensive rapidly.
The running after Moore’s law of stuffing more primitive logic into smaller and smaller chips ends up with, for most applications, only marginal gains in useful functionality. Bigger, although still tiny, integrated circuits take up marginally larger space/volume and energy consumption and do the job within acptable response times for logical cycles.
In marketing terms this makes even more sense to raise the cumulative return on mature proven minimum defect production cycles. Going after smaller etching dimensions involves a far higher investment and as can be seen a smaller market.
The experience and tacit knowledge gained on the rising throughput in 28nm etch production is likely at some point to result in the systems teams involved coming up with better designs for smaller dimensioned products simply as a result of their accumlation of their know how (learning curve).
Why is this a problem:
They need 28nm for a ton of things. Lower node is more profitable, but higher node chips are critical for a bunch of things. Cars. IoT. Microcontrollers.
And most worrying: these higher node chips are important for the military. The US government, especially under Trump, tried to get the military to have a better sense of the provenance of chips. They have, for the most part, failed. Chips are bought by systems integrators and the systems integrators have little sense of their own supply chain.
Qualcomm etc aren’t lying per se, but you need to fulfil orders. Some of them are civilian and are military. Some get filled by SMIC chips others by global foundries.
What’s more important?
Their military production might be at risk of being cut off in the event of conflict. Intel’s foundry is targeting lower nodes. It won’t touch these lagging edge processes. Why should it? There’s no $$ in it.
The US private sector has shown great disinterest in solving this.
It was obvious some time ago that this would happen, and it’s the consequences of capitalist short term policies of the US administration. Anyone in tech knows military equipment does not use advanced node chips.
Whatever West does is too little & too late if West’s purpose is to kneecap China. China can make everything, materials, chemicals, and equipment for making 28nm chips & above. China has some workarounds for making 5nm chips too.
This gain in Chinese market share is not export driven, but from domestic consumption growth and divestment from US foundries. Too many people are short-sighted and think that China cannot properly manufacture advanced chips. Take a look at Huawei’s recently released PUEA70, which has a 7-nanometer chip and a camera module that surpasses Sony’s.
I think another point that the West hasn’t realized is that Chinese advance in semiconductor will quickly spill over to Vietnam too (China is already eating into South Korea & Taiwan’s lunch) and there won’t be anyway to diverge from China-Vietnam supply chain network and still able to compete on price (China already can mass produce for much cheaper than other East Asian developed economies). This spillover has already happened in solar industries.
Saving Private Ryan RIPPED Me to Shreds – First Time Watching
One of the best reactions.
This movie was a hard watch and a complete emotional rollercoaster. I cried and laughed (sometimes at inappropriate moments), but mostly sobbed. Okay... not just sobbed, I UGLY cried. Kinda embarassing, but it's out there now, don't judge me for my faces of despair! Lol. Trust me, I went to bed hugging my dog after filming!
You know there are a number of things that I miss from the “states that are particularly difficult to come by here in China. Not to bash China, but these things are rare, or completely heard of, outside of the mega-cities.
Milk Shakes. I had one at McDonald’s in Shenzhen back in 2013. Right before they stopped carrying it for lack of popularity.
Fresh sesame or onion bagels with cream cheese.
Cheese-It crackers.
Goldfish crackers… any flavor.
Crusty hard rolls.
A full turkey with stuffing.
Cold cuts (with the exception of prepackaged hams).
Grandmother “butter chips” pickles.
Pretzel sticks
Not that I am complaining. You see, there are tradeoffs. Sure, I might not have some of those processed snack foods, but there are so many food alternatives that are tastier, and better for me to eat here, that I am not bothered by it at all.
But still…
Having a butterscotch milk shake and ten tacos would be a nice treat every now and again.
It is common to see a row of tires placed next to military camp dormitories in Taiwan. What do you think is the purpose of placing tires next to military barracks dormitories?
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You won’t guess what the tires are for! Well let me tell you, they put these tires in to prevent Taiwanese soldiers from committing suicide.
Taiwanese soldiers are not only physically fragile, but also psychologically fragile. They are simply unable to face the bloody battlefield.
Because Taiwan’s military leaders are worried about accidents happening to soldiers during training, they are unable to explain to their families and public opinion. They can only keep lowering training standards and being accommodating, causing the physical condition of Taiwanese soldiers to get worse and worse, becoming outright “hothouse strawberries.”
Just imagine, if the PLA occupied Taiwan by force, when the sharp sirens sounded in the Taiwan military camp, how many Taiwanese soldiers who had hurriedly escaped would fall from the heights of their dormitories.
Before conducting ground operations, the PLA will definitely carry out targeted bombing of Taiwan’s airports, ports, and military camps to completely destroy the resistance of Taiwan’s navy and air force.
Multiple legions of the PLA landed on Taiwan Island, established headquarters, and began to enter the city. The so-called Taiwan Army’s special forces soldiers are probably still queuing up to receive their guns.
Basically all the generals of the People’s Liberation Army participated in the 1979 Sino-Vietnam conflict. On the Syrian battlefield, the PLA central theater and western theater dispatched multiple divisions to participate in actual combat training against “ISIS”. But in Taiwan, only General Xu Linong, who is over 100 years old, has participated in actual combat, and the new generation has never been on the battlefield.
This is the real Taiwanese military and will make you feel a sense of absurdity.
I did not witness it, but the crime was so pointless and stupid that I still cannot wrap my head around it.
A good friend of mine has been a police officer since leaving the military in the late 90’s. He has no shortage of stories of dumb things people do on bad days. This one sticks out to me as particularly pointless.
As a new recruit, he and his training officer responded to a low-priority call about a tractor-trailer idling in a residential area. It was a cold night and the driver was probably trying to heat the sleeping compartment. Maybe contrary to a noise or anti-pollution bylaw, but about as mundane as it comes.
They walk up. The supervisor raps on the cab door and yells to shut off the truck. No response. Bangs harder. Yells louder. Then from inside the truck a muffled answer: “F*** Off!”
Seriously?? They bang again, tell the guy to move his truck or shut it off. “F*** Off!”
They look at each other in disbelief. They weren’t there to arrest him. All he had to do was shut off the truck. Then start up again 5 minutes after they leave. Or just drive away. Instead, he’s swearing at 2 police officers.
The driver is shaking off the sleep and is getting more aggressive. The officers can’t walk away, but (probably) can’t force entry either. A standoff. A pointless standoff.
Then the driver throws the door open and jumps them. They try to restrain and subdue him. But this guy is strong. And mad.
The two officers should have been able to gain control quickly. My friend was not experienced yet, but he was big, well-trained, and had been an amateur kick-boxer before serving in the infantry. But he could not believe how brutal the fight was
It took everything out of them, but of course they get him down. Solid as he was, the truck driver could not win that fight. And now they could search the vehicle. Drugs. Well past the threshold for personal possession. Enough drugs that they are presumed to be for the purpose of distribution.
Drugs that never would have been found if he had just shut off the damn truck.
For the life of me, I do not know how that man’s brain operated. So easy to avoid trouble. So many reasons to avoid trouble. Instead he attacks two police officers and sends himself to jail for a long, long time.
** Edit **
Might be worth pointing out that my friend has never described any encounter as a “dumb thing” done on a bad day. Those were my words, not his. He has seen a lot of bad things, a lot of people at their very worst. But he does not trivialize anyone’s experience and feels it is his place to keep the peace, not to judge. In other words, a far better man than I could ever be.
Shrimp Arancine
Shrimp Arancine (Arancini) is a wonderful Sicilian street food.
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Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Shrimp Filling
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 shallot, minced
1/3 pound shelled shrimp, finely diced
Salt and pepper
1/3 cup cream
1/4 cup minced parsley
Rice
1 1/2 cups rice
2 teaspoons curry powder
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup freshly-grated Parmigiano cheese
2 eggs
Breading and Frying
2 eggs
Salt and pepper
Bread crumbs
All-purpose flour
Oil for frying
Instructions
Shrimp Filling
Melt butter and sauté the shallot until it begins to wilt. Stir in the shrimp, cook for a minute more, and stir in the cream. Season the mixture with salt and pepper, continue cooking it over a brisk flame until it has become fairly thick, and stir in the minced parsley. Then remove the pan from the fire and let the filling cool.
Rice
While you’re cooking the filling, bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil.
Add the rice and the curry powder. Drain the rice when it’s still a little al dente and mix the butter and cheese into it while it’s still hot, then lightly beat the eggs and stir them in also.
Breading and Frying
When everything else is ready, lightly beat the eggs and season them with salt and pepper.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
Make the first arancine by taking two small handsful of rice and shaping them into hollow balls. Fill the hollows with shrimp filling, and mold the two halves together to obtain a smooth-sided rice ball about the size of a small orange (1.5 to 2 inches in diameter). Roll the arancine in flour, dredge it in the beaten egg, roll it well in the breadcrumbs, and fry it in deep hot oil. While it’s cooking begin with the next, and when it has become a golden brown, drain it on absorbent paper.
When you have finished frying the arancini, heat them through in the oven for five minutes, decorate them with orange leaves if desired, and serve them hot.
It’s the Christmas of 1916, and you are a 24-year-old sentry on his duty outside your platoon’s camp in Lithuania.
It’s in the middle of the night and it’s hard to keep your eyes open, it’s cold, miserable, and windy.
You are dreaming about how good it would be to be back home, sitting in front of a fireplace, eating that Bienenstich prepared by your wife.
But all of a sudden you hear a noise coming from the bushes, “What was that?”, you ask yourself when suddenly of your buddies screams, “Achtung!”
This wasn’t an isolated incident, it happened throughout the forests of Lithuania, modern-day Poland, and Belarus.
Wolves back then used to roam the vast expanses of Eastern Europe more freely than they do today, food was in plenty and life was good.
Then the war broke out and that wasn’t the case anymore, the hunting grounds of these wolves were disturbed as their prey was slaughtered for food by both the armies, or was killed during a battle.
The first of these attacks happened in Poland in 1915 when a bunch of wolves started to migrate towards urban areas due to a lack of food and started to attack cattle.
By late 1916, things got extreme as there was no more food left (even cattle), and as their hunger overpowered their fear of humans, they started to attack unsuspecting sentries in the middle of the night, feeding on dead and wounded soldiers in the middle of the battle and sometimes ambushing convoys.
Neither the Russians nor the Germans had the patience to deal with those canines and would turn on packs of wolves and boy would the wolves be coming in hot.
If the regular infantry stopped attacking each other, then that was a sign taken by everyone including snipers, mortarmen, artillery spotters, etc, who too would stop and start assisting the infantrymen in gunning down the incoming wolves by spotting them but the wolves would just keep on coming like one of those video games where the enemy seems to have infinite respawns.
In one incident, several hundreds of wolves (around 300) were killed with no humans dead and only a few wounded but still, this was not enough to dissuade the wolves who would continue these attacks well into 1918 after which they abruptly ceased, however, some places, mainly in Belarus would continue to have a problem with wolves up until early 1919 but these too would stop once their prey in that region was available again.
I was on a solo trip then. I booked a bike tour in Berlin and we were told that we’d be leaving in 10 minutes so if we wanted to go to the restroom we ought to do it now. I was falling in line with other tourmates to the only restroom in the shop and for some reason, a group of American teenagers took notice of a small bike displayed in the shop. One said, “Who would ride that?!” then she noticed me, and their group burst into laughter. I acted like I didn’t hear it and moved on.
For context, I look like a typical Asian, with a height an inch below 5 feet, a child-like face, and a petite build. At that time I was on a trip for a Polish conference and was spending a few days in Berlin to tour around. I was 30 years old then.
Indeed, the “adult” bike was too big for me and the tour guide fetched me a smaller one before we took off.
During the tour, I was asking a few history questions to the tour guide and after a while into the conversation (I talked to him during our free time), I caught a glimpse of the girl and her group’s faces.
She/They looked astonished that I was conversing with the guide in straight English. Which means, I understood every word of their little chatter back at the shop.
My gramps bought a “Dirty Harry” .44 magnum in the mid-70s. My Dad brought it over a couple of years ago to store in my gun safe. Shortly after, I took it to a local indoor range to try it out with a buddy of mine. How could we not?
We both got 40″x24″ paper targets and hung them at the max distance (50 feet+).
image 229
We held the .44 Magnum one-handed, just like Harry Callahan, and gave it a try.
image 14
We each shot 6 shots in fairly rapid succession, pausing only long enough to re-acquire the target. I hit the paper a grand total of one time. He hit the paper twice. Neither of us hit the actual target on the paper.
Granted our ‘test’ wasn’t controlled or really all that fair because we were just having fun with it. But we’re both pretty good shots and we both expected to hit the target a couple of times.
We both had perfectly good targets so we tried again with some of our more comfortably shooting pistols and we both did much better.
In comparison, my semi-custom 1911 in .45 ACP and my Ruger Vaqueros in .357 are both a LOT easier to shoot than that .44 Magnum. And, of course, my 9mm is even easier.
That said, for home defense my favorite pistol is still a shotgun.
The discard happens emotionally before physically.
Here’s how it plays out.
Their replies to you via text or voice are short, non engaging, kinda ‘fed up’ bored vibe to them and they will keep you on unread and take waaaaaay longer in replying back to you.
They stop asking anything or everything about you and what is going on in your life. They never ask about the doctor follow up appointment, or “how’s your day?” They have zero interest and if you do by chance have the opportunity in holding the ‘talking stick’ they are looking out the window as you communicate or switch the topic mid your sentence. You are simply not there and not important in their mind.
You will notice they are doing more single things – that invite, party, event.. they could only get one ticket too.. and its not their fault you are not on the guest list now is it?
Their interest changes in things they talk about doing – almost like it is someone else talking about these things – they will go on and on about a bike ride they will achieve, or a long hike at a place that is all of a sudden a new interest for them to visit. But you know it is coming straight from the mouth of someone else.
They will wait for you to blow your top on something said or done and they will use this as the exit door for silent treatments/ghosting or discards to be able to blame you for being nuts and then run off into the hills to play.
They will put you down more, scorn on your self improvement, thoughts or plans. Generally undermine and underpin any positive action or talk off by being dismissive or remind you that you are and will not be able to achieve any of what you talk off.
They will give nothing away. The breadcrumbs you once hung on to will become sparce, nada, nothing and you will feel inside that dreaded anxious panic feeling that you know something ain’t right and your egg shell walking will turn into marathon running across hot coals to try to please them.
You will doubt yourself more and more and more.
The discard is a process, even though it may seem like a brutal ending at first when you look back you can see the lead up clear as day. It might happen over days, months years and if you have been through the cycle a few times by now, you can set your grand fathers watch to it.
They are self serving creatures and highly predictable once you know the narc code. They are game set match and you realize they are more reliable than an egg timer.
Funny little fuckers aren’t they.
Chicken or Veal Scallopini
2024 02 17 08 31
Ingredients
1 pound chicken breasts or veal cutlets (cut thin)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
2/3 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Salt and pepper
1/4 cup pure olive oil
Instructions
Pound chicken or veal gently between wax paper ( 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick for veal and 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick for chicken).
In a shallow bowl, combine Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, and garlic powder. Pour 1/2 cup olive oil in another shallow bowl.
Dip each chicken or veal piece into olive oil and let excess drip. Press meat into bread crumb mixture, coating well and set aside until all meat is breaded.
In a heavy nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium heat and sauté until golden on both sides.
Drain on paper towels and serve with pasta and red sauce.
This was a dude I had dated for some months. First mistake I made was agreeing to start a relationship while trying to finish college. Needless to say I was too busy to pay attention to this guy’s immaturity and lack of personality. Soon after I graduated, the red flags became glaring; his disrespect was consistent and intentional. He refused to show up to my graduation, choosing instead to go hang out with his boys. After that incident I decided to remove myself from the relationship and observe things for a while before making the final decision to completely walk away.
It didn’t take long for him to help me make up my mind. A mutual friend got married so we attended (separately). At the reception I had gone to sit by myself in the hotel lobby when he and one of his friends joined me. They made small talk and whatnot while I did my best to be polite. Then a family passed by, they had a neuro-divergent child around 7 or 8 years old. You could tell from his mannerisms ; soon as he saw my green velvet dress, he wanted to stroke it to his mother’s horror and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I told mom it was okay. I let him touch my dress, gave him a smile and when he was ready, he left. Soon as mom and son left, my ex started laughing and saying, “Autism! Hahahaha”, “Autism!”, “Autism!Hahaha”.
Both his friend and I sat stone-faced, looking at him while he made fun of a child with a condition he had no control over. I was so shocked, my usual retorts, wisecracks and one-liners left me.
That was the day I decided I was not going back to that donkey 🫏. This was 2007. I’ve been married 13 years now, dude is pushing 50 and is still single and childless (and no he’s not single by choice.) I guess no one really cares to stay and do life with a gaping a$$h0le.
It shouldn’t have happened, and no one was blameless.
Mid 1970s, Los Angeles, California. Management decided to hire outside experts to help adjust management and staff attitudes to increase productivity and decrease staff turnovers.
The experts decided that promoting ‘We are a family’ would accomplish company goals. Everyone was expected to attend 2 interoffice workshops a month in which we were encouraged to be ‘like family’ with each other, to share, to become close. A company picnic, a games day and a mid-year party were scheduled (on weekends). Families were invited.
Betty, a longtime, close-to-retirement employee, shook her head and called it ‘nonsense.’
Gary, a top salesman, was friendly, always ready with a little joke and very well liked. He was a pudgy teddy bear, married with five children, living in a two-bedroom home. His wife was a sweetheart, a full-time mom and Gary’s biggest fan.
In the spirit of ‘family,’ Gary shared that his wife had had three miscarriages and had been warned that if she became pregnant again, her chances of living were 30%.
When Gary later proudly announced that his wife was pregnant again, the female staff became incensed, and for days, trouble brewed.
Rita, a tough, direct, three-times-married, 40-year-old who worked closest with Gary chose herself to represent his company ‘sisters’ to confront him.
Betty warned that this ‘family’ intervention would all go wrong. She, like an all-knowing grandmother, was so right.
Gary’s office was glass on three sides, with a wall and window at his back. Anyone could look in, and when Rita strode into his office, many of the female staff took full advantage and stood in groups nearby. Gary, of course, could see this, but had no idea what was going on.
Rita began berating a stunned, deeply reddening Gary. We couldn’t hear clearly, but their faces and gestures told an angry story.
After a bit, Gary ordered Rita out, and she left, slamming his office door so strongly that it was like an explosion, rattling the other glass offices. She disappeared, swearing, into the Ladies’ Room, with friends.
Gary sat for less than a minute, then stood and swept everything off of his desk in several moves. He did the same to files, pictures and mementos on the credenza behind him. He slammed an upper cabinet door over and over, pulled everything out and then tugged one of the cabinet doors off. He dumped his desk drawers on the floor and kicked over the chairs.
As his final act, he heaved a potted plant against his office’s front glass. It cracked but didn’t shatter.
In the spirit of family, Gary (like a favorite son) was told to take a week of vacation time to ‘feel better.’ Rita (treated as a black-sheep, troublemaker) was chastised and threatened with reprisals (no raises, promotions) until 60% of her ‘sisters’ quietly threatened a mass ‘sick out.’
We all received a memo which lengthily described professional office behavior, and the word ‘family’ was glaringly absent. The workshops were discontinued, and the experts never seen again.
Betty harumphed a “I told you so.”
Note: Gary came back and acted as though nothing had happened. Rita moved to another department, and they never spoke to each other again.
Gary’s wife had a near-fatal miscarriage a short time later and had a life-saving hysterectomy.
I’VE BEEN ROBBED. REASON PEOPLE ARE QUITTING YOUTUBE.
At the age of 57 the company I worked for announced they were closing our division. I knew because of my age I might have difficulties finding another job. I decided to keep a positive attitude.
I also started putting together a list of the things I had done at other organizations. Things like problems I had solved, cost reductions with suppliers and operational improvements. The type of things that I could bring to another organization. The other thing I did is I reached out to my professional contacts. Within two weeks I had a list of around 20 companies that were looking to fill a position in my field. I then sent out resumes making sure each was tailored to the needs of that company.
About a week later I had 9 interviews. From those 9 initial interviews I ended up with 4 job offers. From finding out in early February that I was out of a job, to starting a new job in early May. I went into the interviews with a good attitude, used my many years of experience as a positive and focused on what I could do for their organization.
Being out of work at 45 is not the end of the world, but rather a chance to write a new chapter in your life’s story.
There’s a very wealthy guy who lives not too far from me in St. Louis. I interviewed him once for my publication and we had several other meetings. He’s got to be worth a few hundred million, but I’ve never seen him dressed in anything but jeans and a flannel shirt, even on the rare occasions when he spoke on panels at local events.
He’s a very down-to-earth guy who made his initial money trading grain, then made even more money in real estate. He owned a mill and a river terminal at one point. His house is nice and probably worth more than a million, but it’s just a house—it’s by no means a McMansion or anything. I’ve never been in it but it’s on a private street just around the corner from the same supermarket where I shop.
He became briefly notorious in my hometown when the city put up a bunch of vacant buildings and lots for sale in the late 1990s. He bought up a bunch of them, turned around and sold them to developers, making something like a $10 million profit in 24 hours. There was an outcry in the papers and a phony “investigation” that didn’t amount to anything because the only thing it revealed was that the city was stupid and he was smart. The city should have been able to make those deals itself.
Like F. Scott Fitzgerald said, the very rich are different from you and me.
PEOPLE ARE DEAD BROKE! Credit Debt and Delinquencies EXPLODING!
What as a cop, is the assignment that would make you want to quit your job?
That’s an easy one. Internal Affairs! I did this job for six long years and wanted to quit almost every day. I will make my case:
You get to investigate people who you have worked side by side with for many years.
You have to be objective in your investigations which is not what fellow officers are expecting.
You get to sustain charges and recommend discipline to the chief. The chief then decides to hammer the officer with a more severe penalty, and you get to deliver the bad news as if it was your idea.
You must get in the middle of officers domestic disputes, going to their homes and interviewing their wives. Talk about being popular.
When an officer isn’t cutting it or screws up badly, you get to take their gun, ID, and shield. I have a couple of officers who never got over that moment.
You have officers who genuinely blame you for the discipline that they brought on themselves by doing dumb things.
You have officers investigating you on their off time trying to find something they can use as leverage or payback.
Everyone tiptoes around you and tries disingenuously to get and stay on your good side. Then they trash you as soon as you retire because you’re no longer a threat.
You get to take your fellow officers to court and testify against them.
You get to conduct confrontational interrogations with fellow officers.
You get accused by the public of covering up police corruption, while at the same time being accused of being a headhunter by your fellow officers.
Once you’re in Internal Affairs for more than a couple years, there is no path out except retirement.
An officer can do a lousy job at IA and never find any wrong-doing and remain popular. This to me is allowing and condoning police misconduct. However, if you conduct your investigations fairly and without blinders, you will be universally disliked.
If someone is trying to make you decide in a hurry, they are probably giving you a bad deal. Walk away.
If you want to make someone feel uncomfortable, look at their forehead when you’re talking to them.
Sometimes pretending that you are naive gets you more information.
If you want to avoid office politics, say good things about coworkers behind their backs.
Physical contact makes you more likely to say yes to a request.
When a group of people laugh, they tend to look at the person they like the most.
Nervousness and excitement have the same body reaction, so if you’re nervous for a speech, instead convince yourself you’re excited. Its proven to give better speeches, too.
Ask for something that seems small, but is related, to what you really want. Then, once they’ve agreed to the small thing, just work up with slightly larger requests until you’ve achieved the desired outcome.
BRAINWASHED College Student Gets SHUT DOWN By Michael Knowles
One frosty evening, as the clock struck 10, there came a mighty bang on my iron gate. Intrigued, I ventured forth to find a young lass standing there, fashionably dressed but sorely lacking in winter wear. Bald as a baby’s bottom with a black cloth wrapped around her noggin, she wore a look of utter befuddlement.
“Can I come in?” she implored. I ushered her onto the porch, where the whole family soon gathered, eager to unravel the mystery.
She spun a yarn about being a long-lost classmate of my nephew, whom she hadn’t seen since dinosaurs roamed the earth but somehow remembered his name.
Her tale took a wild turn as she divulged a family saga involving terrorism, sounding more like a B-movie plot than anything from the real world.
My nephew, blissfully oblivious in his far-off land, confirmed her identity as a former classmate from their days of yore, though he knew zilch about her current escapades. We were all left scratching our heads.
Sensing her screws might be a bit loose, I nixed the idea of summoning the cops and instead rang up the school, where I had a few favors to call in.
Like detectives on a sugar rush, they rifled through ancient files, unearthing her home address and digits.
Her father materialized at our doorstep, frantic from hours of searching. He spilled the beans about her battles with the blues and thanked us profusely for our help.
But the million-dollar question remained: How did she know my address and my nephew’s name?
Living in a cozy small town where everybody knows everybody else’s business, we later found out that the girl had always been a few crayons short of a full box, even back in her school days. Turns out, her story was more twisted than a pretzel in a cyclone.
Don’t smoke cigarettes, like ever. Don’t get caught up in drugs. Manage your blood pressure and cholesterol for the duration of your life. If you let that get out of control, it can damage your heart and arteries in ways that will catch up to you later.
Sure, there are people out there who just do whatever they flipping want and live to 100, but it’s far, far less common for them to live that long.
See a doctor on a regular basis. Stay active and on your feet and exercise regularly.
Another thing that’s rarely mentioned, maintain positive relationships with people. Human connections are critical for happiness and longevity. No man is an island.
Not me but an old friend. This was back in the pre-internet days and in more innocent times.
He created a company called something like “Big Dildos Ltd”.
He then had some mail order catalogues printed, the content of which was relatively discrete but adult-themed – sexy lingerie, battery operated “massage devices”, etc.
The catalogues were delivered to lots of addresses in mostly middle-classes neighbourhoods.
When he received an order, along with a cheque, he would bank the cheque and sit on the money for a few weeks – thereby earning interest on money received.
After a few weeks, he would send a letter to tell the customer he was out of stock for that item and not expecting any more stock, along with a cheque to refund the money.
But here is the real “loophole”. The cheque he sent to return the money had the company name clearly printed on it.
Turns out that many/ the majority of people who placed these orders were too embarrassed to deposit that cheque into their own accounts.
Because he was refunding the money and he always kept a few items listed in the catalogue in stock (at home and generally for personal use between him and his wife), he wasn’t doing anything illegal.
A genius plan that clearly wouldn’t work these days because people can order what they want from the internet, people are far less concerned about anyone knowing that they own such “personal” items and things would all be done by credit card or bank transfer.
When I taught at a private school in a wealthy suburb of Chicago, several of my middle school-aged students were the children of wealthy parents. They were (mostly) very nice, courteous, and studious students. The only thing that shocked me was how oblivious some of them were as to how wealthy and privileged they really were. Like:
The boy who liked to write about his weekend trips with his parents. There were trips around the country during normal weekends, and international trips during long weekends. His father was an executive at Boeing, and I guess traveling was free or cheap to them, so this kid saw more of the world by the time he was 12 than most people see in their entire lives.
The girl who sometimes mentioned that her “dad’s truck had his name on it.” What she failed to mention was that it wasn’t just one truck, but a fleet of delivery trucks for her father’s high-end deli meat business. She thought this was a normal thing… for your family’s name to be on trucks throughout the midwest.
The girl who would spend 3–4 hours after school most days training as a competitive swimmer. Her coach was a former Olympic medal winner. The student seemed really bored by the whole sport, but she ended up getting a full college scholarship and becoming the captain of her college swim team because of it.
The girl whose grandfather purchased brand new MacBooks and charging carts for the school, some 150 MacBooks, total. I was told that he was on the school board, and they were talking about tech for the school, and when the Mac sales rep came to speak with them, he did most of the talking, negotiated the price, and paid for it all himself. He made his fortune owning some sort of electronics retail business before he retired.
But these kids were all ages 11–14 when I taught them. They were always nice enough to me, but if they were snobby with their peers, I never saw it. I just remember, as a broke 30-year-old new teacher at the time, being continually shocked by how oblivious some of those students were as to how lucky they were.
Not so much weird as sad. I had one little girl in my class who had just joined us from another school where she had been having problems. When she came to us she was very withdrawn and shy. So I sat her next to, and encouraged a friendship with, another child, a little boy who was delightful but a little loud and very gregarious. The pair complemented each other beautifully and I kept a close eye on them. Within a week or so they were inseparable, it was a way of getting two birds with one stone, since my loud and sometimes a little too enthusiastic boy benefited from the calming influence of the girl, while she was included in all the games, etc, he was and they were soon BFFs.
However, the sad part was that one day, when we were having a quiet time after lunch (they were all very young and Special Needs, so usually about half the class would nap and the other half I’d read to) the little girl confided in me that she loved me, because I was nicer to her than her last teacher in her other school. I was intrigued and gently questioned her, without making a big deal of it, just having a quiet conversation. From what she told me, this other teacher was a horrible bully and had told her repeatedly that she was “a bad student”. I felt a lot of anger at this; this little girl was a lovely kid but it was clear she’d taken the other teacher’s words deeply to heart.
I spent the rest of that school year helping to bolster her self-confidence. This was a few years ago, she has since gone on to high school and I see her and her family now and then. She is still a lovely young girl and I’m glad I helped her in however small a way. Oh, and her BFF is now her boyfriend!
One evening in 1980 the doorbell rang, which seldom happened at our exurban home. I knew my brother was working on his car in the driveway, so this was strange.
I answered it to see a 60+ year old man, a woman of the same age peeking behind him, and my brother standing 10 feet back grinning like a fool.
“May I speak to Mr. Norman (last name)?” he said in a foreign accent, mispronouncing the last name. I called my dad to the door, and the man said, “Hello. I am your cousin Herbert from Germany.”
Dad was a little dumbfounded, and my brother giggling made him wonder if it was a prank. “I don’t think I have a cousin Herbert.”
The man pulled out his wallet and produced my dad’s confirmation portrait, taken when he was 13 years old. Forty-two years earlier. “Is this you?”
A long-lost cousin from the Old Country!
An instant friendship was forged that night. Herbert was grateful to hear that we pronounced our name as he did, he figured we’d Americanized it (hence the mispronunciation), but was glad to find we hadn’t.
We learned that after WWII, he and his mother received some kind of postwar donations from my great-aunts. “They saved our lives, we would have starved to death.” He still had the certificates from the donation program.
He was amazed my dad spoke excellent German with a ‘Pomeranian’ accent, knowing Dad had been born in the US, 35 years after the family arrived here in 1890. But my dad, surrounded by a family of immigrants, had spoken only German until he went to school. And when we had him try our homemade sauerkraut, he said, “It’s just like I remember my parents making!”
Ninety years after the family moved an ocean away, two old guys found themselves with so much in common it was like finding a brother, right on our doorstep.
Breaking! Outrage when no one stood for The Super Bowl! ”The Black National Anthem”
The US should leave the Chinese alone. The more the US tries to derail China the more hurts the Americans are going to get
The tariff for China products ended up pretty badly, most cost are paid by the American users themselves.
The US government hope to isolate China ended up them getting isolated now.
The US ban on semiconductors sale to China ended up the American semiconductor industry losing 16 billions every year.
The US ban on China’s participation in its space program ended well for the Chinese, they have their own space technology with as many countries participants. The latest news on this one is, the US coerced the European countries not to participate, which shows us that the US is not a democratic Republic.
The US ban on China’s trade , the embargos on technology ended up badly for the US because the Chinese has other trading partners, by and by America could be isolated into a corner.
I can go further but I would stop here.
In conclusion the US government is not smart.
Now , some questions for people:
What are we going to do about the terrorists attack on the Nordstrom pipeline; the foreign led insurgents in HK, Tibet , Syria and Xinjiang, the torture of Eurasian prisoners in Guantanamo, the torturing and the killing of civilians in Iraq , Afghanistan, the bombing of Iraq where no WMD was found, the killing of 7 nuclear scientists of a Sovereign State, the stealing of gold and oil from Iraq, and oil from Syria , etc?
CAN they? Absolutely! SHOULD they? Depends on the circumstances.
Last time I went to the ER was about 10 or so years ago. I had a high pulse rate, jaw hurt, dizziness, and pain radiating down my arm after an afternoon of shoveling snow. All signs of a heart attack.
They ran a bunch of tests that all came back normal. The doc walked in and flung a piece of paper at me. “You’re fine. While it may seem better safe than sorry, you’ve wasted everyone’s time tonight. Your blood tests, EKG, and everything else looks fine. The only thing that appears wrong is the Xray shows a slight issue in your neck. You’ve got a pinched nerve which is causing your arm pain. That obviously made you nervous, causing your heart rate to go up. You need to just go home, take a Xanax, and go to sleep. Next time, think before coming in. You’re not even 40 and worrying about a heart attack!” Then, he left to tell the nurse. We could hear him talking to her, “Send him home. There’s nothing we can do for him when we have others waiting with more important issues.”
I told my regular doc what happened. “Yeah, he’s like that. He’s great at what he does, but can’t seem to grasp the humanity side of things.”
There was also the time when an ER doc was rude and called out on it by my GI. I was newly diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and was having a flare. High fever, bleeding, everything. I had pooped so much there was nothing left when they wanted me to give a sample to see what the problem was. “You’re just constipated. We’ll give you something to help with that.” When I told him that I had UC, he said, “What do you know about it? You’re not showing any signs other than “a wittle tummy ache” (in a condescending tone).” My GI had walked in just as that was being said and told the ER doc, “He’s got UC. I’ll take over now.” ER doc said, “What would you know about it, intern?” My GI said, “I’ve been practicing for almost 30 years. Look my name up in the directory and you’ll see I’m head of gastroenterology here. I suggest you let me tend to my patient now.” ER doc scampered off somewhere and I never saw him again.
His father is quite old and therefore ,a little weak too. While eating, food occasionally fell on his shirt and pants. The other guests watched the old man with their faces contorted in disgust,but his son remained calm.After they both finished eating,the son quietly helped his father and took him to the toilet. Cleaned food scraps from his crampled face and attempted to wash food stains on his clothes, graciously combed his gray hair and finally put on his glasses.
As they left the restroom, a deep silence reigned in the restaurant. The son paid their bill but just before they leave, a man, also old, got up and ask the old man’s son , “Don’t you think you left something here?”
The young man replied “I did not
leave anything.”
Then the stranger said to him,”You left a lesson here for every son and a hope for every father.”
The whole restaurant was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop!
One of the greatest honours that exist ,is being able to take care of those who have taken care of us too.Our parents and all those elders who sacrificed their lives with all their time, money and effort for us, deserve our utmost respect .
You know that feeling when you’re going down a flight of stairs and you miss one?
That was the way I felt when I shook hands with another attendee at a martial arts workshop I went to many years ago- like I was suddenly falling and disoriented and scared. The second I took his hand, that feeling hit me, and I nearly felt sick.
This guy wasn’t exactly intimidating- he was actually kind of nerdy and awkward-looking. I couldn’t figure out why he made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, but I felt awful whenever he was nearby.
I was so uncomfortable that at the end of the workshop, I went to my biggest, strongest looking buddy and asked him if he’d walk me home. I felt stupid for being scared, so I didn’t tell him why- I just made up some excuse. He said he would, and I told him to meet me at the exit to the women’s locker room, at the back of the building.
When I left the locker room, I found the guy waiting for me- sort of poking his head around the corner of the building and staring at me. When I locked eyes with him, he stepped out of the shadows and into my path. He didn’t say a word- he just marched toward me, unblinking. At that exact moment, my buddy came around the other side of the building and shouted a hello. I looked over to him, and then back at the guy in front of me- who was now running away.
As my friend reached the place where I was standing, he looked over my shoulder and said, “Did that guy just SNARL at me?! What’s HIS problem?”
I told him that I thought I had just dodged a bullet and that drinks were on me.
Caught Wife Cheating, So I Drained Millions From Our Accounts, Got A New Identity & Left The Country
I am 14, I work in my father’s office in summers and recently a very talkative girl was hired. She was introduced to us and after a few hours I went out to a restaurant for lunch.
I sat down after ordering and saw the new girl come in. She noticed me after she found her own table, right across mine. We didn’t talk or greet each other. She got a call from whom I assume is her best friend. She was talking very loudly in English, about how the office was.
“They see everything I do! I can’t even pick my nose without them noticing!” she exclaimed.
And I was resisting laughing, thinking: “Ironic…”
And she talked about who she didn’t like in the office, things that offended her etc.
“The boss’s daughter is staring right at me, creepy girl…” She said.
And she waved at me.
Later that day she asked me what work I do in an office like this. I said that I did English translations. Her face went pale that moment.
A welding story
image 228
A customer asked me how much it cost to do this job….
I answered him: $ 1500
He said: So expensive for this job?
I asked: How much do you think it would cost you?
He answers me: $ 800 maximum… That’s a pretty simple job right? !”
– For $ 800 I invite you to do it yourself.
– But…. I don’t know how to.
– For $800 I’ll teach you how to. So besides saving you $700, you’ll get the knowledge for the next time you want
– It seemed right to him and he agreed.
– But to get started: you need tools: A welder, grinder, chop saw, drill press, welding hood, gloves etc…
– But I don’t have all these equipment and I can’t buy all of these for one job.
– Well then for another $300 more I’ll rent my stuff to you so you can do it.
– Okay, he says.
– Okay! Tuesday I’m waiting for you to start doing this work
– But I can’t on Tuesday I only have time today.
– I’m sorry, but I’m only available Tuesday to teach you and lend you my stuff. Other days are busy with other customers.
– Okay! That means I’m going to have to sacrifice my Tuesday, give up my tasks.
– I forgot. To do your job yourself, you also have to pay for the nonproductive factors.
– That is? What is this?”
– Bureaucratic, tax, vat, security, insurance, fuel etc.
– Oh no!… But to accomplish these tasks, I’m going to spend more money and waste a lot of time!
– Do you have them? You can do it to me before?”
– Okay!
– I’ll make you all the material you need. Truck loading is done Monday evening or Tuesday morning you’ll have to come by 6 loading the truck. Don’t forget to be on time to avoid traffic jams and be on time
– At 6??? Nope! Too early for me! I used to getting up later.
…
– You know, I’ve been thinking. Y ‘ all better get the job done. I’d rather pay you the $1500. If I had to, it wouldn’t be perfect and it would cost me a lot more.
When you pay for a job, especially handcrafted, you pay not only for the material used, but also:
– Knowledge
– Experience
– Study
– Tools
– Services
– Time to go
– punctuality
– Accountability
– Professionalism
– Accuracy
– Guaranteed
– Patents
– Sacrifices
– Safety and security
– Payment of tax obligations
No one can denigrate other people’s work by judging prices.
Only by knowing all the elements necessary for the production of a certain work can you estimate the actual cost.
Actual conversation at the local gas station convenience store:
Me with a coffee refill in my cup: “Just a refill.”
Clerk: “That will be $1.58.”
Me: “Your sign says $1.00 cups of coffee today.”
Clerk: “That’s not a cup; it’s a refill.”
Me: “But it’s a cup of coffee.”
Clerk: “No, it’s a refill because it’s not in our cup.”
Me: “So if I bring this back in your cup, it’s $1.00.”
Clerk: “Yes”
Me: No one else in line, so I step over to the coffee area and get one of their cups. At the counter, in front of her, I dump the coffee out of my cup and into theirs. “Okay, I have a cup of coffee.”
Clerk: “That will be $1.00.”
Is Gen Z Aging Rapidly ?
https://youtu.be/TYJH5gFRU5E
Why do people let themselves go when they get older?
Before I worked in medicine, I wondered the same thing. I didn’t mean it in an unkind way, but I wanted to know how to avoid this seemingly unavoidable dilemma of aging. What I found out from the hundreds of patients I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with, is that when life gives you lemons, very few can make lemonade. I generally hear the same things from patients. The two I hear the most, “Don’t get old!” and “These aren’t the golden years.” Anyway…
Off the top of my head, I’ll give you several reasons why people “seem” to let themselves go as they age. I realize there are exceptions to all my examples, but I’m giving you general anecdotal observations that you may not be aware of:
Accidents. Car accidents, motorcycle accidents, job accidents, violent crime (stabbing, punching, gunshots), falling down stairs, etc. Accidents that cause injury almost always leave residual long term pain. The lucky ones don’t have the chronic pain until they are older. If someone has a back injury, several things could have gone wrong. Herniated discs, scar tissue, arthritis, bone spurs, spinal stenosis… and that’s just the back injury. Chronic pain and immobility that stems from injuries can be debilitating later in life. I’ve seen very fit people slowly put on weight over a few years after an injury, because they just could not keep up their exercise regimen.
Less Energy. This seems like a cop out. I didn’t believe it until my own energy levels started declining after 37 yrs old. As you get older, intense activities tire you out far quicker and you need more sleep. It’s more than just mind over matter. So even a life time exerciser starts to slow down as she gets older. It’s nearly impossible to keep up the intensity. This leads me to food intake…
Eating style hasn’t changed with aging. So this is a big one that gets the aging into trouble. I think this one can be somewhat controlled if a person is mindful. Generally speaking, you don’t need to eat as much the older you get. The reasons are many, but one is that you’re not as active (maybe because of #1 and #2). Less energy + more pain + less activity = less calorie intake. At least it should equal less calorie intake. This takes me to…
An older body doesn’t take out the trash as efficiently. As a person gets older, their body just doesn’t handle unhealthy eating and hard living (cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol, etc) as efficiently. Ideally, people should clean up their diets once they hit middle age, but this time of life is incredibly hectic. Healthy living becomes ever more challenging…. it’s not really laziness, it’s exhaustion (see #2). Losing weight and/or staying in shape really is harder with age.
Illness and declining health. Cancer treatments, prolonged Prednisone usage, Congestive heart failure, medications for chronic pain like fibromyalgia (actually a lot of medications can cause unexplained weight gain), Lymphedema, Diabetes, thyroid conditions…. the list goes on. If you saw someone at the grocery store with one of these conditions and you didn’t know it, you would think they were “letting themselves go.”
Hormones. This is more for the women, but men can easily gain weight from declining hormone production too. Women really get a raw deal though. Menopause is not kind. For many women, weight gain is unavoidable. If the weight doesn’t get her in the beginning it might after the “change.” The change in hormone (estrogen mainly) levels changes how the female body uses or stores fat. It’s a common enough problem that scientists seem to be working tirelessly to figure out how to help women stop weight gain during and after menopause.
Other priorities. I do see some elderly women (rarely men) who are still overly obsessed with their weight (I think this is more the Baby Boomer generation). But more commonly, as one ages their priorities shift. Yeah, they may not like being overweight, but “getting in shape” or getting “lean and cut” just isn’t that big of a deal anymore, especially when they have to work so much harder to achieve those results.
Again, these are just some reasons for age related weight gain or not taking care of oneself, that I encounter on a daily basis while working with the middle aged and elderly population.
Since I love to exercise so much, I can’t imagine not continuing to do so into my elderly years. Yet I don’t know what life has in store for me. I haven’t lived with debilitating pain or lymphedema, so I try not to judge.
Braised Veal Shanks, Milan Style (Osso Buco)
2024 02 17 08 3c2
Ingredients
Veal
4 pounds veal or beef shanks
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup water
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon instant beef bouillon
1/2 teaspoon dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
Gremolada (optional)
Gremolada
2 tablespoons snipped parsley
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
Instructions
Trim excess fat from veal shanks if necessary. Coat veal with flour. Cook veal in oil in Dutch oven over medium heat until brown on all sides, about 20 minutes. Drain fat.
Add remaining ingredients except Gremolada. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer until veal is tender, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.
It happened in a case of mine a good while back. I was appointed to represent a white supremacist/neo-Nazi kind of guy on a perjury charge (under oath he denied remembering anything about a stabbing he had witnessed (white guy stabbed a black guy), an incident that he seemed to have remembered clearly an hour before he was called to testify, or so the evidence showed). It was a tough case, and he was a difficult client.
The trial lasted a week and, to no one’s surprise, he was found guilty (the only surprise was that it took four hours for the jury to reach a verdict). At sentencing, he predictably went off on a tear about white people being race traitors, and such.
The judge could have given him up to 30 months in prison but only gave him 18. At which point the client reinvigorated his rant, pointed at the judge and said “I know where you work and I will come find you when I get out.” He turned to the DA and pointed at her and said the same thing. At that point he was flailing his arms around, and the two large courtroom deputies (they used to be called “bailiffs”) hurried up to restrain him — I had the common sense to get out of their very large way — at which point, his honor said: “you know, I must be getting old. I see here in my written order that I was actually intending to impose 30 months, and I must have mistakenly been thinking about someone else when I spoke. . . So 30 months it is.” (or words to very much that same effect).
The client started to try to flail more vigorously; two additional very large deputies somehow materialized (they will do that) and the four of them hoisted him up and carried him feet first out of the courtroom, as he shouted loudly, with spittle, at the ceiling. The judge, afterwards, observed that he could only have given him 6 months additional for the contempt. He seemed satisfied.
(Disclaimer — this trial was about thirty-five years ago. With the passage of that much time the fine details of exactly what was said may vary from telling to telling.).
Epilogue: The client got out of prison and the only serious trouble he got into afterward was a DUII and, then, feloniously driving with a suspended operator’s license a couple times. And then he died. The prosecutor became a judge, and she’s now retired. The trial judge is long retired but still with us.
My first real job was as a morning biscuit maker at McDonald’s in the summer when I was 16 (over 20 years ago now). I recall a lot of corner-cutting when it came to the official food prep rules.
For example, once food was cooked, it went into a warming bin. Each bin had a timer on it, and once that timer went off, you were supposed to toss the food. We only used those timers if a health inspector showed up, or the “big boss” was there. Other than that, we just ignored the timers and kept everything in the warming bins until sold.
Also, you were only supposed to crack open eggs as needed, and keep them refrigerated otherwise. We often just cracked open several dozen into a large container, and kept that on the counter next to the grill for a few hours, dipping into it with a ladle as needed when someone wanted scrambled eggs. It saved time and hassle that way.
When we switched from breakfast to lunch, back when McDonald’s did that, the cooked but unsold breakfast food was supposed to be thrown away. Often, it would all be thrown into a different, clean garbage bag, and when someone took out the garbage, that bag would end up in that person’s back seat and the leftovers became their meals for a few days.
Most of my coworkers were also high schoolers. When one of our friends came through the drive thru, they’d order and pay for something small, and we’d hand them bags of food. I think the boss, who was a woman in her 20s, did this for her friends too.
Back in the mid-90’s, McDonald’s would sometimes do these 29-cent cheeseburger days as a promotion. It would have been fine, except they didn’t put limits on how many people could order, so we’d have multiple orders of 50+ cheeseburgers as people stocked up on them. We were in a lower-class small town, so people always stocked up on food when there was a good deal. We couldn’t possibly follow the rules and keep up with the orders when they came in that fast, so we broke a lot of rules, including cooking burger patties on the egg grill (a big no-no, apparently), and cooking hundreds of burgers ahead of time and just microwaving them before we served them.
Oh my goodness! Isn’t that the biggest dilemma??? Especially if your stomach growls…
When my daughter was about 4, we had some very close friends who used to invite us to dinner. They were the most generous and kind people you could ever meet.
However, everyone’s plate would get exactly the same portion. I sausage, 2 pieces of broccoli, 2 little carrot sticks and a small portion of mashed potato. The kids would get about half that.
The first time it happened, my daughter came and whispered to me that she was still hungry. I told her it was okay, we’ll probably have dessert. When no dessert arrived, and it was time to go, my daughter’s stomach rumbled as she got in the car and her little friend said quite loudly, “your tummy is talking, saying you want more food!”
I looked at my daughter, dreading what the answer might be, but she just looked at everyone and said, “it’s actually saying thank you for dinner.”
Everyone laughed and in that moment I could never have been prouder of my little girl and her display of tact and good manners.
We got take away on the way home and every other time after visiting these people, as the same meal was served each time over a number of years. They were just not big eaters.
For my daughter and I, It became a beautiful ritual to have take away afterwords, and we always looked forward to going to their place for dinner.
To answer your question – eat before or eat after visiting, but always be appreciative that someone took the time to think of you and invite you over. Say thank you and leave it at that!
She has grown up still tactful, well mannered and ALWAYS hungry!
When I was young my sister and I were playing in the back yard and our neighbor was out on his screen porch and was playing with himself. I had no idea what he was doing and wasn’t freaked out just curious. I asked my mother about it and she said, “don’t worry about it son, it isn’t important.” And, she was right, shortly after I rarely saw him ever again. When he saw me or my sister he would literally turn around and walk away. I never thought about it again.
My mother died about 50 years later and my uncle who often lived with us (WW2 vet with a drinking problem) got very ill about 10 years later. We talked and he told me what he was leaving to me (not much – but I loved the man and would never say that to him) and one of the items was a revolver. He told me, “I used to loan this to your mom when your dad was on the road (he was a truck driver). This is the gun she pistol whipped your neighbor with.”
“What”, I said.
“Oh, you didn’t know? She borrowed this pistol and went to your neighbor’s house and beat him with it. She told him that if she saw him looking at or near her kids she was going to kill him next time.”
“Seriously?”, I said
“Like a heart attack. I took the bullets out so she wouldn’t kill him”, he laughed, “she didn’t know that till later and chewed me out.”
“Why didn’t she tell dad?”
“She said somebody had to take care of the kids if she went to jail.”
The US is not “competing” with China because it doesn’t have the capability and confidence to compete.
Instead, the US is trying to “kneecap” China in Tonya Harding style. It’s using tactics like:
propaganda warfare — telling lies about genocide, concentration camps, oppression, etc.
political interference — using the CIA to foment color revolution in Hong Kong and Xinjiang
commercial obstruction — banning Huawei, SMIC, WeChat, etc.
military intimidation — operating two supercarrier strike groups off the coast of China; arming Taiwan and Japan; inviting British and German warships into SCS; Quad pact; AUKUS pact and giving nuclear subs to Australia
personal legal intimidation — arresting Meng Wanzhou on trumped-up charges in the same way Alstom executive Frederic Pierucci was arrested in 2013
The US is behaving like a dinosaur in its final death throes as its world is coming to an end.
Veal Rolls, Roman Style (Saltimbocca alla Romana)
2024 02 17 14 52
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds boneless veal round steak, 1/2 inch thick
1/4 teaspoon dried sage leaves, crushed
1/4 teaspoon pepper
6 thin slices prosciutto or fully cooked smoked or boiled ham
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Marsala or other dry white wine
3/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
Instructions
Trim excess fat from veal; pound veal until 1/8 inch thick. Sprinkle one side of veal with sage and pepper; cut into 6 pieces, 4 or 5 inches square.
Place ham slice on seasoned side of each piece veal. Roll up; secure with wooden picks.
Heat butter and oil in 10-inch skillet until hot. Cook veal rolls over high heat until brown, 5 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
Place rolls in single layer in ungreased 10 x 6-inch baking dish.
Stir flour into drippings in skillet; stir in wine, water and salt, if desired. Heat to boiling; pour over rolls.
Cover and bake at 325 degrees F until tender, 35 minutes.
Oh boy….this was fun. Several years ago, when my son was just shy of 2 YO, he was considered a lap child by an unnamed airline, even though we had bought him a ticket as he was too big to be on a lap for 6 hrs. As such, we could not do the online check in, since they needed to verify he was a lap child….repeat…..he had a full fare ticket. Show up at the airport and check in, but not seats together…..you selected seats during the online check in. So ticket agent say to go to gate agent, gate agent says to check with stewardess, and stewardess says she cant help and we need to sit in our assigned seats. CLASSIC pass the buck.
Now that dear reader was a poor choice of words. You see my 2 YO was assigned a single middle seat about 15 rows away from the other three of us. So I showed up at the seat, and motioned to the gentleman in the aisle that I had the middle seat. He got up and I strapped my son in and give him his DVD player and snacks. I looked at the other passengers near my child and said “ I am in in seat 32 C if he needs anything” and proceeded to go to the back of the plane.
Funny story. We were all seated together very quickly after that. Amazing how following the rules works!!
One week after my mother died, I was alone in our house. It was a big old mansion and it was cold and dark, and I was lonely. Then suddenly late at night all the (battery operated) smoke detectors started going off. All 20 of them. All went off at the SAME TIME.
Three years earlier we installed the detectors and installed the batteries in all of them. What a coincidence! So yeah, all the batteries ran out of juice at the same time, and doing so, set off the alarms. And it was just a coincidence that it was a few days after my mothers’ burial.
I will never forget that. Of course, no one believes me. They don’t consider it important or anything. Just a random bit of trivia. But for me, alone and lonely in the big empty manor, it was significant. And that is my story for today.
We all experience odd things from time to time, but it is how we react to them… what we consider about them… well… that matters.
As a law student, I was an intern for a federal judge. When I graduated law school, I asked her to write a letter of recommendation for me to take the bar exam. On the day of this story, I was swinging by her courtroom to pick up the letter and I caught the end of a hearing.
The hearing involved a pro se plaintiff suing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in federal court. What happened was, he was involved in a domestic violence situation. The Massachusetts Department of Child Protective Services placed custody of his child solely with the child’s mother (whom I presume was separated from the plaintiff). A condition of him regaining shared custody was that he had to complete an anger management course with a satisfactory grade.
So he took the course, got the good grade, and submitted his paperwork to the state. The state lost his paperwork, and for whatever reason he was unable to submit it again. He decided the path of least resistance was to re-take the class. Then he sued Massachusetts for negligence, seeking to recover the cost of the second class.
To be sure, this is a pretty modest ask. I could imagine other plaintiffs being… shall we say… more aggrieved under these circumstances. Maybe throw a million or two for emotional distress, etc. Nope. This guy was just asking to be made whole. This probably is why the judge ended up being so sympathetic.
Although the hearing I walked in on was only a preliminary hearing, the judge was absolutely livid that the case made it that far. She absolutely grilled the Assistant Attorney General (“AAG”) who was representing Massachusetts. Along the lines of:
Judge: I’ve read the pleadings, and it appears to me there’s no factual dispute here. Ms. AAG, is there a dispute?
AAG: Well, your honor, we can’t really be sure that we lost anything, but…
J: But the man has documentary evidence that you did! Are you disputing these documents?
AAG: [sheepishly] No…
J: SO WHY HASN’T THIS SETTLED?
AAG: Well, your Honor, it was never… ummm… it isn’t clear the exact amount he is seeking in damages…
[Maybe in his complaint, he only asked to be reimbursed for so-and-so expenses without actually stating a dollar amount]
J: Oh, it’s not huh? Did you bother asking? You know what, never mind. Let’s figure it out right now. Mr. Plaintiff, how much did the second course cost?
Plaintiff: About $2100?
J: Call it $2400. And did you incur any other expenses?
P: I had to take off work early and I had to take a taxi to the school. I make so-and-so dollars and hour and the taxi was such-and-such. The course lasted so-and-so many days.
J: Okay, call it $3000. Ms. AAG, how’s that? $3000. Can we settle this?
AAG: Well, your honor, I… ummm…. I don’t know if I have the authority to se….
J: Don’t give me that!! Do you have any reason to dispute that this is the correct dollar amount?
AAG: [again, sheepishly] No your Honor
J: Great. Then there’s no reason to not to settle this, right?
AAG: [whisper-soft] R… right.
J: Great. Let’s get this done right here, right now. [To her clerk] Rex, go ahead and print off one of the form settlement agreements, and put in $3000.
[The settlement agreement is signed, and apparently the hearing is over]
J: Ms. AAG, one more thing: When will he get his money?
AAG: Well, your Honor, I really don’t handle that aspects of settlements, I really couldn’t…
J: You have thirty days.
AAG: Your Honor, all due respect, but I…
J: You have. Thirty. Days.
AAG: Yes your Honor.
Not only did this pro se plaintiff win, but he won without ever really opening his mouth.
Take a Product made in China and off a factory line for 130 RMB
image 214
By the time the product is packed and shipped to an exporter, the product costs 225 RMB to the exporter including 8% to the Manufacturing Factory, 32% in Taxes and other charges
The Exporter pays a further 24% in Taxes and Shipping Changes plus his own profits and sells it to the US Importer for 300 RMB
The US Importer pays around $ 43 for the product to the Chinese exporter
Earlier he would give it to the distributor who would sell it to the retailer who would retail it for $ 79.99 or around 580 RMB
From $ 18 to $ 80 is the journey of the product in the capitalist market
Now comes Tariffs
Imagine a 30% Tariff imposed
That would price the product at $ 58 to the importer as he has to pay $ 15 to the US Government
This rises the retail price to $ 109.99 for the retailer whose profit margins on the product fall by 18–20%
That’s the hourly wage of an extra worker
Nothing changes for the Chinese
The Product at $ 109.99 is still unbeatable at that price and no US manufacturer can compete and make a similar product for less than $ 275 Retail
Yet
The American customer pays $ 30 More
The Retailer loses profit cut
The Importer gains zilch
The US Govt gains an extra $ 15 paid by their own public
That’s all that’s happening
The US, the great capitalist country is slowly becoming Soviet Union
image 213
This Brainless Syphilitic hoped that he can reduce customers who aren’t prepared to pay the extra 30 Bucks for the product and hence reduce orders by the retailer from China and they would buy American products made in Mexico
Now they sell the same product for $ 109.99 with a MADE IN MEXICO sign, pay $ 30 to the Mexican partner and MAKE THE SAME $ 43 that they did when they made the product in Fujian
So US as usual is screwing up its economy every single day
The crime rate is so low in the Netherlands that they have closed 23 prisons since 2004 because they don’t have enough criminals to fill them
Back in the 90’s Denzel Washington paid the fees for a young aspiring actor who couldn’t afford to go to Oxford’s summer theatre. That young actor was Chadwick Boseman (R.I.P). Chadwick publicly thanked Denzel at the AFI life achievement awards in 2019
In 1963 a Turkish man was renovating his home. After knocking down a wall in his basement he found a tunnel. He followed the tunnel and discovered an ancient underground city called Derinkuyu which once had a population of 20000 people
In 2009 an autistic artist named Stephen Wiltshire was able to draw the New York City skyline from memory with a pen after taking a helicopter ride for just 20 minutes
Princess Diana was known for ignoring royal protocols. She would often ride the tube. At theme parks she would refuse preferential treatment and make William and Harry wait in line like everybody else
The blue Nelson lake in New Zealand has the clearest body of water known to man with visibility in the lake of up to 260 feet
The record for the biggest car theft of all time was 1000 Volvo cars. The cars were ordered and delivered then the invoice was ignored and to this day has still not been paid. The cars were ordered by and delivered to North Korea
In 1963 the Bronx zoo opened an exhibition titled “the most dangerous animal in the world,” it was a mirror
2 muggers in New York City once tried to mug former heavyweight champion of the world Jack Dempsey (who was in his 60’s/70’s at the time). It ended as you might expect with both muggers unconscious. The dates and circumstances leading to the event are a bit uncertain although Dempsey did reference the incident in his book
My personal favourite: In 1996 an avid birdwatcher in Devon, England spent a whole year hooting at owls and then recording their responses unaware that it was one of his neighbours pretending to be an owl and hooting back
I got convinced to buy a couple of lottery tickets and won a good amount of money when I really needed it.
My ex had offered to run to the store before leaving for his business trip. While we really didn’t have much of anything in the house, I told him not to bother, b/c it was in walking distance and I could go for the extra exercise.
A series of unfortunate events occurred: He called me after the first night to let me know the reports were in worse order than he anticipated, so he’d probably be gone an extra 2–3 days (not a problem, though we did share a vehicle at this time). Instead of going to the store, I decided to order food only to have it cancelled because my debit card had been declined. Twice.. The next day when I called the bank, I was informed someone had tried to use my card number to purchase 2k in airline tickets, so they cancelled my card & I wouldn’t receive another one for 7–10 days.
This was during a period where I’d yet to see the importance of an emergency credit card and rarely carried cash, but fortunately, I looked in my purse and checked the clothing pockets in the laundry room and came up with about 35 bucks and some change.
I walked down to the store and got some basic necessities, and relayed my woes to a cashier I talked to quite often. They jokingly suggested with luck like mine, I should use my last 10 bucks for scratch offs. I knew she was being facetious, but given the mood I was in, I said “why the hell not”, and bought two, $5.00 tickets. On the first one, it said I won a free ticket and she asked if I wanted another or cash, but since I was going all in I asked for the another ticket. I scratched that one off first, and to my surprise, won 250.00 dollars. I was so shocked, she had to remind me I had one more, so I scratched that one off and had won another 250.00. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise during an otherwise frustrating situation.
This still angers me 23 years later. So I lived in a village which had a river that runs through it. And every year it floods at least once due to heavy rains and high tides. The river was once big enough that boats would come up and our little village was a kind of harbour. When it flooded the river would come up and over the fields and accross the main road. Now cars and buses would go through this flood water with no issue. Until October 2000. My class had been kept behind so I missed the bus home. My brother who was 11 (was tiny for his age and looked about 2–3 years younger because of his height) and my sister who was 15 were on the bus along with about 5 other kids all between 11–15
Now remember that other buses got through, including the bus from another school and our school buses aren’t like Americans but just regular coaches that are used for holidays etc and the councils pay for this. Our bus driver contacted his manager and asked what to do about the flood. The manager said to let the kids off and not go through the flood water. The only way for the kids to get home was to walk through the flood water. It was about 2 foot deep but was incredibly fast flowing.
When I finally got home I found out my little brother had nearly been swept away by the force of the water and my sister nearly died trying to stop him. Luckily all the kids made it through safely. The bus would have just got it’s tires wet. The worst part was, the following day was my granddad’s funeral so it was already a horrible time.
My mum kept us of school both to grieve and also because she couldn’t trust the bus driver with her 3 children. The manager promised us a trip to Alton Towers. We never got that trip as the manager was fired but the driver kept his job. He wasn’t allowed to drivw the school route again but instead was put on a mini bus driving little old ladies to town and back.
BOTH should have lost their jobs. He would have seen the other bus go by (was also a coach but a different company) so he knew he could get through it but to make my tiny little brother walk through rapid flood water….. that’s something you can’t forgive. My sister is terrified of water now, struggles to even cross a bridge with running water below. my brother seems to be unaffected, he was more worried about losing mum’s Tupperware and the pizza he’d made at school.
A hillbilly went hunting one day in West Virginia and bagged three ducks. He put them in the bed of his pickup truck and was about to drive home where he was confronted by an ornery game warden who didn’t like hillbillies. The game warden ordered to the hillbilly to show his hunting license, and the hillbilly pulled out a valid West Virginia hunting license. The game warden looked at the license, then reached over and picked up one of the ducks, sniffed it’s butt, and said, “This duck ain’t from West Virginia. This is a Kentucky duck. You got a Kentucky hunting license, boy?” The hillbilly reached into his wallet and produced a Kentucky hunting license.
The game warden looked at it, then reached over and grabbed the second duck, sniffed it’s butt, and said, “This ain’t no Kentucky duck. This duck’s from Tennessee. You got an Tennessee license
image 36
?” The hillbilly reached into his wallet and produced an Tennessee license. The warden then reached over and picked up the third duck. “This duck’s from Virginia. You got a Virginia hunting license?”
Again the hillbilly reached into his wallet and brought out a Virginia hunting license. The game warden was extremely frustrated at this point, and he yelled at the hillbilly, “Just where the hell are you from?”
The hillbilly turned around, bent over, dropped his pants, and said, “You tell me, you’re the expert!”
In the mid-nineties I was a big city police officer. Just before Christmas I was dispatched to a driveway auto accident. It seemed minor as I arrived but a young woman had fallen and struck her head resulting into a head injury that lead to a two month coma. I had a friend badly injured in the same hospital ward and I spent many hours sitting with the family of the the injured woman and grew to know them. As she slowly came out the hospital staff tried to wean her back to solid foods, she resisted. As a middle aged police officer I developed a voice of authority. The family ask me to help, with my voice and commands she began to eat a few bites. As she regained clarity she began to know who I was. After time my friend was transferred to a long term facility and the coma girl was released to go home with family supervision.
Months go by and I am dispatched to a car break-in in the courtyard of the coma girl’s apartment building. I was taking a report from another young woman victim. I heard a voice from several floors above, “Wayne is that you”? Because I am so sophisticated and know one Shakespeare scene, I answered “but soft, what light through yon window breaks? It is the East and Christine is the sun!” Chris who still had memory problems replied “ay me”. We completed the scene while the car break-in victim stared as though she was an extra in a Woody Allen movie.
I worked as a temporary at a place that tried this crap. I told the agency that the supervisor refused to sign my time sheet with the extra 15 minutes, because they don’t pay their own employees and won’t pay me for it either.
The agency called the other temps working there and found out that they were adjusting their time sheet so they can get paid. The agency owner then called the client, who was so sure about herself. She said she had the right to have the meeting every morning and not pay anyone for attending.
The agency owner informed her that he was going to audit every time sheet of every temp that they have sent her, calculate the lost time and charge her for it. He then pulled out all of the temps and paid us for the rest of the week and any back pay. Which was kinda sweet, this happened on a Monday afternoon.
I was one of the last people to leave the office and she came out of her office and was yelling at me for calling the agency. I was temping a payroll clerk position, so of course I knew what she was doing was illegal. I told everyone in the office this and that they can get backpay for every meeting every morning, if they filed a wages and hours complaint with the labor department.
Then I walked right past her and said have fun with that. It cost her a lot of money to pay back those employees and temps. She had a hard time getting temps after that, because they didn’t want to be part of her hours scam.
High-Value Woman: Traits, How to Find and Make Her Your Girlfriend
Last Updated On December 15, 2022by Andrew Ferebee
Some men waste their time on women in lower leagues. You don’t want to be that guy!
High-value women are not desperate for a relationship. They don’t rely on men for finances, validation, or even their security. No, they’ve got it all figured out.
I won’t lie to you — these women are rare. If she is self-possessed enough to know what she wants and go out there and get it, she’s a real keeper. When you meet her, you will know it immediately. You need to do something about it before someone else does.
Miss this opportunity and she will have a ring on her finger before you know it.
So, how do you spot a high-value woman and what should you do about it? I want to help you with just this conundrum. Read on to elevate your chances of getting a shot with her now.
Traits of high-value women
First things first, what is it that makes a high-value woman? Like most men, you’ve met — and even dated — countless women in your lifetime. What makes this one so special?
Trust me, you will know that she is different. But you might not be able to pinpoint exactly why that is. Whether you’re already dating her or ready to make your move, there are some things that you will have noticed about this woman. Here’s a quick breakdown:
1. She has her own career or knows what she wants to do with her life
You’re not looking for a 1950s housewife — you want a woman who has her own drive, her own passions, and her own career. You know that there is nothing more attractive than a woman who has set her own life goals and is reaching them at every turn.
That’s not to say that she has to have the biggest paycheck. She might be dedicated to a career in nursing, be a teacher, or have a small business.
Whatever it is that drives her, it’s about the fact that she’s not waiting around for some man to come and ‘save’ her.
2. She doesn’t play games or try to ‘win’ your affection
Some women play endless, tiring games. They won’t call you back. They pretend to be mad about small things.
They ‘test’ you to see how you will react to certain things. They sneak around and don’t treat you right. All of that is nothing but high school drama.
You deserve to leave it behind. Real, grown-up women know that there’s no point in playing games when they meet someone that they value. If she is direct and lets you know that she is interested, that is a green flag.
As the relationship moves forward, you can trust her to never play around. She’s not here for those games. She wants to live her best life — with you by her side. You need to make sure that you can measure up to her standards before you even try to approach her.
Real women want elite men. Before you can win her over, you need to make sure that you have your own life sorted out. I’ve worked with many men to help them regain their masculine power and elevate their lifestyles.
The journey toward the life that you deserve might sound tough, but it’s worth your time and effort. Backed by a supportive community of men and coaches, I’ve seen men get the results they’ve been looking for quickly. When you transform your life, the right women will notice and, trust me, they don’t play games.
3. She is upfront about what she wants and expects from a relationship
You’ve got no time for a woman who is giving you riddles. Some women think that it’s cute to be oblique and never let a guy know what they want. Then — as if that weren’t bad enough — they have the audacity to get angry when the guy doesn’t fulfill their needs.
You can waste your time, energy, and money on dating these women. All that you will get in the end is a loss. When you’re seeing a woman who is obsessed with drama, you need to get her claws out of you as soon as possible. Repeat after me: It will not end well.
Dating a high-value woman is a completely different experience. From date #1, she will show you what she wants and you will never feel in the dark. You won’t have to play dumb guessing games with her to keep her on the side. She has the maturity to be upfront about it.
4. She is self-assured and can make her own decisions
Confidence is a rare trait. 79% of women say that they struggle with their self-esteem. You’ve likely seen the signs: she is unsure of her decisions, constantly asks you for advice, and needs reassurance that she’s attractive all the time. It’s exhausting.
High-value women are different. When you meet one, you will notice the difference straight away. She is self-assured and doesn’t need a man’s advice. In her career and personal life, she makes her own decisions. She is the one calling the shots here.
You won’t find this woman begging for your attention — you will want to give it to her.
5. She is in control of her own life and doesn’t need a relationship
This woman was fine before you came along and — if you do break up — she will be fine once again.
Elite women are the opposite of clingy. They know themselves and their own minds. These women are not waiting around for the right guy to come along. Far from it.
She doesn’t mess you around or beg you to stay with her because she’s ‘lonely.’ No, she has her own stuff going on each day. If you’re the right man for her, you will fit into that.
6. She is kind and compassionate to the people in her life
Kindness goes a long way. You might think the woman I have described here is cold. That’s not the case. You don’t want some uptight or cut-throat businesswoman.
High-value women care about the people in their life — and they are not afraid to show it.
She might be close with her family. She might have a tight-knit group of friends. She might spend every Sunday with her sister.
Whatever it is, you can see that she has compassion.
How to make a high-value woman your girlfriend
You’ve got your eye on her — she’s got it all together and has ‘girlfriend’ written all over her. Now that you’ve found a high-quality woman, how do you make the first move?
Over the years, I’ve worked with a wide variety of men in my elite coaching program. It’s no secret that the vast majority of men worry about dating.
When you’re new to the game, you don’t want to end up making rookie mistakes. Luckily, I’ve got your back here.
Here, I share my expert-backed advice on where to find high-value women, how to catch their attention and make them want you.
1. Make the right first impression — it counts
75% of men are scared to first approach an attractive woman. Let’s say that she catches your attention when you’re in a local bar. How do you react? Do you stare at her across the room for hours on end? Or do you get up out of your seat and do something about it?
When you find yourself in the presence of a high-quality woman, every second matters. What you do from the offset will make an impact on her and determine how she reacts. No matter how nervous you may be, it’s important that you act like a complete gentleman.
Be respectful of her space and whether she wants to be approached. When you first introduce yourself, ask her if she’d like to have a drink with her. Women often find men intimidating when they approach them out of the blue. Let her know that you won’t take up too much of her time and that you purely want to get to know her or get her number.
2. Show her the respect that she deserves from the start
High-quality women are worthy of your respect. Scratch that — all women are worthy of your respect. One of the most important lessons that all men have to learn is to treat women as they deserve to be treated.
When you meet a woman who ticks all of your boxes, you need to treat her like a lady. There are no exceptions to this golden rule.
Forget the tricks that pick-up artists tell you will work. They won’t.
If you want to make this woman your girlfriend, your best bet is to go back to old-school dating techniques.
That means showing her that you are interested, taking her on dates, and giving her the space to make up her own mind. Take some tips from your grandpa — he knew a thing or two.
3. Avoid playing games or using cheap gimmicks to get her attention
Men and women both play games when dating. You know the drill. You might not text her for a few days after the first date.
You might pretend to have plans (when you don’t!) to seem more in demand. You might even lower yourself to the old ‘negging’ tactic.
None of the above will work. You’re dealing with a high-quality woman here and you need to show her more respect. Leave those playground tricks behind.
If she notices that you are playing games, you will lose her attention fast.
Chances are, she’s met men like that before and — as you might expect — swiftly dismissed them. Women who are self-possessed don’t have the time to mess around with players.
4. Show her that you are a high-value man and worth her time
You’re looking for a high-value woman — have you stopped to think about what she’s looking for? Yes… *ding ding ding*… you guessed it: She is looking for a high-value man.
The most effective strategy in attracting this woman is showing that you have your sh*t together. Women who know what they want will be on the lookout for elite men.
They don’t want some man-child who they will have to pick up after. Nothing is less attractive than that. No, they need a guy who calls the shots in his own life.
What are you bringing to the table? A good job? A house? Financial independence? A lively social life? Think about what it is that you have to offer and subtly let her know about it. You don’t need to flaunt it. Be quietly confident in what you have to share with her.
The moment she sees that you’re a strong, stable man, she will be interested. You don’t have to bend over backward to get her attention. Make sure you let her know that you are on the path toward your most elite life and that she has the chance to join you.
Takeaways
Before you can win the affection of a high-value woman, you need to elevate your lifestyle. I’ve worked with a selection of the world’s most elite men to support their growth.
My coaching program teaches men like you to change their mindset and regain the masculine power that has been taken from them. Taking control of your life is the first step.
Unfortunately, there’s no magic trick that will make a high-value woman fall in love with you. Life doesn’t work that way. You need to put in the groundwork and figure out your own life before you can attract a woman of this caliber. You have to start that journey.
Having the support of coaches and a community of like-minded men can make a real difference. I’ve worked with countless men who have tapped into this power and used it to upgrade their lifestyles and relationships.
It’s time to stop missing opportunities – in your work, romantic, and social life – and start living the best version of your life now.
Yes. My cousin was dating an unemployed airline pilot. Her father was a pilot, so flying was the ultra in pride and desirability. She was quite wealthy, and very desirable to a man who wasn’t into working. He was divorced, living with his momma, and dodging child support payments, blaming the wife for all of his problems.
She was diagnosed with cancer. I went to help out when she had her surgery. Since she lived in another state, I stayed with her at her parent’s house. They were both too busy to care for her due to their high powered careers.
After she got out of the hospital, I walked into her room to give her some medicine. He was leaning over her body in a way that struck me as strange. He almost looked threatening. It was like he was that Harry Potter character who sucked out your energy and soul. When I saw his face, I can only describe it as a window opened up and I saw evil. I warned her and her family about him.
As a result, I was kicked out of their house and shunned for a good two years. I was not invited to Christmas and her father told my grandmother it was because I didn’t like “the nicest guy” he had ever known. Keep in mind this family is quite prominent and he was sucking up to them big time.
The next time I saw my cousin, she had a badly broken shoulder. He had tried to kill them both by ramming his car at top speed into a tree. She had jumped out of the car and shattered the shoulder. Unfortunately, he did not kill himself- he just wanted to kill her. She suffered with that shoulder until the day she died. It never stopped hurting. His abuse started not long after I gave the warning she ignored.
Another year passed and my uncle came to me to apologize. He said, “You were right about somebody.” He went on to tell me that he had been arrested and given a long prison sentence for trying to kill his ex-wife. I wish they had listened.
When I was very young, I decided to move in with my girlfriend. At the time, I did not realize that I was way too young to do this and not really ready to take this step with this particular young lady. We looked at apartments and were interested in looking at furniture. My girlfriend told me that she knew a family friend who sold quality furniture at a store that give discounts to members of her labor union.
We visited this furniture store located at the time (mid 1980’s) in the Empire State Building. Her friend was happy to see us and even offered us an additional discount since he knew her family so well. He explained to us that his company offered a money back guarantee on all deposits. This guarantee was printed on their receipts. We picked out a bedroom and living room set and I left a healthy deposit.
Long story short, we ended up breaking up within the next two weeks. I went back to the furniture store to get my deposit back but my former girlfriends friend was not in. I visited the store two more times and I always seemed to go on his day off. The manager and his assistant noticed that I had been there a few times asking for him and offered their assistance. I explained that I was there for a refund of my deposit. They informed me that they had no record of me putting a deposit on furniture. They asked for my receipt which readily I produced. Very few businesses used computers at that time. They looked up my matching receipt number in their book. When they turned to the matching page, it was blank. They determined on the spot that the salesman had not entered the transaction in their records and pocketed the money. They stated that he was probably going to come up with the money at a later date and enter it in the book then. He probably thought that he had time to pull this off without anyone finding out. The manager and his assistant were very angry. They handed me back my receipt and told me that I was going to get call from the salesman by the next day, and that he was going to make arrangements to refund my money out of his pocket. They also told me that If I do not hear from him, return to them and they will refund my money and they would then go to the police and have him arrested.
The next day the salesman called me and made arrangements to meet me at my job to give me the deposit back. The check that the former salesman gave me was drawn on his mother’s account. It appeared that Mama had to come to his rescue. The Furniture store manager called me 2 days later. He informed me that he fired the salesman and if in the future I wanted to purchase furniture, he would offer me furniture at cost.
Yesterday I read an article that rather haunted me.
[1] It’s about a boy, aged 9, who lived alone for almost two years. His mother abandoned him to live with her boyfriend. The boy didn’t know how to operate the heater, so he would sleep under three blankets in the winter just to keep warm. He’d eat canned goods, and scavenge for food outside like a hyena.
He did go to school, however, managing to be present every day for two years without fail, having a perfect attendance record. His grades were excellent and he was reportedly in good spirits. Nobody in school new he ate stale food and took cold showers in a cold apartment with no one by his side. Authorities speculate the boy’s routine is likely what kept him alive — going to school every day, eating lunch there and talking to his friends in class. He never had friends over, always finding excuses not to.
Now the kid’s in foster care. His mother is being charged with all sorts of crimes for abandoning him. He reportedly never wants to see her again. Does he even have a father, grandparents? God. It’s just so sad, leaving a child alone to fend for himself in this world.
China containment becomes a lose-lose strategy for everyone
In trying to fight Beijing, Washington is causing irreparable damage to the world economy and it may be too great for even America to bear
Alex Lo
As Nobel economics laureate Paul Krugman recently observed in Foreign Affairs, “China’s role as the workshop of the world … might be as hard to replace as the global role of the US dollar.”
And yet, that hasn’t stopped Uncle Sam from trying to wreck the China workshop, which has the unintended consequence of pushing more countries to try to “de-dollarise”.
The United States has been strong-arming countries and companies to divert their supply chains away from China, and these involve not only advanced tech products such as superfast computer chips but also mundane items such as rare commodities. Meanwhile, it has weaponised the global economy and financial systems to pursue its own foreign and trade policy goals.
They are the two economic aspects of its full-spectrum containment against China, which of course, also includes a predominantly military component. Countries such as India, Vietnam, Indonesia and even the US were supposed to benefit from the supply-chain redirection. But they now find it hard to take up the slack. Much of the re-routing with new chains turns out to be just longer, more opaque and expensive, without severing ties to Chinese suppliers. Costs are adding up.
Last year, Taiwan’s Pou Chen Corp, a leading shoe manufacturer for the likes of Nike and Adidas, had to cut more than 6,000 jobs at its Ho Chi Minh City plant. The Vietnamese government once heavily advertised the investment of Japanese electronics giant Kyocera Corp, but it ended up producing low-tech ceramic packages for electronic insulation and resistance, rather than the more advanced packages for crystal devices.
Labour unrest, official corruption and red tape are cutting short the allure of Vietnam for foreign manufacturers. Comparatively, getting permits, licences and subsidies for foreign businesses in Vietnam for many has made China almost a bureaucratic paradise. Volatile internal party politics in Vietnam may be as tricky and scary as in China.
Cheaper labour costs at first made Vietnam attractive, but it turns out relocating factories, hiring locals and reorganising supply chains away from China can eat into whatever savings are made. Many Vietnamese contractors still go to China for supplies, so Western clients end up, as the Economist recently reported, inviting in more middlemen.
The story may be better for India and Indonesia, as both are competing with even cheaper labour, so long as they stick to low value-added production. But they may fare worse if they aim higher, as Vietnam can boast good infrastructure with modern ports, newly built highways and power supply. In any case, China doesn’t want those jobs any more as it is moving up the hi-tech value chains.
It’s highly ironic that Taiwan’s TSMC, which agreed to build a big chipmaking plant in Arizona after intense pressure from Washington and the island’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, has just announced production delays to next year, and for even more advanced chips, until 2027 or 2028. Perhaps by then, the US plant will come in handy and replace production in Taiwan, as that was the date some Pentagon generals claimed the mainland would invade!
Brics, the bloc originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, has long been criticised for having no viable economic or political coherence or purpose. Well, now it does. They are all afraid of US economic warfare with sanctions being its primary weapon. From digital currencies and currency swaps to restricted computerised messaging for financial transactions, they are trying to de-dollarise.
Dozens of countries, especially those in the Global South and are not US allies, want to join now. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been invited to become members.
As Krugman said, the China workshop and the US dollar are two pillars of the global economy and are extremely hard to replace. Yet, Washington has made it a policy to erode those pillars, one by design, the other inadvertently.
The collateral damage may be too great for even the US to bear.
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso quit ECOWAS regional block
Reuters January 28, 20243:52 PM GMT+1Updated 37 min ago
NIAMEY/BAMAKO, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Three West African junta-led states Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso said on Sunday they are immediately leaving the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional economic bloc that has been urging them to return to democratic rule.
The decision by the three countries, announced in a joint statement read out on Niger national television, is a blow to the bloc’s regional integration efforts after it suspended the three countries following military takeovers.
…
“After 49 years, the valiant peoples of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger regretfully and with great disappointment observe that the (ECOWAS) organization has drifted from the ideals of its founding fathers and the spirit of Pan-Africanism,” Colonel Amadou Abdramane, Niger junta spokesman, said in the statement.
…
The three countries are also members of the eight-nation West African Monetary Union (UEMOA) that uses the West Africa CFA franc currency pegged to the Euro. The monetary union, following decisions by ECOWAS leaders after the coups in Mali and Niger, had cut off their access to the regional financial market, and the regional central bank. It later restored Mali’s access but Niger remains suspended.
A lower left tooth was loose (#21 for the cognoscenti). I went to the dentist.
He looked concerned, said it was broken vertically, removed the part that was broken, and took a look at what was left.
“You’ll have to see an oral surgeon for this. It’s a dental emergency. I’ll have my office set up the appointment.”
I get a call a few minutes later. Can I come in to see the oral surgeon the next day?
Next day, I’m there. Terrified. I’m a total dental chicken. “The tooth was reabsorbing into the jawbone” (What?!!) “so we have to take it out. It is likely to get infected. You need …”
And he proceeded to give me a few minutes of dental speak.
With only laughing gas and huge horse syringes full of novacaine, and wearing intense magnifying glasses, he drilled and chiseled a tooth/root/bone unit apart.
None of that was necessarily the coup de grace.
The hard part is not having to drink smoothies for a week until the stitches are removed.
The hard part is not waiting seven months with a toothless gap in my smile, as I wait for my gums to heal before they can do surgery a g a I n to place an implant into my jawbone (but that’s a huge Y I K E S for the future).
The hard part — is — overwhelming and aching bone pain in my jaw socket where the tooth infiltrated the bone. It hurts so much that pain has been preventing me from sleeping or moving much during the past four days since the tooth was separated from the jawbone and extracted.
I didn’t anticipate any of this pain with just a loose tooth. The pain afterwards was totally unanticipated and a thousand times worse than I thought it would be.
If a dentist ever tells you that a tooth is infiltrating your jaw bone, act sooner than later. Even if you don’t feel that anything is wrong.
Dental pain should be avoided at all costs.
Do You Have Jason Bourne in Custody? | The Bourne Supremacy | All Action
I’ve met guys over the years who find all kinds of physical traits unattractive. Everyone has their own personal visuals they like or dislike.
But there seems to be one universal, non-physical trait that men find unattractive with women: complaining.
You’ll never hear a guy complain that he wishes his woman would complain more to him. You’ll hear a lot of guys complain about how much their woman complain. (Or, complaining’s close cousin, criticizing.)
This includes things like:
Complaining that their guy didn’t do something that he either didn’t know he was supposed to do, or planned on doing later.
Complaining about the quality of work their guy did for something that no one is ever going to see or care about.
Complaining to their guy about things the kids or pets did wrong, as if it’s their guy’s fault that the kids or pets did those things wrong.
Complaining to their guy, like its his fault, about things that the guy has absolutely no control over, like the weather.
Complaints that are essentially versions of “my man did not read my mind.”
Criticizing their man’s choices for things that have no impact on the woman whatsoever.
Criticizing their man’s choices when their man asked for the woman’s input, but the woman didn’t offer any.
Tangentially related to “complaining” are things like:
Attempting to hold a deep conversation while the guy is trying to focus on something else, like a television show or driving.
Attempting to hold a deep conversation with the guy within 10 minutes of falling asleep or waking up.
Greeting their man with a task to do as soon as he gets home.
Adding on to their man’s “to do” list while he’s actively doing something the woman already put on that list.
Around 3,000 years ago, Hebrew men realized how much they didn’t like their wives’ complaining, and wrote it down in the book of Proverbs.
Hard to imagine, but an ex-colleague of mine was fired for something they DIDN’T DO outside of work but were ACCUSED of doing.
The company we worked for had a code of ethics that said you could be fired not just for doing something wrong, but for there being a public IMPRESSION that you did something wrong.
In his case, he had been in the chain drugstore the previous weekend, and was accused of shoplifting. After some unpleasant exchange with the store’s security staff and my colleague insisting that he would NOT allow them to examine his bags, but would only allow the police to do so, the police were called. He was searched, his bags were searched, and nothing was found.
Store management apologized to him. He said fine, okay and that was that, right?
Nope.
On Monday when he came to work, and people were saying what they did that weekend, he said “You won’t believe what happened to me!” and he related the incident.
Within a couple of hours, he was called to Human Resources and fired. Reason? Small town, everybody knows everybody. The accusation of shoplifting was made publicly in the store, where some of the other customers knew or might know him, and who also might be OUR customers. In our company’s eyes, that made our customers question whether they should give us their business, if we kept him as an employee.
He appealed but to no avail. Lost his job.
Lesson – don’t share too much about what happens on your time off, even if you didn’t actually do something wrong, perception can be everything.
I was in Las Vegas and was shopping at the Caesar’s Palace mall. I came across a sport memorabilia store that had two sports stars there signing autographs. At one end of a long table was Pete Rose and the other end was Kenny Stabler. I noticed that there was a long line waiting for Rose’s autograph but no one was at Kenny’s side. I didn’t know why Kenny didn’t have anyone in his autograph line, since he did have a super bowl win and was in the NFL HOF. My son-in-law was a huge Oakland Raider fan, so I went over to get Kenny’s autograph. As I was talking to Kenny, I noticed that Rose wasn’t really talking to the fans in line. He just signed the picture and his handler told the fans that Rose didn’t have time to answer any questions and told them to move on. Rose never even cracked a smile and actually looked perturbed to be there.
On the contrary, Kenny was most gracious and talked to me for over 10 mins. Instead of the stock picture they were passing out, he posed for a picture with me trying on his super bowl ring. He took down my address and said he would mail it to me. To my amazement, within a week I received the photo. My son-in-law treasured that photo for many years until his passing. What a difference in personalities between two superstar athletes. I never respected Pete Rose after that incident even though I once supported his failed attempt to get into the baseball HOF.
In college, a fellow fraternity brother named Mike met me after class to tell me he had the key (answers) to the upcoming engineering-physics mid-term exam and I could buy it for just $25. It was to be a 100 multiple-choice question exam to be given in a week.
Unfortunately, Mike spoke a little too loud and the professor heard him. The professor did not know who or how many people had the answer key so he decided to create an all-new test. He contacted two of his top grad students (Paul and Jim) to help and they toiled over the task for the next 4 days.
On the day before the exam, I overheard the professor ask Paul if he “was ready”. It seemed out of context so I got suspicious and decided to check with Mike. I heard MIke was over by the WPC Student Center so I headed over there. As I was scanning the area for Mike, I saw him talking to Paul. I hid and watched as Mike gave Paul an envelope and Paul gave Mike several sheets of paper. Mike had just bought the answer key to the new exam.
I waited until they separated and then went to Mike. I asked, “Are we all set for the exam tomorrow”. I wanted to see if he would offer me the new exam key. To my surprise, he did. I took it and sold it to two of my friends – Bruce and Khan – for $30 each. We all aced the exam and repeated it all again for the finals . . . . but with less drama.
So what were the unintended consequences? Bruce and Khan went on to become structural design architects at a prestigious firm in Chicago and were the design engineers for the 1,450 ft tall Sears Tower (it’s now called the Willis Tower) – the one that had 90x 5×8 ft, 380-pound windows that blew out in high winds.
As it turns out, the semester that we all cheated on the exams was when they taught the aerodynamics of wind on structures and how to compensate for the stresses involved. If Bruce and Khan had attended those classes and learned the topics taught that semester, then the Sears Tower would not sway 18″ in high winds and would not have ultimately spent $6 million to replace all of its 10,343 windows. All those unintended consequences because of an exam answer key that sold for $30.
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If this isn’t all true, it should be, and if it isn’t then how could it be? I’m not one to make up stuff unless I do and then it is only to prove my credibility or not. Wouldn’t you do the same if you didn’t know what you say you know in the context of being honest and trying to tell people that which could be true if it was? But, being a smart person, you knew all that already, didn’t you?
11 Signs A Woman Has Multiple Partners and What to Do About It
Published On January 22, 2024by Andrew Ferebee
So, you’ve met a woman that you’ve completely fallen for. You’ve been dating for a while, and everything has been going well. She might even be “the one.”
The problem is, you’re not entirely sure you’re the only one in her life. You can’t place your finger on it exactly, but something leads you to believe she may be seeing other men.
You want clarity, but you’re unsure how to broach the subject. After all, things are going well, and you don’t want to mess up a good thing. But at the same time, not knowing what’s going on is driving you crazy.
Dating multiple people at once is a tricky subject to navigate. In an ideal world, both partners will communicate their ideas and expectations about dating other people. The problem is we don’t live in an ideal world.
More often than not, people dance around the issue because they don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings (or damage the relationship’s potential). This leads to one or both people playing the guessing game.
If this sounds like your current situation, understand you are not alone. And as difficult as it can be to navigate this situation, you can gain clarity — if you know what to look for.
Today, I’ll give you a framework you can use to gauge whether or not the woman you’re dating has multiple partners and how to approach things if she does. Signs That The Woman You’re Seeing Has Multiple Partners
1. Unless You’re Told Otherwise, Assume She Is
In today’s dating climate, you should always assume that the woman you’re dating is also seeing other men. Unless she comes out and explicitly tells you that the two of you are exclusive, you’re probably not.
Understand that couples seldom become exclusive off the bat. Nine times out of ten, one or both people will date around before settling on their chosen person.
So, even if you’re really into the woman you’re seeing and everything seems to be going great, that’s fine. But just remember that nothing is official until it’s official.
2. Other People Call You The Wrong Name — Or Think They’ve Met You Before
If she brings you around to meet a group of friends or family, and those people call you the wrong name or think they’ve met you before, it could be a sign that she’s dating other guys.
Don’t assume that these friends or family members are misremembering. It’s far more likely that they were introduced to another man recently.
And if you want to gauge whether she’s being honest with you, press her on the issue. Ask her about it and see what she says. If she tries to dodge the issue or acts unnatural, it’s probably because she’s dishonest.
3. She Avoids Introducing You To Friends Or Family Members
Oppositely, she may avoid bringing you around to meet her friends or family. For this one, look at the context of the situation to see if something seems odd to you.
If she has to attend a wedding and tells you she’ll go alone, that’s odd behavior. Why? Because no one likes to attend a wedding alone. And chances are, she’s not.
It’s far more likely that she’s just going with someone else.
If you’ve been dating for several months and have not met anyone from her social circle, that’s just not natural. If she often tells you she can’t meet because she’s going out with her friends but doesn’t invite you to come, that’s also odd.
Chances are, she’s bringing another man to these gatherings. And rather than letting her friends or family know she’s dating multiple men, keeping you on the back burner is easier.
4. She’s Had An Unreasonable Amount Of Partners
Does the woman you’re dating talk about more exes than you can count? If so, it could indicate a pattern of behavior.
Just because a woman has many exes doesn’t inherently mean that there’s something wrong, but the time frame matters. If you get the sense that she’s dated ten different guys in the last three months, there’s a very good chance she was dating them simultaneously.
And there’s also a good chance that’s the same thing happening with you. Chances are, you have much in common with the men who came before you.
So, always be mindful of the patterns that are right in front of you.
5. She Shies Away From You And Isn’t As Affectionate As You Are
Do you feel like you’re the one who’s always being affectionate, but she isn’t doing the same? Sure, you may be intimate with this woman, and everything could be great in the bedroom, but what about other acts of affection?
Does she allow you to wrap your arm around her while walking together? Can you hold her hand? Hug her? Kiss her in public?
Sure, some people aren’t into public displays of affection, but it can also be a sign. These “loving” affections are sometimes more significant than sex. And if she shies away from your affection, ask yourself why.
There’s a strong possibility she’s seeing other men and doesn’t want to lead you on any more than she already is.
Remember that men and women approach dating and relationships in very different ways. You’ll seldom see a man stay with a woman after losing interest, but women do this often.
If you think she’s lost interest in you but doesn’t have the heart to tell you, read the signs and don’t let things last any longer than they need to.
6. She Craves Sex Less Than You Do
Oppositely, it might not be the public displays of affection that are the problem, but your sex life. If she approaches intimacy with a take-it-or-leave-it attitude, again, ask yourself why.
Of course, it’s perfectly normal for people to not be in the mood sometimes. What you have to look at is the underlying pattern. If your relationship started with a great sex life, but that drive suddenly faded, there’s a reason for that.
If she tells you she enjoys sex and that she enjoys having it with you, but the two of you inexplicably go long periods without sleeping together, it could be a sign that there’s someone else in the picture.
Again, nothing is certain. But if something feels off, it’s probably because it is. It could be a sign if you’re a generally rational man who doesn’t have underlying trust issues, but something is telling you not to trust this woman.
7. She Tells You She’s Busy — But Doesn’t Tell You Why
Does it seem like you can never get a straight answer from her? Does she give you ambiguous answers about what she’s doing and who she’s doing it with?
If so, it indicates that she’s seeing other men. Also, look at how often you meet up with her. If it’s every couple of weeks or once a month, that’s probably because she’s seeing other guys when she’s not with you.
Does she only meet you during the week and always have a full calendar on Fridays and the weekends that doesn’t include you?
Again, look at the underlying patterns. If they seem strange, it’s probably because something’s up.
If you’re really into her and want nothing more than to spend time with her, but she seems unwilling or unable to do the same for you, it’s a sign that something is off.
8. She Takes An Excessive Time To Respond To Your Messages
Most people are glued to their phones between six in the evening and midnight. They unwind from work with a glass of wine, Netflix, and their social media feeds.
If you text this woman without a hitch all day, but then she suddenly goes MIA during the evenings, that’s almost certainly a sign that she’s with another man.
She’s not texting you back because she can’t text you back. Again, look for things that seem odd. If she tells you she’s going to the gym after work, that’s fine, but if she doesn’t respond to your messages until noon the next day, it may be because she was with another man.
9. She Only Meets You At Odd Times
It’s nine o’clock on a Friday night, and she suddenly hits you up to go out. And this happens after she told you she already had other plans.
While you told her that you would also make other plans, that wasn’t entirely true. Your “plans” entailed ordering a pizza and playing Call of Duty.
You want to say ‘no,’ but you are also sitting at home feeling sorry for yourself, so you can’t resist.
If a woman likes you, she’ll make you her first priority, not the fallback guy. If the woman you’re seeing asks you to meet at odd hours or with little notice, she’s using you as a backup.
Now, some guys are okay with this, but if you’re not, you need to say so. You should not suffer in silence and play the guessing game.
10. She Still Has Active Dating Profiles
Whether you met this woman online or not, if you find that she has an active dating profile, you can be almost certain that she’s using it.
Don’t let her sell you on the “I didn’t have a chance to delete it yet” or “I forgot I had it.” Having a dating profile as a woman means dealing with a constant barrage of messages. It’s almost impossible to ignore.
And if the woman you’re seeing has an active dating profile, she’s not ignoring it, either.
11. She Gets (And Seeks) A Lot Of Attention On Social Media
While an active social media presence isn’t necessarily a sign of something wrong, keep an eye out for odd activity — especially from other men.
If you see comments like, “I can’t wait to see you again,” or “We had such a great time,” from men, and you have no idea who these guys are, there’s a good chance she’s dating them.
Just look for anything that seems odd or out of place. If your instincts tell you something doesn’t feel right, then something is wrong. Don’t turn a blind eye to it.
What Do I Do If The Woman You’re Dating Has Multiple Partners?
Well, for one, you could just talk to her about it. And if you haven’t done this already, it’s probably because you’re scared of the consequences.
You may fear that if you talk to her about it, she’ll tell you that she is, in fact, seeing other men and isn’t interested in seeing you anymore. Or that she’ll just cut you off completely.
And this leads us to the true problem…
In any relationship, no matter how casual or serious, a certain power dynamic develops. And the person who is more confident, grounded, and self-assured is the one who has the upper hand.
And in instances like these, that person is not you. If you’re reading this, I’m going to assume that you are not dating other women, even though you suspect your partner is.
I’m also going to assume that deep down, you know exactly what’s going on with your current relationship. The problem is that you’re having a hard time accepting the truth.
The question is, why are you putting yourself in this position?
Why are you allowing yourself to be subjected to this treatment? Why are you allowing this woman to essentially “play you”? Why are you allowing yourself to be treated in a way that feels disrespectful?
Is this what an alpha male would do?
Certainly not. An alpha is the type of man who doesn’t chase women but has women chase after him.
Just imagine how great it would feel to be the type of man who could have his choice of high-quality women instead of being at the mercy of situations like these.
In other words, there are several things you could do to remedy this situation, but the first thing you should do is…
1. Raise your value in the dating economy
Let’s just face the facts for a moment and be brutally honest: You’re at the mercy of this woman you’re dating. She has you wrapped around her finger, and she knows it.
Because if she truly valued you for the man you are, she would never let an opportunity to be with you pass her by. There’s no point in playing the field when you have the home run sitting right in front of you.
But that’s the thing: she doesn’t see you that way. And that may be your fault. Are you doing everything you can to show her your value as a man? Is it abundantly apparent how great of a catch you are?
Become the type of man that women would line up to date. Be the type of man who can give women experiences unlike any other. Be a grounded, cultured man who takes risks and gets what he wants in life.
Invest in yourself so no woman can deny your obvious value. Prioritize your physical fitness, expand your mind, embrace new experiences, and be a fun person to be around.
When you put your power on full display, women will take notice.
2. Talk to her about it and have an honest conversation
Or, if you’re really interested in this woman and genuinely think your relationship has the potential to be something special, discuss the issue.
Tell her what you think is going on and explain that you’re uncomfortable with it. Tell her that you value the connection the two of you have and want to see it grow into something more.
If she doesn’t feel the same, yes, that will hurt a lot, but at least you won’t have to spend your days guessing. Remember, sometimes, the fear of pain (especially emotional pain) can be worse than the pain itself.
The first step to resolving the issue is getting it out there in the open so you can discuss it.
3. Consider your options
If you’re aware that the woman you’re dating is also seeing other people, it might be worth thinking about exploring other relationships yourself.
This suggestion isn’t for everyone. If it doesn’t align with your values or comfort level, that’s completely okay. However, it’s important to reflect on the dynamics of your current situation.
She’s keeping her options open, which raises the question: should you do the same? It’s natural to have strong feelings for her and to hope for a more committed relationship in the future. But, if you’re not at that stage yet, it might not be wise to fully commit yourself to someone who isn’t making you their priority.
Instead of focusing solely on this relationship, consider the possibility of meeting other people. This approach can provide a more balanced perspective and prevent you from feeling overly invested in a situation where your needs might not be fully met.
4. Stop wasting your time and prioritize self-respect
If you’re fed up with the situation and can’t take it any longer, end it. Tell her you no longer feel comfortable with the relationship and move on.
Many people forget that they are responsible for how others treat them.
If you’re being treated in a way that makes you feel undervalued, it’s because you allow it to happen.
So, don’t allow it to happen any longer. Make the hard choice and end the relationship.
Takeaways
If you’ve grown sick and tired of these dating situations you find yourself in, it’s time to make a change. Leave the past behind and become a high-value man who attracts high-value women into his life.
If one thing is certain, it’s that anyone has the power to change. Society has a nasty habit of conditioning us to believe we’re fixed in our current situation and that we’ll never be able to improve and embrace our full potential.
Not true. I’m proof of that. And if you want to gain insider knowledge of everything I learned on my journey, the professional coaching program at Knowledge for Men is just what you need.
How nice would it be to be surrounded by a group of strong, grounded, like-minded men who will challenge and push you to become the best version of yourself?
And to be clear, this isn’t a place for those faint of heart. Honestly, you’ll probably have to face aspects of yourself that will make you quite uncomfortable.
But if you’re looking for the single best place to grow into your true potential, this is it. No complainers are here, only serious, dedicated men committed to helping others.
Are you ready to take the next step? Are you ready to embrace your untapped potential and live a life you previously only imagined?
If so, the time is now. I’ll see you on the other side!
Lambert here: Not a geopolitics maven, but Iran sure did offer Russia the right hand of good fellowship with those drone sales.
By Simon Watkins, a former senior FX trader and salesman, financial journalist, and best-selling author. He was Head of Forex Institutional Sales and Trading for Credit Lyonnais, and later Director of Forex at Bank of Montreal. He was then Head of Weekly Publications and Chief Writer for Business Monitor International, Head of Fuel Oil Products for Platts, and Global Managing Editor of Research for Renaissance Capital in Moscow. Originally published at OilPrice.com.
• Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei gave his official approval to a new 20-year comprehensive cooperation deal between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia.
• The agreement will replace the 10-year-deal signed in March 2001 and has been expanded not only in duration but also in scope and scale.
• The new deal includes far-going agreements on defense and energy.
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, gave his official approval on 18 January to a new 20-year comprehensive cooperation deal between the Islamic Republic of Iran and Russia, according to a senior energy source in Iran and a senior source in the European Union’s (E.U.) energy security complex, exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week. The 20-year deal – ‘The Treaty on the Basis of Mutual Relations and Principles of Cooperation between Iran and Russia’ – was presented for his consideration on 11 December 2023. It will replace the 10-year-deal signed in March 2001 (extended twice by five years) and has been expanded not only in duration but also in scope and scale, particularly in the defense and energy sectors. In several respects, the new deal additionally complements key elements of the all-encompassing ‘Iran-China 25-Year Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement’, as first revealed anywhere in the world in my 3 September 2019 article on the subject and analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order.
In the energy sector to begin with, the new deal gives Russia the first right of extraction in the Iranian section of the Caspian Sea, including the potentially huge Chalous field. The wider Caspian basins area, including both onshore and offshore fields, is conservatively estimated to have around 48 billion barrels of oil and 292 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas in proven and probable reserves. In 2019, Russia was instrumental in changing the legal status of the Caspian basins area, cutting Iran’s share from 50 percent to just 11.875 percent in the process, as also detailed in my new book. Before the Chalous discovery, this meant that Iran would lose at least US$3.2 trillion in revenues from the lost value of energy products across the shared assets of the Caspian Sea resource going forward. Given the newest internal-use only estimates from Iran and Russia, this figure could be a lot higher. Previously, the estimates were that Chalous contained around 124 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas in place. This equated to around one quarter of the gas reserves contained in Iran’s supergiant South Pars natural gas field that account for around 40 percent of Iran’s total estimated gas reserves and about 80 per cent of its gas production. The new estimates are that it is a twin-field site, nine kilometres apart, with ‘Greater’ Chalous having 208 bcf of gas in place, and ‘Lesser’ Chalous having 42 bcf of gas, giving a combined figure of 250 bcm of gas.
The same right of first extraction for Russia will also now apply to Iran’s major oil and gas fields in the Khorramshahr and nearby Ilam provinces that border Iraq. The shared fields of Iran and Iraq have long allowed Tehran to side-step sanctions in place against its key oil sector, as it is impossible to tell what oil has come from the Iranian side or the Iraqi side of these fields, which means that Iran is able simply to rebrand its own sanctioned oil as unsanctioned Iraqi oil and ship it anywhere it wants, as also analysed in full in my new book on the new global oil market order. Former Petroleum Minister, Bijan Zanganeh, publicly highlighted this very practice when he said in 2020: “What we export is not under Iran’s name. The documents are changed over and over, as well as [the] specifications.” Another advantage of the shared fields is that they allow effectively free movement of personnel from the Iranian side to the Iraqi side, and the utilisation of key oil and gas developments across Iraq is a key part of Iran’s longstanding plan, fully supported by Russia, to build a ‘land bridge’ to the Mediterranean Sea coast of Syria. This would enable Iran and Russia to exponentially increase weapons delivery into southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights area of Syria to be used in attacks on Israel. The core aim of this policy is to provoke a broader conflict in the Middle East that would draw in the U.S. and its allies into an unwinnable war of the sort seen recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, and which may soon be seen as the Israel-Hamas War escalates.
The price of all manufactured items traded between Russia and Iran, including military and energy hardware, has been formalised in the new deal, although also not in Iran’s favour. For Iranian goods exported to Russia, Tehran will receive the cost of production plus 8 percent. However, these export sales to Russia will not be transferred to Iran, but rather they will be held as credit in the Central Bank of Russia (CBR). Moreover, Iran will receive a huge markdown on US dollar/Rouble or Euro/Rouble exchange rates used to calculate its credits in the CBR. Conversely, for Russian goods exported to Iran, Moscow will receive the payment in advance of delivery and at a much stronger exchange rate that benefits Russia. Moreover, the base price before any exchange rate calculations are made, will be founded on the highest price that Russia has received in the previous 180 days for whichever product it is selling Iran. This system has informally been in place for several weeks now, and according to the senior energy sector source in Tehran exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week, Russia has ensured itself the highest possible price by selling to Belarus at a very large premium whichever product it intends to sell later to Iran, so establishing the required pricing benchmark. Payments for goods and services falling outside the direct finance route between the central banks of the two countries can now be done through interbank transfers between Iranian and Russian banks. Those also involving renminbi can also be done through China’s Cross-Border Interbank Payment System (CIPS) system, its alternative to the globally-dominant Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) system.
In many cases, the expansion of military cooperation between Iran and Russia is tied into the energy sector elements of the new 20-year deal. Progress is earmarked to be made on upgrading the facilities at the key airports and seaports that have long been targeted by Russia as being especially useful for dual-use by its air force and navy, and which are also close to major oil and gas facilities. Top of the list of Iranian airports that Russia regards as the best for dual-use by its air force are Hamedan, Bandar Abbas, Chabahar, and Abadan, and it is apposite to note that in August 2016, Russia used the Hamedan airbase to launch attacks on targets in Syria using both Tupolev-22M3 long-range bombers and Sukhoi-34 strike fighters. Top of the list of seaports for use by its navy are Chabahar, Bandar-e-Bushehr, and Bandar Abbas. Similarly linked to Russia’s gaining the first right of extraction in the Iranian section of the Caspian Sea is that it will also be given a joint command capability over the northern aerospace defense section of Iran’s Caspian area.
It is also apposite to note here that Iran’s electronic warfare (EW) system can easily be tied into Russia’s Southern Joint Strategic Command 19th EW Brigade (Rassvet) near Rostov-on-Don to the northwest of the Caspian. This can also be linked in with China’s EW capabilities. These EW capabilities would include jamming systems for neutralising air defences in the region. This will be augmented with new missiles designated to be sent to Iran by Russia under the new deal, according to the senior E.U. security sector source exclusively spoken to by OilPrice.com last week. “Selected IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] personnel will be trained on the latest Russian upgrades of several short- and long-range missiles – the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal, the Iskander M, the RS-26 Rubezh, the BrahMos3, and the Avangard – before the plan to manufacture them under licence in Iran begins, with the aim being to have 30 percent of them stay in Iran, with the rest being sent back to Russia,” he said.
“What all of this means, is that the new 20 -year deal between Iran and Russia will change the landscape of the Middle East, southern Europe, and Asia as Iran will have a much-extended military reach that will give it much more leverage to make political demands across those region,” he exclusively told OilPrice.com last week. “This reach also means that countries in these areas will feel that continuing to rely on the U.S. for their protection is a lot more of a precarious option than it was before,” he concluded.
Being a new Grade 11 student in a small city was devastating. I had come from the “big city” to a rural cowboy type environment.
In the school of 259 students there was a huge class difference. Some families had money, some were farm kids bused in and as always the partiers. I didn’t really fit in, but I wasn’t bullied either.
The cheerleader girls snubbed everyone. Including me, they gossiped and ignored everyone but their clique. As I only had a year and a half before graduation I existed, couldn’t wait to get out of this place. As soon as school was done, I went back to my home city.
I was fortunate to get a job at the library, which was unionized. A year went by before the wages were negotiated and settled. When this was completed, we were back paid a year of difference.
This was in the early 1970’s and when I got my huge cheque and took it to the bank. I went through the teller, who recognized me and I was shocked to see the cheerleader queen working for the bank.
She took my deposit and with her snooty voice asked me if this was a severance payout. I looked her in the eye and smiled. I assured her that I hadn’t been fired. She looked at me and I could see she was looking for a snide remark. Just then I got my revenge.
I smiled and said to her, heavens no, I love working at the library. I told her, no problem, this is my bimonthly cheque.
She was so shocked that she turned on her sweetness and asked me, would you like to go for coffee this week. Again, I smiled and told her, thank you for asking but my social calendar is very busy.
“I am an American. I am not a tourist in your country.”
I was working as a Tourist Officer for the GNWT. My job was to maintain a park, and do tourist services. Simple work. One of the services was a visitor exit survey to see if people were enjoying the north. Let me set the stage.
Fort Smith NWT, is a community of about 3000 people. The airport is very small, and usually only has one person on duty for a flight. Her name was Mary*. She was both ticker agent and security guard. She pointed at an older woman and said “Tourist” so I went over and asked if she was willing to do the survey. “No problem, young man” was the very southern response. She was from Peachtree Georgia and had a classic plantation accent. After a few questions about what hotel she stayed at, and and activities she did, Mary called for pre-boarding, but to please do a tourist survey with me as there was “Plenty of time.”
The woman got absolutely infuriated with me instantly. And very loudly yelled “I am an American. I am not a tourist in your country.” And stormed over to the gate. The entire airport started laughing. And “In your country” because a new standard greeting between us for the summer.
*All NWT airports have a “Mary” and it seems like they are all the same women. A wonderful native Lady with a wicked sense of humor.
In an earlier post, I wrote about how my sister came home with some friends and ate my dinner ( long awaited Pizza) after working all day in the coal mines. My father later told me that I had to accept the insults and abuse because “as an oldest son, I had to take the hits”.
Some background.
My parents were separated. I was living with my mother. She and I both worked late. My sister lived a life of ease and came and went as she desired, being a star cheerleader, and the most popular girl in school. As a result I spent all my time at school, then in the coal mines (or grocery store) I worked two jobs, and came home to a often cold home with my sister preparing the barest “plates of leftovers” to me.
Literally a plate with one spoon of mashed potatoes. One spoon of peas. And a cold half pork chop. I, as a young man in my late teenage years. Perhaps 17, was getting mightily skinny and started to develop various problems. Like an eye twitch, and being really low in weight.
One day, my father came home. First time he saw me in about 8 months. And he was horrified. I was low in weight. Pale. Yellow tone. Hollow cheeks, and a twitch in the eyes…
I did manage to show him the “plate of food” that my sister made for me.
(I don’t recall how. But he saw it.)
And he was furious. I mean, simply enraged.
He had a really bad bitch and yell out session with my mother, and then he came out of the house in an angry huff, and got me from work. We drove to a local hotel in the town, a place where I had never been to before, and he went in and ordered me a meal.
He ordered me a beer and steak, then ordered me a hearty stew that was on the meal, and then when he dropped me off gave me $100 and told me to make sure that I used it to eat meals … real (man sized) dinners all week. ($100 back then was perhaps 20 large dinners.)
Then after that, he yelled at me “Stand up for yourself. You’re a man.”
Sheech!
Yea he noticed the situation. Yeah. He applied a band-aid.
But you know what guys, the problem ran far deeper than that. I needed a friendly male figure to watch over me locally. A bud. A BRO. An uncle. Someone. Maybe a trusted teacher.
I couldn’t be the “lone wolf”… it turns men into “worker droids”.
You would think that my dad, who lived in the town for 15 year previously… would know a guy or two. But no. He was raised in the 1930’s, and my grandfather was raised before that. Real men’s education was lost in time around 1910 or so.
Nope. Sigh.
This is a story about the emasculation of men. And what actually happened. It is about the changes in society wrought about though excessive taxation, the requirement for both couples to work, a rise in feminism BUT with no change in the roles of the female gender.
Do not be like me.
Do not be like my dad.
Some problems are not so easily solved by a beer and a steak.
My daughter, of Middle School age, brought to school cash I gave her to buy several boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from a friend of hers. They would exchange the cookies for the cash at lunch, or at some other time during the day. Come time for Music class, my daughter picks up her French Horn in the band-room and leaves her purse (with the cash) and her backpack (with books and lunch) in the music anteroom where instruments were stored. The entire orchestra did, including one male student who was often a nasty person. He excused himself mid-rehearsal and went into the equipment room. Afterwards, my daughter discovered her money missing. So we went to the auto supply shop and purchased a quart of thick grease. We dumped its contents into a purse she was willing to sacrifice. Barely peeking out of the open top of the purse is a $20 bill. The bait is left where the purse she had used the day before had been. End of the school day I get a call from the assistant principal. Little Thief’s momma had called because he got all this nasty, stinky green grease all over his hands, jacket, etc. and had blamed my daughter for his plight. But he had come yelling out of the anteroom with his greased up hands wiping themselves all over his sweater, and as a result, the Band Director/Conductor confirmed that my daughter and her very visible french horn had been under his eye the entire time that Little Thief had been in the anteroom and therefore she could have had nothing to do with forcing his hands to get all greased up inside of her purse. BUSTED! and GREASED!
I finished a drunk driving jury trial once. Jury went out to deliberate. It was a weak case for the prosecution. No breath test, not even field sobriety tests. I felt my client would be ok. Maybe they’d hook her on the lessor charge of Negligent operation at worst. There were skid marks and her tires lost a fight with a curb etc. Anyway, I was exhausted. Jury trials can be draining, even simple ones. So I went and found a nice secluded bench in a quiet empty hallway of the courthouse to await the verdict.
The Courthouse was old Georgian Colonial building built back when Perry Mason still ran new episodes in prime time. It’d Seen better days. But I kicked back on my wooden bench best I could. Then I heard voices.
The hallway was empty in each direction, but There was this door in front of me. I quickly realized I was sitting right on the other side, literally just a few feet and only an old paper thin wooden closed door away from the jury deliberations room, and The voices I heard belonged to my client’s jury.
Now, I’ll admit the ethical thing for me to have done would’ve been to get up and leave immediately. But I’ll rationalize and say I was just too damn tired. So instead I just sat there and listened. It was a learning experience to say the least.
Not one piece of evidence presented by myself or the prosecution was discussed. Not one fact of the case. Not one element of the charges. . Instead they talked about my clients appearance. My client had big implants etc. she was on the north side of 40 trying to hold on to the south side of 30. So jokes were made.i sat there biting my tongue and thought to myself. “Ok ok. Ha ha. Silly jury. That’s funny, Now how about you get to the evidence, maybe take a vote or two. You know, do what you were sworn to do by the judge a few short minutes ago.”
instead, There was a paused silence. A male juror spoke out and said “I’m hungry can we get this over with.” This was followed by another pause. a woman juror blurted out “Well I don’t like her shoes. Who wears bang me pumps to court! So I vote guilty!” (Verbatim except for the word “bang”). This was met with roaring laughter.Another guy said “well, that’s good enough for me. I’ll get the court officer.”
An older outstanding lawyer once told me that the best we can do as lawyers is: 1. Do the best we can do and 2. have faith in the jury. Because They usually get it right.
Early in my career I built and repaired computers for a couple of different companies. This was back in the day of mostly desktop/tower systems during the transition from beige to all the colors of the rainbow.
At one place, we had a client that liked to upgrade his computer himself but really shouldn’t have. He brought in the system one time to find out why the computer didn’t work after he put in a new motherboard. In his eyes it was ALWAYS faulty components. That wasn’t unlikely given that he liked to purchase refurbished parts. This time it turns out the new board didn’t fit in the case quite right, so he took his handy Dremel tool and cut the case to allow the board to fit. Sadly, he did not remove the electronic components first and ended up with metal shavings all over the board. Final answer: don’t do that, and buy a new board.
The worst one that I encountered was at another shop. There was a client who really wanted us to repair his computer. It didn’t bode well that the outside of the case was yellow from excessive smoking, or that some of the plastic had melted and been pulled away by an incandescent light bulb pressed against the case. We opened the computer and then almost immediately closed it back up and refused to work on it. The dead roaches inside were not the reason we declined the work. The overwhelming odor of cat urine is what did the trick. Neither I nor the other technicians were willing to touch the thing without gloves. From what we saw without ever plugging it in, there was likely nothing to be saved anyway. It’s possible he could have saved the hard disk to retrieve his data, but I wasn’t going to do it.
We were adding a deck onto our house and went about the proper way, by applying for a building permit. The inspector came out and asked about dimensions, etc. We were planning on a pretty large deck that would run the length of the house (about 25 or 30 feet long). And we were planning on it being about 13 feet wide. The inspector notified us that in our community you couldn’t build a deck attached to the house or an addition onto the house that would come within 30 feet of our property line, which would have meant that our deck would have been all of about 3 feet wide! Before we decided to embark on this improvement I had done a bunch of research on decks and had read about ‘freestanding decks’ which are usually built in a yard separate from the house. So I asked him, “What if it is a freestanding deck. Not attached to the house in any way but built right up next to it?”
He said “You found the one loophole. Please keep it under your hat.” Our plans for the deck got approved and a couple of months after it was built we lag-bolted it to the house. Problem solved!
This won’t work for everybody, but I have a little story on this one.
Years ago I had a friend with an absolutely miserable mother-in-law. The first time I met her (at a large party), I made the mistake of listening to her for an hour, whilst drowning her sorrows in as much beer as I could drink.
At the same party the following year, I met my friend’s neighbor. As bad as the mother-in-law was, the neighbor was worse. Even the perfect weather was worthy of complaint.
Before subjecting myself to further torture, I remembered an old math lesson, namely that two negatives make a positive.
I introduced the two women and they spent the entire evening together complaining to each other.
At the end of the evening each of them thanked me for introducing them to such an understanding and like-minded person. They were both smiling.
Two days after my late fiance died, I did something very stupid.
I went to work.
I have no ideas why I did it, nothing made sense for a long time.
I went in and made my way to my desk, normally that would be littered with “OI! SCAZ! PISS OFF!” etc. And it was returned 3 fold.
This day I didn’t even hear it, I just took my things to where they belonged and left for a cigarette. A few friends followed me, but I didn’t even acknowledge them.
When I returned, questions were answered by “Piss off.” Or “much you care!”
My supervisor came over, she sat beside me and insisted we went for a smoke. She didn’t smoke! Whilst we were outside, she gently questioned me until she got the information she wanted. I’m told.I said “I’m alone, and I always will be.”
At first she thought we had split up, then she realised he was gone. I truly was alone.
She left me smoking, leaving a male co worker outside in case I tried something silly. She came back with a blanket and my manager. She wrapped me up and spoke gently, saying I needed to be at home, then booked a taxi and escorted me to his house.
She explained what was happening, then followed me up to his room and watched me put his football shirt on and get in to his bed.
She sat on the end of the bed until I had sobbed myself to sleep, then went back to work.
She called me every day for 3 weeks and just said “you’re not ready yet. Stay where you are. “
Now 25 out of 50 States Standing with Texas Against Federal Government; U.S. Primed for Actual CIVIL WAR
Tonight, the “united” States of America stand on the precipice of actual CIVIL WAR. Twenty-Five of the fifty states now publicly stand with Texas against the rogue and illegitimate federal government handling of Illegal Immigration, run by election thief-in-chief, Joe Biden.
This afternoon, January 25, 2024, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds and twenty-four additional state Governors, released a statement on the issue:
“President Biden and his Administration have left Americans and our country completely vulnerable to unprecedented illegal immigration pouring across the Southern border. Instead of upholding the rule of law and securing the border, the Biden Administration has attacked and sued Texas for stepping up to protect American citizens from historic levels of illegal immigrants, deadly drugs like fentanyl, and terrorists entering our country.
“We stand in solidarity with our fellow Governor, Greg Abbott, and the State of Texas in utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border. We do it in part because the Biden Administration is refusing to enforce immigration laws already on the books and is illegally allowing mass parole across America of migrants who entered our country illegally.
“The authors of the U.S. Constitution made clear that in times like this, states have a right of self-defense, under Article 4, Section 4 and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Because the Biden Administration has abdicated its constitutional compact duties to the states, Texas has every legal justification to protect the sovereignty of our states and our nation.”
These are the 25 state Governors who signed this statement:
Governor Kim Reynolds (IOWA), Governor Kay Ivey (ALABAMA), Governor Mike Dunleavy (ALASKA), Governor Sarah Sanders (ARKANSAS), Governor Ron DeSantis (FLORIDA), Governor Brian Kemp (GEORGIA), Governor Brad Little (IDAHO), Governor Eric Holcomb (INDIANA), Governor Jeff Landry (LOUISIANA), Governor Tate Reeves (MISSISSIPPI), Governor Mike Parson (MISSOURI), Governor Greg Gianforte (MONTANA), Governor Jim Pillen (NEBRASKA), Governor Joe Lombardo (NEVADA), Governor Chris Sununu (NEW HAMPSHIRE), Governor Doug Burgum (NORTH DAKOTA), Governor Mike DeWine (OHIO), Governor Kevin Stitt (OKLAHOMA), Governor Henry McMaster (SOUTH CAROLINA), Governor Kristi Noem (SOUTH DAKOTA), Governor Bill Lee (TENNESSEE), Governor Spencer Cox (UTAH), Governor Glenn Youngkin (VIRGINIA), Governor Jim Justice (WEST VIRGINIA), and Governor Mark Gordon (WYOMING).
Not since the year 1860, just prior to the Civil War, has the “united” States seen this type – and scope – of open challenge to the federal government. The challenge is already growing far, far, worse.
Members of the Armed Forces of the United States are already inquiring as to how they can join-up with the various State Guards in the event the Biden Regime tries to order the Army into the affair, or tries to “Nationalize” the Guard to serve the Biden regime. Troops are also researching the implications of going AWOL (Absent With Out Leave), Resigning from the military, or outright changing sides, to side with the States.
The General Public is beginning to notice, and take sides, and the lines of demarcation are becoming crystal clear. Supporting secure borders are Republicans, Conservatives, and normal Independents. Those supporting the Biden Regime and its open borders are Democrats, Progressives, Liberals, Marxists, Socialists, the mentally ill “trannies” and those who walk around with strange colored hair (blue, green, deep-dyed red, etc.)
Sales of Rifle Ammunition are absolutely skyrocketing throughout much of the country, as Americans stock up on body-armor-penetrating Large caliber rifle ammunition. Sales of Level Four body armor and it’s armor insert plates, is also skyrocketing.
The Biden Regime is running into additional problems of its own making, in terms of the number of troops it can muster. In addition to having to staff the eight hundred or so bases the US has created around the planet, Biden has now also deployed hundreds of thousands of troops to Europe, for NATO, over the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and is now in the process of deploying thousands more for the upcoming Yemen activity.
With all branches of the US military suffering several years of missed Recruiting Goals, if push-comes-to-shove with this Texas situation, Biden may not be able to muster troops in numbers necessary to take any effective action. Put more bluntly, Biden can no longer muster enough troops to keep himself, and the federal government, in-power should things turn hot.
There are also very widespread discussions in liberal states about what may have to be done with THOSE state governments, if this turns into an actual Civil War. Should Conservatives in Liberal states up and leave, or should they stay and “take out” the liberal state governments?
It’s not a far fetched question because those liberal states have the unique vulnerability of having long ago DISARMED their populations through gun control laws. So the people of those liberal states can’t defend themselves – or their state government — if things turn hot.
By far, the strangest aspect of developments so far is a run on auto parts stores for an over-the-counter auto engine product called “Tuf-Oil.” It contains “the slipperiest substance on earth” which is reportedly even slipperier than Teflon. By dropping a few drops on the tips of full metal jacket bullets, some people say it allows the bullet to slip right through level three and level IIIA bullet-resistant vests, which is what most police utilize. Thus, any police choosing to side with the Illegal Immigration may not stand much of a chance if the nation goes into Civil War.
By the end of this week, the lines may actually be drawn.
On the horizon: States that choose to side with Biden, will likely be the ones to start getting (more) busloads of illegal immigrants from Texas. So unless those states want to end up like New York City and parts of Illinois, where the costs for supporting those migrants is wiping out budgets, those states may find they HAVE to support Texas, to avoid getting tens-of-thousands of migrants which break their budgets, spike crime, and make areas literal cesspools.
Some 10+ years back, I ran into an old school teacher, from 25 years prior. I recognised him, but he didn’t know who I was until I told him my name. He was one of the teachers I remembered fondly. He was my teacher for a whole year in primary school (elementary school). His classes were always fun, and he was a kind and gentle man. He never yelled at students, and despite this being the early 80s, he preferred to separate trouble-makers, and give them time out in the “quiet room” (a reading room off the main classroom) as punishment, instead of the cane or simply yell at them like other teachers. The fact his classes were the most functional, with the least trouble, showed he was on the right path there.
One thing happened that year that I’ve never forgotten. My grandfather passed away, and I had to go to school the next day. I was still quite upset, and didn’t want to go out into the playground at lunch. All I wanted was a quiet place to sit down and cry for a bit, in private. I asked him if I could sit in the “quiet room” rather than go outside to have lunch. This messed up his lunch plans – he couldn’t leave me unsupervised in the classroom/adjacent room, so he ate his lunch in the classroom instead of the staff room with the other teachers. He came into the quiet room after he’d finished, and I still remember how he put his hand on my back – just touching my shoulder blade firm enough to say “I’m here for you.” It was the most comforting thing any teacher had ever done. Sadly, in this day & age they’d be labelled as a predator, but he was far from that. He genuinely cared about his students, and his support helped me compose myself enough to spend the rest of lunch in the playground.
I have never forgotten that.
When I saw him in the supermarket, I went up to him and said “Hey, Mr G, how are you?” He had that “do I know you?” look that most people get, but with a bit of a twist – it’s like he assumed I was an old student from years before, but he had no clue as to my name. So I introduced myself, and a smile spread across his face.
He asked what I’d done with my life, and warmly shook my hand, telling me how happy he was that I’d turned out great – adding that he always knew I’d do well. I guess many good teachers have this happen to them over the years, so it would be a fairly common line.
We chatted for about 5 minutes, and I decided to tell him how I’d never forgotten what he did – that minute of care, that meant so much to me. He almost had tears in his eyes as I explained how I felt about it. We then spoke about how modern day rules wouldn’t allow a teacher to go near a student, let alone touch them, and how a few bad apples have spoiled it for the opportunities where the right touch can have so much benefit. He thanked me for sharing my memory with him, and how it made his day to learn that such a small action from 25 years ago had been so significant to me that I’d never forgotten it. We both parted with huge smiles.
4 ripe medium tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly-ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon oregano
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 pound raw large shrimp, shelled and de-veined
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
In a heavy skillet, sauté onion in butter and oil until soft. Add wine, tomatoes, garlic, salt, pepper and oregano. Bring to boil, lower heat to medium, and simmer until sauce is slightly thickened. Stir in cheese and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Adjust seasonings.
Just before serving, add shrimp to hot sauce and cook for 5 minutes or until shrimp are just tender. Do not overcook. Garnish with parsley and serve immediately in large bowls with crusty French bread. Pass the rice!
TikToker Facing 15 Years in Prison for Unthinkable “Prank”
Originally Answered: What was the most legendary “I quit!” that you know about or witnessed?
I was working in fast food. The supervisor, “Jane,” hated to promote managers no matter how much they deserved it. She had people with the trainee title doing the work of shift managers.
One day, she finally deigned to test “John” for grill manager. This was well below the work he was doing, but it was a step up from the title he held. The day of his test, there was a large lunch rush. It was well within his capabilities. However, as soon as it got busy, Jane took over. She sent John to do the lowliest job in the store… cleaning the lobby.
He was among her best managers, and she just ended his test to have him clean lobby? Wrong move.
Instead of going to the lobby, he quit. He just said, “I quit.” He clocked out and left.
The owner of the store was livid. This was the third manager to quit in a month, and now the owner knew why. He pulled out Jane’s contract and tore it in half.
That was the end of the line for Jane, but John didn’t fare so badly. He walked across town to another large fast food restaurant. He walked in and told his story. It just so happened that their supervisor was familiar with Jane’s tactics and believed John. They started him in management the next day.
There’s an element of truth in these maps: there were unconquered, independent enclaves within Aztec-controlled land. Owing to the combination of geography and people, there were some places not even the Spanish could take by force (though the Aztecs needed to first be interested in these places, and many simply didn’t have anything they wanted).
But everything else is more the working of historians trying to deal with a place whose concepts of territory and sovereignty were a bit more foreign than what we’re used to in our Westphalian system. Which is why each map you see on the Internet looks slightly different based on which sources are being used. Some, of course, are just being “eyeballed”.
Let’s grab a map that most closely reflects what you’re asking:
image 196
This is a more minimalist interpretation of the empire. It assumes that only true “vassals” — conquered and annexed regions subject to regular tribute and overseen by officials along a spectrum of authority — as well as the core, and all the parts that assisted in the empire’s governance, are true parts of the empire. As we’ll see, this definition complicates things. Many parts of the periphery had what might call “client states” who willingly sent gifts to pledge allegiance and troops in turn for protection, but otherwise weren’t assigned any regular taxation. Many altepemeh (city-states) were nominally under the control of their respective region’s provincial capital, but lived largely the same as before the Aztecs since they had nothing that interested in them save for just recognition of who’s boss. Doesn’t even make sense if we were studying medieval Europe, given all the nearly autonomous regions there.
Then there’s the fact that the Aztecs only completely stripped their subjects of self-rule when they deemed it absolutely necessary for the stability of the province; otherwise they didn’t really care what the local rulers did as long as they kept up their allegiance and tax flow. This really isn’t out of the ordinary for Old World polities, though, but people tend to forget the complexity of historical Eurasian governance when they’re studying the Americas.
So let’s take a look:
The Three “Islands”:
The first one is probably two, perhaps three, polities, and even then the “hole” is probably a little bit bigger than it should be. The majority of it is by far going to be the Republic of Tlaxcallan. The whole land was highly fortified — not even the Spanish thought they would be able to take it militarily — and its people well-trained and socially unified despite being less centralized politically. Owing to that, it was an unconquerable thorn in the Aztec’s side, with the latter being forced to surround them and cut off access to the coast and trade routes until they eventually lose through attrition.
Part of the southern bit would be Cholollan, or Cholula. This was a city that had been around since 600 BC, and at one time in the Classic period was a sizable and important kingdom in its own right and was seen as an important religious center throughout much of Mesoamerica ever since. It was one of the major “Tollans” — a revered metropolis — of Mesoamerica. Receiving noble titles from Cholula was almost like getting them from the Pope, in a way. It was actually Tlaxcallan that conquered it early on; something that the Cholulans didn’t quite appreciate, so they rebelled the first chance they got and allied themselves with the Aztecs. The exact nature of the allegiance isn’t well known, though they certainly don’t seem to have been a dependent.
That would leave the rest of the hole to be Huexotzinco, which doesn’t make sense because this once-major polity was conquered by Tlaxcallan, then by the Aztecs with the help of Huexotzinca rebels, and only left when they sided with the Spanish.
The middle “island” is Teotitlan. It’s kind of difficult finding out just what it was. According to some documents, it was a tributary, but there are no sources mentioning any outright conquest and others say it was merely an ally that gave the Aztecs free passage. Ross Hassig in Aztec Warfare suggests a middle ground, where Teotitlan was never outright conquered on account of there not being anything of value except it being an important crossroads for trade routes. Therefore, it was probably left autonomous on the condition that it maintain its roads and support Aztec merchants and troops — which sounds an awful lot like a tribute requirement for some people, especially considering other places had similar arrangements. And that’s why this “island” is sometimes filled in.
The area controlled by Teotitlan regardless was probably not as large as it’s seen on most maps.
The bottom “island”, touching the coast, is the Me’phaa kingdom of Yopitzinco. The Yopes, according to the Aztecs, are both boring and harmless. The Yopes might disagree, but at least that translated to there not being any active attempt to subjugate the region. Even if the Aztecs wanted to, they’d have a difficult time with all that rough terrain. There were, however, some campaigns to the east where the Tlapanecs, another Me’phaa kingdom, were conquered, but the Yopes could visit the sacred city of Tlapan freely and the king of Yopitzinco would be among those invited to coronations, temple (re)dedications, kids’ birthday parties and neighborhood barbecues, etc.
The “Unconquered Panhandle”:
That would, of course, be this place:
image 32
Metztitlan was an Otomi kingdom, and one of the last independent Otomi polities. Which is a bit poignant, considering how much the Otomi and other Oto-Manguean speakers feature in Mesoamerican history. It’s thought, for example, that they made up a large portion (and may have been the founders) of Teotihuacan, and were otherwise important military players in the Aztec Empire, Tlaxcallan and the P’urepecha Empire.
Like Yopitzinco, there’s not much here the Aztecs were interested in and it’s nestled within mountains. The only time the Aztecs ever tried to take it was under Tizoc, regarded in their history as the dumbest emperor they’d ever had. On his coronation in 1481, Tizoc waged a campaign of conquest to prove his might, including invading Metztitlan. Failed miserably. And ended up with more provinces rebelling than conquered. It seems likely that he was clandestinely assassinated and replaced by his more adept brother Ahuizotl to “clean up the mess”.
The “Random Bit to the East”
This is where it gets interesting.
That apparent exclave is the Aztec province of Xoconochco (or Soconusco), “place of the sour cactus”.
image 195
Xoconochco was a 1486 conquest by Ahuizotl, establishing a foothold in “Cuauhtemallan” (where we get the word “Guatemala”). In doing so, they acquired some of the best centers of cacao (chocolate) production in Mesoamerica along with jaguar skins and exotic birds and/or their feathers. They also established a presence in a lucrative mercantile entrepot. Definitely valuable enough to establish a garrison, which they had to deploy on a couple of occasions.
Right up to the border with them was Q’umarkaj, a K’iche Maya kingdom which had been forming quite an empire for itself; eventually controlling a majority of what is now Guatemala. The Aztecs sent emissaries to foster strong diplomatic relations with Q’umarkaj, all the way up to political marriages. Moctezuma II thought the alliance so strong that during Cortes’ campaigns against him, he sent for aid from Q’umarkaj…who of course never responded. By 1520, the young K’iche empire was incredibly unstable from internal strife (that’s what you get when you’re ruled by four kings from four distinct houses). If the Spanish never invaded, there may have been a good chance of the K’iche failing to work themselves out and the Aztecs stepping in to fill the power vacuum.
But how did the Aztecs get all the way to Almost Guatemala? Why the apparent jump?
Well, the land inbetween Xoconochco and the rest of the Aztec empire is Zapotec land. In the highlands of Oaxaca was the kingdom of Za’achila. To the lowlands going east was Guisii Gui — the Forest of Fire — which the Aztecs called Tehuantepec (and where the Isthmus of Tehuantepec gets its namesake). It seems that Za’achila expanded into this region just before Ahuizotl stepped in.
What exactly happened here depends on who you ask. Most of the Aztec accounts say that their own were attacked in Tehuantepec, so Ahuizotl used that as a (very common) casus belli to conquer it and turn it into a tributary province — albeit one they had come to respect after thwarting a covert attempt to overthrow the less-than-obeisant Zapotec rulers. And the Zapotecs say their king Cosijoeza was besieged in the fortress of Guiengola for 7 months and won frequent nighttime raids until Ahuizotl acquiesced and signed a peace treaty. Both sides of the story involve Ahuizotl marrying Cosijoeza. Uh, to his daughter, mind…and Xoconochco being taken with Zapotec assistance.
In terms of actual documentation, Tehuantepec doesn’t show up in the tribute lists of the Codex Mendoza. However, it does show up in the Memorial de Tlacopan in the list of regions subordinate to all three capitals of the Triple Alliance. Pedro Carrasco in The Tenochca Empire of Ancient Mexico surmises that this is because Tehuantepec and perhaps regions in similar situations were only obligated to give military aid, being something of a client state under a dynastic union.
So, sometimes you get maps looking like this instead.
I quit a job after discovering that I was shorted around $800 on a paycheck, and the manager (the owners son, may have been the legal owner at that time, I don’t know for sure) told me there was nothing they could do about my pay, because it had been charged incorrectly to the customers. And the manager was the one who billed it out. So I quit, with no notice. I finished my shift to not put my direct supervisor or coworkers in a bad position. I had the entire dashboard out of a car, and I think it would have literally taken weeks for anyone else to look at my pile of parts and figure out where they went. I liked my coworkers, so I didn’t do that to them.
When I went back to collect my last paycheck, they had a question about the car. I had a pretty good idea what was going on. I said that I could probably figure it out, but it might take me some time, and I expected to be paid actual time until I diagnosed it. I think they knew I was going to drag it out to $800 worth of time. To this day, I don’t know for sure what the problem was. (I didn’t do anything to intentionally sabotage the job)
You are in control here. It sounds like they were not good to you. I sure wouldn’t do anything to help in that situation, unless I got a big payout.
NY Times & WSJ Promoting Open Marriage/Polyamory Success Stories
When I was about 18 I found $100 in the street, and not another person was in sight. $100 was a heck of a lot of money then (about $800 by today’s standards), and I have to confess that the idea of keeping it did cross my mind. But then I thought that perhaps it might belong to somebody poor who was desperately in need of it, so I dutifully trotted off to the local police station with it and told them I where I had found it, expecting them to pat me on the back, tell me I was a wonderful human being, and wave goodbye.
To my enormous surprise, and extreme discomfort, they immediately started grilling me about the circumstances. Were there any other people in the street? Were any people in nearby houses or gardens watching? Were there any possible witnesses in parked cars? And a lot of other questions along those lines, until I was seriously starting to feel like a criminal myself, and thinking if it ever happened again, no way was I ever going near a police station. It came to an end, and it turned out it was so rare for anyone to do this, that they thought that perhaps I had only done it because somebody had seen me find the money, and so didn’t feel safe keeping it.
Then I did genuinely get the pat on the back and the praise, and was told to tell my parents they should be proud of having such an honest child. But that wasn’t the happy end of the story.
That night there was a knock on our door, and a boy from our street was there. He had just completed his first year of university and done tremendously well. His proud grandparents, who were in fact quite poor and couldn’t really afford it, had sent him the money as a reward for all his hard work. He was sure it was lost for good, and only out of desperation went to the police station to see if somebody had handed it in because he couldn’t bear to tell his grandparents it was lost without trying. He literally had tears in his eyes, and couldn’t stop thanking me.
Please allow me to tell you of my experience. I worked for a very well known timeshare company based in Las Vegas, Nevada. I started out as the assistant to the Collections Manager. You know, those people who call you up to collect on your timeshare loan when you don’t pay on time.
After about 6 years or so, I was promoted to the Executive Revolution Dept. As you can imagine, things sometimes things went wrong, so the account came to the ERD. We had the authority to review the points accounts and make whatever changes might be necessary to either correct the points usage, add points etc, to make the customer happy. Sometimes all it took was educating the member, but that took time some people didn’t have the patience for.
There was between 12 to 15 employees of that department and we mostly loved what we did. Five of our employees had a combined total of 93 years service with the company. I was one of these with 15 years years with the company. One by one, the five began to be terminated for made up reasons and an inexperienced person making next to minimum wage was hired. Then when the department was all new hires, the ERD was discontinued and became a traditional customer service call center. I know these cuts were to make more money for the company. IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT THE MONEY, theirs, not ours!
We had a guy at work (in a different department) who was a real bully. The whole department hated him, but he was sneaky enough to not get caught by HR for a number of years. We all knew about him as well – as many of us have friends across multiple departments.
He’d been done DUI a few times, and had just gotten his licence back after another long stint without it. Finally he did something that was witnessed, and was asked to front management & HR to explain himself. All of a sudden the avalanche of complaints that they’d filed as “can’t confirm 100%” had enough evidence, and he was sacked on the spot. He didn’t take it well.
As he was escorted up the driveway, his former supervisor had to open the security gate to let him out. He aimed his (loud, V8 performance) car at him & gunned it, to scare him. A few more words were exchanged before the supervisor let him out the gate, and told him never to return. The driver responded with a finger out the window and a barrage of verbal abuse as he roared off through the gate.
He got to the road, and let rip. It was a huge burnout out the driveway and sideways onto the road. Lots of white smoke, and 2 thick black lines that lasted for months. Whilst the engine was still roaring, we heard the sirens from a Police car. The cop was just up the road and saw it all. Aggravated burnout is a huge fine, 30-day impound on the car, and often times a loss of licence due to the number of points accrued. In this guy’s case, he was on a “good behaviour” licence, and just 1 indiscretion is enough to lose it again. He went home with no job, no car, no licence, and even more debt. It was a great day for Karma, and still remembered fondly by those who were victims of his abuse.
Why don’t you decide. The latest official grow rates of U.S. and China is out! The U.S. grow 2.4% and has an inflation rate of 3.4% or in other words the U.S. real GDP shrink by -1%.
China on the other hand grew by 5.2% but has a 0.2% inflation. Therefore it grow by a positive 5.0% in real income!
Which economy is experiencing slower growth or negative real income? Unless one is dumb, deaf or blind it doesn’t need a 5 years old to see that this question is a nonsensical western narrative to talk down China!
Probably the most ridiculous outcome of a battle would be when a Dutch naval fleet was captured after being charged and surrounded by French cavalry.
Yup, you read that right.
During the War of the First Coalition, the French Revolutionary Army was camping out in Amsterdam for the winter. The generals became aware of a Dutch fleet anchored at Den Helder, a nearby bay that had been frozen over due to an extremely cold winter.
They sent out a regiment of “hussars” (light cavalry) with a regiment of line infantry that literally hitched a ride with them. Upon approaching Den Helder, they discovered the Dutch fleet stuck in the ice with the sailors fast asleep.
Not wishing to wake the napping sailors, the French covered the hooves of their horses with fabric and slowly maneuvered out onto the ice. When they were in position, they launched their assault.
Within minutes, they had surrounded the entire fleet. The cavalry men and infantry quickly boarded and captured every ship. They suffered zero losses.
This is the only time in human history where a naval battle between warships and cavalry took place, and as ridiculous as it sounds, the cavalry won.
When I was college, I had a friend on the gymnastics team which at the time was just a few women. The gymnastics coach also taught P.E. and was a sixth degree black belt.
The team was heading up the mountain to a meet in Boone NC and back then it was a winding two lane road. They were all packed into the coach’s station wagon and this truck driver started tailgating them. Soon, he was right on their bumper and there was nowhere to pull off. So, coach slowed down, way down.
Finally, they got to a turnout and coach pulled over. Instead of passing, the truck driver stopped, hopped out and, brandishing a tire iron, started approaching the car yelling and cursing.
The girls were pretty scared but coach just casually got out and waited for the driver, arm barred him, pulled the tire iron out of the drivers hand, tossed it over the cliff and forced him to the ground.
My friend said coach said something to the driver, likely that the driver would soon be following the tire iron over the cliff if he did not leave now. The driver got back in this rig and drove off. They never saw him again.
The lesson is, don’t pick a fight with someone you don’t know.
Payee calls about his child support. We’re a payroll company and we’re required to deduct any garnishment we get from a court. We must withhold until we get an order from the court telling us to stop.
One day, a payee called and told our garnishments clerk to stop his garnishment immediately and issue him a refund for the week we already took out. The clerk verified the paperwork (we do make mistakes) and it was okay. She said something like “if the court has ended your garnish, have them send us an official notice and …”
At which point he launched into a tirade. The kid might not be his and even if it was so what, since she was a s**t and threw him out. Since she threw him out, he hardly had to pay for any spawn that B!tch had. He didn’t give a flying whatever about a court order from some <derogatory word for a gay person> 90 year old judge. His garnishment was going to be stopped NOW and he would be over to pick up his refund within an hour.
She quickly told him there would be no refund and got a string of profanity for it. That ended with, I’ll be at that desk like I said for my refund and either I’ll have it or I’ll be sending you straight to H3ll. All you B!tches stick together but this time you’re not getting away with it. And then he slammed down the phone.
She told her supervisor who calmed her down. “If he calls back, hand him to me and meanwhile, I’ll report this higher up. If he does call back, we’ll handle it for you next time.”
Here, I fault the company a bit. No one thought to call the front desk. We had no idea what he looked like, but maybe they could have warned the receptionist about what to do if he did show. However, the supervisor made the mistake of assuming he was just blowing off steam.
He did show up and he was clever. He asked the desk where Accounting was and the receptionist told him “2nd floor, at the back of the building.” He thanked her and sat down in one of the lobby chairs. Shortly after, the UPS guy and a runner came in. Receptionist distracted, he simply started walking down the hallway unchallenged.
We don’t know if he knew there was a back stairway or was just hoping there was one. He’d have seen that you needed a key to use the elevator at the front of the building. At any rate, he found the open back stairway, found Accounting and found that the clerk was in the room alone.
He jumped her and started strangling her and it would have been the end if our maintenance supervisor hadn’t been coming up the back stairs. He heard noises, decided to investigate and saw what was going on. He was twice the other guy’s size but it was all he could do to pull him off. The clerk was by then purple and nearly out.
Shortly after, the Controller, also a big guy came in and was helping the maintenance supervisor hold this guy down. Meanwhile, he was fighting like a rabid dog and tried to pull a knife. Finally, the clerk had recovered enough to go get help. Cops came and three of them had all they could do to cuff him and get him out of the building.
I saw the tail end of it — three pretty big cops having all they could do to handle on guy already in handcuffs. All over his child support.
We had a couple other incidents but none went that far. Still, if anyone ever comes into our building and shoots us all, it’s more likely going to be over some jerk who doesn’t think he should pay his child support than any other cause.
Kolokythia Krokettes (Zucchini Pancakes)
2024 01 27 08 09
Ingredients
3 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup grated feta cheese
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh mint leaves
3 tablespoons flour
Pepper
Butter
Instructions
Mix zucchini with salt and let stand 1 hour. Squeeze out moisture.
Beat eggs. Add zucchini, cheese, mint, flour and pepper to taste.
Fry 1 tablespoon at a time in butter over medium heat. Brown on both sides.
This happens sometimes when I’m with my students outside of my classroom. The problem stems from stereotyping and profiling. I’m an ugly, middle-aged white guy who also happens to be a teacher, but people in public don’t know I’m a teacher.
Part of one of my earlier teaching jobs was to monitor the students when they were at recess. Their recess area was a huge lot between the street and the school. The boys usually played football, and the girls usually just sat around and gossiped. I usually stood near the school to watch them, but one day I sat in my van that was parked on the street and watched them from there.
I’d hurt my lower back and was using my van’s heated seats to ease the pain.
Someone saw me and called the school to let them know that some pervert was sitting in his van by the school, watching the girls during recess.
Another time, while teaching at that same school, we had a field trip to the local aquarium. It was crowded, as always. Besides being a teacher, I was also that school’s official Facebook administrator. Basically, I took pictures of everything and posted them on Facebook for the parents. I decided to take some pictures of our field trip for Facebook.
So there I was, taking pictures of some young school girls (and boys) in the darkened corridors of a crowded aquarium. I saw a middle-aged woman giving me a dirty look, and I realized what she must have thought. I actually said, loud enough for everyone in front of the coral reef exhibit to hear:
“I’m not a creep. I’m their teacher. This is part of my job.”
I’ve actually stopped using my own phone to take pictures of my students when we’re on field trips now. I use an iPad, and I try to get other students to take the pictures as much as possible. It looks less creepy that way.
The part that WOMEN always LEAVE OUT: why this messes with men’s heads
I didn’t have to travel and work away from the office often but if I did then it was likely to be important. I knew several other IT people in the same position.
Anyway – at one point the senior managers decided the company was spending far too much on hotel and travelling expenses and something HAD TO BE DONE!!!
SO we had new rules. Travel using public transport and only stay in Travel Lodge (for not UK people – a hotel chain – reasonable prices – not expensive – hotels in most towns) with whom they had negotiated a good deal.
OK – so a week or so later and colleague of mine was needed in Sunderland – for a couple of days. He contacted the travel department as required by the new rules.
They arranged train travel and booked him into the nearest hotel that was part of the chain – it was in Durham – a 30 minute drive away from the place he was working.
But, of course, he does not have a car so he needed to get a taxi. And taxis in Durham are expensive and it was long distance.
But he stuck to the rules and claimed his expenses when he got back
Hotel was much cheaper than the one we used to have a deal with in Sunderland
Train tickets were a lot more than the mileage allowance he normally claimed
taxis were VERY expensive
overall his travel expenses were twice the normal amount he would have claimed
I was upgraded to First Class on a flight for a business trip.
I was upgraded because I was a high-tier customer in the airline’s program and had accumulated enough airmiles to pretty much get an upgrade every flight. All I ever paid for was a coach ticket. Company rule was you could only buy coach. So I bought a coach ticket and got upgraded.
Boss calls me into his office and says “You are only supposed to fly economy!” I told him I DID buy an economy ticket. The AIRLINE upgraded me. The company therefore only paid for Economy, as per the rules.
He said “It doesn’t look good if you fly First. I don’t get to fly First!”. This made no sense. I was not with clients. I was not with co-workers, and I paid for coach, as per the rules. He just didn’t like that I rode upfront on principle…like I was rising above my station in life.
I told him I bought coach, as per the rules and did not buy First Class. It was GIVEN to me. There was no rule about what seat you actually sat in..only about what seat you bought.
This went back and forth until I told him to write me up for violating policy..if he could find the policy.
This is also the boss who got mad at me for something I did in a dream. He then tried to justify his anger with “If I dreamt it there is probably some truth to it”.
This guy was real power tripper. He was hypersensitive to deference..you had to show how important he was. Your work could be stellar, but if you didn’t seem appropriately intimidated by his rank, he would hate you. This was the guy who told another employee to get rid of his car, because it was nicer than his own.
When I was at university, I was at the Pizza King (pizza and beer) across from a nightclub. There was an Asian guy sitting on a bar stool near the end of the bar. He was probably about 5′6″, and 145 pounds or so. One of the scholarship football players came in, had a couple of beers, and started mouthing off to anyone close. He was probably about 6′4” and around 245.
The Asian guy (Korean, I think) said nothing and just sipped his beer. The football player approached the Asian guy and started giving him a hard time. The young man got up, took his beer, and walked to the other end of the bar. The football player followed him. He started abusing him verbally again.
After a bit, the young Asian gentleman had had enough. He stood up and told the football player to back off. The football player put his hand on the Asian guy’s chest, probably to give him a push.
I’m still not sure what happened next. The football player was on the floor screaming. The Asian guy was back sitting at the bar, drinking his beer. An ambulance was called, and they hauled the football player away. There was a lot of motion in between, but it was almost impossible to see what actually happened.
This was not an “All talk and no action” situation, it was a “No talk and all action” scenario. Fascinating.
If the U.S. kill a thousand in China, China has every right to kill a thousand in the U.S. if the U.S. hits China with a nuke and kill a million in China, China has every right to retaliate in the U.S. mainland and kill a million too. Taiwan is a province of China just like California is a state in the U.S. if you hit Taiwan we hit California. China is certainly not picking a fight. It certainly won’t shoot first. The U.S. is a war monger, I am not so sure.
China is certainly not involved in California’s election! But the U.S. is knee deep in Taiwan’s politic. China is certainly not arming California in case it wants to be independent from the U.S ! The US U.S. certainly arming Taiwan!
China’s senate head is certainly not flying uninvited to a part of the US. Nancy Pelosi did! Credit to China it did not shoot the plane down! But China reserves the right to!
The world knows who the war monger is. And it is the United States of America!
The CEO of a Fortune 500 firm was canned by the board. They brought in a successor who, in getting settled, discovered three envelopes from the previous CEO in his desk drawer. A note instructed him to open the envelopes in order at the end of the next three quarters. He found this amusing and promptly forgot it.
His first quarter was a disaster. Profits down, people problems, etc. He had to appear before the board. He remembered the envelopes and opened the first one. It said: “Blame me.”
He did. He told the board this was all the previous guy’s fault and it would soon be straightened out and the company put in good order. The board agreed and he went back to work.
The next quarter was worse. Profits were gone, strikes were threatened, the competition was eating their lunch. He opened the second envelope. It said: “Blame the economy.”
He did. He went to the board and told them about supply chain problems, inability to get parts, and Covid-19 issues. The board reluctantly bought it and he went back to work.
The third quarter was a total catastrophe. They showed a heavy loss, wildcat strikes broke out, and the employees were vandalizing the plants. He was ordered to meet with the board. His hands trembled as he opened the third envelope. It began…
Several years ago I worked for a company that had new owners. They fired our general manager and our engineering manager so as the purchasing manager I figured my days were numbered. One day at a staff meeting the president turned to me and asked when I was going to start doing my job. I calmly asked what specifically I wasn’t doing. He seemed startled that anyone would challenge him and he continued with the meeting. The next week he asked the same question and my answer was the same. This time he came up with something and my response was it was done. He stopped the meeting and sent the manufacturing manager to check. He came back and acknowledged it was done. The president then reamed him out. I should add I had already started looking for a new job. Week 3 comes and he asks the same question. This time I asked him if instead of playing silly mind games we shouldn’t be focused on improving the company’s profitability. I then read a list of things I had done and then asked what he had done. He was so stunned to be challenged like that, he got up and left the meeting. Every person in the meeting thanked me for putting him in his place. To this day I don’t know why he didn’t fire me on the spot. Two weeks later with a job offer in hand I gave my notice. I think I got the last laugh as it took three people to replace me. And within four years they had gone bankrupt.
Arkansas is in the “Bible Belt” of the United States. And because of this, everything is heavily influenced by religion. Mostly “Southern baptist”. Which tends to be rather strict and fundamental.
One of the aspects of this influence is something known as “dry counties”.
These are regions in the state where the purchase of alcohol is against the law. So that people living in those areas must dive elsewhere to buy their booze, cart it home. Store it and then drink it in such a way that it does not run out. It’s a core characteristics of “the Southern way of life” that you hear so much about in American Country and Western music.
Anyways, where I lived in Arkansas, was a “dry county”.
And sure as shit, we would have to make an “alcohol run” before the stores closed on the weekends. And Lordy! Was it always a madhouse. Car jams. Packing lines. Carts full of booze. People jostling and pushing. Everyone in a rush.
Yup.
The American Way of Life.
I’ll tell you what!
Some things about the United States are so ridiculous that it’s not even worth commenting on. Except to say, that I am glad that I live in China where booze is cheap, plentiful and accessible by anyone, at any time.
While there is no threat to Japan from any quarter, the US keeps troops in Japan to:
Maintain Japan as a pliant vassal state.
Control the region around Japan with its vast military complexes. The US has more bases in Japan than any country outside the US itself.
Japan subsidies US forces and makes it easier for the US to maintain an overall large military since Japan pays large sums to the US for the privilege of hosting massive US troops and equipment. If those troops went home the US would have to pay 100% of the costs of maintaining them.
South Korea faces a real threat from North Korea. The 35,000 US combat troops in RSK are meant to provide a deterence to DPRK. In a real war the US would likely lose these 35,000 troops, which would drag the US into its next quagmire.
Secondary objectives to the US maintaining troops in SK are the same as in Japan, however US bases in Japan are not under any threat and are far more extensive than in RSK, which makes Japan much more important to the US than RSK.
I believe one of the primary reasons the US has become addicted to operating more than 800 bases around the world is that in many of the large ones, the host country pays for some if not the majority of the costs of that base. This defrays direct costs of maintaining its own military for the US while keeping the US military at an overly large scale relative to its growing inability to afford such size and scale.
If you can park your car in downtown Manhattan in someone else’s garage for free (with a promise that if someone in his family gets injured you’ll drive them in the car to the hospital), and that guy is going to pay for all the maintenance of that vehicle, while you still get to drive it anytime you want and he isn’t allowed to use it, you’re going to park your cars there for a very, very long time.
Jonas‘ answer is spot on on a cultural level, but IME, there are also often some more mundane/practical considerations involved.
It buys us time. I used to work solo for years. In one joint, we used to have baskets of bread and little bowls of homemade dips available for the waiters to just grab and hand out. If someone ordered food and I was swamped with orders, that would simply keep the guests happy until I got around / was able to free up a burner on the stove to make their starters or entrees…
It is one more element a really skilled waiter can employ to time orders etc. I’ve seen good waiters ‘stall’ for half an hour and more from the point the guests were seated with menus, drink orders, drinks, food orders, cutlery, bread and butter etc. without the guests even noticing they were being strung along while the kitchen and / or back office recovered from some minor catastrophe or just cleared a backlog of orders…
In places that are not dedicated restaurants, it sets ‘the mood’ for ordering something to eat. You might have come in just for a glass of wine or two, but when that cute little basket of fresh bread with a little bit of good butter or some nice dip, a napkin and a set of silverware arrives unasked along with the menu, you might just realize you could do with a nice bite to eat… This may sound far-fetched, but I’ve seen it work (on myself as a guest and on guests in places I worked at) often enough to not dismiss it.
I don’t know why, but the Chinese captured POWs in Korea from 15 countries, and only the American GI’s knelt and surrendered to the Chinese, just like they knelt when they were captured in Iranian territorial waters. Is it because the Yanks have particularly soft knees? Can anyone tell me why?
image 166
American and British are not defending Taiwan, but they want to invade China, and the Chinese are certainly capable of defeating the invaders and letting them die in the sea and become food for sea fish. The Pacific Ocean’s marine fish will feast, and then we’ll sell our catch to the Yanks and bring their souls back to the U.S. so they don’t pollute the environment in China’s territorial waters. 😁
2300 heavily armed US soldiers have been killed fighting Afghan shepherds. 2300 Yank kids become corpses in coffins. There are no corpses in naval battles, they can only be fed to the sea fish.
image 165
With the exception of the Americans and the British, everyone in the world has been educated to know that the Taiwan question is a legacy of the Chinese civil war, an internal affair of China and a domestic affair of the Chinese.
Biden did not tell the US citizens that he wanted to invade China, only “to defend Taiwan”.
So, I ask, how does the US plan on doing that? with some sort of video game competition?
I mean, in order to “defend Taiwan”, you have to have military troops pertorming military actions, aka combat inside of China – And that’s because Taiwan is in China.
So currently America has soldiers in Taiwan, which is either illegal, or at the very least gray area because that’s part of China. And the government of China doesn’t approve of that and hasn’t allowed it. So that’s the current status.
If US start performing miltary action, that’s an effort to militarily conquer at least China or push them back inside of China. That‘s called an invasion.’
Sorry, everybody, if you don’t agree with this definition, but that’s what it is.
So US is yet again contirming that it will invade China if China attempts to continue its reunification by using military action.
I’d like to advise the US to listen to a well-known Chinese song with these lyrics: “For our friends, we have fine wine. For jackals or wolves, we welcome with shotguns.”
OOOOHHHH!!!! This one is legend! It didn’t happen at my employer, but one nearby. (I worked for a bit just a city block, or two, up the street.) Here’s the basics:
Control Data Corporation (CDC) was on the rocks in the early ‘80s. They started laying folks off. But they didn’t do it publicly. Instead they “Disappeared” them. Here’s how it worked:
An employee was instructed to keep quiet about the fact that he’d been transferred to the Roseville, Mn. Plant across town.
He (it was mostly a he in those days) was to pack up his gear & personal stuff late Friday afternoon & the box(es) would be picked up & transferred over the weekend to his new job site.
He was then given an address at the new plant where he was to report first thing Monday Morning.
The next Monday he showed up, was escorted into a room with a table, a chair, a guard, and an HR person.
The HR person gave him his walking papers & allowed him to sort out & collect his private stuff from the box(es).
He was then escorted out the door to the parking lot.
Chopped Meat Pies (Pitta Me Kima)
Pitta Me Kima
Ingredients
2 pounds chopped lamb
1/2 cup butter
2 onions, chopped
1 1/4 pounds tomatoes, peeled or 1 tablespoon tomato paste with 1 cup water
1 piece stick cinnamon
1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
2 slices toast
2 cups milk
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
5 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 pound phyllo
Instructions
Brown meat, half the butter, and onions in large pot, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up meat. Add tomatoes (or diluted tomato paste) cinnamon, parsley, salt and pepper. Simmer until all liquid is absorbed (about 30 minutes).
Meanwhile, soak toast in milk, then mash with fork. Remove cinnamon stick and add milk-toast mixture to the meat, remove from the heat. Add cheese and eggs, and mix well.
Melt remaining butter. Butter a pan about. 2 inches smaller than the phyllo. Put 7 to 8 phyllo sheets, buttering each before adding it, into the pan, letting phyllo extend on all sides. Pour in meat mixture and spread it evenly. Fold overlapping phyllo back onto meat. Butter these well. Carefully cut remaining sheets of phyllo to fit the top of the pan. Brush each with butter and lay on the filling to make the top of the pita. Pour on any remaining butter and sprinkle the top very lightly with a little water (to keep phyllo from rising too high).
Bake in preheated 350 degrees F oven for 30 to 40 minutes.
Cool for about 30 minutes, and cut into squares to serve.
It is easier to cut this if you score it lightly before baking.
This isn’t my story, but that of a very good friend who I had as a roommate a long time ago.
Geoff was a car salesman for many years. One night he came home and told me the story of his big sale that day. A man had driven into the parking lot in a beat-up pickup truck, one bumper tied in place with baling wire, rust all over it and a cracked windshield. He and his wife emerged from the vehicle and started walking around the show lot looking at cars and drifting towards the trucks. The man was very large, Geoff estimated 6′5″ and 280 lbs and wearing bib overalls, a plaid flannel shirt, well worn boots, and a John Deere baseball cap. All of his clothing was showing age, dirt, and stains. His wife was very plain and wearing similarly worn clothing, but neat and she almost never stopped smiling.
They walked around for about 15 minutes as the salesmen watched them from the showroom. All of these guys were triple-A personalities who were like sharks as salesmen and normally would have been fighting or drawing straws as to who got the next customer. Nobody wanted to go talk to these people, the very definition of hayseed goobers with big eyes but no money and they clearly had nothing to offer as a trade in. Geoff had just finished up showing a customer a few cars and writing up prices and a trade-in offer and was irritated that the others had all left these people out there without even a “hello”. He went straight out and started taking to them.
The man wanted to buy a truck to replace the one he had driven in on. He also wanted to buy his wife a car because their son had just run their old one into a telephone pole and totaled it. Geoff spent about two hours chatting with them, getting and giving information. He learned that they owned and ran a large farm with 40 horses, 80 head of cattle, other livestock, crops and side businesses running farmland that others had leased from him, and had about 20 employees working for him. When he got done and was writing up the sale of two brand new, fully loaded, vehicles, he asked how they would like to pay. The man reached into his bib overalls and pulled out a roll as big as his country-ham fist and said “sorry, I don’t have cash for both of them, but I’ll pay for one with cash and give you a check for the other; the bank’s open and you can verify the funds are there right now”.
So, because these people looked like dirt-kicker rednecks to the auto sales staff, Geoff sold two top-line vehicles for cash, earned a very substantial commission, and made two acquaintances who invited him out to their farm to visit, and then became good friends for the next 30 years. I got to go with Geoff to their beautiful farm once; among the nicest folks I’ve ever met.
What’s that old saying about not judging a book by its cover….?
One day, my doorbell rang and I opened the door assuming there was a package or a salesman outside.
Instead, there were maybe six large men in body armor and pads. They were each holding a rifle on a sling. Their plate carriers were festooned with pistols, extra magazines, flashlights, and handcuffs.
I stared at these men through my iron security door for a beat- probably with my jaw dropped. Then I said, “Uh, Hey! What’s going on guys?”
Turns out it was a fugitive recovery team from the US Marshals.
They were looking for my neighbor’s scummy boyfriend who had lived with her for a short time. Apparently, he was even scummier than I had thought.
I stepped out on the porch and spoke with the Marshals for a few minutes. I knew my neighbor, but not her boyfriend. I had nothing helpful to tell them. They piled back into a few big, black SUVs and left.
Weird, but at least it wasn’t a solicitor at the door.
My sister got suspended for skipping class. She wasn’t feeling well during PE, and got a note to go to the nurse’s office. The nurse wasn’t in (supposedly she was on a coffee break). My sister passed out (as in unconscious) in front of the nurse’s office, laying on the floor in the hall. No one noticed she was there until after the nurse came back at the end of the *next* period.
They suspended her for cutting that class. She was told the next day, and served the in-school suspension that day. The next day my dad came in and raised heck… and the suspension was removed from her record, and the nurse was written up for taking a too long coffee break (over an hour).
I’m not sure what was said to the teachers who were supposed to be watching the hall during class change, and never noticed her on the floor. None of the kids said anything that we know of either. I guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t a critical thing that caused her to pass out.
Shadow People and The Hat Man | Who are they? What do they want?
Back in the 1980s, I worked as an independent Contract Software Engineer working through a technical service firm. As such there were many ‘business deductions’ that I could take off and I also only had to pay taxes 4 times a year, so all the interest I earned on the taxes was an added boost. But, then the tax laws changed. As a Software Engineer working through a technical service firm, I was now considered an employee of that firm. This meant no more ‘business deductions’ and no interest on my tax savings account.
So I looked for another loophole. I discovered that as long as I worked more than 50 miles away from home, all my travel expenses were tax deductible. Now I was a single man with few attachments so I started to travel. My home became a mailbox in New Jersey. Now you might think that keeping track of all your travel expenses would be annoying. The federal government though made that easy. The standard travel deduction for most metropolitan areas was $100 per day and if it was cheaper to stay than it was to travel home, you could take that deduction for 7 days each week. Now my expenses did not run $3000 a month. I would rent an apartment for $800/month, do my own cooking so food was maybe $300/month. Electricity, water, heat, cable whatever, might cost me another $300/month. All told, my expenses were rarely half of the $3000/month I was deducting off my tax return.
There was one gotcha to this tax rule. The federal government rules that if a person stayed at the same job for 27 months, then that person was not traveling. They had moved…. 27 months ago. This meant that if I stuck around that long, I would owe the taxes on that $81000. To add insult to injury, even if I just took another position that was within 50 miles of that position, it was still considered the same location. So every 2 years I would quit whatever position I had (most of my contracts didn’t actually last that long) and move to another part of the country.
Still, this $36500/year tax deduction was a nice boon. But they kept on nibbling away on this. Originally it was on the Schedule A and the deduction occurred before you calculated your AGI. They later moved it to a post after the AGI was calculated so the lower AGI no longer affected when other deductions kicked in. Later they decided that 20% of that $100/day was for food. If you were home, you still had to eat, so they considered that 25% of that 20% is no longer deductible. this changed the $100/day to $95/day. And each year, the deduction was lessened.
After a few years, I married and my wife didn’t want to travel around the country with me. I stopped contracting and I have no idea whatever happened to that deduction.
Gonzalo Lira’s DEATH update. US State Dept. confirms his death. They did NOTHING to support him.
My daughter had turned two a couple months before. She was really fussy that day but I had to go to work. Three hours later I got a phone call from her daycare telling me that she was crying a lot and couldn’t move her leg. There was no swelling or bruising or anything. I was stuck at work and had a minimum 45 minute commute back. So they offered to take her to the ER for me. I got off as soon as I could and rushed to meet them.
By the time I got there, they had already done blood/urine tests and x-rays. When the doctor came in he went through everything they tested for and said he couldn’t find anything. I was confused and asked him why she couldn’t move her leg and was in so much pain. He gave me this stupid smile and said “Well it could just be growing pains. But I think she just wants attention. If you could bother spending time with your child instead of working she would be happier. If you are still worried go ahead and take her to her regular doctor on Monday”. I demanded to have a second opinion and the doctor refused. I was told if I didn’t leave the hospital he would call security and force me to leave.
I was pissed! It isn’t as if I wake up and think “Gee I don’t feel like dealing with my kid I am just dropping her off at daycare”. I am a single mom, I don’t receive any kind of child support, don’t go out or have a social life, and have to work to pay the bills (including medical insurance for both of us). I was handed a piece of paper that said to just give her Tylenol every few hours, spend “quality time” with her, and see her regular doctor on Monday if the pain continues. I took my crying baby home (it was 3 AM on Saturday morning) and stayed up trying to figure out what to do next.
(BTW)
I called in to work that morning; my gas tank was almost on empty, I had $11 to last until my next pay check (a week away), and our regular doctor was the next town over (about 20 miles away). By 8 AM I called my sister and borrowed some cash, filled up my tank, called our doctor on his cellphone, and took her to the ER next to his office. Our doctor tried to get the test results from the other ER, but they said they couldn’t find the paper work. Instead of waiting, the doctor ran his own tests. Thank god he did!
We were there less than 30 minutes when the doctor came in and said he was rushing her to Wichita (3+ hour drive away). It was complicated because he wanted to fly her there but our tiny ER didn’t have an area for the plane and she needed to be there immediately. They hooked her up with an IV, we got in the ambulance, had a police escort, and lights/sirens the entire way (it took about two hours to get there). I was freaking out. There was no time for the doctor to explain what was going on and the paramedics said that they weren’t sure exactly what was happening but was told she wasn’t allowed to move at all. My poor baby was strapped down head to toe and terrified.
When we got to the hospital there was a team of doctors and nurses waiting in the bay. They rushed her away; I wasn’t allowed to follow, and I had to speak with the police and DCF. They asked me a bunch of questions about our visit to the other ER, where I was when she was at daycare, what my daughter’s symptoms were before going to the ER, what the doctor told me, what paperwork I was given, and if they had permission to look at her medical records.
I kept asking to see my daughter and what the hell was going on. Finally an hour later a nurse came out and explained that my daughter was going septic, flat-lined once, and they had to figure out where the infection was and what was happening to her. She was rushed into emergency surgery shortly after that.
Turns out my daughter had a pouch in her hip joint that was filled with MRSA. It had begun to leak into her tiny body. Any slight movement could have ruptured the pouch and within minutes killed her. The doctors in Wichita said if I had waited even one hour longer to bring her in she would have died. She was in the hospital for two weeks. After she was discharged she had to stay on very heavy duty antibiotics for seven weeks, physical therapy for four months, and bi-weekly blood tests for a year. She still has pain sometimes when she walks or runs; the infection ate away some of the lining around her hip joint, and she will most likely have arthritis when she is older.
We still don’t know for sure how she ended up with this infection. The only thing we can figure is she got it from me since I work at a hospital. She did have bronchitis a few weeks before this experience but it is normal since she has asthma.
Here’s what I found out later:
The ER my daughter originally had gone to refused to give up her medical files and our doctor knew something was very wrong. He had been our family doctor since my daughter was two months old and well as a friend/doctor to the rest of our family over 10 years. I was that annoying first-time worry-wart mom but never neglectful and never brought my daughter to an ER without something really being wrong. Our doctor called the sheriff and explained an investigation had to be checked out. The sheriff got a hold of DCF and they began an investigation. That is when they figured out quickly what had happened.
The dickhead ER doctor had never looked at her test results (which showed a very high white blood cell count)! When our doctor had requested the files the other doctor actually tried to destroy the evidence that we were ever there (thank god for computers). The doctor was arrested and pled guilty to a bunch of different charges. He lost his license and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Basically the entire concept of Minions, honestly.
The plot of this 2015 animated children’s movie can aptly be described in one sentence
A race of genetic yellow freaks become hellbent on villainy, and vow to serve the most evil villain they can find
Throughout the movie’s opening montage, the minions meet several well-known historical and mythological figures, including Count Dracula, Genghis Khan and Napoleon Bonaparte.
This seems innocent at first, especially given the cartoonish depictions of said historical figures in the movie. But an internet user took to Tumblr to analyse exactly what these scenes implied for the minions in the greater historical landscape
According to the official Minions Movie, the Minions:
Assisted Napoleon in invading most of Europe, racking up a total death count of around 3 Million
Assisted Genghis Khan in invading just about all of China and racking up a total death count of roughly 40 Million people
Plus that of the T Rex, Caveman, Pharaoh, King, Captain, and Dracula
So we know for a fact they took part in 43 Million deaths. Not to mention they also killed all of their former masters, so add them to the total.
But this also implies there is a strong chance the Minions are going to kill Gru
Conclusion:
Minions are bloodthirsty monsters that should not be glorified in any way.
[1] I’m no historian, but this all sounds about right to me. It’s horrifying to think that in this universe, minions are responsible for pretty much every war crime and atrocity in human history.
And to make matters even worse, the Minions retire to Antarctica after the fall of Napoleon, where they remain until 1968, when the main plot takes place. The Minions were conveniently exiled during WW2 in order to avoid the implications that the minions were Nazis, but by writing around it, the movie still implies that the minions would have worked for Hitler if they were around.
I have been out of the Army well over 50 years when things were somewhat tougher than I expect hey are today. I never saw anyone hit. I had an E-6 Platoon Sergeant, named Walter Streets. He was about 6′4″ and towered over me. He was black and I am white.
He knew I was a good recruit and would become a good soldier. I developed Pneumonia while I was in Basic at Ft. Jackson, South Carolina and went on antibiotics just before the PT test. I was doing the last phase of the test, which was running track. I was having trouble making the last lap and he ran out onto the track and put his arm around me and ran with me. Another Drill Sargeant who stood about only 5′4″ came out and complained to Sargeant Streets who bent down and told him to “F” off. I passed the test.
When I got on the bus to AIT at Ft. McClellan, Alabama, Sargeant Streets gave me a small bottle of whiskey and told me to drink it all on the trip. He told my buddies to throw their overcoats over me on the back of the bus and by the time I got to AIT the pneumonia was gone. It’s actually 58 years ago and I learned how great some Drill Sargeants can be. I wish I could thank him again today!
I have lived this. When I was 23, I found out we were expecting. At 23 you don’t think anything will be wrong with your baby. That happens to older women, not young people like me. Well the truth is it happens more often with younger women because they are typically having more children than the older women.
At my 16 week ultrasound we really went into it just hoping we would find out the sex of the baby. Instead we left with fear and uncertainty and they weren’t able to tell us the gender. Basically they told us they were able to get a good look at the back of the babies neck but they had a feeling there was some type of abnormality.
So I was referred to a specialist for a level 2 ultrasound and further testing.
A few days later I went to the specialist along with my Mom and one of my sisters who had a medical background. After the ultrasound we were told that there was definitely something wrong with the baby and they thought it was either Down Syndrome, Spina Bifida or Cerebral Palsy.
I was offered the option to terminate and/or do an amnio to find out exactly what was wrong. They also still couldn’t see the baby’s gender. I decided to do the amniocentesis but I made it very clear to the doctor that I was not terminating the pregnancy no matter what the results. Approx 10 days later I called my OBGYNs office and was told they would call me back.
They called me back in just a few minutes to tell me that the doctor was on vacation but he was coming in to talk to me, how quickly can you get here? I knew that didn’t mean good news. My husband couldn’t get off work again so my mom and sister met me there.
My doctor took us into his office and said. “You are having a boy! But he does have Down Syndrome”. I was totally broken with this news.
I sobbed in his office with my family. I mourned the child I thought I would have. I mourned for months. Probably even after my son was born. My husband gave me an ultimatum, either have an abortion or we get a divorce.
I took the divorce and never looked back. I was always pro-life. I am still pro-life. My ex was mad. He was mad at the world. He was mad with God. He knew plenty of people that smoked or did drugs in their pregnancy and their babies were fine.
I wouldn’t even drink caffeine and our baby was going to be “retarded”. (His word, not mine). I could never choose to have an abortion. It wasn’t my body or life. I was just the vessel. I couldn’t get him to understand that what if we had a “normal” child and down the road the child was diagnosed with cancer or had a life changing accident that left them disabled? He couldn’t answer me. He could only say “if you have this baby, then I will never be able to have a boat”. (He was a winner).
But when my son was 5, I met a wonderful man who loved us both. We were married and he adopted my son and we have two other kids now.
Has it been easy? No but who said parenthood was easy?
Even with typical children. Jacob is 23, he has graduated high school, he has a job that he loves and so much more. He will never be able to drive or live on his own but so what?
He is high functioning, smart, talks ALOT, no heart issues, no major health issues and a wonderful personality. He loves Jesus, Disney and his family. And we wouldn’t trade him for the world.
Mama left in the middle of the night with my daddy’s best friend. She didn’t show up for the divorce hearing and that gave my daddy full custody. They had been married for 18 years. Suddenly she was gone. I was 5 years old.
I told myself I could never leave my children like that. I remember the feeling of abandonment. I was her only daughter, she left my brothers as well. One was 10, the other was 4.
My family that I was left with didn’t care much for me. I was a girl, strike one. I looked exactly like my mama, strike two. I finally revealed the sexual abuse I was being tortured with at the hands of my uncle, huge strike three. So, rejection has been a big problem for me in my lifetime. I never wanted to make my own children feel unloved and unwanted. But… I did.
I didn’t leave them physically. I had a problem with alcohol at a very early age. By the time I was 40 I was a full-blown alcoholic. For the next 10 years I was in a drunken stupor, in mental hospitals because of suicide attempts and in jail. It ruled my life and took ME away from my son and daughter during their teenage years. Thank God I married a solid gold man who is always present for our children.
I turned 50 in County jail serving my 90 days for my 4th DUI. That was the very last time I was in custody. We sold our home soon after that and moved to an apartment for the first time in our married life. Our children were both married and living on their own. When we drove away from that home I took that monkey off my back and flung her out the window. I’ve not had a drop of alcohol since. The craving is gone and has not returned for 12 years now. YAY!!!
We can try not to repeat the sins or mistakes of our parents, but be mindful of those mistakes because you could be hurting your family the same just by acting in a different way.
What I’m going to speak on is something that you should never, ever share with anyone but your most trusted friends and siblings (and you should never share it with your parents or any of your friends that you don’t trust to act accordingly), in addition to your coworkers.
You should never, ever share your marital or relationship issues with any of those people. If you get in a huge fight with your spouse or partner, you should never share the details of it with anyone but the people you trust the most.
You see, when you share the details of a fight with a close friend who doesn’t have the ability to internalize all of the details, the next time that friend sees your spouse, they very well might treat your partner differently, based on what you told them.
A fight between a husband and wife especially should never be shared with anyone but your very closest friend, and you absolutely NEED to have one person that you can share it with, otherwise, you’ll never get an objective truth about who was really right in the fight.
When my wife and I get into a fight (we’ve had exactly three over the last five years), I call one person; my best friend Casey. Would you care to know why I call him specifically, even though I have two other friends that I’m just as close with or closer with?
Casey will tell me the truth, no matter what. If I’m wrong, and I was acting like an asshole, he will absolutely tell me so. That’s extremely valuable information, and I can think on what he tells me and take it back to my wife.
If he tells me that I’m right, and that she’s completely wrong in her argument, I’ll keep it to myself, because throwing that in her face won’t do anything but escalate the situation and cause her to have animosity toward Casey, who is our daughter’s favorite person in the world outside of her blood family.
My wife always calls her best friend Rae, which makes me happy, because Rae is very similar to Casey, in the way that she’ll tell my wife the truth of the matter, even if the truth is that my wife was wrong. Also, both Casey and Rae have the ability to completely internalize all of their knowledge about the fight when next we all see one another, and don’t treat either of us differently. If that wasn’t the case, Casey wouldn’t be able to talk to my wife without being disrespectful, and Rae might slap me every time she sees me.
I’ve known quite a few people who have spoken freely about fights with their spouse, and who have even badmouthed their spouse in front of everyone present. In my opinion, there isn’t much that can be more disrespectful to your spouse and your marriage. You’re giving everyone present a horrible picture of your spouse, and making everyone think that your marriage is some kind of argument-ridden catastrophe.
Everyone that I work with believes my wife to be an absolute angel. From what I’ve told them, she is by far the perfect woman. I never tell them when we argue, or when she does something stupid (like switching the bags for my lunch and the dirty cat litter), or anything negative about our marriage.
Nobody should be airing their dirty laundry at work. Period.
If you needed a few billion bucks to establish a commercial aircraft industry, you would think at least 30 nations would have had their own fully operational commercial aircraft right?
Let’s see
Threshold Engineers & Researchers
To commercially manufacture Aircraft you need a minimum threshold workforce of engineers & researchers
Aerospace, Aeronautical and a whole bunch of engineers with significant experience working for commercial aircraft or who have studied commercial aircraft production and assembly
The Magic number for China was 25,000 to be able to draw from
This happened only by 2014–2015
Prior to that every Aerospace Engineer or Designer worked for Defence Manufacturing or for the Space Agency
Boeing alone has a workforce of 61,000 Engineers and 4300 Researchers
The West combined has close to 160,000 Engineers and Researchers in their workforce for Commercial Aircraft Manufacture
By comparison COMAC has 11,280 Engineers and around 900 Researchers
Chinas largest workforce is for
Production Engineering (1998–2004)
Civil Engineering (1982–1998)
Chemical Engineering & Metallurgy (2004–2012) & Electrical Engineering (2004–2012)
Automobile Engineering (2012–2019)
Tooling & Precision Engineering (2019-)
Even today China has around 34,000 Engineers and Researchers as total workforce for Commercial Aircraft Production
Competition
You aren’t competing with just Boeing or Airbus
Your competition is with Boeing, Rolls Royce, GE, Safran, Michelin, Dunlop and another 700–1200 companies that make from the largest airframe to the smallest on board electronic assembly
The Airframe alone to carry such a huge aircraft is a massive challenge
The Wind Tunnel System
The Electronics
The Wheels
Every part especially the Engine is a result of decades of continuous development by the West from the First World War
China this needed to get the Airframe Right
This alone took a decade
They then used a Canadian entity called Bombardier to get the electronics and the supply chain
They then got the electronics right. That took four years.
Then they got the Composite Wing Design and that was seven years.
That finished by 2021
They still have the largest nut to crack – THE ENGINE!!!!
Plus remember Mitsubishi has been unable to break into this market after 45 years
Economic Fiscal Problem
Like our Bullet Train, this Airliner was deemed a project that could never hope to break even by Chinas best economists
It’s why they proposed the HSR or Highways where China is the boss, the master of the fantastic quality supply Chain
It’s why China is investing so heavily into HSR
That’s their core area
Sadly the Comac is more of a prestige issue by China
To have their own fully made aircraft is acceptable even if the aircraft costs some money to the State as subsidies to keep at even keel
Its why China sidestepped IC Engines which they could never ever perfect and are masters of EV Batteries and E Platforms on earth
The Aircraft has to be made fully indigenously on a huge scale to break even because today the selling price is lower than what it costs on an accountants scale
In 1990 – China could certainly not afford to subsidize the Aircraft by any degree of money that they can easily do in their sleep today
So establishing an Industry and producing commercially is not a joke
It takes decades of solid hard work
You are competing against a technology evolution of over 60 years or 70 years from the West
You have specialized suppliers and makers of mother machines – all who need replication
Exactly why Chinas EVs and Renewable Energy models are next to impossible to recapture by any other nation
They have the whole package
China is likely to do far better in developing commercial self flying taxis on a drone concept which can travel as far as 600 Kms on indigenous technology and dominate the world
I worked at this large busy engineering factory. There was a store keeper who also worked there. He had a different role to all of the other store keepers.
He had his own desk. He had big tubs of machine cutters on his desk. His own computer. At the back of his desk, he had shelves filled with box files.
He was always busy. He never had to work shifts like the rest of us. He worked regular days.
Redundency came and he successfully applied for it. He left.
The other store keepers were told that they had to include his job into their own job. They kicked off about and went to the union. The union told them to “ just do what you can”
The store keepers decided to find out what it was that he did. The cutters were old stock, and they were chucked away. The files were full of old unimportant paper work, they were chucked away too.
If you had a lathe tool that needed to be sharpened, he would have to book it in. Those lathe tools had been made obsolete years before.
He basically never had a job. He never did anything. Nobody ever questioned him. He looked so busy and important. And he’d been doing this for years.
Chicken with Tomatoes and Olives (Kotopoulo me Tomatoes kai Elies)
Kotopoulo me Tomatoes kai Elies
Ingredients
Flour (for dredging)
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 (3 pound) frying chicken, cut into 6 to 8 serving pieces
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large red onions, peeled, chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled, minced
1 1/2 cups peeled, chopped plum tomatoes
1/2 cup dry red wine
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 cup pitted Kalamata olives, rinsed and drained
1 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Combine flour, salt and pepper on a plate and lightly dredge the chicken.
Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a large, deep skillet and brown the chicken on all sides, over high heat. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Add remaining olive oil to skillet, and sauté onions until wilted and lightly browned. Add garlic and stir for 30 seconds.
Place chicken back in the pan. Pour in the tomatoes and wine, and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.
Ten minutes before removing from heat, add the crumbled feta and stir until melted. Five minutes before removing from heat, add olives and oregano.
Of course it is the despicable and obnoxious USA! Everyone knows it and everyone knows it is the U.S. that is hurting the work.
But if Americans are smart enough, which suspect the are not, a much more salient question would be “will it work?”
I absolutely won’t and it will harm the US economy much more than it ever hurt the Chinese economy.
Why? Very simple.
The U.S. market is simply a lot smaller than China and threatening not to sell to them is threatening to lose a market bigger than the world’s next 10 biggest market combine!
China can and will buy from someone else or it will simply make it themselves just like how Huawei Mate 60 surprised the U.S. who naively thinks that China will need at least 30 years to make it own high end chips China took less than 3 short year! And now the U.S. is well and truly fxxked!
China stops buying not only for their own consumers that is 30% of the world, it also stop using the U.S. chips in the product they make for the rest of the world or at least another 40% more. So the U.S. gets cuts away from 70% of the world’s market!
Next threatening not to buy from China who can simply make things better, faster and cheaper than everyone else is like threatening to bring inflation to its shores. Let alone depriving your own people from productivity and profit. Hence your crippling inflation. Increasing interest levels to fight inflation caused your bank failures and hurt investment! All are very bad for the US!
Now let’s evaluate the result of the trade war initiated by the U.S. The U.S. inflation were double digit at one point but now 3–4%. China’s inflation rate is 0.3%!
In the 5 years since the trade war China grew 5 times faster than the U.S.! Your trade with China grew from less than 200 billion before the trade war to more than 700 billion last year!
So who is winning the trade war? China is laughing all the way to the bank!
John Wally was a fellow that I worked with back in my early working career. This was before I worked in the coal mines. Back then, I worked in a a local grocery store / supermarket. And John Wally was the assistant manager there.
The “narrows” of East Brady.
This was in the 1970’s, and in Western Pennsylvania in East Brady. Oh, that plaza sat on the river and was once the rail line passenger station for the town. I recon that around the 1960’s it was converted into a mini strip mall, and then expanded upon to make the supermarket.
Ah today… who knows what it is. Maybe a “Blockbuster” VHS store… nah. Those came and went. Probably a vape store, and a bar. Knowing PA as I do. From these pictures it seems that a “Family Dollar” emerged into the fray.
The supermarket is the lower left building in the picture with the red roof. Incidentally, the white church in the center of the picture is the catholic church that I attended as a boy. Saint Eusebius.
Anyways, John Wally had this real knack. This skill.
At the end of the day he would count the money in the registers as he always did. But right before he would count the money, he would put his hand in the till and pull out a pile of coins. Pennies. Dimes. Nickels and Quarters. He would then weigh them in his hand…
…and guess how much their total worth was.
Each time he did it, he got better and better at it.
Eventually reaching a 70% rate of knowing the exact amount of change that he held.
The remaining 30% of the time, he was off by one or two cents.
Brochure Pics 008 scaled 1
…
The human being is capable of great things. Many things require patience, and practice. But eventually you can master the most obscure, and difficult tasks and perform them effortlessly.
Yes. I was about 17 and my 12-year-old brother came home crying that his brand new neon green bike with white tires was stolen from the local strip mall.
Now, the bad neighborhood in my town was maybe only 20 x 10 blocks, so I grabbed a wooden Louisville Slugger bat, tossed it and my little brother into the back seat of my Chevy Impala and drove to the bad neighborhood. It was summer, so we had the windows open. I went to high school in that neighborhood, so knew it well. I also played on the inner-city football team, so knew how to be a VIP there.
Within 10 minutes, I spotted three 15–16 year olds doing wheelies with and laughing about a neon green bike with white tires in some overgrown dirt lot. I pulled right up and got out; being 17 or so, I was used to seeming intimidating to 15–16 year olds. When my tiny brother got out of the car, they saw the bat, though I didn’t need it. They were very apologetic and gave up the bike with no problem. One noted seeing the bat.
A couple of years later, I was home from college, and the story came up and my brother said, “You know, that may not have been my bike…”
I didn’t want to hear it. And assured him it was his bike. No one appreciates anything these days.
Three young men, all age 16, brutally tortured and murdered their classmate after having tortured, humiliated and beaten him for several hours.
Okay, things like that happen.
But the victim had been continuously harassed and bullied ever since the first class in the comprehensive school – for nine years.
Nine years.
Both teachers, parents and police had been powerless because the perpetrators had been underage. The trope Adults Are Useless was fulfilled completely.
There is no question about the guilt of those prosecuted. They had videoed everything, with intent to publish it in the social media.
The Finnish law knows three degrees of homicide: murder, kill and intentional manslaughter.
Murder is the gravest, and can be prosecuted only if the homicide had been particularly depraved and premeditated. The sentence is always life imprisonment. And it is life unless the President pardons you.
It is tough to go for the life in prison when you are 16, but these human weeds deserve it.
EDIT: For those suggesting something about immigrants and their high crime statistics, my intuition tells me it is now native Finns who are behind this crime. The crime manifested such brutality, such viciousness, such cruelty, such depravity and such determination on which only native Finns are capable of. I wrote some time ago about the Great Northern War and its effect on Finnish genetics (Finland lost 70% of whole population) and this crime well demonstrates the effects of natural selection. It is the ugly flip side of sisu.
Immigrants can rob, they can rape and they can kill, but their violence is usually very spontaneous, irregular and unpremeditated, and they do it more to boast and demonstrate their position in the pecking order rather than to really profess dolus determinatus.
When native Finns commit such crime, it invariably demonstrates a deep down hatred and viciousness in the modus operandi itself. In this particular case the three human weeds prosecuted – Veeti Neramo, Alexis Koskivaara and Heikki Juutinen – had acted as if they had planned and intended their victim to die as agonally as possibly. There was no single intact rib in his body nor one single intact organ.
There are nowhere as many natural born killers, “super soldiers” as Dave Grossman calls them in On Killing, as there are in Finland. While in the WWII some 2% of US soldiers aimed and shot to kill, the number was up to 30% in Finland.
I was a child in the 1970s, and I do not remember that decade fondly.
The World War Two was still omnipresent. The veterans were still very much alive, they were still in the work life, and they were either our grandparents or even parents. It was a recent memory. There were still ruins around from the war, and we were warned not to touch anything suspicious as it could be unexploded ammunition.
Seventies were an incredibly violent decade on the vantage point of a child. It was perfectly acceptable to raise the kids with a whip and beat them with a belt if they were naughty. Fights at school were commonplace – they happened at almost every break. Each weekend saw a gang fight or similar, and boys liked to play war with air rifles. Bullying and teasing was a non-issue. One of my schoolmates was bullied into suicide.
Finland back in the seventies was a country of one single truth. President Urho Kekkonen ruled with an iron hand, it was an era of the Finlandization, and our teachers reflected that. The Baby Boomers hated their parents and everything they represented, and leaned very heavily to left. The radio and TV were full of pro-Soviet propaganda.
My hometown was divided into Communists, Social Democrats and Bourgeoisie. Everyone knew where they belonged and who was who.
Smoking was ubiquitous. The majority of adults smoked. Alcohol was used on binge drinking. Cars were noisy, stinky and unsafe.
Life was dull, monotonous and boring. Food was bland and monotonous. Life was far slower pacing than today, and kids liked to play spontaneously, go doing sports spontaneously, go hiking to the woods or go swimming to a nearby swimming hole. Our parents would have been prosecuted from neglecting us nowadays.
Only in the 1980s things started to change – to better. The 1980s were a good decade. Unfortunately they ended in the Great Recession.
Wife PETRIFIED After I Presented Spicy Pics/Videos Of Her Cheating…In Our At Fault Divorce State
My Chinese parents are almost impossible to buy for. They would scold me if the things I buy are of no use to them. Since I am an adult and I’ve decided that I will no longer endure the horrors of flying sandals thrown at me (I had more than my fair share of it as a kid), I have also gotten smarter. Over the years, I’ve learned to buy what they actually need and appreciate. Here goes:
Vitamins and supplements. As they are getting older, they need these to maintain health. Calcium, Omega 3, glucosamine, you name it. Rather than buying nice things or branded stuff, they appreciate it more if I take my time to ask them which vitamins are running out, buy them, and when they want to pay me back, I simply tell them to keep their money.
Money. This can never go wrong. The best gift is money itself, because they might not be needing/wanting anything now, but if you give them some money, it can really come in handy when they actually want to indulge themselves in something. Asians give hong bao/红包 (red envelopes) filled with money in joyful occasions (e.g. Chinese New Year). I usually do this on my parents’ birthdays.
Assets. Fine gold, stock, and mutual funds. Eyes on the prize, fellas.
Plane tickets. When they want to go on a vacation or visit other kids who live in different cities/countries, it’d be very helpful if we pay for their plane tickets. This is what they really need (and want).
Handbags for moms, perfumes for dads. If there are some indulgent and lavish things my parents won’t scold me for buying, they would be these. You just need to know their preferences when it comes to these things.
I know most of these things are not ‘romantic’ things to give, but as you get older, you become too practical, I guess (again, Asians).
Didn’t blow my mind, but it definitely freaked out my wife!
We moved into our new home taking the keys from the previous owner with whom we were friends.
The house had been cleaned, but not wife clean. So she scoured the kitchen, and AHA! She found something left behind in the very top shelf in the kitchen pushed far against the wall.
It was a set of steak knives with deer antler handles. She’s never been a fan of hunting, so she said “Eww! Get rid of them.”
And like a dutiful husband I put them aside to get rid of them later. Some days later I see them on the kitchen counter where they were left. We had been busy unpacking boxes the movers had left, so I just threw the knife set back on the top shelf and promptly forgot about them.
A few years later I was transferred, so the house was sold and the movers returned to pack us up. Once the moving van had left we went around the house with personal boxes packing up everything we’d need until the movers arrived at the new place.
The kitchen cupboards were bare… except! Yep, there on the top shelf was the knife set. I thought maybe I could sell them in a garage sale, so I grabbed them and stuck them in the top of my box.
And off we went to our newest new home.
Everyone grabbed their personal box and brought it to their bedroom. I unpacked mine in the living room, and right on top was the knife set. I chuckled to myself and brought it into the kitchen and tossed it in a top cabinet figuring it would be out of the way.
The next day I was putting together bed frames when I hear a blood curdling scream coming from the kitchen and something tumbling to the countertop!
I rush in there to see my wife coming down from the step ladder white as a ghost and shrieking “Tom, Tom, Tom, look!”
She was bring the kitchen up to wife clean when she found the knives that I stowed. When she picked up the box and saw what they were is when she cried out and dropped them.
“They’re just like the other house! What is going on?” She was in a panic.
Believe it or not my laughter did not lighten the situation one bit, and my explanation only got me in hotter water.
She screamed “I told you to get rid of them!” Then she threw them into the garbage can.
That was almost 30 years. They’re around here somewhere.
It made China a better nation. China always knew the west has ill intent but crisis like Tiananmen “democracy movement”, Hong Kong “constitutional protest” and Covid-19 pandemic, al man made and all western funded and orchestrated merely confirms the worst fear as real. China took every form of cure and prevention to ensure that the western designs to harm China won’t work but instead rebounded back harshly on themselves.
Whether it is the 5 U.S. marines who participated in the world military games who brought the mysterious vaping flu to Wuhan is the cause for the outbreak in China remains to be seen. It is certainly suspicious. But evidence clearly showed in the Red Cross blood samples of influenza viruses through the mainland U.S. that everywhere in the U.S. is seen 6 months before China’s first case but still it did not only owned up but shift the blame to China indeed. And dogs like Scott Morrison even push for China’s blame!
But not with standing that, China moves mountain to prevent a catastrophe making one right moves after another. China had the most severe and unknown at that time impact but 3 years on with the dust settled China lost a mere 6 thousand people while the U.S. lost 1.1 million people through Covid! 733 times more than China. All due to neglect, poor handling, over confidence and simply weak leadership. They were having a very “democratic” brainstorming i the middle of a huge fire deciding for months on what to do!
China grew its GDP from 2020–2022 close to 4 times that of the U.S. GDP during this pandemic years and came out of the pandemic stronger than ever! While the west shut down the Chinese took the lull years revamping and re-engineering their economy and it paid off. Ready for more western hypocrisy and further disruptions on China. It’s economy becomes more resilient than ever!
China knew that it had to allow nature to take its course and by late 2022 China confirms that the latest strains of the Covid-19 pandemic have dwindled down to a normal flu so China allowed it to burnt through its population.
To China and the rest of the world we see the worst in the west during these pandemic years. The western vaccines were meant for profiteering and reserved for the rich west while Chinese vaccines which ultimately turned out to be safer and more effective option were supplied to the entire world! It showed China’s willingness to share and care for humanity.
China came out of the Pandemic crisis as a more respected nation and a more generous one. It came out stronger and more resilient. The west went into a tailspin of war, double digit inflation and shortages. We call this karma!
Thank you for asking!
Greek Stew
OIP C
Ingredients
2 pounds boneless lamb, cubed
2 medium onions, chopped
3 tablespoons butter
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 cup white wine
Pinch of dill
2 boxes frozen artichoke hearts
Instructions
Melt butter in stew pan or Dutch oven; add meat, onion, garlic, parsely, salt and pepper; brown over medium fire, stirring constantly. The gentle braising of the meat is the secret to success with this recipe.
When all of the ingredients are delicately browned, add tomato paste diluted in 2 cups water; add wine; dill and artichokes, stir; lower fire and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.
My husband was diagnosed with cancer about 8 years ago. He fought hard through chemo, radiation and a failed surgery. He died in my arms 6 months after the diagnosis. I was devastated. One of my adult children with whom I was especially close, moved to my state, left her job in a different state. We had a business that could be run remotely from home. It was lucrative and provided a nice income. I asked my daughter to run the business for me. She was great in business having worked in mortgage banking. I was taking meds to calm my nerves and extreme shock and grief. He was only 62, and we thought we had many years left together. Bad things started happening: bills weren’t being paid, credit cards were maxed out, liability insurance lapsed, etc. When confronted, my daughter made up excuses which at first I believed. She was my much-loved daughter and I often referred to her as my best friend. She moved out saying she needed a break. I hired someone else to help me with the business. Soon we discovered the extent of the misapropriation (theft). Legally, there was nothing I could do because I had given her access to all the accounts. I almost lost the business, but managed to slog through it and rebuild the business and my trashed credit. I’ve tried contacting her – via letters and emails. She never responds. I worked with a therapist who encouraged me to forgive. I have forgiven her – I don’t understand her actions but I still love and miss her terribly. I lost my husband of 40 years, and my daughter within 16 months. Just writing this after all these years brings tears.
I’d have to give ‘last German holdouts’ prize to the 11 men in the weather forecast unit under the command of lieutenant Wilhelm Dege stranded at a weather station on the Norwegian island of Nordausandet (near Spitsbergen), in the arctic. They had been deposited by U-Boat at the remote site in August of 1944 with a two year food supply and rifles to defend them from marauding polar bears.
They broadcast weather reports until 7 May, 1945, when they got news of the German surrender (along with orders to “destroy everything”). Not wishing to spend another winter in the arctic, they sent distress signals with no response. After several months they began broadcasting on allied channels as well and received a reply from the Norwegians, who dispatched a seal hunting boat to pick them up.
On Sept. 4, 1945, the rescuers arrived, whereupon Dege and his men hosted a large dinner for them (presumably with the best of the remaining supplies). Afterward, Dege handed his Luger to the boat’s captain and formally surrendered, becoming the last German military unit to surrender in WW2.
Can you imagine paying a Cop – Rs. 2000/- to ensure that a 19 year old kid was not handcuffed??? Can you imagine the cop saying -” I can take you in a Bus with handcuffs in your underwear or I can take you in the Jeep. You Decide”.
A 19 year old kid – who got angry along with some friends got into a fight with some other kids and nobody got hurt seriously – yet four days later he is charged with 307 – Attempt to Murder. Second Year College, His future is at stake and he is being accused of murder.
All because one of the Kids in the fight was a Policemans Kid (Not even Local Jurisdiction).
5 Kids were accused – 4 Cleverly absconded and this Innocent Boy who reads John Grisham novels and believes that Indian law is the same actually believed “I did not start the fight, how can the cops charge me”
His family paid –
Rs. 20,000/- to ensure that the Kid was not harmed while in Police custody and would go directly to JC without request for Police custody.
Rs. 2,000/- to ensure that the Kid could get Home Cooked or Hotel Food for the 1 day he was in Police custody
Rs. 2000/- to ensure that the Kid was not handcuffed while being taken for Medical Testing before going to the JC and taken to JC by Jeep.
Rs. 4 Lakhs to ensure that the Cop would change his testimony and a B report would be generated (Cop would say it was a different Kid).
Rs. 10,000/- to ensure that the Kid got a decent cell on Day 2 after being moved from the General Cell.
Rs. 1,500/- to the Prison Guards to allow the Kid to make 2 Phone Calls (Rs. 750/- per call)
It was a normal fight that boys indulge themselves in. No weapons or cats paws or longs or any usual weapons. What takes a normal First Aid Kit required almost Rs. 5 Lakhs
That is Corruption at its worst.
Imagine a 19 year old kid without the money. Imagine having to be beaten, humiliated, forced to eat horrible tasteless food – all for some young stuff that every body of that age experiences.
Imagine becoming an accused and visiting court in between college. Imagine if convicted? Future destroyed, No Passport.
The Kid will easily become a career criminal or hate the law and system more than anyone else.
And his friends got away without paying a penny. After this kids B report was filed, they had their lawyer file a 482 in High Court and HC ruled in their favor saying “You cannot just close the case against 1 accused”
This happened years ago, I was 15 at that time. I went a high school that was very close to my neighborhood. It was one of the co-ed schools with high disciplinary problems among the students.
I was often bullied for my looks. I wear a large brimmed glass and was a slightly plump kid. I don’t do well in sports and often the main target for pranks. I clearly remember, it was a Wednesday, and I was in laboratory finishing my works. I prefer finishing my school works in school because my house isn’t exactly very quiet and peaceful. I have 2 sisters and they were aged a year and 6 months respectively.
After spending almost 2 hours in the lab, I went back to my classroom to pick my bags. I did saw two guys sitting and behaving weirdly at the back of my classroom.
They were sniffing glue. It was my mistake to walk to them to see what were they doing. I told them that I would report their acts to our homeroom teacher if they continued doing this. One boy shoved me down and forced his handkerchief into my mouth while the other was grabbing my legs. The one of top of me used a small pocket knife to tear down my shirt buttons. He then proceed to rape me while his friend was watching along the corridor.
I felt violated and extremely vulnerable. I couldn’t even scream at that time because of the pocket knife he was holding. I just wished that all of that would end quickly. After he’s done, and he threatened me not to tell anyone or else he would do this everyday.
I didn’t know why I never reported this to anyone. I was a fragile kid, with no strong family and always had financial difficulties. I thought my voice will never reach out to the authorities. I am 36 now, but those accidents still remain fresh in my memory. I would never forget the face of the boy who raped me.
Thankfully, my husband is a very understanding man. He calmed me down during the times I was attacked with nightmares of someone plunging themselves into me. It was the worst after I got married.
No one actually knows this, apart from my husband and myself.
Because of the U.S. boastful character and it’s constant exposure you know what the U.S. has. But the world knows very very little of China’s capacity and capabilities. China intentionally chose to hide its strength. And latest military hardware and software so China has a thousand surprises ready to spring on the U.S. if it ever misjudge and attack China!
What is clear is that they are years ahead in sonar and laser technology, in drones, in ship building, in fighter jet production capacity. What is very clear is that China sees the aircraft carrier as sitting ducks as China is able to rain down its hypersonic missiles at 20 times the speed of sound. So China clearly has many advantages.
But China wants peace as long as the U.S. behaves itself, China prefers to let the U.S. collapse on its own mountain of debts and deficits. The only clear advantage is projecting power beyond its shores but to China that is a non factor as it has no plans to attack any nation or do U.S. military style foreign incursions. China has a sound sustainable approach to world peace. The U.S. doesn’t.
I was inline at the express checkout, 12 items or less, I had 7 items, while in the line, I saw a retro brand of chocolate bar, limited time only, from my childhood. I bought 5 to take me to my limit. While I was checking out, the cashier looked at the chocolate bars, and says these are on sale, buy two, and get the third for free. So far I had 4 at the regular price, and 1 free one. The cashier told me that I could take one more and it would be free. So I asked the person right behind me, if they could grab me a chocolate bar. They exploded, and said i I was over my limit, and she was in a hurry. So I reached by the person crowding up behind me, to get the free chocolate bar. The cashier scanned them all, gave me my receipt for paying for 11 items, and I turned around and gave the free chocolate bar to the person behind me. I said “Sorry, this is to compensate you, for your inconvenience”
I turned and walked out, the lady behind me sputtered, the cashier said, hey you have 13 items, to the lady behind me, she said , “But its his free chocolate bar”
The cashier said “That didn’t seem to matter a minute ago”
My area has a problem with rampant porch pirates. So, I regularly save my prime shipping boxes to recycle as rubbish bins when it’s time to empty my cat box. I then seal them back up and leave them out on the porch and watch the “free garbage pickup” on our camera. I also post the pictures on social media so my friends and neighbors can also experience the joy of watching people get EXACTLY what they deserve. It never gets old watching some asshat sneak off all smugly with a box full of turds! 🤣🤣🤣
Edit:
It is hilarious to me how many people assume I can get into some sort of legal trouble for this. Our local police are fully aware of my actions! 🤣
Also, to address a couple of points I am repeatedly asked about this on quora and social media sites:
Yes, the majority of these decoy packages are located and properly disposed of after they are taken. (Not that they create any more rubbish than the packaging off someone’s stolen holiday gifts)
And no, I don’t feel the need to obscure my address from the packaging. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, my prank hinges on the packages looking new. Secondly, if one is stealing a package with the address label in tact, it would be hard to argue that “mail theft” was not the intended crime. And thirdly, I’m simply not worried about retribution from any of these idiots. To return for revenge would risk further exposure on film, more likelihood of arrest, and the possibility of meeting a deadly object if said intruder seems violent. Most people, even thieving lowlifes, have at least a basic sense of self preservation.
A bloke starts his new job at the zoo and is given three tasks.
First is to clear the exotic fish pool of weeds.
As he does this a huge fish jumps out and bites him. To show who is boss, he beats it to death with a spade.
Realizing his employer won’t be best pleased he disposes of the fish by feeding it to the lions, as lions will eat anything.
Moving on to the second job of clearing out the Chimp house, he is attacked by the chimps that pelt him with coconuts. He swipes at two chimps with a spade killing them both. What can he do? Feed them to the lions, he says to himself, because lions eat anything… He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure.
He moves on to the last job which is to collect honey from the South American Bees.
As soon as he starts he is attacked by the bees. He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp. By now he knows what to do and shovels them into the lions cage because lions eat anything.
Later that day a new lion arrives at the zoo.. He wanders up to another lion and says “What’s the food like here?”
The lions say: “Absolutely brilliant, today we had ….
Fish and Chimps with Mushy Bees
Gonzalo Lira. Lagarde, Trump threat to EU. Sunak, as long as it takes. Medvedev warns UK
The Taiwan presidential election was a 3-way farce that made no difference who came out as the “winner”. This island remains a geopolitical pawn in the rivalry between the U.S. and China for regional dominance in Asia. The DPP has emerged with a lesser mandate and even less likely now to dare even consider to declare Taiwan’s independence from China.
With the DPP back in place and under better control, U.S. politicians are now “assured” they can continue its saber rattling provocations with Johnson getting ready to send in a house delegation to Taiwan to amp up anti-China rhetoric for the start of the 2024 electioneering to hold on to its house control.
Biden is working on the assumption that the U.S. side can maintain and manage this U.S-China high tension act now that communication linkage is re-established between the generals of the two militaries and any mishap or miscommunication is not likely to happen. But then after finding out that the White House was left clueless when its top cabinet member running the Pentagon went AWOLf? What kind of people is running the show? These are the issues we should be worried about snd not who the jokers are now in charge of Taiwan.
U.S. Journalist Gonzalo Lira DIES In Ukrainian Prison!
In about 1973, I was hitchhiking around the US and Canada for the summer. I tramped from my university home in Florida 2,500 kilometers northwards to the state of Maine, up near Canada. I was out in the country near the town of Bangor, and I wanted to go to Acadia National Park on the coast. But the spot where my previous ride let me out was out in the woods and had hardly any traffic, so I decided to go into a little convenience store sitting in its lonely location across the road to get a Coke. I figured that I was going to be stuck in that spot for a long time.
Just then a Volkswagen Beetle drove by and stopped and then backed up to me. The window rolled down and the passenger yelled out my name. Inside the car were two students who lived across the hallway from me in my university dormitory in Florida. They were going, by chance, to the town of Southwest Harbor, right in the national park. So I got into the car and rode with them, where they took me to a friendly bar where their friend worked as a bartender. We had a great evening eating and drinking in the pub (they bought my beers), then the bartender let me sleep on the couch at his place.
So, in one amazing coincidental moment, I went from being stuck in the middle of nowhere to being taken to my destination, and treated to food, drink and lodging by my generous Florida neighbors and their friends.
I picked up a crumpled up piece of paper as I walked through the door to the store.
My first ‘real’ job… Chatham, Ontario (Canada)…. went into a camera shop to apply as a salesclerk…
As I walked through I saw some paper on the floor, so I picked it up and gave it to the guy and asked him to toss it in the garbage.
Turns out the ‘guy’ was the owner who would be doing the interviews… I knew a fair bit about cameras, definitely not enough to put behind a counter by myself the first day, but as I told him, I am a quick learner.
Interview went as expected… usual questions, usual answers… “What is your biggest failing?” “I can’t tolerate stupidity or idiots.”
Got a call a few days later offering me the job….
A few weeks into the job, having a coffee with the boss, just the 2 of us there, and I asked why he hired me when I was sure there were people who applied who were better qualified.
He told me that I was the one that picked up the piece of paper…. all the other applicants walked by it. He had placed it by the door just to see who would do something about it. He explained that his thought process was that if someone picked it up to have it put in the trash, they’d keep the store clean and pay attention to detail
Well, fry me for an oyster – I got my first job because my parents told me to clean up a mess when you see it regardless of who made the mess in the first place.
Gonzalo Lira’s Death Reveals SHOCKING TRUTH About Ukraine and NATO
I know this exact story. I had a friend, he was pretty wild and crazy. Just to give you a feel for his character, I’ll tell a second story.
I had two wild friends partying together in one city, when they left the party, crazy friend two, uncharacteristically said he was too drunk to drive, and asked crazy friend one, if he would drive. On the way home, crazy friend two fell asleep. He woke up in scorching heat, still sleeping in the passenger seat. Fortunately this was when power windows weren’t common. He rolled down the windows, and noted he was parked on a street he didn’t recognize. The keys were in the ignition, but it wasn’t running.
He crawled over to the drivers seat, and drove off. It took him 15 minutes to figure out he was in another city, about 7 hours from where he lived. There was a big festival going on. He never found friend one. He spent a day at the festival, hoping to spot friend one, and then drove home.
A couple of years later friend one found someone, and we were all surprised at how he settled down. He kept a steady job, they bought a house together. Then one day he said he was going out for a pack of smokes. It took him about 9 months to find just the right cigarettes and return. He just walked back through the door as if he had been gone for 15 minutes.They hadn’t been fighting. He would never talk about it, but they were divorced shortly after. I have no idea if it was planned, or spontaneous like the trip to a festival in another city.
He died young, I hadn’t seen him in ten years, and he wanted no visitors to the hospital and no funeral.
Volunteers 1985
Full FUCKING movie! A really worthwhile watch. Please enjoy.
When I was a child, my father had a cousin who was a rollickingly jolly man who told terrible jokes. Cousin Bernie’s favorite joke was “What do you say to a hippie with arthritis?” then he’d hold up his hands in a peace sign with the fingers bent over, and he’d laugh and laugh. (No, it doesn’t make sense, but this was the 1970s.) You’ve heard the term infectious laughter, that’s what he had. I’d laugh even though the jokes were never funny. Eventually I grew up, moved away and lost touch. Decades passed. My father died. A few years after that, Cousin Bernie died. I knew my father would want me to pay my respects on his behalf, so I traveled back to my home town for the funeral.
First off, you need to know that Cousin Bernie worked as a drycleaner in the same neighborhood his whole life, or at least since he got married. He and his wife raised their daughter, who became a teacher and school principal, and when he was widowed, he stayed in the same house for a few months until he died of what a romantic would call a broken heart. While he lived, his happiness was the happiness of his family, he didn’t need anything beyond that. He was a very happy man indeed.
So imagine my surprise when I arrived early at the funeral home to find their biggest room already overflowing with mourners. I expected Cousin Bernie to be beloved because he was a lovely man, but I was daunted by the staggering number of lives he’d touched. The service started formally, but as each speaker spoke, it became more and more personal. Everyone I could see was crying by the time Bernie’s daughter got to the podium. I always found her to be a stern and formidable woman, but she hunched over, sobbing too much to speak.
That’s when the remarkable thing happened.
Cousin Bernie’s daughter straightened up, tears streaming down her face, and silently raised her hand in a bent over peace sign. His favorite joke when I was little.
The entire room — hundreds of people — all raised our hands in the same gesture, at the same time.
That was more than ten years ago. Maybe even twenty, I don’t remember exactly. I was the only person from my family who went (long unpleasant story) so I didn’t know anyone. I keep thinking that someday I’ll meet someone else who was there but as far as I know, I never have.
This is the paradoxical part of being poor, that a lot of folks don’t understand. When you are poor, everything costs more.
You can’t buy food in bulk. You often make the smaller, less efficient purchases.
You can’t afford to buy high quality goods that will last longer. Instead of buying more expensive shoes that will last 2–3 years, you buy cheaper ones that will last a couple months. You buy a cheaper car that will require more maintenance, and lose value more quickly.
You can’t afford to make large payments on a leased vehicle, so you opt for more payments over a longer period of time, paying more money overall.
Owning a home is a pipe dream. You almost certainly rent a place, never gaining any investment or value out of your money.
It’s nearly impossible to save any money at all, so unexpected costs hit harder. You also don’t have any savings accruing interest.
You’re more likely to miss payments, and pay additional fees and charges, leading to paying even more money.
You rely more heavily on credit, paying a premium on many purchases.
Similarly, you’re more likely to take a payday loan. We know how fucking garbage that shit is.
This is why it can often be so difficult to get out of poverty. You’re continually paying a premium in nearly every area of your life, because you are poor.
There’s no unconditional love anywhere, you can get one from your mother if you’re lucky.
Making money online these days is not about how skilled you are, it’s how often you show up.
Most people smile but only a few are happy.
Elites don’t care about race, tribe or religion. Instead, they are friends to one another for beneficial purposes while the masses fight and make enemies among themselves.
Many are masters, only few are skilled.
Everyone is replaceable in the society. If you die today, the world will keep moving on smoothly & your family and friends will miss you for a long time.
If you’re famous, most people would automatically assume you’re rich.
If you’re too generous, people will take you for granted. Help the needy but don’t go broke while at it.
Neither you nor your religion owns the monopoly of truth. There are numerous beliefs in the world and yours is just one of them. So learn to respect people’s beliefs as long as it doesn’t cause harm to others.
Our most recent cruise was a two week one from Tahiti to Sydney, Australia that we chose just so we didn’t have to make the long flight from San Francisco to Sydney. On the second week of our cruise a woman stepped into our packed elevator and immediately people began quietly to gag to the point that one couple quickly pushed the button for the next deck and got out as fast as they could. It was an overpowering combination of body odor and dirty clothes—she was evidently one of the many passengers who had embarked weeks before in Sydney for a roundtrip cruise.
Another time we were on a Caribbean cruise with my brother and his wife, enjoying lunch together when a male passenger sat down behind us. Suddenly my husband leaped up and motioned for us to follow him to a table much further away. As we walked with him, we realized that the man reeked of body odor and general dirtiness.
One other time, on a cruise with friends, I stood in line at guest services behind a very well dressed man who evidently had also given up bathing midway through the trip. It was a shock to the senses; the eyes saw a man in expensive clothing while the nose smelled someone who might have been living rough on the streets for some time.
Every cruise cabin I’ve ever been in has had a shower, and thankfully most cruise passengers use theirs regularly. But there seems to be at least one person per cruise who chooses to stop bathing for the duration and to me, that’s the most tasteless thing a person on a cruise can do.
If you understand truth and facts and not blindly follow western propaganda and rhetoric what China U.S. doing is highly responsible and admirable and what happened in 2009 is very hurtful to the poor.
Let us understand what China did. First China took the “opportunity” of the Covid Pandemic window of opportunity to cleanse the flaws of its economy such as excessive screen time especially their kids, they look into the ill effects of capitalism such as profiteering, such as social ills of consumerism and widening disparity between the rich and the Xi Xinping emphasised that homes are for living not for speculation or profiteering.
China set rules for 2nd and third home buying. So that prices is within reach of the poor and middle income. So prices or what I will call bubble deflate. Ain’t it good for the common men? Sure as hell it is. China don’t want what happened in the U.S. to happen in China. Up to a million are homeless! Deflating a run away asset and home prices is what Japan ought to do in 1980’s or the US ought to do in the 2000’s but instead it let the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer.
China is probably the most responsible nation on earth!
This is how one person was treated by a police officer, in America.
Picture a beaten small framed girl, in nothing but a t-shirt and underwear, being dragged away from her screaming child and pushed off a stilted porch by an equally beaten man.
Now let’s add all of this happening on a bitterly cold and frozen December night.
Imagine this girl shaken, distressed, and in full my-baby-is-in-danger mode.
She goes to her car that doesn’t run because it’s been wrecked by her ex husband. …the same car she had taped the spare key to on the undercarriage.
(Thank you Mom for telling that girl to do that.)
She finds her old broken cell in the glove box. Thankfully, it had 15% charge. Thankfully, the Cat Lady neighbor had shared her WiFi password.
After a series of emails to her mother, she heard a radio. Standing outside the car was an angel silhouetted behind the brightest light. The shadow asked the girl to get out of the car after making sure she wasn’t armed.
This angel immediately gave her his coat and ushered her to back seat of his heated patrol car. He poured her a cup of very hot and bitter coffee from his thermos.
He assessed her injuries while asking gentle but probing questions.
What happened?
Start from the beginning.
Tell me as much as you remember.
Why are you unclothed?
Keep drinking the coffee.
This angel left to go talk to his partner, who had been talking to her child and ex husband.
This angel went inside the house and brought the girl’s child to her under the guise of she wants to see her before we make an arrest.
He very carefully checked the child over and made notes of the marks on the child. He gave her a teddy bear from the trunk of his car.
He asked the child what happened in the most gentlest way.
Out of the mouth of a child came the loss of innocence.
Daddy hit mommy.
Daddy hit me.
Daddy pushed mommy outside.
Daddy got me dressed.
Daddy said we were going to Grandpas.
That angel stood up and shut the door. He walked up the stairs and right into the front door, where his partner was waiting.
That angel placed the ex husband under arrest and held him prone on the floor until another officer could take him.
That angel went over every protection offered at the time to the girl and her child after both were checked by the paramedics.
He kept reinforcing they could only hold the ex husband for 24 hours before bond could be posted and this paper. ….this thin paper would be the only thing protecting them.
He let her use his personal cell to call her mother (She was already on her way with a family friend).
This angel came back later to make sure everyone had arrived. There was bad snow storm moving in, he said. We had to move quickly to get ahead of it.
This angel pulled the girl aside. He spoke the hard truths of reality that she NEEDED to hear.
She left that conversation with the knowledge she was a Woman and not a girl. She was a survivor, not a victim.
This angel is a husband, father, brother, son, and human.
This angel stands every day on a very thin blue line against those who would do harm and he does so willingly.
I was on a British Airways flight seated in a row that was an Emergency Exit which was on the wing and slightly behind the port engine. After about ten minutes of cruising altitude, I looked out the exit window and noticed that there was a slight white trail coming from the engine. In order not to frighten other passengers, I went to the rear galley and said that there was a suspicious leak coming from the port engine and that I think she should have a look at it. FA said “Oh, its just clouds we are passing through” which I knew to be a lie as there wasn’t any above or below us. I repeated the fact and she said that if I didn’t go back to my seat and was quiet, I would be restrained by the onboard crew and arrested.
Fed up, I walked through the curtained off area at the front to Business Class and spoke to the purser, explained the situation and what had happened with the rear FA and she went white, then red with anger, went into the cockpit to speak to the Captain who came with me to my seat to look at it, groaned, thanked me and went back to get a priority landing at Heathrow. As I was leaving, I was asked my name and number by the purser and a few weeks later a letter arrived stating the FA had been sent for retraining and that I was to be awarded 2000 Avios points and a free upgrade for my next flight.
I have an uncle who is a social worker, and he says helping the marginalized poor is the saddest and most frustrating job in the world.
The worst thing is ringing the doorbell. And Mary Grace opens it.
Mary Grace, who has mothered seven children, all of whom except the last two were placed in Foster care because she and her hubby Austin cannot take care of children, due to mental challenges and their basic lack of understanding of the many responsibilities which come with raising children.
Mary Grace and Austin, who can’t handle money and are deep in debt, and became parents when Mary Grace was 16 years old, just like her mom when she was born. Mary Grace, who didn’t finish high school, just like her mom and dad.
And when she opens the door, my uncle sees her pregnant belly, and he can hardly stop himself from crying. Because it happend again.
Just like her remaining children, this unborn kid will end up in Foster care as well, and the story will be reset for all these displaced children, and then repeat itself. And it will never stop.
And thats what the non-poor do not realize about being poor —
The poor are caught in a trap.
And they can’t walk out.
So, Gonzalo Lira is NOT dead? This is Ukraine’s VERSION of what happened to him. Narrative composing?
I faced this type of situation in my last job in state government. I worked in IT at a state medical school/hospital and we’d have a department meeting. After all of the department heads had reported on what was happening with their teams, the IT Director would recap what was happening in IT and the hospital before reminding us that we were required to follow hospital policies and that failure to do so would result in termination. He’d close each meeting by saying, “It’s my way or the highway, people. Follow the policies or find another job.”
I heard this every Wednesday morning for 16 months before I decided I’d had enough so I found a job in the private sector that was less work, paid more, and was closer to my home. The new job was also strictly a Monday through Friday position, which meant not having to work a weekend every couple of months while being on-call.
I accepted the job offer and then waited for that Wednesday morning meeting. When the director went into his spiel I let him get “It’s my way or the highway” out before standing up and heading for the door. The director stopped mid-sentence and asked where I was going and I replied, “I choose the highway”.
It was a terrific feeling to walk out of that meeting.
Not a Christmas bonus, but similar. And completely jaw-dropping.
Worked for twenty years for a family-owned business. In 1996 they had their 50th anniversary, and the owners (the three children of the founder) spent a day going around personally handing envelopes of cash to all the employees. I had been there over 12 years at the time, and my envelope held $500. Very nice and much appreciated.
After a few more years, they had to choose between vastly growing the company, letting it remain as it was, or selling it to someone who would grow it appropriately. Being older and nearing retirement age anyway, they decided to sell it. They wanted to show their appreciation to their employees for their part in the company’s success, so once again, they handed out bonuses. They had wanted to do it in cash again, but the accountants said no, so we all got checks with taxes, FICA, etc…
I stuck the envelope in my pocket and went on with the lunch, etc, that was part of the festivities. Toward the end, a friend asked if I had looked at my check, and I said that I hadn’t, that I would get to it, it was probably similar to what I had gotten before, yadda, yadda.
He said, “Dave. Look at your check. Look. At. Your. Check.”
$12,000. I was just one out of a couple hundred employees. Blew me right away…
Ah, this reminds me of a conversation I had with a dear friend of mine, who faced a similar dilemma in her late 20s. She was torn between the societal expectations of starting a family and her personal aspirations that didn’t necessarily include children.
Years later, now in her 50s, she shared some insights that might resonate with you. She mentioned that whether or not you’ll regret not having children when you’re older is a deeply personal matter. For her, she found immense fulfillment in her career, travel, and the freedom to pursue her passions. She nurtured rich relationships with friends, nieces, nephews, and became a mentor to many.
She did say there were moments of wonder about what life with children might have been like, but those thoughts didn’t equate to regret. Her life was full, meaningful, and happy in ways unique to her journey.
The takeaway? The decision to have or not have children is profoundly personal and varies for everyone. It’s about understanding what brings you joy, fulfillment, and a sense of purpose. Some find it in parenting, while others find it in different aspects of life. It’s essential to make a choice that aligns with your values, hopes, and dreams. And remember, a fulfilled life can take many forms!
Few years ago, I worked for major IT firm from India with a very good salary. Now, in interview I was told I was being hired to work on a very niche upcoming technology which is very new.
When I reached the office on first day, I was informed by HR to report in training lab instead of any ODC which got me confused but I dismissed it thinking nothing of it. There I was told that before starting the work i will have undergo a 2 week training program and since my manager is still looking to arrange a trainer, I can brush up my coding knowledge in lab meanwhile. Great, i thought.
1 week passed and there was no news on when training will start. This was August. I dropped a mail to my reporting manager who said it is difficult to find a trainer for my location so it might take a week more
2 more weeks passed, even after dropping multiple mails to both trainer and my reporting manager I got a same reply: please wait it might take a little more time
After 2 months i was done with all basic coding assignments given to me and still there was no sign of my training to start. Everytime i mailed i got the same reply, project is in pipeline, it could start anytime soon
After 3 months this got really boring. No one asked what I did whole day, no one even cared if I even went to training lab or not. Sometimes I would do a swipe in at main gate and go grocery shopping or go for a movie. On other days I would come office for 5 hours which was minimum requirement for my attendance to count as a full day and those days were spent playing table tennis, carrom, darts etc. In meanwhile i would send mails asking when will I get actual work and most of those mails went without replies. In December end I got mail that my training would start from January 14th. I was finally relieved but 14th passed and so did 15th and there were no signs of any training. On raising questions about the training i got the reply that the training was available only on weekends but it was not possible logistically so it had to be cancelled. I stopped asking. Since both manager and HR sat in different office altogether there was no way of face to face communication and no one to really bother me.
This continued for 1.5 years. It was the most relaxed time of my life but the worry was always present in back of my mind But I was afraid of quitting since my salary was already way higher than market standards (almost double!) and justifying what I did in previous job would be a task. Eventually I did find an equally paying job although with a lot of struggle but with relevant work since it did affect my profile negatively.
Indian service based IT companies can be fickle. Till today i never got to know what happened to my project or training. I wish I would’ve been informed properly at all stages instead of being given false hopes month after month. But I have no regrets whatsoever because I have made some great memories and friends that time which otherwise i wouldn’t have had!
What a child brings to school for lunch indicates a lot about their life at home.
When I was younger I was always jealous of other kids whose lunches were comprised entirely of chips, candy, and soft drinks. At the time I was little and I wanted sweets as often as possible. However, my lunches were always filled with fruit, vegetables, and healthy sandwiches. If I was lucky, my parents would pack me fruit snacks.
It wasn’t until much later when I worked as a camp counselor at a day camp that I began to notice yet again what children brought for lunch. Most campers had lunches similar to what I grew up with, however, I observed that one camper had a lunch consisting solely of Cheetos and fruit snacks, nothing healthy. He brought these same foods almost every day. I found it odd that his parents never packed him anything with more nutritional value.
During pick-up, I would walk my campers to their parent’s cars. Most parents would exclaim, “how was your day,” when picking up their children. Unfortunately, this camper’s parents would ignore him, not even looking over when he got into the car. Later in the summer, I learned that his family was going through a lot of problems at home.
At this point, I realized how lucky I was that my parents packed me healthy lunches when I was young. It wasn’t because they wanted to deprive me of sweets, rather, my parents wanted to make sure I was staying healthy because they loved and cared about me. I learned that something as small as what a child brings for lunch each day indicates a lot about their parents socioeconomic status or, in some unfortunate cases, whether there are problems in the child’s home life.
I fucking hated that job. I hated it with the passion of Christ himself.
My job description effectively read that working in the call centre meant that:
we are the connection point between university alumni, and the university
we help keep and maintain records on our alumni
we notify alumni of important events and projects happening within the university
we help to maintain the pride of the school and our alumni keeping in contact with them years afterwards
What we actually did:
call and beg for money
I hated it. We would phone dozens of alumni every day, and our calls would consist of 3 phases:
Introduction, and maintenance of information – introduce ourselves, and make sure that our current information on the alumnus / alumna in question was all still correct
Notify them of big events and projects going on at the school – hey, did you know that the university is doing this huge heart transplant study? And that our new science wing is nearing completion? Isn’t that cool?
(The real purpose of the call) give us money please! – Given the importance of that science wing I just mentioned, and how it’s going to really revitalize the university science program and provide amazing facilities for our students, would you be interested in donating $100? No, that’s too much? How about $50? You’ve just been laid off work you say? Well can you manage $20?
I fucking hated this bullshit. Hated it. We were required to get our “three asks” in, and had a big list of ‘comebacks’ for various responses people might give to not donate. I hated that basically our entire purpose was simply to get money, at all costs. They just graduated two years ago and still haven’t found a job? Ask them for a lesser amount. They aren’t interested in funding XYZ project? Offer different things for them to donate to.
The biggest thing that really sealed the deal for me happened during one afternoon, where I got on the phone with an older alumnus. He had graduated from the university back in the 70s. At some point during our conversation, he mentioned how he had just come back from Europe. I mentioned how I had visited Europe only a couple years before, on a trip with my dad, and this man and I shot the shit about visiting Germany and France. Halfway through the call, the manager comes by, and tells me to get onto the next call, we don’t have time to chat with alumni if we’re not bringing in donations.
I basically ignored the manager, and kept on chatting with the guy. He and I talked for about 10–15 minutes, during which time I got angry looks from the manager on several occasions. At the end of the call, I brought up the current thing we were looking for donations for. Our usual ask was $100, but he ended up offering over $1200.
Oh, look at that. All of a sudden I’m doing an excellent job. Way to go, Jeremy! The manager’s disposition does a complete 180 when I brought in the biggest donation of the month by actually treating our alumnus like a human being, and not an ATM. I quit at the end of that day.
Things that surprised me when I first moved to the USA, good and bad (as they occur to me) were:
Everybody I met is so nice. People are generally friendly and polite. From the TV shows I saw, I expected everyone to either be scowling at each other in a threatening manner, if not actually shooting.
The areas I first encountered were and still are covered in trees. There is much more green space in housing areas and a lot of this is covered by trees.
It’s not really the land of opportunity at all. If you come in as I did with a good job already, you can do quite well, but moving from being working class to middle class is actually more difficult than in the UK where I come from.
The US is a great place if you have enough money but can be a terrible place if you are short of money. There is far less of a safety net for people who have problems, and there is certainly a less sympathetic attitude.
It’s much easier to get things done in the US than in the UK. People have a much more forward-looking attitude in businesses.
Much of the growth in the US is actually driven by foreigners. So many of the IT departments in the US are staffed by foreigners like me, and in particular, Indians, that if you removed them all, I’m sure the US IT sector would collapse. This was the biggest surprise to me when I first started working here. I did consulting work in IT for Life Sciences companies and every one of the IT departments was at least 50% Indian.
People don’t carry guns on the street and there aren’t shootings every day, in most places. In some places, there are shootings every day, but they tend to be concentrated. Petty crime is less common in the US in most areas. I know few places in the UK where you would leave your gardening stuff in an unlocked shed or a bicycle in the drive. It’s common here.
In many areas, I didn’t notice any racism at all. It did take me some time to spot it in some places, to be frank, and some of my black friends had to point it out to me, but I’ve been in far more racist places in Europe.
There are more different kinds of churches than you could possibly imagine, particularly in the South, not just the main denominations that you see in most of the UK and Europe. Dozens of them.
So many people dress in exactly the same way. My American wife pointed out the converse of this in the UK, that people look quite different from one another. I was at a hardware store recently, there was a delay at the checkout. I noticed that of the eleven men waiting in line I was the only one without a plaid shirt, goatee beard and baseball cap.
Service in restaurants is probably ever so slightly better than the UK, but is far less personal. No one has ever called me “love” or whatever the local equivalent was there.
Everyone has to fill in a tax return. This nearly caught me out. Filling in a tax return is such a usual part of life for Americans that nobody thought to tell me about it. I’d never done one in my life and it is a lot of work. In the UK my employer did all of that.
Healthcare – I think most people are aware that the cost is a lot higher than the UK, but I couldn’t believe how bureaucratic it is, form after form after form. Insurance coverage is an absolute minefield, the plans are mind-bendingly complex and of course, insurance companies, being profit-making, will twist and create obstacles and do anything they can, to avoid paying out. The trouble with health insurance is that if they don’t pay, you can die. If there’s anything that I do miss about the UK it’s the NHS.
The U.S. put an arbitrary high tax on China make cars. What it does is the it allowed Tesla and their too big to fail automakers such as Ford, GM and Chrysler to profiteer on its own citizens. Hence the inflation and not to mention depriving its own American of convenience and better environment.
I am in software industry for 5+yr now , so I can share my experience.
No matter how much you are earning , you will feel monotonous and boring life after sometime. Then most of people try for competition exam just to get rid of monotonous life.
If you are working in your field , life would be easy for you after few years. But if you are not core person then there are lot of struggle, humiliation you will face.
Corporate has colleague only, I haven’t seen a bond of friendship in service based company specially. In product based, I had a great friend circle but being in service based everything is all about getting work done.
Person is mostly known as resource instead of human being. Better resource has better opportunity. So keep update yourself with new technical enhancements in order to stay here.
If your project manager is good , and you know how to communicate with them easily then life would be so easy. But if you have conflict with your manager , you will be replace by some other resource.
Good thing about corporate is they care about their employee so much, time to time free health check-ups, office /team parties, new year/diwali /Holi /Christmas etc gifts🎁, sick leave, casual leave and other leaves, work from home allowances , broadband reimbursement, travel allowances, providing table, chair,lamps if you are doing wfh. Providing flexibility to work from anywhere. You got onsite opportunity to Europe, USA based on your skillsets.
If you are really a skilled employee, you got max 10% hike per year with bonuses. But if you are average 3–5% hike which I feel is low. Because the same employee switch the company got 50-100% hike very easily. So , if company start doing good hike for deserving employee with time to time promotions, then why they will think of switching every quarters.
AI has entered the market, but it can never replace techies. As a software developer I can feel that ChatGPT help to find solutions easily but with ambiguity in solution. So , ambiguity solution can’t make a great products. So, it’s illusion that chatgpt or any other platform would cut the jobs.
If you are fresher, better to join small organization where you can learn and got individual work to became a skilled person. Because in big organization, freshers has to suffer lot to get individual work.
Degree is secondary , skill is primary in IT world. But yeah degree taught us much about handling pressure, balancing temper .
US keeps hyping military tension around Taiwan Straits
Washington, secessionists the real troublemakers to undermine peace: experts
By Yang Sheng and Liu Xuanzun Published: Jan 23, 2024 08:07 PM Updated: Jan 23, 2024 10:00 PM
A US think tank released a report on Tuesday claiming that the “majority of experts” from the US and the island of Taiwan said they believe “a crisis in the Taiwan Straits is likely in 2024,” with a “blockade” or “quarantine” of the island by the Chinese mainland seen as the most likely scenario, while analysts from the mainland said this is an old trick of the US to hype regional tensions to spread fear in the region to serve its hegemonic interests.
A new survey from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) covering “87 experts from the US and the island of Taiwan on cross-Strait relations” said that most of these experts said China has the “capabilities to execute a law enforcement led-quarantine [or] a People’s Liberation Army (PLA)-led blockade of Taiwan,” but fewer believed a “forceful invasion” was possible.
Aside from the CSIS survey, the US is taking concrete actions to add tensions to the region.
After the Taiwan regional election which concluded on January 13, there have not been military tensions around the region so far, but the US is planning to send a bipartisan congress delegation to encourage secessionists on the island, and US aircraft carriers are also approaching the region, according to the US Naval Institute.
These expose a hard fact that, when accusing China of “creating tensions” in the region, Washington and secessionists on the island are the real troublemakers that are taking concrete actions to undermine regional peace and stability, said analysts, stressing that the US and its puppets on the island should not underestimate the determination and strength of the Chinese military forces.
Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times on Tuesday that “The US needs tensions and fears among the region to force its allies in the region to stand closer with it and push other countries to take sides and rely on the US. This kind of trick has already ruined peace in Europe due to the outbreak of the Ukraine crisis, and Washington wants to copy this in Asia. The Taiwan Straits is its target.”
According to the CSIS survey, 68 percent of US experts said a Taiwan Straits crisis was “likely” or “very likely” in 2024, compared to 58 percent of experts from Taiwan island.
Li said the US is trying to hype an intensifying atmosphere around China, to make regional countries believe that China is going to take a massive action that will heavily impact everyone. However, China has not done anything yet, and even if China takes action, it will have been provoked by US military activities and Washington’s politicians’ encouragement of the Taiwan secessionist authorities. “This is the truth that we need to let the world understand clearly,” Li said.
The root cause of tension around the Taiwan Straits is US interference in China’s domestic affairs, and without meddling from the US, the Taiwan question, the powder keg the US set in front of China, would have been long defused in past decades whether militarily or peacefully, Li noted. “China will shake off this time-bomb sooner or later.”
On Monday, USNI News, the news website of the US Naval Institute, reported that the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier is now in the 7th Fleet area of operations as of last weekend.
It means that there are three US aircraft carriers operating in the Asia-Pacific region, with the other two being the USS Carl Vinson and the USS Ronald Reagan, according to a graphic released by USNI News on Monday which is tracking the US Navy’s deployed aircraft carrier strike groups.
US aircraft carrier deployments show that the US’ strategic focus remains on the Asia-Pacific region, prioritizing major power competition and the “Indo-Pacific strategy” over conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The PLA Navy recently organized some of its most powerful amphibious warships in a combat exercise.
Type 071 amphibious landing ships Wuzhishan
According to a China Central Television (CCTV) report on Monday, the Type 071 amphibious landing ships Wuzhishan and Changbaishan joined up with a Type 075 amphibious assault ship in a multi-course drill.
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The drill practiced live-fire anti-air and anti-sea shooting, which analysts said is important in self-defense in an amphibious landing mission.
Experts said that the Type 071 focuses more on horizontal landing by carrying air cushioned hovercraft and amphibious armored vehicles, while the Type 075 focuses more on vertical landing by carrying more helicopters.
The combination of the Type 075 amphibious assault ship and the Type 071 amphibious landing ship have strong island-seizing capability, and they can join forces with aircraft carrier groups as well as other warships and warplanes to form tremendous joint combat capabilities in an island-seizing mission, Song said.
Such a combination can play important roles on the island of Taiwan, the Dongsha Islands and the Penghu Islands if the need arises in the future, Song said.
Since August 2022, the PLA has organized three major island blockade exercises around the island of Taiwan as countermeasures to US-Taiwan collusion, and displayed its capability in conducting precision strikes to paralyze key military installations on the island of Taiwan, seizing air superiority and control of the sea, as well as stopping “Taiwan independence” secessionists from escaping and external military forces from interfering. All foundations have been established for the following landing missions, analysts said.
The best scenario for both the Chinese mainland and the island of Taiwan is peaceful reunification, but if “Taiwan independence” secessionists and external interference forces deny that prospect, the PLA is always prepared to fulfill its sacred duty of safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and achieve the eventual national reunification, experts said.
HMMMM. U.S. Army Mess Hall in Marshall Islands, Hit By Giant Wave
Video has emerged of a mess hall for the United States Army being absolutely swamped (inside) by a massive ocean wave that came well ashore in the Marshall Islands on Saturday, and took the doors off the mess hall.
It was sudden, dramatic, and unstoppable.
US Army mess hall in Marshall Islands hit by massive wave (1.20.24). No reported injuries. pic.twitter.com/jErWckRuky— Molly Ploofkins™ (@Mollyploofkins) January 22, 2024
2024 01 24 10 25
To Hope That China Will Help With Yemen Is Delusional Bullshit
The lunatic Biden policy with regards to Yemen will obviously fail to reach any positive results. The White House and Biden know this and he has even publicly admitted so much.
Monday night’s moves marked the eighth round of allied attacks on the Houthis since the first on Jan. 12. American and British forces said they hit eight targets, including an underground storage site and locations for launching missiles and carrying out air-surveillance.
I doubt that the U.S. or UK knows anything about Yemeni ‘underground storage sites’ or other missile locations.
A third senior official said on Monday that figure may have crept up to 30 to 40 percent after at least 25 to 30 precision-guided munitions successfully hit their targets on Monday. But other U.S. intelligence officials who have been briefed on the size and scope of the Houthis’ arsenal say analysts are not sure how much weaponry the group started with.
American and other Western intelligence agencies have not spent significant time or resources in recent years collecting data on the location of Houthi air defenses, command hubs, munitions depots and storage and production facilities for drones and missiles, the officials said.
The delusion in the White House is that ‘doing something’, like bombing random targets In Yemen, will change things continues. This question is still unanswered:
A senior administration official laid it out as follows. The U.S. attacks on Houthi targets will degrade the militants’ abilities to keep shooting at ships, as will the interdiction of vessels carrying weapons to Yemen. Last week’s redesignation of the Houthis as terrorists will increase the sanctions pressure on them, starving fighters of the resources that bankroll operations.
Eventually, the official continued, regional countries and other nations with an interest in open sea lanes — China, for example — will demand an end to the shipping crisis that has inflated prices and imperiled lives. Meanwhile, Israel’s plan for more targeted operations in Gaza could mean fewer civilian casualties, which would weaken the Houthis’ case for rising to the Palestinians’ defense. An end to the war would remove that rallying cry.
The White House is obviously not even reading the news by the media it directly controls:
A senior official of the Iranian-backed Houthi terrorist group says Chinese and Russian vessels will have safe passage through the Red Sea.
Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi political leadership, said in an interview with the Russian outlet Izvestia that the shipping lanes around Yemen are safe to ships from China and Russia as long as vessels are not connected with Israel, Agence France-Presse reported Friday, citing Izvestia.
The Houthis have said they are acting in solidarity with Palestinians amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza and have carried out more than 30 attacks in the Red Sea.
All western container carriers who have serviced the Asia-Europe lines will now lose container booking from Chinese exporters to Europe. The big Chinese container lines, which have openly announcedto not service Israel, will now receive those transport orders. They can offer a shorter and much cheaper trip through the Red Sea while western carriers must go all around Africa to be able to reach their destination.
China and to an extend Russia will again profit from such basic U.S. policy mistakes. To hope that they will somehow intervene to end that situation is simply absurd.
Politico concluded the part quoted above with this paragraph:
But even if all those various elements lined up, it’s still not clear the strategic picture the Houthis care about will shift radically enough for a course correction.
That is written to sound nice but it essentially means that the policy is utter bullshit.
We live in a dystopian world where it’s completely normalized to subvert human interests to commercial interests, to toss tens of thousands of lives into the incinerator for wealth and convenience. Where war profiteers rake in vast fortunes for selling instruments of mass murder to genocidal governments, and where the most powerful empire in history declares a war to defend shipping containers at the cost of human life.
Don’t ever let these sick freaks convince you that this is normal.
Posted by b on January 23, 2024 at 10:31 UTC | Permalink
Seek advice from people who have achieved what you want in life.
Be your own hero instead of waiting for someone else to save you.
Accept people for who they are, not who you want them to be, to avoid disappointment.
Don’t make others choose you; learn to enjoy your own company.
Control your emotions and stay calm in any situation.
Give people time to reveal their true selves.
Focus on yourself and mind your own business to find inner peace.
Take care of yourself because the world will keep moving, even if something happens to you.
Work hard to improve yourself, even if it feels like nobody cares.
Build your own dreams instead of relying on others to give you purpose.
Ignore society’s advice if it doesn’t align with your goals.
Life doesn’t wait for you to be okay, so keep pushing forward every day.
Enjoy the freedom of not sharing everything about yourself.
Disconnect from the news and avoid discussing politics to feel smarter.
Create your own opportunities instead of waiting for them to come to you.
Greek Turnovers (Skaltsounia)
R C
Ingredients
Dough
1 3/4 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup butter
Filling
1/2 pound feta
3 ounces mascarpone
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted and crushed
1 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon fresh mint leaves, crushed
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
Whip the butter until it is light. Whip in the sugar and egg yolks and blend well. Gradually add in the flour until it is smooth and soft. Add more flour if needed.
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In a bowl cream together the feta, mascarpone, and eggs. Add the walnuts, orange zest, mint and butter and blend well. Set aside.
Roll out dough on a floured board and cut dough into 3-inch rounds. Take 1 tablespoon of the mixture and place it in the center of the circle. Moisten the edges and fold over into a half moon. Seal well. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake until golden brown, about 20 minutes.
When cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.
All the mothers in the town was doing it. It was supposed to be liberating. At the time it made no sense to me. I couldn’t understand what was going on. I just didn’t know.
Dad didn’t like it.
That was for sure. And he explained it to me that “Your mother is going through a phase”.
…
Three Years Later…
…
In 1975, my parents split up.
On the surface, it was because of work reasons, and my mother and dad went separate ways. Ah, many contributors were involved certainly. But looking back in hindsight…
…I cannot help but think that the destruction of our family, while I was a early teenager, was set in motion by the woman’s feminist movement that set “the ball rolling”.
Listen up!
We have to pay attention to what is going on around us. If we do not, the potential for catastrophic events becomes exponential.
Finding a use for them. No really, why would we use tanks? You westerners and your WW2 mentality.
In 2021 there were 600,000 privately registered drones, there’s many more, I have several unregistered drones, I don’t fly them so they don’t need registration. Chinese companies pioneered drone displays of thousands of drones…
There’s airborne drone food delivery in Shenzhen now.
There are fire drones used to clean powerlines
In statista 5 million drones of various types were exported in 2020 and this increased to 7 million in 2021. That doesn’t even consider domestic use and purchases.
A fella knocked on my door at midnight in mid-town Houston on a Saturday. Middle-aged well-dressed white guy. His impeccable $75,000 black Ford top-of-the-line diesel pickup was idling in my driveway.
I was not concerned at all about opening the door, because I stopped to put a .38 Smith with a 2″ barrel in the back pocket of my jeans and my well-trained 80-pound black Labrador was sitting next to me looking at this guy with great curiosity.
Me: “Hey there! What’s up?” Walter the Lab wags his tail and watches.
Guy: “Hi neighbor! I live right over there (spins his arm 360 degrees) and I have a big problem! My car broke down and my wife isn’t home. I had a tow truck bring me to the house, but I can’t get in because I forgot my keys, and can’t get to my money to pay him! Can I borrow $80 until tomorrow?
“Otherwise he’s going to tow my truck to impound and it’s going to cost me $300. Can you help a neighbor out? I’m for real! Look! I have a Rolex on my wrist and a $1200 laptop in my truck!”
Those of you who own Labradors know that they are the most human of dogs, and can communicate with just a glance.
Walter’s eyes are saying: “Pop! This creepy bastard has no pupils! I think he’s a drug-money seeking asshole!”
I sigh, because this dog is great, but he has an irritating habit of eye-stating the obvious. Jeez!
I’m not going to say, as my dog would: “There is no wrecker. Your truck is running. You have your keys.”
Instead, I say: “Glad to help! I have a $100 bill. Give me the laptop. Leave the truck keys, pay the wrecker, and just come back tomorrow and bring me back the C-note and pick up your truck and computer!”
The guy looks at me. Moments pass. He says: “The wrecker guy ain’t got no change. I’ll try another neighbor.”
And he was gone.
Damn dog treats me like an idiot.
Greek Chicken and Rice (Kotta Pilafi)
Chicken Biryani with chicken legs on the top.
Ingredients
6 chicken breasts (about 3 pounds)
1/4 cup butter
1 medium onion chopped fine
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
2 cups water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup uncooked rice
Dairy sour cream for garnish
Instructions
Sauté chicken breasts in butter until golden brown. Add onion, tomato, water, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Add rice and stir to mix evenly. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes longer or until the rice is tender. Add more water if necessary.
Serve with a bowl of sour cream to be spooned over the rice.
Serves 6.
Additions called in from Bessie: Use one whole broiler (3 pounds) cut up into pieces. Sauté in 1/4 cup olive oil (not butter). Use 3 cups boiling water with the rice instead of 2 cups (you won’t have to add water later this way).
Many years ago I parked my car in an underground car park when I went to see my girlfriend.
After a few hours I went to leave and as I was walking towards my car and as I got to about 30 to 40 yards from it I heard my car door shut (my car moved so I knew it was mine) and this person jumped up and started running carrying a large bag.
I yelled at him to stop, give back anything he stole and I will not call the police but he ignored me. As he had the jump on me, I hoped into my car and took off after him.
He managed to get to the stair well before me, but only just.
So I jumped out of the car and with the help of what I can only call an angry adrenaline release, he only managed to get about 20 yards past the exit and I gave him my best attempt at a body slam tackle and flattened him.
He was unlucky enough to have me land on top of him which left him badly winded. As I sat on him, I opened the bag he was carrying and it contained my stereo and a pile of other things out of my car, plus some other stereos and stuff.
This was before the time of cell phones, fortunately 4 passerby’s had come over to find out what was going on and as soon as I told them he was stealing stuff from the cars, one went to the nearest appartments and managed to ring the police while the others stayed with me.
The police were there within minutes and they happily took the person away including all the stolen items.
Then I went down to the police station, made out a statement with the police and retrieved my stolen items after the police had recorded them.
I went back to my girlfriends to make out some signs to put into the carpark to let others know what had happened and where to retrieve their stolen stuff.
Turned out there had been car breakins going on for several months in the area and he was charged with them (fingerprints confirmed it was him).
Didn’t need to go to court as he pled guilty, but he was forced to pay me for the damage to my dash and door lock and refitting the stereo.
That was one of those really great memories for it is not often you can actually catch the person doing this sort of thing.
Political DANGERS of Chat GBT
Must watch.
Will China go to war over Taiwan, or just say a few strong words?
Yes.
Taiwan is a region of China. China owns it.
The Chinese say so.
The Taiwanese say so.
The United States says so also.
So…
If the United States goes full-on stupid and tries to conduct a war “over” Taiwan for one excuse or the other… then KISS YOUR ASS GOODBYE. The world will experience full on thermonuclear war. We are all gonna die.
…
China will go “light-switch”.
One day there is New York city, the next day, it is flat radioactive glass.
…
And you just cannot blame them. I mean if the PLA is marching inside Philadelphia… bombing and blowing up the bridges of San Francisco… or Chicago reduced to cinders…
…wouldn’t the United States start lobbing nuclear missiles also?
…
Let’s keep things real. The United States says one thing, but does something else. It’s like a petulant child that keeps on pushing the boundaries, and then one day gets hit by a Mac Truck barrelling down the highway.
The United States is a slow motion train wreck… and soon it will die.
I composed the following to address several objections raised to Lavrov’s End of Year Presser provided in the previous article by those at the Moon of Alabama blog that can be found on this thread. Those wanting to read about China’s Initiative mentioned below can find in several pages back in the Gym’s archives, same with Wang Yi’s 9 January speech. Other points presented I’ve written about many times over the years, the outlaw nature of the USA was formulated in the mid-1980s, although I don’t claim originality. Of course, knowing the entire context behind the complaints and my writing is crucial. Those few readers who’ve read everything at the Gym will have the greatest understanding. I should also use this opportunity to suggest readers to sometime soon read/watch Dr. Hudson’s latest interview on the Big Picture as well as his almost as recent interview with an Indian organization on Neoliberalism/”Perfecting Imperialism”.
When a law is passed, it’s either obeyed or violated. The UN Charter is a corpus of laws that was signed and ratified by all nations wanting to become UN members–one must be done for the other to occur. Once a nation agrees to obey a law it becomes an outlaw if it disobeys. As documented many times here and elsewhere, at the moment the UN Charter attained its legal status, the USA and many other Western signatories were already violating the law and thus became outlaws. An Outlaw remains an Outlaw until it’s brought to justice and as part of its penalty says it will refrain from breaking the law again. Since all those outlaw nations have yet to face justice for their actions, they remain outlaws. It’s really that simple. When the history of the making of the UN Charter is studied, it becomes very clear that the Four Freedoms are at the base of it and are within both the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Part of my Big Picture argument is that WW2 never really ended as the fixtures that were to provide for a lasting peace were never attained: Denazification of Europe was prevented by the USA, UK and France, meaning they immediately broke the covenant by which they were rewarded with permanent UNSC seats and vetoes. Thus, the three main Plundering nations immediately gained outlaw status by November 1945, and have retained that status ever since.
The Global Majority Movement aims to right the wrongs that emerged in November 1945, the primary document being China’s Global Security Initiative (GSI), which is essentially a restatement of the UN Charter specifying no hegemonic nations will be allowed to join. If such nations are to exist, they will exist outside the primary global organization and will remain outlaws since they choose to be outside the laws of nations. Such a reorganization of the UN will eliminate the “privatization” of its global agencies by the hegemonic outlaws that’s impeding their ability to do good and exacerbating the potential for them to do ill, like the subversion happening at the World Health Organization. Of course, the reorganization won’t be perfect–there’ll always be problems with governance no matter what, which is Putin’s mantra, the point being to accept that fact and continue to strive for excellence. Wang Yi in his New Year’s speech on 9 January said it’s China’s goal to make the GSI a reality this year as a supermajority of the world’s nations have already said they will join.
The League of Nations failed for a number of reasons. The UN is failing because it’s held hostage by outlaws. Humanity needs an organization global in breadth that helps Humanity organize to advance its wellbeing while solving problems affecting the global community, a fact differing little from the visions expressed by many in 1944. The reformed UN will immediately be improved since it’s no longer held hostage, and the Security Council will be reformulated to exist without the veto since there’re no hegemonic members requiring it to protect themselves from justice.
Humanity is on the cusp of evolving beyond armed conflict to solve problems. Universal moral values have advanced for that goal to be possible, but to-date the hegemonic outlaw nations impede that progress. It appears the best way to change their behavior is to relegate them to the Out Group until they prove their behavior’s changed and they’ve atoned for their outlaw past. Yes, the outlaw nations will yell and squeal, stomp their feet, pull their hair, and propose all sorts of threats that prove exactly what they are and why they need to sit in the corner and think about their actions like the small children they show themselves to be. Yes, it will probably take a generation or so (20 years) for them to figure it out–they’ve been serial outlaws for almost 80 years and even longer before that, so their ways are habitual.
The job is to formulate the future so Humanity cannot just survive but thrive. The past can and will be argued about endlessly, which is a given. But enough about the past is agreed upon so the future can be formulated and constructed. It’s time to take a big step outside the box to do what must be done. As was once said: Lead, follow or get out of the way.
A major requirement of conducting effective foreign policy is to understand the viewpoint of your main competitors, something that the Western elites have shown increasingly less able to do. There are exceptions, such as Stephen Cohen, but these are rapidly sidelined. More recently, John Mearsheimer has shown some ability to understand the Russian point of view with respect ton the Ukrainian conflict. In this essay, I try to place myself in the shoes of the Chinese leadership. I will do the same for Russia and Iran in future pieces.
China Gains More Strength Every Year
China is the manufacturing power house of the world and is focused on dominating the leading technology sectors the way that the US dominated them previously; this technology leadership is one of the remaining tenets of US power. In early 2023, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute placed China in the lead in 37 of the 44 critical technology areas that it tracks. The US was the leader in the remaining 7, with a large gap between China and the US and any other nations; Europe is nowhere.
In late 2023 the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) confirmed this, seeing China leading in 7 out of 10 of the industries within its Hamilton Index; computers and electronics; chemicals; machinery and equipment; motor vehicles; basic metals; fabricated metals; and electrical equipment. The US lead in only IT and information services, other transportation and pharmaceuticals. The share of Chinese production in these 10 industries nearly doubled from 2008 to 2020, from 12.9% to 23.9%, while the US improved a bit from 19.3% to 21.5%; with US gains predominantly due to the IT and information services area. Chinese industry is 70% more focused than the US in advanced industries. The ITIF report notes that:
For the United States, losing this race, either because policymakers are indifferent to the country’s industrial structure or because they choose to focus on other economic or societal goals, would be catastrophic, as it would turn the United States into a deindustrialized, United Kingdom-like economy. Time is short. The 2020s are likely to be the decisive decade in which to turn around U.S. advanced industry fortunes, because once China gains sufficient global market share, allied and U.S. production risks being permanently weakened.
The Chinese leadership very much understands this, and this is the core area of the real economic war between the West and China. From 1995 to 2020, Japan’s production share of advanced industries collapsed and is now only about 7.5% and falling, Germany’s share fell from a lower start level to about 7% and continues to fall. In the same period, the UK, France and Italy have all fallen to shares well under 5%. Japan and Europe are an advanced technology backwater, and becoming more so. With the huge investment mistakes of the Japanese car industry with respect to electric vehicles, Japan’s fall may even accelerate in the next decade.
Chinese GDP, and GDP per capita, growth continues to far outpace the West with continued growth of 5% or more per year. This creates strong Party-state legitimacy as the Chinese people see their lives improve year over year, at a pace that still doubles incomes every 14 years. Chinese GDP at PPP in 2023 was 32.9 US$ trillion, compared to 26.95 for the US, 6.49 for Japan, 5.54 for Germany, 3.87 for the UK and the same for France, 3.05 for Italy, and 2.8 for South Korea. At current relative growth rates, Chinese GDP will be pretty much equal to all of those other Western nations within a decade, while its GDP per capita at PPP will have grown from US$23,309 to US$37,968; about the same level that the Greeks currently enjoy.
With rising incomes, and industries rapidly moving up the technology curve, China will be able to offshore more and more of the simpler production steps while keeping the higher technology ones to itself; greatly increasing the level of integration of the ASEAN nations, and quite possibly North Korea. China’s neighbourhood will become more and more integrated with it, while Japan may shrink in both relative and absolute terms. China will also be capable of transacting more and more of its trade in Yuan rather than US dollars.
China has a massive population of 1.4 billion, which started to decline in 2022; with a median age of 39. Between 2020 and 2040 however, the Chinese labour force will only fall by 8%, a decrease which pales when compared to the probable increase in per capita GDP. China also has a strange income structure where the much better educated younger workers 25-34 have the highest incomes, and income falls rapidly in older age groups. This will facilitate large increases in older age groups over time, as the much higher levels of education move their way up the age curve. Chinese GDP per capita can also increase very substantially before it starts to reach Western levels. Demographics may pose an issue after 2050, but not before then.
The rapid move to electric vehicles will also start to cut into oil demand, reducing a Chinese dependence upon imported oil that currently stands at over 10 million barrels per day. As those imports fall, the share of Russian and Central Asian imports will rise, as will the share of domestic production (4 Mbpd). The amount of time that China’s large strategic oil reserve will last during a crisis will also steadily increase.
China has kept military spending at 2% of GDP, but as the economy keeps growing so does military expenditures. China’s expenditures are significantly more efficient and effective as those of the US as they are only focused on the defence of China and its environs, rather than on global hegemony. There also seems to be much less graft and profiteering in China’s MIC (Military Industrial Complex) than that of the privatized US one. In addition, China’s great advantages in manufacturing give its MIC a significant advantage over that of the US. China is in the position of the US in the 1980s, with a rapidly growing economy facilitating ongoing increases in military spending. The US is in the position of the Soviet Union, with a slow growing economy that will require the MIC to take up an increasing share of GDP to keep pace with China. A dynamic that can only reduce further the dynamism of the US economy with respect to China’s.
The US Loses Strength Every Year
The US main allies, the EU, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are not well placed when it comes to leading technology sectors, drivers of growth and even demographics. Its hemisphere is also one full of lower growth economies with few technology leaders, in fact South America has significantly de-industrialized over the past few decades.
In the leading technology sectors the US may have gained a little against the rest of the world, and may pick up some of the energy-intensive European manufacturing operations, but has been overtaken by China and is falling further behind each year. The contrasting performance of the Chinese and US car industries in moving to electric vehicles is just one example of this dynamic, with Chinese car exports surging while US manufacturers (excluding Tesla) become more and more dependant on the US market.
Over the past three decades the US has expanded colossal amounts of money on foreign military adventures, at a cost of over US$6 trillion, with little to show in return. At the same time the US economy has become increasingly dominated by monopolies, oligopolies and the financial sector; the rentier sector of the economy has expanded greatly while manufacturing has been diminished. The US, including its bloated, profiteering, and dysfunctional MIC, is very dependent upon imported parts, including those from China and from other nations that utilize Chinese components. At the same time, the US maintains a massively expensive global network of bases and naval battle fleets.
In great contrast to the average Chinese person, the average American has seen their incomes at best wallow at the same level for decades as all economic gains are concentrated at the very peak of the income distribution. This has been exacerbated by the inflation spurt of the past few years, and now also rising interest rates. With a couple of decades of cheap money creating a mountain of debt, much incurred by working people in an attempt to maintain consumption patterns. Trust in societal institutions is at an all time low, and the “Trump vs the Rest” elite civil war has increasingly exposed the inner working of the elites to the population; tanking trust and legitimacy levels even more. A further wedge has been driven into the political scene with the issue of US support for the Zionist genocide. The year 2024 promises to be one of increasing political chaos and upheaval, with 2025 probably no better. It may well be into 2026 before any domestic stability and foreign policy focus can be regained. There is also still the possibility of a deep recession.
The US population is 335 million, which is slowly growing due to significant immigration offsetting a record low birth rate and an increasing death rate. Average life expectancy has been declining since 2014 due to increases in drug overdoses, liver disease and suicides. Trends reminiscent of the Russian experience in the 1990s; deaths of despair due to working class immiseration made worse by a rapacious profiteering health care sector. The mishandling of the COVID pandemic has added to this declining trend. The younger US population is increasingly overweight, unfit and poorly educated as shown by the falling percentage that would meet the military recruitment requirements. Only 23% of Americans aged 17 to 24 are eligible to join without being granted a waiver, down from 29% in recent years. Increasing disillusionment with US institutions, and low pay, has also lead to less and less younger people wanting to serve. The US position on the Gaza genocide is opposed by a majority of younger US citizens, which may serve to increase the disaffection with military careers even more. The physical quality of those that do leaves much to be desired:
They have to teach them how to run, and they’ve had issues with bone density to the point that, when they do run them, they’ve ended up breaking a leg or worse, a hip,” the former official said. “I’ve even heard in some cases they’re putting them on diets of Ensure — you know, the stuff for old [people] like me — in order to build that bone density.
The US role in the seizing of Russia’s central bank foreign assets, and the cutting off of Russia from SWIFT, has accelerated the move to trading in local currency pairs instead of via the US$. Its inability to corral more than its Western vassals into a coalition of the willing against Russia has seriously damaged its soft power position. The more recent embroilment in the Zionist genocide has done significantly further damage to that soft power, in contrast to a China that has maintained a carefully balanced approach. If the US drags itself further into the Middle Eastern quagmire, in addition to the Ukrainian one, the “pivot to Asia” will be put off for yet more years.
Europe Is Losing Its Relevance
With the cessation of cheap fossil fuel imports from Russia, Europe is no longer competitive in energy-intensive manufacturing and plants will tend to move to other nations with lower energy costs. Interesting that the CEO of Solvay, a Belgian chemical company never mentions the loss of cheap Russian natural gas as a challenge; instead she blames too much government red tape and not enough subsidies, staying on message at the World Economic Forum:
DW manages to cover every possible determinant for German deindustrialization, except for the self-harming Russia sanctions. The higher energy prices are mentioned, but not that they could be reversed simply by cancelling the sanctions. That option cannot be discussed within acceptable German political discourse; i.e. outside the AfD. Neither of course, the true purveyors of the terrorist attack upon Nordstream 2.
In addition, Europe’s inability to gain a strong position in the leading technology sectors places it at risk of being out-competed by other nations moving up the technology curve. The tendency toward fiscal austerity, together with the ongoing costs of supporting Ukraine and increased military expenditures, hamstring any attempts to fund a fulsome industrial upgrading strategy. The centrally important car industry, which supports so many other sectors of the economy, is deeply challenged. It faces the annihilation of its sales in China, which provide up to 50% of the profitability of the major producers, and faces increasing Chinese (and Tesla) competition at home.
With the tendency toward fiscal austerity, the large indebtedness of a number of nations (e.g. Italy, Greece), and the lack of drivers of economic growth, the probability is for a continuation of the low to no growth of the 2010s with the possibility of a significant financial crisis. The US-driven decoupling from China, e.g. the Italian exit from the Belt and Road Initiative, will only add to the low growth path. Any moves to confiscate Russian foreign exchange reserves that are predominantly held in European banks may also have negative growth impacts.
The European Union as a whole has a population of 450 million people. The major nations are Germany (84 million), UK (67 million), France (64 million), Italy (59 million), Spain (47 million) and Poland (38 million), and they comprise the majority of the population (359 million). The population is in a small accelerating decline in Germany and Poland (started in 2018), and to a greater extent in Italy (started in 2016), while stable in France and Spain and growing quite rapidly in in the UK. The median age ranges from 41 (UK) to 46 (Italy) and is on the rise.
These populations are becoming increasingly disaffected with their government’s policies toward Ukraine in a time of austerity, and a recession that has already started may feed into this disaffection. Europe may be becoming increasingly irrelevant to China, with any FDI in Europe focused on nations that are considered to be more friendly such as Hungary and Slovakia.
Japan Is A Declining Power
Japan’s share of the Hamilton Index industries has collapsed since the mid 1990s and is continuing to decline. The woeful position of its massive car industry with respect to the move to electric vehicles may lead to the loss of much of its Chinese and Asian sales, as well as reductions in the US market. The new CEO of Toyota, hand-picked by the Toyoda family member who lead Toyota into the hydrogen blind ally, is staying with the generally anti-EV strategy; even investing in ammonia-based engines. That’s like doubling down on Betamax after VHS had overwhelmingly won in the market place.
And abject failure with respect to hydrogen cars does not seem to faze Toyota!
The Japanese population peaked in 2010 at 128 million, and is on an accelerating decline path with a natural fall in population of nearly 800,000 in 2022 with minimal net immigration. The median age is 49 and the 0-14 year old share of the population is only 12%, which will create a very serious problem for any attempt to significantly increase the armed forces in future years. The outlook for Japan is at best stagnation while it manages its massive government debts and a rapidly declining population that threatens to significantly reduce both the working population and property prices.
A Win-Win Approach Can Deconstruct US Hegemony Peacefully
China does not need to win in any military sense, it simply needs to continue to develop good relations with other countries across the world; nations that it will increasingly trade with and invest in. It has shown great flexibility in responding to shifts in the international system, and we can see a focus more toward the Middle East and Africa as Europe is bullied into keeping its distance and South American governments change (e.g. Milei in Argentina).
Notwithstanding Filipino grandstanding, the “trade with and respect the sovereignty of” approach to foreign relations has paid dividends with respect to the ASEAN nations that represent the fastest growing economic region in the world. Countries that are neutral between China and the US. The same for Central Asia, and of course an Iran that China is increasingly integrating with. India with its 1.4 billion population is no real threat to China given its independent leanings and its utter inability to develop a real industrial policy that will lead to technological upgrading while providing meaningful work to its increasing legions of unemployed. India will certainly continue to not be the new China. The rise of Hindutva also risks increasing domestic polarization between Hindus and Moslems. China’s diplomatic successes in the Middle East, and the moving away of many African nations from Western domination also plays well into China’s strategy.
The neutrality of the ASEAN and Central Asian nations, together with the increasing integration with Russia and Iran (and possibly with North Korea facilitated by Russia), provides a safe EurAsian neighbourhood for China’s further development. This is then fruitfully extended across the Middle East and Africa. Europe, apart from Hungary and Slovakia, may be on the back burner until it established some level of strategic autonomy; that may have to wait for the inevitable Ukrainian collapse. Brazil and Mexico also offer continued opportunities.
We should expect China to be patient and flexible, given that it is winning, especially as long as the US is militarily tied up in Ukraine and the Middle East. China’s diplomacy with respect to the Palestinian issue shows this patience and careful balance, being seen as supportive of the Palestinian cause; with the Palestinian envoy to the UN calling China “a true friend ready to do everything they can to help the Palestinian people”. A position that plays well outside the Golden Billion of the West, and especially across the Muslim and African nations.
Political chaos in 2024 and 2025 may further disable any attempts by the US to reorient to face off with China. In reality, the US has few real options in facing off against China given its economy’s significant dependences upon Chinese imports and the lack of willing sacrificial lambs; even the Taiwanese are not ready to trip over the Chinese red line of declaring formal independence. As each day passes, the military and economic outcomes of a face off with China get worse for the US and better for China. That horse may have bolted sometime in the 2010s and it is far too late now to try to bolt the door. The onus is on the US to make the play, with the only true additional red lines being perhaps a full-scale NATO attack on Russia or Iran; both of which would be disastrous for the West. Other than that China’s approach is one of “steady as she goes” with small course corrections as required by changing circumstances, while maintaining professional and respectful relations with other nations.
Fun
Peter is right about Rupert Murdoch interest in China.
This book:
Rupert’s Adventures in China –
(See attached book cover photo)
With detail description of how Murdoch invested 10 years in China trying to setup his Media empire there. His efforts includes the following 2 most interesting strategies but failed miserably :
1) trying to gain Deng Xiaoping favour by offering Deng’s daughter US$1 million book royalty to publish her book about her father.
2) joint venture with a former PLA official to set up phoenix Satellite current affair TV. The PLA partner insisted that Murdoch incharged of investment, he incharged of content. 10 years later, Murdoch sold the share with good profit and leave China for good with hatred because he still failed to influence the content.
This is a classic case that the CCP cannot be bribe into given up their sovereignty in the media industry.
The evil Murdoch have being very successful in controlling the Australia, UK, US, and Canada governments. Read this two books.
Was in divorce court on a bogus complaint from the ex. The charge, I wasn’t paying child support and wasn’t looking for work. The judge, a classmate of the ex’s asked me to prove my defense. I started to bring out paperwork, etc. from my briefcase while noting that a deputy had come up behind me. I thought that was odd since he didn’t do that with anyone else and I had been in court for other bogus charges by the ex every three to four months. As I pulled out the papers and asked if I could approach the bench and present my evidence, the judge said, “I’m not interested in what you have!” Right away I’m thinking then why the heck did you ask me for proof? I asked him a second time to present my evidence and that’s when he threatened to hold me in contempt and jail me for thirty days if I spoke again. He then gave me a date in the future to get things straightened out or he’d throw me in jail. As I walked out of the courtroom, I turned to the deputy who was “escorting” me out and started to say something and he told me, “Not here”. We took a few steps down the hallway and then he grabbed my arm and as I turned toward him, and he me, he said you just got screwed but were wise to not speak again!” He advised me to get an attorney so the judge couldn’t screw me over again. I related my problem to my Chiropractor, and she referred me to an attorney she knew. I explained what happened with the divorce proceedings up until that point and he offered to take my case for $400. He actually stuck to that amount in spite of having to do a number of hours and headaches from her attorney. Even the head of the county child support division testified on my behalf that I was current on the child support the whole time and even gave me a letter stating so. That finally got her and her attorney to stop harassing me and my employer and the divorce was finalized a year after it should’ve been.
I’ve taught unarmed combat and a jiu-jitsu based self defence system for many years. I think one of best targets to drop an aggressor at a close range is the knee and shin. Groin strikes are a bit hit and miss especially with a mistimed kick. I’ve always installed into students the three basics of handling an attacker, firstly if an attacker can’t stand he can’t hurt you, if he can’t breathe he can’t hurt you and if he can’t see he can’t hurt you. So striking the knee or shin, throat and eyes are the basics. That way it gives you a chance to get out of there pronto. Depending on the severity involved in the confrontation, be wary about throat strikes, it could be fatal. You don’t need to eye gouge as that means you have to be in close. Finger or thumb pokes to the eyes is sufficient to make a getaway. As for the knee/shin a swift hard kick will suffice. Don’t try anything fancy, that’s for the movies. All the people I’ve trained with over the years, especially at shodan level and above had there own favourite basic techniques to handle an attacker. The upshot is try and avoid these situations in the first place. On the other hand, if the attacker is tooled up especially with a bladed weapon and there’s no way out for you, you’ve got to go into psycho mode and fight like a wild animal as if your life depends on it. Expect to get cut. If you do, try not to get cut on the inner arm/forearm where vital veins and arteries are. If the outcome ends with the attacker being seriously hurt, so be it. It’s self defence and you have right to defend yourself any way you can. I’ve always had it in my mind an old saying “better to be judged by twelve than carried by six.” Take care.
No. Some police departments train their officers to begin all traffic stops by asking “Do you know why I stopped you?” There is exactly ONE correct answer to this question. Even if the pedestrian you just ran down is still sprawled across your windshield, the answer is “No.”
Clearly, they are soliciting a confession to anything that you know you did wrong in the recent past. If the officer saw you roll through a stop sign, and you suggest that you changed lanes without signalling, he just got a two-fer.
Now, although I do not know how often it happens, but my time as the prosecutor in traffic court in a small Oklahoma town for a year made me believe that sometimes, the officer is pulling over some attractive looking young ladies just to flirt. It so happened that the worst thing my judge could do to a person in traffic court was a $30 fine plus $5 court costs and, theoretically, up to a week in jail. But since the town had to pay the county jail $20 per night, that wasn’t happening.
Well, the only people who took a half day off work to come contest a traffic stop were pretty darned sure they were innocent. Sometimes, it was because they believed some urban legend about the law — like the stop had to be on city property- so that if they could get to the Safeway parking lot before an officer caught them, they were innocent (they were NOT, just because of that).
But about once a month, I had to deal with some very attractive (and very angry) young lady who was stopped while driving alone on Friday night. The officer had asked if she knew why he stopped her, and if she said that she had done nothing at all wrong and then when he offered a reason, she was positive that she hadn’t done THAT. And when Thursday morning traffic court rolled around, she was still not going to pay $30 plus court costs. Instead, she would come give me a piece of her mind.
When they fell into that pattern, I frequently dismissed the charges. But that doesn’t work so well if she’d actually guessed what legitimate reason he had for stopping her.
Greek Meatballs (Keftethes)
These meatballs are deliciously light and delicately flavoured and you can serve them hot, warm or cold or freeze for future use.
I have made Keftethes on many occasions – (the recipe is from a Greek cookbook I’ve had for years) – and they are quite famous amongst my friends. Hope you enjoy them. Regards ~ Geoff Clifford – UK
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Ingredients
1 large onion, finely minced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1kg (2 1/4 pound) lean minced beef or lamb
2 cups unseasoned breadcrumbs, moistened in about 3/4 cup warm water
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped mint (if not available, use chopped, dried mint)
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
Black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Ouzo (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
All-purpose flour
1 cup olive oil and corn oil mixed (you may need slightly more)
Instructions
Fry onions with vegetable oil over low heat until golden. Remove to a large mixing bowl.
Add meat and all other ingredients except flour and olive/corn oil mix. Knead for about 10 minutes or until mixture is a smooth paste.
Heat the oil mix in a large frying pan to the point of fragrance.
Meanwhile, start to shape mixture into balls about the size of a large marble by rolling lightly between palms of hands, I suggest that you do them in batches of say 12 to 16, each batch being enough to space evenly but separately in the frying pan.
As each meatball is formed place them on a large plate which has been liberally covered with plain flour. When the batch is finished lightly roll the meatball in the flour. At this point the oil in the frying pan should be just ready.
Put the batch of meatball into the pan (Use kitchen tongs as the oil is very hot).
Start on your second batch of meatballs, make them and place them on the floured plate. At this point it is time to turn the meatballs over and when you have completed this roll the second batch in the flour.
Now it is time to remove the first batch from the frying pan using a slotted spoon or kitchen tongs and place on paper towels to drain.
Put the second batch of meatballs into the pan to cook and carry on with the process until you have finished the mixture.
Here’s what I did. I was manager over a small group of engineers for about a decade. I had been with the company for 20 years. We had a good salesman that kept us busy and though we were a small subsidiary of a larger company, we brought in good money. They messed with the salesman’s commission because he started making more than the president of the company. Along with that, they cut our groups profit sharing, which had been amounting to quite a bit for us, too. The salesman quit, and our business tanked as a result. In an effort to shake things up, they brought in a new top level manager for our group, a new salesman, and I was removed from my managerial position and replaced by one of my subordinates. My salary remained the same, I did the same work on actual projects as always, except then I was no longer required to manage projects, track all the expenses and time on projects, go on sales calls with the new salesman, or be held responsible for the group. I liked the work and most of the people around me, so I was fine with staying there. I was about 55 when this happened, and honestly, I was happy to shed all the administrative bullshit and still make the same money. A year later the new manager quit, they brought in a new guy (after they asked if I would resume the position) and within a year they scuttled our whole group. The company ($40 million company) had been making about 2.5 million a year clear from our group, but because they couldn’t handle the fact the salesman was making so much money compared to them, they ended up putting the entire subsidiary out of business. I was happy collecting my money for those 2 years without near the stress, and moved on to a better position in a new company after that. Things just seem to work out, sometimes. So my advice…if you like the work, are satisfied with the pay, there’s no reason not to continue on there. If you don’t like the place, stay until you find a good replacement job. You can be a lot pickier about choosing a new job when you have a good income source.
When I lived in Southern Indiana, there was a small scandal.
In the town was an old factory. Closed for nearly one hundred years. They manufactured medical thermometers and closed sometime in the 1920’s – 30’s during the “Great Depression”. As it lay off the end of town, it wasn’t visited by anyone. Just got over grown and forgotten.
After all, the kids aren’t willing to ride their bicycles ten miles to an industrial district, and the only people who would drive near the factory were workers going to and from their nearby factory jobs. All oblivious to the old factory.
But one day.
One day, a group of six graders went to the factory and broke in. And there, nearly undisturbed lay the tools of the trade. All left just they were last used. The work benches and assembly lines. The roof above leaked, and birds lived in the office complex. Certainly it was a long lost ruin, and there was nothing of value there.
But then…
One of the boys opened up a tub and in it was a strange silvery liquid. One that clung to their hands. They all dipped their arms and legs in the substance, and rubbed it all over their bodies.
Then they went home, and during the night all got very sick, and all had to be rushed to the local hospital.
Yes, they all got mercury poisoning. Their situation was critical. No one died.
As I recall.
But two of the boys would face years of rehab afterwards, and the mercury really messed them up.
That was my scandal for today.
Boys and girls, do not play with heavy metals. It’s not good for you.
90% of Taiwanese recognised that China is their motherland. 99% certainly don’t want war as they don’t want to kill their colleagues, friends, neighbours, relatives, spouse and associates.
99.99% certainly wants an economic union with China but with some autonomy no different from Taxan’s and Californian’s.
In the recent election there is one party that calls for outright independence and he gets ZERO seats! Taiwanese reject him outright. China don’t need to do a thing. US need to do a ton of shit costing billions China just do good!
Why Are WOMEN Not Signing PRENUPS!! | Women Hitting The Wall | I’m Not Singing a prenup
When walking in a crowded area look where you’re going and not at the other people. They will naturally move out of your line of sight making it quicker to move around.
If someone is bothering you at your desk too often, continue the conversation but get up and walk them back to their desk.
My boss likes having meetings after 5pm and even though I technically can be there for it, I don’t want to. So I tell him I have an important class I’m going to at exactly 5:45. I show up for about 5-10 minutes of the meeting then leave. He thinks I’m an amazing team player for going out of my way to hop on for just a few minutes. When in reality, I have no class to attend and I hate those meetings.
If you want to be an effective liar, build a reputation of being honest. The more you are known as being reliable, the easier it is to deceive and manipulate. Not terribly complex, I know.
Staring at peoples forehead irritates them quite a lot.
Having a heated argument… Ask the other person if they are okay because they’re breathing really hard. They will stop arguing and try to pay attention to their breathing. Resulting in the end of that discussion.
Next time you get in an elevator face towards the rear the whole ride. It freaks the other people out and makes me laugh. It’s the same principle behind stopping on the sidewalk and staring up. Sooner or later somebody else is going to stop and look to see what you’re gawking at.
You may have followed a similar trajectory to mine. You go to college, get your degree, start your career — and pursue that career to whichever city it takes you to. Inevitably, this landed me in Tampa, Florida, residing several states removed from my parents. This pattern is quite common with career oriented people, especially in the United States. But it comes with its own set of consequences.
My partner’s family lives in Albany. She had to leave for her niche academic job (bronze age archaeology). All of my closest friends live hundreds, and sometimes, thousands, of miles from their parents and extended family.
Whether someone stays near their family is often driven by socioeconomic factors. If you are from a more impoverished background, you’re much more likely to live near family — as it is common for to pool resources. For example, if your car breaks down, being able to get a ride or borrow a car can help immensely, especially if you can’t afford to repair the car or rent another. The same is true if you lose your job. It becomes much easier to survive the period of unemployment with immediate relatives in the vicinity.
Race plays a role in familial distance as well. A study found that the median distance between white adults and their mother is 15 miles, but is only three miles for black adults. This is also affected by the above socioeconomic factors, which come into play with racial disparities in income.
We are less likely to live further away from family in the US than in the UK, due to their increased support for single mothers and for the poor.
But as you move up the education (and income) brackets, your odds of living near family fall of quite quickly. A high school diploma means you have a 63% chance of living near extended family. A bachelors degree correlates to a 48% chance, and a post graduate degree translates to 42%.
Is it ideal for Americans to live so far from their families?
There is certainly a feeling of having missed out for me. I am in a group text with my parents and sister (who lives just a few miles away from my parents). Quite often, I see them sending pictures back and forth from the area. Sometimes, there’s a message about having forgotten something at their house or meeting up for a wine tasting (my parents run a vineyard).
Part of me does ache and know that I’m missing being part of their storyline. But for me, it was important to forge my own story and carve out into the world and be independent.
I’m also fortunate in that my family and I don’t have a toxic relationship as so many people do. There’s no need for me to have a difficult conversation about boundaries, and a parent stopping over unannounced during the day, or fighting over the constant pressure to visit. The separation between us is only career reasoned.
But in our case, it puts more pressure (in a good way) to make the most of our time together. Trips to other places, such as New York City, become opportune moments to celebrate and get pictures.
I write this as someone who mostly gets along with their family, and these dynamics can become infinitely complicated — especially in close proximity. In his novel, Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy wrote, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
It led to the Anna Karenina principle, and points out that in order for a family to be happy, a few things must be in order: financial security, mutual affection, and good health to all members. Yet for a family to be unhappy, any of a long list of factors can be the cause. And with close proximity, those problems are put under a spotlight. Which can then drive more people to move further away.
There is no one right answer for any person on living near family. But know the forces at work and how they affect you. Because the consequences can be real and substantive.
In my research for my book publisher, I discovered that many of you (Medium readers), are quite educated and have advanced degrees and incomes. That makes it quite likely that many of you live far from family. I would encourage you to find ways to reconnect with them when you have time, be it a phone call, or other means.
Your odds of loneliness increase when you lack interaction with people, and with family especially. Healthy familial relationships are like a supercharged antidote to loneliness. When you become too lonely, your risk of disease and depression go up markedly.
A final caution on the divide of family
In nearly every case I know of someone who lives far from family, there has been heartburn and problems that need squashing. My partner is constantly feeling pressured to visit her family. The pressure is, of course, always out of love and never devolves into a screaming match. But it does cause the common tension, which emerges from a child being ambitious and being flung to a distance city.
My best friend’s mother is constantly upset with him for not bringing their grandchildren up to visit every month — but it isn’t feasible. It’s a 6 hour drive and both he and his wife a neck deep with work and school. Even further, he lives further away because his mother keeps trying to indoctrinate their children into Christianity, and he wants his children to be 18 before they make religious decisions.
The point isn’t that we should spend time with and live closer to family regardless of circumstances. Because those circumstances can be infinitely varied and I’m sympathetic to them.
Just be aware of the economic forces that are pulling at us. They define where and how far we live from family. It takes extra steps these days to keep families well-bonded.
My parents also lived far from their parents for my dad’s military career, and so perhaps I am continuing that tradition. We combatted this by making an effort to drive and see grandparents at every opportunity. There weren’t many ski vacations in my childhood, but every Christmas and summer was with grandparents, and that helped keep the family together. The other way to do Zoom calls on a recurring basis. My partner does one every two weeks — and they came to this system because they weren’t interacting enough with each other before that.
Because I work remotely as a writer, and not for any one employer, I can do my job anywhere. So I do at least six different week long trips to see my family each year. And it has been a blessing and helped me feel more connected with family.
No matter how far your career pulls you, don’t forget where you come from, and that there are usually people who wouldn’t mind hearing from you. Upward mobility has a natural gravitational pull away from family.
It’s easier than ever to be lonely these days, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.
Her Husband Was The PERFECT Man So She CHEATED On Him
Yes, my 1999, BMW Z3 roadster convertible. This was about 14 years ago. I drove that baby to work every day. Then I retired. No job, no reason to leave the house 5 days a week. So it sat in the driveway a lot. Twice I had two young men, 20’s probably, knock on my door and ask if my car was for sale. The first was a it 8 ll the after I retired c the next 3–4 months later. I told them both the no, I loved my car, couldn’t think of any reason why I should give it up. I was really stunned when the first guy said” well you never drive it”. I told him I did drive it, he then proceeded tot me that every time he came by it was in the driveway. Told him I was retired so I didn’t take it out every day and what did he care anyway. If I remember correctly I did offer to sell him the car for $15,000. It was 12 years old by them, very low miles and we’d done about $5000 worth of work on it. He didn’t like that. So I told him goodbye. The next guy, much to my astonishment told me the same thing. The car never moved so he’d take it off my hands for $500. I told him no thanks I loved and wasn’t coming it up since my hubby and I drove when we went to dinner or visited friends, church. And he’s never see the inside of that car for less than $20,000 he told me a was a crazy old lady. I told him I still owned the car, didn’t I?
Gonzalo Lira has died in Ukrainian Prison. His family announced that he was TORTURED. What happened?
So I flew with my family to Phoenix (PHX) to visit my niece. I reserved a car from Budget
We arrived around 5:00 pm. The flight in was great.
After getting our bags, we ended up standing in line for the shuttle to the car rental center for over an hour. That’s not Budget’s problem; that’s a problem with airport operations.
The real problems started when we got to the rental center. The line was ridiculously long, they had only four staff members to check people out. I stood in line for three hours. Three horrible hours. By the time I got to the counter, the line was three times as long as when I arrived. On top of that, despite me entering ALL MY INFORMATION when I placed the reservation online, the poor agent had to reenter everything manually.
I don’t have anything bad to say about the customer service agent; they were just the victim of terrible management. My problem is that Budget has systemic customer service problems:
If a customer has a reservation, all the agent should need to do is confirm the renter’s identification and hand over the keys. This should take two minutes, tops. Not 15 minutes per renter.
Budget knows exactly how many people have reserved cars at each location, and when. They should be able to staff appropriately. There were eight or ten stations at this location, with only four staffed.
By the time I got into the car, it was 9:30 pm. We hadn’t had anything to eat since lunchtime, assuming that we’d get our car within a few minutes of arriving and we’d eat after.
I’ll never rent from Budget again, even if it costs twice as much. That’s an experience I am not willing to go through again.
Why NASA can’t send humans to the Moon? Russia refuses to keep mouth shut, or it’s the Aliens?
US ban Huawei for perhaps, may be Huawei could be a Chinese government agency using its technology in China’s military!
China do tit for tat! It stop buying from Boeing since Boeing used the profit from China’s purchases to participated in lethal weapons development that may be used on China one day!
So that is why everything you do, China will reciprocate likewise.
My son was nearly 4 years old. One day he and my wife went to a restaurant to get a pizza for lunch. There was an elderly man who came in with his shopping cart. He was obviously homeless. He ordered a cup of coffee which the waitress grudgingly served him. (It was obvious she didn’t want him there.) He fished on his pocket and pulled out a hot dog. He ate it slowly, dunking it in his coffee between bites.
My son asked why he was doing this and my wife explained that he was homeless and had no money. My son became upset and asked my wife if they could help him. As they were ready to leave, my wife brought him the untouched half of the pizza they had been eating. At first, he refused to take it as he was concerned that my son would not have enough to eat. My wife explained that they bought too much and the waitress would only throw it away if they left it. He took the pieces, carefully wrapped them up and stored them in his basket (most likely those slices would become his dinner that evening.). He thanked them with tears in his eyes when they left.
When they got into the car, my wife heard my son crying. When she asked him what was wrong. He looked at her through his tears and answered “Nothing Mommy…I just have feelings inside myself.”
Update: This same son is now an adult with children of his own, ages 4 and 6. I was injured in a fall and am now a paraplegic, confined to a wheelchair. The other day, he was walking his young daughters to school. He noticed the older one occasionally running ahead, picking up sticks and throwing them to the side of the road. After she did this several times, he asked her why she was doing it. She replied “If Papa ever walks us to school, his wheelchair tire would hit them and he would get thrown out of the chair. I want to make sure he is safe.” I cried when I heard that one.
My Dad was “On the job” NYPD from 1929–1949. He was a detective at the time this incident occured. He was coming out of a store in a bad neighborhood and heard a woman screaming out the window He’s “cutn” me he’s “cutn” me. It was a 2–3 story walk-up and my Dad ran up the stairs with his .38 revolved in his hand and when he heard which apartment she was screaming from he kicked open the door and there in front of him was a very large man, at least 6′5″ and probably 250+ pounds holding a butcher knife.
Dad told him he was NYPD and ordered him to put the knife down and the guy said “I am going to put it down in you.” He started coming at Dad and he started shooting center mass but the guy kept coming. He got down to one bullet left (always try and count the # of rounds you expend), which he put between the guys eyes and said to himself that if this one doesn’t stop him “I’m going to throw the gun at him and run down the stairs. It stopped him!
My Dad, after that, always said to get the biggest caliber pistol or rifle it will take and you can carry comfortably to stop whatever you are trying to put down on the first shot. A .22 caliber pistol is really good if you are a Mafia hitman and put it at the back of someone’s head and pull the trigger but for everyone else take my Dad’s advice.
The Chinese, especially those in the northeast, have fond memories of the Soviets, who supplied arms for the Korean war, and helped seed China’s first phase of industrialization through the transfer of over 100 heavy industries. China’s nuclear and space technology was also driven initially by Soviet experts, before relationships cooled.
The Chinese have had trouble with the USSR along the border, but it never escalated beyond small unit fire contact. A border has been ratified with the Russians and today, with Putin’s head turned east, the Russians are doing roaring business with China. I won’t be surprised if Russia-China trade grows another 2–3x from 2023 levels, already a historic high.
The Chinese certainly don’t think the Russian as the evil protagonist in James Bond movies, or the sanctions (that were executive- rather than court-directed) fair, particularly the seizure of assets from individuals with Russian ancestry. That scared the bejesus out of rich folk with money parked out west, and Singapore was a beneficiary of the capital flight.
If it can happen to Russia, a P5 member with one of the most powerful nuclear triad MAD deterrents globally, it can happen to anyone.
The Chinese will give their Russian brothers a pat on the back, and go “we share a long border and history. We understand and empathize. Welcome to the club. We are being spanked everyday too. They still talk rubbish about Tiananmen more than 30 years later. Let’s build our own vision of a shared humanity.”
And that’s that.
He Marries a Girl who hides her Melons’ size because they are TOO Big
Yes. And for those of you who have a visual mind or are faint of heart do not read my reply.
At the Regional Burn Center I worked at in my city, we would see one or two times a year a very specific assault and injury to the male genitals that we discovered was specific to our city. For some reason there were some women in our city, who if they caught their man cheating on them, would find an opportunity to throw lye on their private parts as a punishment or revenge. The severe burns that this caused to that area were unbelievable to see. The skin would de-glove and we would have to remove it and then these men would have to go through multiple grafting procedures which were very painful. These were second and three degree burns to the genitals. Needless to say these men were never the same again.
I was a government employee for 28 years and worked overtime whenever she asked me. I also took no sick leave and cut my vacation time when there was an overload of work. An opening for a promotion came up and I passed the tests with flying colors. However, my supervisor wanted a woman in the position and called in favors to have a female employee from another department transferred to her section. I then went to HR and asked when I could take early retirement with the best employee pension possible given my number of years as an employee. I bided my time and when the time came, I gave exactly 2 weeks notice. How did it hurt her? I had accumulated 2 years and six weeks of vacation, sick leave, and overtime, so for that time, I was paid full salary on early retirement. The best part, she could not have another employee fill my position because I was officially still occupying that position.
In the early 2000s I had an employee that I thought was excellent, so I gave them a 10% raise for everything they were doing. They worked around 40 hours a week, I paid overtime whenever they needed to work it, and paid them 4 hours of OT for just showing up if I needed them for an emergency. The following year they found a job that was paying four dollars an hour more, they were “on the clock” the moment they got into the company provided vehicle, and the company was able to provide them with training that I wasn’t able to provide. As they shared this information with me I asked, “So what is the trade off?” Meaning, why when I was paying above the market average was this company paying more than I was for essentially the same work. They told me couldn’t think of any, so I encouraged them to go back and ask the future employer a few more questions. They didn’t do that but called me back two months later. During the majority of the two month time frame they had worked at least 12 hours a day for six to seven days a week. Yes, they were tired but they also wanted to see their family. They discovered that while the money was great, but it was getting in the way of their true priorities.
I worked in many mills and factories in my early life – there were still mills making stuff, even paper, up till about 1985 or so. Now all that stuff is gone.
In high school, as soon as I turned 16 I got a job as a general laborer at an electroplating and finishing mill in Readville called “Precision Metal Coating”. The name was a joke because everything in the mill was bottom of the barrel shit, worst quality, and the workers were treated like dirt. My boss was a total dick named Jack McBride, a foreman who treated everyone in that building as if they were something to be scraped off. I was getting minimum wage, which in those days was $2.15 an hour but for someone who never worked, 80 dollars a week was a fortune.
In this mill was a giant oven room with 10 huge ovens. We would push carts filled with thousands of recently painted parts into the oven where the temps would soar to over 2000 degrees and bake on the coatings. We did all kinds of things like gun receivers and heart defribrillators and carbereutor parts and so on. In the winter everyone tried to visit the over room as much as possible since the factory was barely heated and most of the windows were broken. It was almost as cold inside as outside the factory. But the oven room was toasty.
As an unskilled laborer my job was to push carts in and out of the ovens and then a skilled worker would set the temperature and fire up the ovens. There was a massive door covered with sheet steel that we would use to block off the oven room from the rest of the mill, not just for fire safety but because the baking parts often gave off poison gas. The worst was Teflon. We made many Teflon-coated things but when Teflon is baked it gives off a poison gas. When we were baking Teflon, the oven room had to be cleared and the massive door sealed and locked.
One day I was tasked with resetting some parts in one of the ovens. Now, you couldn’t get trapped in the ovens – the giant doors had a big escape handle to prevent anyone from getting locked inside – but you were working in them when temps were 200 degrees. Sometimes you could run in and do something quick when they were even hotter. We had all kinds of furry asbestos gloves and gear if we had to do stuff in the ovens. I was in this steaming oven one day – and they were always loud with the roaring of the gas blowers – you couldn’t talk to anyone. So I set up this tray of equipment and it was getting hotter and stinkier. I was glad to finish. But when I got out of the oven I found the massive door to the oven room sealed. Now, it wasn’t as if I was going to fry but I didn’t want the boss to think I was goofing off. There were timers attached to doorbells and when the timer clicked off, it raised an arm that hit the doorbell and rang a loud bell on the shop floor. We used it to tell when the products were done baking. There was a timer for every oven. I went over and hit one of the doorbells two or three times, sounding a loud bell in the factory. In a couple of seconds the big door slid open and an arm grabbed me and pulled me out. There were two men there and they were white as sheets.
“What the hell were you doing in there?” the Asst Foreman asked.
“Jack asked me to reset the Prolastimer parts,” I said defensively.
“Do you know what’s baking in there?” the other guy asked. He was literally shaking.
“It’s Teflon,” the Assistant Foreman said.
I had no idea what this meant. He could see this meant nothing to me. The other guy turned to him.
“He’s gonna be sick, Roy,” he said. “Real sick. Teflon fever.”
“Listen,” the Asst Foreman said, “Clock out and go home. Don’t tell anyone anything. I will square it with Jack. Don’t come back tomorrow or the next day…”
“But I feel fine,” I protested.
“You won’t. Now get out of here. Get going. You have to get home before you start getting sick. When you get home, take a shower and some aspirin and get into bed.”
I wanted to protest.
“Just fuckin’ do it,” the other guy said. “Don’t say a word. Just get the fuck out of here.”
And so I did. I walked home from the mill. And as a I walked I started to see lines in my sight, wavy lines. And then the headache started to come. By the time I made it home I was gasping with pain. I tore off my clothes and got in the shower and immediately vomited. When I got out of the shower I vomited again. Black stuff was coming out of my nose and my tears were stained black. I crawled into bed. I had never been in so much pain in my life. Every joint, every muscle ached. When I opened my eyes, the light exploded in my brain and I would vomit all over again. No migraine I had ever had was this bad. I cried. Eventually my exhausted body collapsed and I fell asleep. The next morning I felt a lot better but I was so weak I could barely walk. The third day I went back to work. There was my boss, Jack.
“I’m sorry about what happened,” I said.
“Nothing happened,” he said tersely. “Nothing. And no one will back you up if you ever say it did.”
And then he put me on the sandblaster. I got a small raise and I would never have to go into the oven room again. But it was no promotion. Being a sandblaster was one of the worst, most miserable jobs I ever had. It was so bad one of the other sandlblasters killed himself in the sandblasting studio. Jack shrugged and went out and hired another drunk desperate for a job.
That was just one of the many adventures I had there. It was a horrible, horrible place and if that’s what factories are like then it’s no surprise why so many of them folded.
CHINA’s Scientists INVENTED Energy Shield To Defend Against US Attack
My father wasn’t thrilled with the idea of me dating a white guy. So having them meet for the first time in my house was a bit nerve wracking.
Before visiting my home to Japan, my boyfriend asked me what my father is like. I told him that my dad wanted to be an academic like his father (my grandfather) but had to pursue a career in business instead because of financial reasons.
On the day of the “meeting”, my boyfriend shows up with a huge ass textbook on statistics and starts leisurely reading on the couch in our living room, all spread out. Half an hour later, my dad comes home.
Dad: “Why hello! Nice to meet you in person…. What is that book you’ve got there?”
Boyfriend: “Oh this? It’s some reading I have to do for my graduate school next year…”
Dad: (Flips through the pages) “…Wow! This looks very difficult. Do you understand it all?”
Boyfriend: “Well some of it is difficult, but the concepts like….. and….. are rather easy.”
Dad: (super impressed)
It was smooth sailing from there. Now, my dad adores then-bf-now-husband.
Needless to say, I never saw him open that book ever again.
it’s just a quick guide at best. It measures output based on value. That means if your provide services freely, it is perceived as not value! Hence the U.S. charged its citizens for healthcare at an exorbitant price and that gets counted up to 6 trillion dollars GDP while China provides the same for less than one trillion dollars to 4 times more people and actually keep its people alive 2 years longer!
So the U.S. GDP is overvalued or Chinese GDP is highly undervalued hence it is wrong even to compare the U.S. versus China for example, through this faulty measurement.
When the U.S. threw helicopter money to the tune of 10 trillion dollars as subsidies and bail outs, that amount is counted as income! Hence once again it over values the US GDP. The same goes to stock valuation or real estate valuation. To me it measures greed or bubble.
Whatever it is one measuring economic health of a nation based only GDP is no different from judging your physical health based only on your temperature or just your blood pressure! You need a host of measurements including life expectancy!
The U.S. is a very unhealthy economy wrongly perceived by its citizens due to its media as a huge economy. It is far from that! It is a lot of hot air at best.
I brought a guy into the station and sat him down in an interrogation room, and walked out to get a cup of coffee for both him and myself. I hadn’t indicated to him why he was there, except he was in possession of a nominal amount of marijuana. I was going to give him the, “Who’s your dealer?” bit when I got back.
I walked in, sat the coffees down and took a seat across from him.
“I suppose you figured out why I brought you in?” I asked.
“Yeah. But it wasn’t me. It was XXX X. XXX. He shot the guy. I was there but had no idea it was going to happen.” He offered. “I don’t do nothing like that!”
“I didn’t think so.” I answered, nearly choking on his admission. “So let’s get this on paper so we can see what the DA can do for you. OK?” Then I read him his rights again.
He wrote it all down, and what was going to be a simple misdemeanor bust for weed turned into a murder being solved. When the Captain asked me how I got him to confess, I just smiled. “Some people got it, others don’t Cap!” I laughed. Sometimes a blind squirrel can find a nut.
Ask Me On A Date, Men! Modern Women Has FREAKS OUT Because Men Are Walking Away
I called for a position being advertised at a pig sanctuary in upstate NY called Arthur’s Acres. The guy who founded it and runs it is a vegan, but fanatical about it.
I was extremely qualified for a position there (about which he wasn’t clear, btw), as I had worked with pigs for six months when I was an Animal Science major 15 years ago. I have also worked with dogs for 22 years, and volunteered at Raptor Trust in N.J. for a time. As well, I spent a few years riding and working with horses. That is to say, I have lots of multi-species experience and, specifically, also pigs.
He then asked me if I was vegan. I said I wasn’t, he was very upset, and tried to argue with me about being vegan. He let me know that my not being vegan was a dealbreaker for him. Food Nazi!!!
Anyway, I told him I hadn’t eaten pork for over 20 years (totally true), and that I had IBD/Crohn’s, so that ruled out my eating a lot of vegetables, beans and salads, most of the things which comprise a vegan diet. I let him know that a diet that full of fiber could send me to the hospital. I also let him know that while I was at his sanctuary, I would respect his wishes and eat PBandJ on sourdough bread if I had to eat that every day for lunch, but once I left his property what I ate was really my business. He didn’t care about any of this. He was a guy that seemed unable to see anyone else’s point of view or have empathy for anyone’s condition or limitations. He only cared about having everyone be vegan.
I had donated several times to his sanctuary, but after this, I stopped.
I decided it wasn’t worth it, and that I’d never want to work with a person like this. He does a lot for the pigs he rescues, no doubt; but, he doesn’t like people at all, that was clear to me.
FLORIDA OVERTURNS LIFETIME ALIMONY LAW | Women Are Losing Their Minds!
I’ve wanted to share this because I thought it was amazing and it made me smile, but I dont know how you would bring this up randomly.
I’m 34 years old. When I was a child my mom moved my brother and I to a new house, getting us out of our old apartment where we had grown up. I was in the fifth grade and my younger brother was in the third I believe. We rode the bus and lucky for us, our bus stop was RIGHT down the street from our house, not even a 3 minute walk. Back then all the neighborhood kids near us who also used this stop would FIGHT to secure their spot in line because who ever got there first would get the best seats in the back of the bus because we were the first stop. The problem was, we neighborhood kids were cut throat about our spots in line, some of us woke up early JUST to get a good spot, but that also meant if you were in line waiting for the bus, you couldn’t get out or you would lose your spot and have to move to the back. We all hated this because we were forced to stand in one spot waiting instead of being able to play and run around with each other and some days the bus took a while to get there. Now, I don’t know how many weeks this went on for before I said to myself, “this isn’t going to work for me.” So I decided instead of us all lining up and being forced to stand there, we would instead use our backpacks to keep our spot. We’d line them up in order of first come first serve, then be free to go play. I asked all the kids of various ages if they agreed and they did. At that bus stop everyday after that and even the next year (my last year riding that bus), we all still lined our backpacks up. My mom still lives in that house all these years later and sometimes she needs me to house sit. Well, I was on my way to work one morning a few months ago and I passed my old elementary school bus stop, they never changed the route. And do you know what I saw? It made me go, Wow. As I turned the corner in my car I saw a bunch of grade school kids at my old bus stop,they were out playing with eachother, and right where we use to line up our backpacks, they still lined theirs. I started that as a child, and because the older kids did it, the younger ones did too, and then those young kids would become the older kids and new kids would replace them, and they all learned of the backpack trick because they watched the kids who came before them. I started a thing that has carried on for over 24 years and counting. It really made me smile to see the neighborhood kids still doing it after all this time. I knew at the time it was a great idea but I didn’t know how everlasting it would be to where it became tradition. It made me smile and think, wow, all these years later these kids were still using their backpacks to hold their place in line, if you would of told me the day I came up with it that in 24 years kids would still be doing it, I would of called you a liar but unbelievable as it is, here we are.
Now, how do I randomly fit that into a conversation?
Fenikia
melo8
Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup peanut oil
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 jigger brandy
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
Dash cinnamon
Dash ground cloves
Chopped walnuts for garnish
Syrup
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 pound honey
1 lemon, sliced or 1 orange, sliced
Instructions
Cookies: Heat oil and butter over low heat until butter is melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and stir in water and brandy. Cool.
Stir in beaten eggs.
Sift together flour and baking powder with the tablespoon each of cinnamon and cloves. Add to liquid mixture to make a dough that is not too soft. Add a little more flour if necessary. With floured hands shape dough into ovals and indent lengthwise with thumbs.
Combine chopped walnuts with sugar and dash each cinnamon and cloves. Put 1 teaspoon of this filling into the indentation in the dough and close dough over filling. Place on cookie sheets and bake in a 400 degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.
Dip cooled cookies into hot syrup and place on racks to drain. Decorate with chopped walnuts.
Syrup: Combine above ingredients and boil for 5 minutes.
My ex father in law was the thief. He was also a bully and all around shitty human being. He was the big boss of a construction company and basically drove around all day to different jobs making sure the guys had what they needed and making sure the work was completed to standards. This also allowed him the opportunity to help himself to the guys lunches. I still remember the panic in my exs voice that his Dad was in the ER because he thought he was having a heart attack. He had stolen the wrong guys lunch. The guy had put a pot brownie in his lunch box and dummy took it, ate the whole thing and when it hit, he was completely sick and high as a kite. I giggled a lot that day because the bully and thief finally had to pay for his actions.
As a risk manager and health plan administrator, I had lots of complaints. But the Gold Star goes to this one: This woman had built an illegal extension to her house that went out into the public right of way. Over the years, it undermined the power pole which tilted and was resting on the eaves of her extension. She called to say that the exterminator told her that her roof had terminates. I asked how I could help her (we always had to try to be helpful). She said she wanted us to replace her roof. When I asked why, she explained about the pole leaning on the eaves and said our utility pole had given her roof termites. I explained that the poles were made soaked in creosote to prevent termites. She then told me the termites walked up the pole and jumped onto her roof. She was quite serious. The only thing that could be said to that would have been snorting laughter. (I was imagining termites, in uniform, marching up the pole, with a brass band.) I told her we would look into it. We did our due diligence then wrote her a polite denial letter.
I dealt with a lot of people who believed their problems could not possibly be their fault.
China dismantled a MI6 espionage network. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
When I attended university there was this strange routine that we went through at the end of each class. The professor would provide us the CORRECT answers to the questions in the back of the book. You see, our engineering classes all had us attend classes, labs works shops AND do the questions in the books. But, for some darn reason, the answers to the questions were always wrong.
Why is that?
A angry graduate student perhaps? A mistake by the book publisher? Maybe something else.
It’s really not a big mystery… but it still remains a mystery to me. Why?
It’s one of those things that I muse about from time to time… the wrong answers were the ones published.
At least this is what happened to this beautiful woman here:
image 151
Her name was Mercedes Grabowski, a pornographic actress who went by the stage name August Ames.
Near the end of 2017, she took a stand and refused to shoot with a male performer which also happened to star in gay scenes. She believed that STDs among gay actors have a higher probability to spread. So given that the actor was bisexual (gay, for what matters to this point), she thought she would be in a higher risk of being infected. “My body, my rules”, right? It was not abortion that was in question; it indeed was about her own body. I thought that was the feminist’s motto, and they should have sided with Ames.
Apparently not so. Instead, a twitter mob started a smearing campaign to call her homophobic, hypocrite, hate bastard and so on. A lot of porn actresses now declare themselves as feminists. Instead, only one or two stood by August.
She was only 23 years old and apparently suffered from depression. She hanged herself on December 6, 2017.
Afterwards, some gay activist stated: “she went on hatred against our community and paid the price.”
This was all because suddenly it became a social sin to criticize gays or point anything negative about them. Some said August was misinformed about how seriously and often blood tests are conducted on gay performers, but that’s besides the point: she just didn’t want to; she had autonomy, exercised her autonomy and paid with her life. Also, if some LGBT supporter brings to attention that the blood tests are more frequent and thorough within the gay community, then it should prove her point about being afraid to shoot in the first place.
As far as I can tell, August Ames was the first fatality due to the political correctness.
Feta and Mint Rice
Feta and Mint Rice
Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
1 cup long grain rice
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can chicken broth
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Instructions
Heat oil in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes.
Add rice and stir for 1 minute.
Add broth. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and cook until broth is absorbed, about 20 minutes.
Fluff rice with fork.
Add feta and mint and mix in with fork.
Season with salt and pepper.
2 servings; can be double or tripled.
I’m gonna say it
Helen Beveridge’s Haluski Grange Stand Favorite
This one is a stand favorite. If you can’t wait a whole year, here is the Haluski scaled down.
Helen Beveridges Haluski Grange Stand Favorite
Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) margarine
1 large onion, chopped
1 large head cabbage, chopped and steam until tender
1 pound egg noodles, cooked al la dente
Salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste
Instructions
Using pot large enough to accommodate all the ingredients, melt the margarine and sauté the onion until tender.
Add the cabbage and the noodles and stir to combine. Heat thoroughly.
Season to taste.
Serves 10 to 12.
Final Comments: Once a year only. Customers love it because ” It’s such a comfort food”
In 1988, at the height of the AIDS crisis, my childhood friend became infected. He lived in a large Canadian city and I lived with my spouse 90 miles away, but commuted by train to his city for my job in an art department at an advertising agency. Because my friend had been rejected by his family for being gay, I offered to watch over him and monitor things as his life came to an end.
The far religious right wanted all gay men jailed until they died. Fortunately, religious folk weren’t taken too seriously in Canada.
My friend, who had always a bit eccentric, became extremely eccentric. I lived with him during the week and went home on weekends. As his condition became more unpredictable, I arranged with a local hospital to keep him on weekends so I could go home and sleep.
His short term memory left him. He became worried about my safety. Then he lost his ability to read. He began misunderstanding his medication instructions and displayed stroke symptoms, and skin ulcers due to mis-management of his drugs. There was a new crisis every day.
At work, the other employees quietly took on duties that were mine. My boss ignored my erratic hours. My spouse supported me as best he could. And then, two months before my friend’s death, Canada’s first AIDS Hospice, Casey House, opened. Everything was free and they had room for my friend. It was a quiet, comfortable death.
I lived with a straight man in one city and a gay man in another city and still did my job.
I did this for a whole year without any prior experience in palliative or nursing care. It was the most difficult thing I ever did, and the best thing I ever did.
I went for an entire year without a movie and without having any fun.
My spouse was still there at the end of it, and I felt that if I could do all that, I could manage anything that came my way.
No Mother Around, Little Kitten Got Bullied By Teenagers, He Can’t Resist And Just Cried…
I belong to a middle class family where meeting the ends is somewhat tough. Most of the times, we are a bit short of ration and we eat outside very less(once in a month).
We are three siblings. My two elder sisters and me. Four years back, we married my eldest sister and spent 15 lakhs on her marriage. This year, we married my second elder sister and around 6–7 lakhs were spent.
In this way, we spent all my father’s savings + Gold belongings of mom in two marriages. On the other hand, I pursued my BTech from one of the best engineering college and my father spent 4 lakhs on my engineering also.
So, all in all, he spent 25 lakhs in total on his kids. Now we have no savings and parents got scared how we will make our ends meet in coming days.
I was in final year of engineering and I knew this phase would be coming. So I did my best to get placed. I was so much prepared and still I got rejected in last rounds of interviews. It was kind of a roller coaster ride. Firstly, I would not be able to clear aptitude test. Then in some companies, I stocked in interview. You will not believe my presentation skills are so fine that I can easily attract a room of people while presenting.
Then in one company, I cleared 5 rounds of interviews and was rejected in the sixth round. That day was the toughest day in my life. I am stubborn and never give up easily, so while coming back home, I managed to forget that day and prepare for further companies.
Then, one day 6 Feb 2018(After trying for 5 months to get placed) , a company visited which was nearest to my hometown and profile was very much suitable for me. Package was average but still I was giving more importance to profile. So I got through 5 rounds of interviews and cleared all rounds with flying colors. That was my day, because I had feeling since morning that I will make it today.
When I called at home, my mother started crying after hearing the news. My father always hides his emotions but I knew that day, he was also crying. So, my parents got a hope for future. Now, they know that our son will be earning from July and we will start saving for our future. I never hesitated to spend our entire earnings in my sisters marriages because I knew, I will easily do it myself.
That was the most happiest and proudest day of my life. No doubt, I have been a brilliant student always but getting a job with an international marketing profile when your family is at most toughest phase is proudest feeling.
Unhappy, unmarried women are the only reason why Democrats are competative
I have never understood Americans who go to a foreign country to live for an extended period of time who don’t attempt to learn the language. Or at the minimum, learn the basics. Despite America not having an “official” language (although English is the language in which most everything is done), I hear people here complain about “foreigners who come here and don’t learn English.” Yet the very ones who grumble about immigrants here are the same ones who give Americans the reputation of being rude, arrogant, and ignorant when traveling internationally.
Someone in China told me awhile back that they knew a teacher who had been there for thirty years who didn’t know the most basic Chinese words. I sighed and rolled my eyes because, while I’m not surprised, it certainly disappoints me.
It also just doesn’t make sense. I went to Southeast Asia for only a few weeks but I learned some basic phrases in Malay because it’s respectful to do so, but also, to make my life simpler. Sure, plenty there spoke English, but many did not and how was I to interact with them if I couldn’t even say things like “hello, thank you, where is, goodbye” and so forth? To live long term in a country and not learn their language sounds torturous to me. The local language will help you with directions, help you with shopping, help you with bartering, help you with public transit, help you find a bathroom in public, help you order food, make reservations, run errands, talk to neighbors, make friends, seek help from police, tell a doctor what your symptoms are, help communication at your place of employment, watch the news or television shows, read the newspaper, read street signs, and so much more.
How does one even live for months or years in a foreign country and not absorb some of the language naturally, anyway? I find that both astounding and confusing.
World War 3 Is Coming – Robert Kiyosaki’s Message To The World
Oh, yes! Several years ago, I had lost my house to foreclosure, and about six months later lost my car as well.
The company I worked for at the time had an abandoned, older, little pickup truck sitting in weeds at the back of their lot, broken down, so I asked my supervisor, “If I get that old Mazda pickup running, would it be OK if I drive it?”
He said it had sat there for over a year, unable to start, and left in the weeds to rust; “If you can get it running, you can drive it; make sure you have proper insurance.”
The fix was not difficult and it was running within a day or so. It was filthy and beginning to rust—but it was running and I could drive it for free!
Due to a divorce, a second child who needed support, and a maximum paycheck garnishment by the IRS, I had lost everything: home, car, and most of my (very modest) paycheck. I had no savings and no money to buy even a cheap used car.
My girlfriend had allowed me to move into her house (with her mother and daughter living there as well). Thank God. I had nowhere else to go, and the money to rent nothing.
After a month or two, my supervisor took me aside and told me that some of the other employees were beginning to complain that no one else in the company could take a vehicle home—not even the drivers! So I had a week to find something else to drive. Oh, crap.
So, at the end of that day, I got my paycheck from my desk and went to the bank.
My bank was closed for the day so I went to drop my paycheck into the night deposit box. As I pulled into the driveway of the bank, there was an unattended car sitting in the middle of the driveway and I drove around it. After I dropped off my paycheck, the car was still there but this time there was a woman standing outside it. I was too tired and depressed to stop to help, so I passed her and got on the highway to go home and continue my search for car money.
After I drove a few blocks from the bank, my conscience got the better of me and I turned around and went back to the bank I had just left. The woman was removing some packages from the trunk of her car. I parked the pickup truck and asked her if she needed help; she said she had just called a girlfriend of hers to come get her and she complained that she only needed that car to run for a few more days and it had broken down.
“Why only a few more days?” I asked.
She said that her elderly father had just passed away, out of state, and she was his only child and executor of his will.
“He has a nice Lincoln Town Car that I’m going to start driving and won’t need this one anymore. And now it dies on me!”
“What were you going to do with it?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Donate it, maybe. I paid it off years ago and got my money’s worth from it so I thought I’d donate it somewhere.”
“Well… I don’t have a car…”
She held the keys out: “Now you do!”
She asked for help to push the car back into a parking space so it didn’t block the driveway into the bank, then asked for my girlfriend’s address so she could stop by to bring me the title before she moved back to New York. Of course, with her being busy packing to move, I never expected to see her again.
When my girlfriend got home from work a few hours later that day, we drove her SUV back to the bank, hooked a chain up to the car, and towed it home. Now it was parked in the driveway at home. I cranked the engine over but it wouldn’t start, so I opened the hood. The problem? A small vacuum line had come off of its fitting. I put it back on and the car started fine. Time to fix? Five minutes.
Two days later, the kind woman showed up at my girlfriend’s house, car title in hand. I offered her a $100 bill for the car—all that I had—and she politely refused to take it.
To this day, many years later, I have no doubt in my mind that God Himself arranged for us to cross paths so that I could get what I needed but couldn’t afford. I still give thanks to this day for that mercy.
China’s Shocking Message To Argentina! Is The World Ready?
If someone confronts you with a knife you pull the coins subtly from your pocket and drop them on the floor. The attacker will always look down to the floor upon hearing the coins drop and this will buy you a second or two to turn and run. This can also be used if someone is intent on fighting you and you know you need to land the first blow, it’s a distraction technique.
2. Never use an ATM while wearing headphones and if wearing a coat/hoodie, never have the hood up, both will affect your awareness and makes you more likely to be robbed.
3. When entering any room, work out where every available exit and hiding place is. In the event of an emergency you will react a hell of a lot quicker if you have planned scenarios in your head, it will make you far less likely to freeze up. This was something explained to me by an ex-special forces guy I was chatting to at a conference (he was head of security). He was sat at the same table as me, one of those big round ones with 10–12 people on each. I noticed his eyes were never still and he was always glancing at each door, window etc, basically any entrance to that room. I got chatting to him after the conference and asked him about what I had observed. He said “imagine you are at a public event and an armed terrorist storms into the room and starts shooting, most people are going to freeze for the first couple of seconds and that can cost you your life, plan for it to happen and although incredibly unlikely it ever will, you’ll react instantly and it could save your life”
When the Chinese leader says, go this way, it will improve lives and bring social progress, the people respond enthusiastically, because there is material benefit that they or their children will live and enjoy.
When the American leader says, go this way, to maintain American hegemony and prestige, it’s a mixed bag, because only SOME will draw material benefit from the machinations.
Unfortunately, those who benefit have a stranglehold on decisionmaking.
The Chinese economy as we find it today is a product of over 7 decades of unequal, and discriminatory suppression. In fact, China was embargoed for 30 years by the US-led west, while the Soviet Union instituted soft sanctions from the 60s until its dissolution.
The Chinese know how to handle economic suppression, because they have taken many lessons from decades past. In fact, Deng’s post-reform and opening up economy is designed around sanction-proofing. We are now seeing evidence of the multi-layer systemic robustness built into the Chinese economy, from finance, to manufacturing.
I won’t worry about China, other than the train being a few seconds late to destination. That’s the aggregate effect of the US’s half hearted attempt at trade war.
Why half-hearted?
National security threats are confronted head-on, an all-of-nation effort because survival is at stake. Donald the Orange’s trade “war” is more political shock and awe than a real trade war, because his administration LOWERED tariffs on Chinese medical products during covid. The was maintained by Joe the Elderly.
The US NEEDS China, and that calculus hasn’t been fully absorbed by the American leadership, resulting in half-baked, and sometimes, hare-brained policies and words that have been repeatedly walked back on, or exposed as failures and fraud.
American prosperity is maintained by the US per capita GDP being 10x or more than the global south. What happens in a world where that multiple shrinks, such that the unnatural size of the US economy begins to correct into a more equitable world? What happens when the global south can develop their own economies by trading among themselves, without the first world’s financing and technology?
In other words, what will inflation look like in a non-dollar holding sway world?
That day is coming, accelerated by the exhausting (and futile) efforts to contain China’s rise.
What’s actually booming is not China’s economy, but manufacturing.
image 152
Once upon a time, Chinese had to pay 300K+50K of RMB for a top model VW Tiguan. That’s about 50K USD.
The 50K is additional price, for guarrantee to get one in 3 months. Otherwise, you could expect to have one in… 100 years.
Now with 350K RMB,
image 153
one of my friends got a Nio ONE, and it’s bigger than Range Rover, with all the equipment you want. Tiguan on the other hand is just a compact or A-class SUV, which is based on Golf.
My father got a Changan Deepal SL03 with 20K USD.
image 152
It’s 4820mm×1890mm×1480mm, a proper VW B-class sedan.
Even the most standard Passat Hybrid in China costs 29K USD.
SL03 has EV range of 165KM, comparing to Passat’s 52.
SL03’s tire is 245/45R19, Passat is 215/55R17.
SL03 has Lane Departure Warning System as default, which for Passat is a selection.
SL03 has driver fatigue detection system, which Passsat doesn’t.
SL03 also has door opening warning, rare collision warning, internal driving recorder, and rescue calling system.
SL03 has a 360 degree camera system while Passat has only rare view camera.
The L2 assistant driving system is default in SL03, but an option for Passat.
SL03’s trunk cover is electric.
SL03 has bluetooth and NFC key, and support keyless entree for all 4 doors. Passat has only a remote key, and only the front doors can be opened keylessly.
SL03’s main screen is 14.6 inches, Passat’s is 9.2 inches.
SL03‘s shift is electric, Passat’s is mechanic.
SL03 has AR-HUD and wireless cellphone charging, which Passat doesn’t.
The only thing which 29K Passat doing better than 20K SL03 is probably the seats. Passat has geniuen leather, while SL03 is man-made. However, SL03’s front seats have cooling and heating, while Passat can only heat front seat.
With less money, Chinese are now able to get much much more from local brands.
We may not earn much more, but the cars are much cheaper now, and they are better.
Because of the overwhelming pressure, international brands also put down their prides and started to offer more equipment with lower prices in China.
And Chinese cars start to have advantages:
When other brands are still trying to make their auto-parking system more usable in real situations, Huawei already has cars which can park themselves without people staying around.
And they can pick you up at where you left the car when you finished your business.
This auto-parking system not only works in smart parking lots, but can also manually scan regular parking lots and achieve almost the same function.
This Huawei Luxeed S7 is only 35K USD.
Also, Huawei’s auto-driving system is almost road ready. It doesn’t only work good on highways, but also very good in chaotic downtown areas.
This is because China managed to dramatically lowered the price of laser radar, which used to cost 10K USD each when it was made in the US. Now in China, one car may have 3 or 5 of them and still is cheaper than its European competitiors.
A VW ID3 costs less than 20K USD in China. In Europe, it’s 40K EURO, which is around 44K USD. So is the BYD Seal, which the Chinese price is about half of European price.
It’s the same in other regions.
Active electronically scanned array, which is the core of US Navy’s Aegis Combat System.
Most countries don’t even have the ability to develop a AESA.
Meanwhile in China, it’s widely used in agriculture.
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DJI T40, an agricultural drone with AESA and dual eye-sight system.
Infiwave/InfiRay S5000 surveilliance radar. It’s able to monitor man or animals in 10KM radius, and vehicles in 12KM radius. The whole system is only 15KG, plug and play, and support one bottom start. Even a total amature could use it.
In China it says this to be used to monitor boars, to prevent them from damaging the crops.
The massive manufacturing of China also benefits people in a daily basis.
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25 of such windproof disposable lighter costs 24.98 RMB in Taobao, which is 0.14 USD each.
Whole selling could be cheaper.
How much does such a lighter cost in your country?
WHY MEN NEED SEX ? (why should sex be non-negotiable)
There was that girl that had been lonely all her life. People, especially in school, disliked her because she was “strange”, “a nerd”, “too quiet” and just “different”.
One day she decided to talk to her teachers during the breaks instead of trying to fit in where she didn’t. She always acted older than her age and her teachers liked her, so they usually didn’t send her away, but had a friendly chat with her ever so often instead.
By tenth grade, she had almost developed some kind of friendship to a few of her teachers. When she got the “strictest teacher of the school” as her major course teacher in grade eleven, it took her mere weeks to find out that he actually wasn’t so strict at all.
They talked for at least half an hour after the lessons. About science, about our society, the people in school and whatever came to mind. Those two thought quite alike, despite an age difference of 34 years, and the girl now almost a woman could for the first time in years really live her passion for learning. Her teacher was highly intelligent and very knowledgeable, having not only written a dissertation in the past and worked in research for years but also being interested in a broad spectrum of topics.
Well, doesn’t sound so bad, now does it? So what happened?
Well, because teenagers are teenagers, it took about half a year for people to start whispering about the girl and her teacher. It started off lightly, she was still strange and why would she even talk to him?
But a few months after that, some people thought it to be funny to make up a non-existent romantic relationship between teacher and student. Despite that girl having been very close to other teachers before, but now that it was a male teacher, it suddenly was completely different. Because people of opposite gender can’t just see each other as friends, right? They just have to be in love to even think about talking to each other.
A less than funny “joke” became something way bigger. After two weeks, all of the 1600 students knew about this. And most didn’t know that it was a joke. People were laughing and pointing at her, throwing insults at the girl for something that never happened.
Finally, after about three months of dealing with it alone, she had the heart to tell her teacher. They decided to never talk to each other outside of class again, to prevent the teacher from getting problems with the school. While it was just a rumour, that didn’t mean that it wouldn’t lead to problems.
Both of them lost a friend on the day they made this decision. And the student lost a person she saw as a second father – her father barely ever was at home and her teacher had been one of three people (the other ones being her best friend and a female teacher she knew since fifth grade) she ever fully trusted. It might not have been cruel at the first glance, but it hurt her in more ways than the others students could’ve ever imagined.
That girl was me.
If Walter White had a Cat
This is amazing! Enjoy the laugh for all you “Breaking Bad” and cat fans out there.
Credit to Bora Tas for digging this out. US intelligence is now all propaganda and non-experts.
The Chinese idiom for taking kickback type of fraud is “injecting water”. The idiots in the US intel thought this was literally injecting water. They had no idea that Chinese ICBMs use solid fuel rockets. So there is nothing to inject water into. (Edit: I was born in Taiwan. According to Liner AI, “The Chinese idiom “注水” translates to “fraud” or “to adulterate with water,” often used to describe the act of diluting or adulterating something for fraudulent gain.”
US intelligence should have realized that something was wrong with the translation instead those morons gave it to MSM as news. You have to ask yourself, how can the entire intelligence department on China makes this mistake. And no one realized that Chinese missiles use solid fuel.
And now the Chinese are laughing themselves to death because the US is just a joke. Even the intelligence is clueless. They are too cheap to hire people that actually speak Chinese and understand Chinese culture.
I owe the rest of my life to one last moment decision I made.
To better explain the gravity of my decision, I must firstly give you some information on my background.
You see, when I was younger I went to one of the worst schools the world has to offer. We didn’t have proper English education, we lacked the access to the Internet, the school couldn’t afford to buy desks and some classes didn’t even have windows. Welcome to Turkish public education.
Before you get the wrong idea, I must admit something. I didn’t go there because we couldn’t afford to send me somewhere better. I wanted to go there because my family taught me the idea that being used to living on the bare minimum would always best prepare me for life. I trusted them.
I spent eight years there, always working hard, and always doing my best.
In Turkey, students sit one centralized exam at the end of 8th grade, which determines the high school they can go to. Because the student population of the country is incredibly high, this exam is bone breakingly competitive. A single question wrong is the equivalent a death sentence. As a result, candidates woke up early to study, and fall asleep at night, again studying. There is no room for complacency.
Up until and during 8th grade, everything seemed to be going perfectly well. I was almost guaranteed to get 100% from the exam, against all odds.
Weeks before the exam, something catastrophic happened.
My father, who is a well known intellectual in Turkey, was arrested by the Islamic government on charges of criticizing the religion. This devastated me.
For weeks, I couldn’t study. Hell, I couldn’t even go to school. Being in a school like mine in a country like Turkey has a serious downside, you see. People are horrible. The day after my father was arrested, everyone, including the teachers and the principal directly said to me that my dad deserved what was coming for him. To them, questioning Islam was a sin. I was entirely torn, lost and disoriented.
Consequently, when the day of the exam came, I messed up. I totally messed up. I did my best but all I gained was a top 5% mark. And believe me, I am not being a nerdy attention seeker. The educational gap in Turkey is massive. You either go to a world class high school with top professors and tutors, or to a building full of illiterate and religiously biased classmates and teachers. Unfortunately, 5% would get me into the latter. I was done.
Later, the idea that I could go abroad appeared to me. And so I looked up tens of different schools in tens of different countries, and I applied to around 50 of them. The problem was, I didn’t speak English and it was already May. I had missed all deadlines by months. Only five responded at all, and I was turned down by all of them.
One last time, I went online to find a school. I came across a school called Stewart’s Melville College. I was completely shocked by the school. It looked like it came straight out of Harry Potter, and it was in Scotland. Well, I didn’t speak English, and my former education had been taught in a hellhole, so I realized I stood no chance at entering this school.
However, I thought I would send an application anyway. I filled my name and my details, and right as I was pressing “send”, I realized that there was a £60 application fee. I would never pay that for such a long shot. I could buy 60 Snickers bars for that! And so I exclaimed, “oh, nevermind mom, there is an application fee” and I closed the website.
However, my mom didn’t agree. She told me to do it. I said no. She wouldn’t change her mind.
And so I placed my application.
Surprisingly, they replied.
They would send over the entry exam to a local school in Turkey where I would sit it under supervision.
When news of this came, I spent every moment of the four days I had into learning a bit of English. I worked day and I worked night.
When the day came, I took the exam. The English half was impossibly difficult. However I absolutely aced the maths and the verbal reasoning.
A few days later, I received the long awaited e-mail. This was it. It was my last hope. It was either this or a life wasted.
I opened the e-mail.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
I had been accepted.
I guess the people working for Stewart’s Melville saw that I was willing to give everything I had for the opportunity of studying with them, and this was enough.
I thank them every day for this. I went from studying in a Third World public school into studying in the most beautiful place in the world. Without exaggeration, these people saved my life. For the first time in life, I am truly happy.
Fast forward four years and unfortunately, my father is still in prison, but I have been saved. Life gave me a golden opportunity, and I will never let go of it.
Because in the last four years, I have been given a real challenge. A real goal to strive for. In the last four years I have been taught to be independent. I have learned how to speak English, and finally I’m in a place where we are given real education.
So yes, my life was changed at the last moment for the price of 60 Snickers bars. Knowing what I know, I would have given a hundred times that.
I study in one of the best high schools in the world, and I am incredibly proud of it.
Sorry for the long post, but this is the story of my life.
Here are some short and somewhat ridiculous psychological facts about humans:
1. The average person spends approximately six months of their life waiting for red traffic lights to turn green.
2. Studies show that people are more likely to believe something is true if it’s written in bold font.
3. The fear of running out of phone battery is so common that it has been given the name “nomophobia.”
4. Research suggests that people are more likely to remember information if it is presented in the form of a catchy song or jingle.
5. The phenomenon known as “earworms” refers to when a song gets stuck in your head and plays on repeat, sometimes for hours on end.
6. Studies have found that people are more likely to trust someone wearing glasses, even if they have no expertise in a particular field.
7. The average person will spend about six months of their life searching for misplaced items, such as keys or glasses.
8. Research has shown that people are more likely to remember dreams that are in color compared to those that are in black and white.
9. According to studies, people are more likely to make impulsive purchases when they are hungry.
10. Research indicates that people are more likely to find others attractive if they are in a high-arousal state, such as on a roller coaster or during a scary movie.
My final job was at a company called Power Design. Our office had the nickname, Power Divorce, because so many office romances would pop up between coworkers. They primarily hired young and attractive people. And when you are working in close proximity all the time, staying late at the office—it’s deceptively easy for feelings to develop.
And all it takes is one simple question, “Want to get a drink after work?”
Then you are both going to a hotel that night, or to someone else’s home while the spouse is gone.
I’ve heard of several instances of employees being moved because of a crisis at their home, and an ultimatum given that meant either this high performing employee left the company, or moved to a different location—away from the person they’d fooled around with.
Who needs fiction when real life is just as interesting.
Bohemian Chicken Paprikash with Spaetzle
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Ingredients
3 pounds chicken with skin, cut in pieces
2 teaspoons salt
4 teaspoons Hungarian paprika, divided
1/2 cup butter
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups water + 3/4 cup
1 (16 ounce) container sour cream (2 cups)
1/4 cup flour
Spaetzle or other dumplings
Instructions
Sprinkle chicken on all sides with salt and paprika. Melt butter in a large Dutch oven. Add chicken. Sauté until golden. Turn chicken, add onion, and sprinkle with 2 teaspoons paprika. Simmer, covered, for 20 minutes.
Add 2 cups water and cook slowly covered until tender. Remove chicken; keep warm. Whisk together sour cream, 3/4 cup water and flour until smooth. Gradually add sour cream mixture to broth. Stir over low heat until sauce is thickened. Add paprika as desired. Return chicken.
I had a clock watcher boss one time. I routinely came in early and usually stayed late. I worked weekends when necessary, and usually racked up 50–60 hours per week. One day I came in early as usual. I finished a project I had been working on, and it was about 4:45 pm. Quitting time was 5:00 pm. I decided to leave a few minutes early for a change. I was walking past my boss’ office when she looked at me and made a snide remark about “bankers’ hours”. I walked into her office and politely asked her if she wanted me to adhere strictly to the regular times. I told her I would do so in future. Two weeks later, she called me into her office and asked why something was not finished yet, and when would she have it. I politely told her that since I was no longer working 50 hour weeks, she would have to wait a little longer for things to be done. After that, we agreed that I could keep my own hours.
My ex-husband liked to do this and was pretty good at it. I would often ruin it though as I couldn’t keep a straight face. We were in Walmart one time near the back of the store, he in one aisle and I was in the next one over. I overheard him telling a sales associate that he’d seen a cat run by and that she’d better notify management right away. I heard her thank him and then saw her hurry off to the front of the store. A few minutes later, we were in the hunting and fishing aisle and an associate rushed up and grabbed a large fishing net. My ex asked him what he was going to do with it and he said, “there’s a cat loose in the store, and I’m planning to catch it!” As he turned to walk away, he yelled, “look, there it goes!” and took off running. We looked at each other bemused and then burst out laughing. Once we had everything we needed, we headed to the checkout. While the cashier was ringing up our stuff, she said, “did you hear that there is a cat loose in the store?” My ex told her that he’d seen it earlier and she excitedly shared that she’d seen it as well while on her break and that this was the most fun she’d ever had while at work.
Fenikia
Fenikia Greek sweet cookies
Ingredients
Cookies
1 cup peanut oil
1 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1 jigger brandy
2 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
Dash cinnamon
Dash ground cloves
Chopped walnuts for garnish
Syrup
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup water
1 pound honey
1 lemon, sliced or 1 orange, sliced
Instructions
Cookies: Heat oil and butter over low heat until butter is melted and mixture is hot. Remove from heat and stir in water and brandy. Cool.
Stir in beaten eggs.
Sift together flour and baking powder with the tablespoon each of cinnamon and cloves. Add to liquid mixture to make a dough that is not too soft. Add a little more flour if necessary. With floured hands shape dough into ovals and indent lengthwise with thumbs.
Combine chopped walnuts with sugar and dash each cinnamon and cloves. Put 1 teaspoon of this filling into the indentation in the dough and close dough over filling. Place on cookie sheets and bake in a 400 degree F oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Cool.
Dip cooled cookies into hot syrup and place on racks to drain. Decorate with chopped walnuts.
Syrup: Combine above ingredients and boil for 5 minutes.
I am 70 and a retired.former Apple engineer who now lives in Texas. I was visiting my son and his family in the LA-area in southern California over Christmas break in December 2023. Having finished that I was at the airport security line getting ready to fly with my wife to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit my daughter’s family. I didn’t feel all that well, but thought I just had a minor cold. The next thing I knew I was in the back of an ambulance with my wife sitting next to me on my way to St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica. One minute I was in a line the next I was in the ambulance. (That was really weird!)
They soon diagnosed me with a relatively serious case of the COVID virus. I was promptly put into an isolation room at the hospital and was visited by doctors and nurses occasionally in lightweight hazmat gear to check up on me. Two days later the doctor told me that he was going to release me to self-isolate. He told me that if I hadn’t had my vaccines and boosters up to date that probably wouldn’t be happening. It seems my body had a strong enough immune system due to the vaccines to allow me to recover relatively quickly. I would be a dead man without them.
I spent up until January 3, 2024 in my son’s back bedroom by myself until I no longer tested positive for the virus. And, then I flew back home with my wife on a long flight first to Seattle, WA and then to Austin, TX. That was the best we could do on short notice. I never did get see my daughter, her husband and the other two of my five grandchildren. And, then, of course, my wife caught COVID too. She, however, just got a slight fever, headache, and a cough and is now clear of the virus. She too was fully vaccinated.
Isn’t it weird how this damn virus can practically kill one person even if they are relatively healthy and leave another person with just minor symptoms. That, in itself, is the weirdest thing of all.
The year 2023 ended badly for me. Good riddance! I hope you all fared better than I did.
Top 10 Real Life Glitches In The Matrix | MARATHON
These friends formed “circles”, close groups, sport groups, nerd groups, drinking buddies, and so on and so forth.
One of the extended groups of friends were part of one of my constantly changing “drinking friend group”. And within that group was a fairly nice kid, a guy that we shared a brew and two at various keggers. I will call him “Marko” (not his real name.)
He lived on a farm; an isolated small home off the tail end of a dirt road.
He was ok. Really.
But his mother… Oh Lordy!
There was something really wrong with her. Not all together there, and man was she odd, and she really tended to behave strangely. Really strangely. Over the years, all of us, decided to avoid her, and actually all of us felt really sad for our friend Marko.
Now, with this as the background, I will now relate the last moment when I saw Marko’s mother…
…
It was 3am on a Wednesday in late Summer; say July or early August. We (myself and my buddy Robbie) were riding in his International Scout (a 1970s era vehicle) on the dirt gravel road though the cornfields in the hills of Western Pennsylvania. We were riding, drinking beer, and smoking… And the headlights on the truck illuminated the gravel in front of us.
As we went up a hill, the road turned to the left and as we turned that curve, we saw Marko’s mother. She was standing there, at the edge of the cornfield, at the side of the road. Wearing a old stained white nightgown, and standing there. Her expression looked like something out of a horror movie. I’ll tell you what.
…
We didn’t stop.
We kept on driving.
The corn blended into the dark background.
Then Robbie let out a sigh.
“Poor. Poor Marko” he said. And we turned up the 8-track player and listened to The Rolling Stones play “Gimmie Shelter”.
As we continued to drive though the dark night in the cornfields.
Never compare your sex life with porn videos. Because porn videos are totally fake.
Never be sad for losing someone. No one lasts for long period of time. Even, you are gonna lose your beauty, money and health with age.
Never underestimate failure.Only a failure gives you the proper perspective of success.
Never “Trust” easily on anyone. Because trust is the most expensive thing and so don’t trust blindly. Even, your friends get jealous when they see your progress.
Never share your password of social media accounts, email, Internet Banking, and ATM pin\CVV number with anyone. Never!
Never get involved in sexual activities till you are not serious in your relationship.
Never believe on that girl\boy who have lots of relationship in their past. They can easily manipulated you by crying their bad past.( Exception is everywhere)
Never try to hurt your parents. They have lots of expectations from you.
In any situation, Never think about ending your life. Even plants regrow leaves after one leaf shed.
The QSPR ‘Tunnel Weapon’. When US forces had to crawl into tunnels to chase the enemy it was a very intense experience. A GI often went down there with just a 1911 .45 and a flashlight, and once his buddies dropped him down there he was pretty much on his own. As you can imagine, firing a .45 in a space the size of a closet does your hearing no favors and also alerts other bad guys down there to your presence. The militay, in conjunction with AAC, came up with the ‘Tunnel Weapon’ a specially modified S&W .44 Magnum for the ‘tunnel rats’ to use.
image 8
It had a short barrel and a smooth bore like a shotgun. The gun used a special ‘captive piston’ ammunition that was almost perfectly silent. When fired, the propellant pushed a piston in the case forward, launching buckshot made from a special alloy. When the piston reached the end of the case, it was caught and did not leave the case. As a result, all the propellant gas was captured in the case … so no noise signature. The pellets, driven forward by the force of the piston, continued down the bore and out the muzzle. The result was a totally silent and flash-less weapon that could be used in a confined space like a tunnel. They never were distributed in any meaningful amount and only a few went into practical field trials. The guns almost never turn up but some of the special ammo shows up once in a while.
Hot afternoon, sitting at my dinner place doing books and covering the phone. Don’t open for dinner until six…it’s three. Happy to be alone. The front door is unlocked because we are out in the country and it doesn’t need to be.
Girl in her twenties pushing her bike in the door, walks by the “closed…open for dinner at 6” sign, and, before I can say, “Sorry miss, we’re closed,” asks me for a coke. Ok, this is a custom walnut bar, 150 label wine list, crystal glassware, fresh flowers, dress code…you know, and she needs a coke in a paper cup with a straw.
I bite my tongue as she leans her bike against the wall next to the front door. “Uh, I don’t have a to go cup, but, have a seat…how’s your day going?” I poured her a coke on ice and she told me she had guessed wrong on her bike trip, trying to pedal up the mountain had wiped her out. She was a college kid and did not have the money to eat at this place, but I had her look over the menu and grab a brochure. I didn’t charge her the ridiculous price for the coke. And away she went.
Four years later, it had been a really busy shift, customers all over the place. I acknowledged one of our regulars as he left with a party of six and thanked him for his business. He replied, “You know we always love to come here, it’s been what? Four years now? Birthdays, holidays, homecomings, my daughter’s rehearsal dinner…” He gestured to a young woman. “Honey? Come over and say hi to the boss.” You have already guessed who the “young lady” was. She had bicycled home that day four years ago and told her family about our place. I can’t estimate what her family had spent there over those years helping keep us in business.
Remember the communication range, huh? The thing is that the larger gap of intelligence between two people, the greater likelihood the reaction of the lesser endowed is outright hostile.
Acting stupid and dumbing down is a survival mechanism. To howl with the wolves (or rather bleating with the sheep). Humans are social animals and we all want to fit in. Therefore acting stupid is a way to a) pretend you fit in and b) not to evoke a hostile reaction among the lesser endowed.
The thing is that it is a) incredibly consuming and b) never foolproof. But I wouldn’t be alive today if I couldn’t act stupid when needed.
When I was a teenager, my mom took me on a trip to visit the tobacco plantation where her mother had grown up. The land had been in the family since the 1700s. It was really cool seeing antiques that had been in the family for generations. There was even an old muzzle-loader that had been used to fight in the Revolutionary War. It was so heavy that I had to rest my elbow on my hip. I couldn’t even lift it like you would an ordinary (modern) rifle.
While we were there, a cousin told us we could take whatever we wanted from stuff she’d stuck in an old shed that had been used originally for drying tobacco. My mom filled a large paper grocery sack with papers, documents, letters, and antique books.
Later, while driving home, I began going through the contents of the bag while my mom drove. There were letters from the early 1900s and throughout the 1800s, some sad; some hilarious. There were wills and other business documents. Kind of boring to me at the time. Two-thirds of the way down, there was a strange piece of “paper” folded into fourths. It was obviously very old and bulky.
I carefully unfolded it to discover . . . the original land grant from King George III bestowing on my ancestors 600 acres in the colony of North Carolina. It was a piece of parchment with such tiny, perfect calligraphy spelling out the description of the land, etc. It was a legal document. Just as astonishing was that it still had King George’s seal attached! The seal was round and about the size of a coaster you stick under a mug to protect wood. It was maybe an inch thick and very hard. That was the coolest thing I ever helped to “rescue.” 🙂
Often people say hi, or hey, or they give a little wave or salute, or they nod or smile in passing. All these rituals of greeting communicate: I know you, you’re within my greeting circle.
But some people and some friendships require an actual conversation. If it’s a really good friend whom you haven’t seen in years, there’s a lot to catch up on. “It’s been so long, how ya doin’?” You talk about substantive things. “Betty’s been declared cancer-free for the past five years, but that was a bad scare.” “I wish I’d known what you were going through, while all I ever worried about was getting through tax season.” That’s a real conversation.
But there’s a space between, where the person once meant something to you. Or you moved in the same circles and you don’t remember them all that well. That’s when empty conversation tides you over till you get your bearings in the conversation. “Hi, how are you?” “What do you want to pretend is interesting, my sciatica, my year of unemployment, or Tina’s and my separation?” “Wow, that’s rough! So much time has gone by.” “I can see you’re struggling to remember —” “No, not at all —” “I introduced you to my roommate’s sister at that boating weekend on the lake and after that you two were so into each other that I don’t think you came up for air for six months.” “I can’t believe I forgot that connection. It’s like I’m your roommate-in-law.”
So those empty how-are-yous serve a purpose, to string the conversation along until you find your footing — or realize there’s no way to remake the old connection — or there never was a connection. Empty forms evolve because we NEED them, so don’t waste time disparaging those social forms. They can delay or avoid a lot of social awkwardness.
The war between the United States and China began in 2008. At the time of this writing, it is 2024. So the war has been on-going for 16 years. During this period of time it has been characterized by the following realities…
Not reported in the Western “news” media.
Characterized by offensive actions by the United States (either direct or by proxy).
Characterized by defensive actions by China.
Characterized by unconventional warfare at every level.
This idea that “someday” a conventional war will manifest between China and the United States is a false narrative. This narrative was concocted in 2017 under the direction of both Mike Pompeo and John Bolton in the Trump Administration. Anyone who believes this narrative is foolish.
We know today, in 2024, that both the Pentagon and RAND have repeatedly announced though various channels that the United States is unable to win a conventional war against China. This is true whether it uses proxy nations or not.
Leaving only the nuclear weapon option.
China has long prepared for a first-strike nuclear attack by the United States. China fully expects the reality of this situation.
Thus, China has been manufacturing, preparing, and training to absolutely eviscerate the cities of the United States, and the participant proxy nations, that dare attack it.
…
Were a “HOT” shooting war to erupt between the United States and China… it will eventually turn nuclear.
What we know about this situation is frightening…
The United States neocons believe that a war is inevitable with China, and that the United States will “win” it, because it is “exceptional”.
The United States fields 3rd generation nuclear systems, and rely on advanced pin-point accuracy for “surgical” destructive objectives.
The United States does not have any ABM defense against the Chinese and Russian current technology.
Meanwhile, in China…
China has active fielded 6th through 8th generation nuclear systems, in great quantities, with modern cutting-edge delivery systems and avionics.
China military doctrine is to saturate the target area broadly with multiple cascades of weapons. They believe that if a target in located in a city, that you destroy the entire region surrounding that city over, and over, and over until no life remains.
China also has a massive ABM system purposely designed to intercept American and Western missiles and destroy them long before they arrive at their targets.
The Chinese policy is soundly defensive.
The American (neocon) policy is resoundingly offensive.
…
Were a HOT war to erupt between the two nations… the citizens will not be aware of it. As the “news” media will not report on it. Any war prep in the West will be reported as “aggression by China”.
And in a blink of an eye, the cities of the West will be erased one by one.
True story from my days of working in industrial controls.
A co-worker + I visited a refrigerated warehouse to take a look at a controls PC that had stopped spitting out readings on a printer every so often as it should have. Based on the old principle of “if it doesn’t work. turn it on; if it still doesn’t work, plug it in,” I checked the printer’s connection the PC and, lo and behold, it had fallen off.
I plugged it in and told my co-worker “OK, we’re done.”
“We can’t just do that and leave,” he responded.
So, I decided to clean out the PC just on general principles. I should note that this was in the mid ’90s, and smoking was allowed in this office. Lots of smoking. Without especially good ventilation. Right next to the PC.
So, I took the PC to the loading dock and opened it, figuring I’d “breathe life into it” by simply blowing the dust out of it. But that wasn’t going to do the trick. Nor would the typical can of compressed air. A trowel would’ve done the trick, though.
Needless to say, I did clean out the PC using whatever tools I had handy. When I returned it to the office, I suggested that they either stop smoking around it – as if that was likely, improve ventilation, or at least get some smokeless ashtrays, or else they’d be paying a lot more for new control PCs.
Of course, my employer would gladly have sold said new PCs to this customer, since damage from smoking was not covered by the warranty.
Quite a few times, this played out in front of me and for different reasons.
I was the HR coordinator assigned to a branch of a company and had to be present during all disciplinary or fact-finding meetings between management and employees to make sure that management didn’t do anything stupid and bear witness to anything actionable said by the employee during those meetings.
In one case, I worked with a manager with no real gift for social grace. He was intimidated by conflicts and hated the fact that none of the “damn kids” working for him gave him the respect he felt he deserved from his position. When he held these investigatory meetings with employees over minor infractions like tardiness or excessive call-offs (minor infractions), he would escalate the situation by leading with the attitude of “why shouldn’t I just fire you?” which was all but stated in his long, rambling opening remarks.
One guy who was transferred over from another facility was a GIFT engineered by regional management to make up for the loss of two machine workers who walked off because of poor working conditions. Without them, we would have lost more than a week’s production based on their unique maintenance knowledge and ability. The employee sitting in the hot seat was brought in at a decent wage to compensate for asking him to commute an hour each way to work. Our manager did not take this into account when listing all FOUR late punches collected in the employee’s first month as he worked out the parking and other transportation issues related to his new job.
The problem was that the boss was intimidated by the young man’s ability to do the work of two people and fix problems that even HE couldn’t. I think the boss just wanted to assert power or compensate for this feeling of inadequacy, but the replacement employee was having none of it.
“I volunteered to help you out. I’m doing my best to get in and get to work. I stay a little late each day, too.” “If you’re doing your best and can’t get to work on time, you’re not doing good enough.”
I saw from the employee’s expression that he knew the kind of poor manager he was dealing with. He stood up extended a hand and said, “Okay, then. Thank you for the opportunity. I’ll be heading back to the other store on Monday. Good luck.”
The boss was so stunned (as was I, but for different reasons) that he accepted the handshake and said nothing while the employee walked out of the room. Knowing what this would mean to the store’s production and morale but wanting to maintain some sense of managerial control, I waited until the door closed behind the guy before I called the boss the most polite kind of short-sighted imbecile that I could.
I intercepted the employee and apologized, asking him to reconsider. As I expected, he said he would take the matter up with the Regional Manager who set up the reassignment. When Monday came, I received the paperwork promoting the once temporary machine operator to Assistant Manager of Production at a decent salary and to schedule a disciplinary conference with the Branch Manager for being an incompetent jackass.
Well, I just read a very typical ‘Merica answer on this. And I’ll have to tell youse guys, I got one Hell of a belly laugh. I mean it. It was deep and long…
The four points made were…
[1] It will not happen. The USN isn’t stupid and would stay out of the range of the Carrier Killer missiles.
I had to laugh at this. China has the ability to sink aircraft carriers ANYWHERE on the globe. If you all think that ONLY the DF-17 can sink a carrier group, then you are reading too many propaganda pieces.
[2] It could not happen. China doesn’t have enough of these Carrier Killer missiles to be a threat.
Again, this gave me such a howling laughter. As if some basement bozo knows how many missiles and non-missile weapons that China has. No one knows how many missiles that China fields, but I can positively tell you that China does things in mass.
[3] It cannot happen. China isn’t stupid to take on the United States. The USA is invincible, and China doesn’t know how to fight a “real” war.
Oh, my belly was laughing so hard on this canard. China has the oldest army in the world. China also has the oldest Navy in the world. The Chinese military was perfected during the Tang dynasty. Then bested Genghis Khan, and then was absorbed into it, resulting in the massive Yang dynasty armies. Aside from the fact that the Chinese beat the living snot out of the USA during the “Korean War”, China has been engaged fighting with the USA on all fronts since at least 2016
[4] Carrier Killer missiles are just hyperbole. They are just normal missiles with some undemonstrated abilities that the USN can easily thwart.
Ha ha ha ha. I mean talk about living under a rock. Jesus, this nonsense is so thick that you need waders to trudge though the muck.
…
China is a peaceful nation.
But, it is NOT stupid.
…
The United States has thrown EVERYTHING at China. And I do mean EVERYTHING.
From “color revolutions” inside of China, to “color revolutions” in all the nations surrounding China. From undersea excursions and conflicts, to near-space satellite warfare. From cyber warfare, to bio-warfare attacks. From managed famines to lawfare assaults. From efforts designed to collapse the Chiense banking industry to efforts to collapse the Chinese real estate industry.
It’s been full spectrum and absolute.
But not reported in the “news” of the West.
…
Instead we hear of submarines ramming undersea mountains, freak geomagnetic storms, the “apparent random” firings of Naval Commanders, and the Secretary of the Navy. We read (in the West) about Chinese “warmongering” a build up for a “Taiwanese invasion”.
All this interspersed about how Putin has brain cancer, and how Russia is running out of ammo. We read about how Xi Peng is going to be disposed and how the poor downtrodden people of China are going to rise up for “democracy” and Freedom”.
…
Info war is in full swing.
There is ZERO credibility in Western “news” media. Today it is so outrageous and comically fake and ridiculous that it is amazing that these tabloids are still able to have people that watch and read their content.
…
So… Yeah. It’s full spectrum. EVERYTHING.
Of course…
The clueless in the West would believe the fake narratives of Putin losing, China collapsing, and America remaining strong. They will believe that COVID was fake, or if it was something of concern, then it was “China’s fault” for one reason or the other. That’s the narrative, and that’s want the oligarchy expects Westerners to believe.
…
The United States is a feudal plutocracy.
While China is military-based meritocracy.
…
Oh, it’s just like the United States is throwing EVERYTHING at China, China is preparing with EVERYTHING as well.
And, let me tell you all…
They don’t read American / Western “news”.
They know what is REALLY going on.
…
So China is ready.
If you are a consumer of Western “news” you will be unaware of the following facts, but you do need to brace yourself for the realities.
Were the USA, either directly or through proxy, attacks China… China will throw nuclear warheads at American cities and military installations.
Oh, sure. China has a “no first use policy” in regards to nuclear weapons.
But within the FORMAL WORDING of this (particular) policy is one sentence that you all should all pay attention to…
“…if attacked… China reserves the right … to use every means at its disposal … to attack the nation that attacks it.”
For some reason, the Western “news” media glosses over this sentence. Perhaps they cannot read Chinese, or simply just cut and paste their “news articles” directly out of Langley VA. What ever, the FORMAL STATEMENT regarding nuclear weapons use is very carefully worded, and ambiguous enough to give the most aggressive neocons pause to consider.
…
So, yeah. China is ready.
It was ready in 1950–53 when it defeated the United States in Korea, and is ready today as it dishes EVERYTHING thrown at it, right back to the United States to consume.
…
At this point in time…
The United States and China are like a married couple living together weeks prior to a divorce. The United States is cheating, bending words, manipulating systems… and thinking “They’ll never find out”.
While China, is playing it smart.
Already has contacted the divorce attorneys, arranged the legal papers and made all the necessary arrangements. Just waiting for the time of CHINA’s choosing to terminate the relationship.
…
So… that being said…
“How can the USN defend against China’s formidable anti-Naval missile forces”?
There ARE a number of things that the United States government can do.
Not fight China. Give up. Stop the war-mongering.
First strike against China using a barrage of nuclear ICBMs and SLBMs.
That’s it.
Nothing else is realistically possible.
By the way… this is the OFFICIAL view of the United States Pentagon as of late fall 2023.
Of course, it all depends on the temperament of the “leadership” in Washington DC. And since they are clueless morons that are evil psychopathic narcissists, I can’t help but believe that they will be as delusional with China as they are with Russia. And the end result will be disastrous for the Untied States.
And the world as well.
Nothing quite ruins your day as a cascade of nuclear weapons hitting you.
…
Quick summary
China is READY to take on the United States, simultaneously with it’s proxy “allies”.
China WILL use nuclear weapons.
China is above-peer capable with the best equipment of the West.
China is a military-based meritocracy.
…
Quick Note
The disinformation about China permeates all levels.
China is a military-based meritocracy, but the West portrays this reality as “conscription”. Which is disingenuous. It gives the Western reader a pre-conceived illusion of poorly trained, unmotivated troops. But the reality is something quite different.
I once worked in a Michelin star restaurant with over 3,000 bottles of wine. One night a couple was dining at my bar and they were ordering multiple courses. With each course they ordered, they would order a different glass of wine to pair with it. Pairing wine with food is an art, not a science. One person’s nirvana can be another person’s acid rain. Wine tends to bring out the snobbish in people, too; all the worst stereotypes about wine nerds are true.
There were two other bartenders working that night and they got their food and first wine pairing with one of the others. I was clearing their plates and setting them up for their next course when the guy indicated the Vouvray they had finished, and then asked me for an opinion on what they should have next with whatever-fucking-dish they had coming.
“I really like this sauvignon blanc,” I said earnestly, and held out the bottle for them to inspect.
The guy looked at me like I just farted on his face. “AFTER A VOUVRAY?” He said, horrified.
He shooed me away and got one of the other bartenders to help pick the next wine. I was now a social leper, apparently. My judgment could not be trusted any further than I could throw that bottle of wine. I was a rube, an unsophisticated novice who had no right to even be working in such an establishment. I might as well have suggested for him to drink his own piss. And he could have, for all I fucking cared.
The line became a running joke at the bar. Anytime I touched the sauvignon blanc bottle someone would gleefully ask, “They weren’t just drinking the Vouvray, I hope?” And we’d laugh our asses off. I have since asked multiple people why that might be a faux pas as a wine suggestion and no one has ever given me a legitimate answer.
Cat claws aren’t really meant to kill (although they can and surely do). They are meant to grab and hold.
A kill typically consists of a sequence: grabbing the prey and getting it to the ground, suppressed, and then finishing the job.
And boy do they come equipped:
A lion claw to hand comparison:
image 48
Now it is a different story for most birds of prey.
A harpy eagle, and many eagles, can actually use their claws to kill their prey.
They pin their prey down and hold them, jerking their claws back and forth.
image 47
They also use their beaks to tear the animal apart, which, if it is lucky, happens quickly.
This is why you often see a predator eagle seeming to just stand and stomp on its prey. The prey moving around is actually what kills it in many of these instances.
It’s believed that the T-Rex shared this in common with predatory birds.
image 45
Their arms weren’t functional for hunting, so they would use one leg to lean in and hold the prey down on the ground, while their jaw did the rest of the work.
One of the closest living examples of what dinosaur claws looked like belongs to the Southern Cassowary, which lives in papua new guinea and looks like a deformed ostrich.
image 44
But when you see their claws, it’s immediately obvious who they are related to:
image 46
Fortunately, they are omnivores.
Nature is metal AF. Death by another animal never seems to be a fun way to go.
Airline executive: hey, if we squeeze the seats closer together, we can fit in one more row of seats, sell more tickets, and make more money!
Health and safety: but you can’t squeeze the exit row seats closer together — people have to be able to get through to the exit. So those seats would have to stay further apart while you squeeze the other ones closer together. It’ll look stupid.
Airline executive: that’s not a bug — that’s a feature! We’ll sell those seats at premium rates for people who want legroom just a little less than what they used to have, rather than a lot less!
Exit row seats used to be unattractive, due to the additional responsibility.
Now, they’re apparently fairly popular, due to the guaranteed minimum legroom. Which the airlines are not providing out of the kindness of their heart, but because an ‘exit row’ has to, you know, allow people to exit, so they’re legally mandated to keep them a certain width.
And some people apparently get annoyed when the stewardess asks them whether they are willing and able to assist in the unlikely event of an evacuation….
In high-school my friend and I were selling Christmas wreaths door to door.
We would take turns with the sale line.
This time it was his turn.
My friend was usually out going and very talkative.
We get to this door he goes up and knocks. This beautiful girl opens the door and kind of lifts her leg around the door cradling it and she bites her lip.
My friend was silent didn’t say a word he just stood there dumb founded.
I laughed, said sorry for my friend here…and then gave the whole sales pitch. She giggled and declined. Thr whole time my friend just stood there looking like a fool with his jaw just hanging open.
After she closed the door ot took him a moment to collect himself.
He commented about how beautiful she was. I said yeah, she was nice.
We go down another street and I realize that this side of the street was just the back side of the houses from the other…
I tell my buddy who was still somewhat dazed he gets this next house… (it was hers but from the other side)
She opened the door again same spill but this time I sold the Christmas wreath.
I don’t remember what happened after the second incident. I just remember it was hilarious.
I have so many different stories. We’ve even run across people answering the door in the buff. Usually not the good looking type though!
He has set a world record for the farthest swim under ice, going 188.6 feet under.
He has the fastest half marathon barefoot on snow and ice, running 2 hours and 16 minutes. (most can’t do this in regular climate!)
He has spent 1 hour and 53 minutes in full body contact with ice.
Normally, this should kill anybody between 15 and 45 minutes in.
He has climbed Mt. Everest to 25,000 feet in just shorts and boots.
So the big question remains.
How?
He employs something called “The Wim Hof” method.
He manipulates his mind and his breathing patterns to help his body create an ability to warm itself.
Sounds weird right?
He went under a study with researchers at Wayne State University.
He showed that when he didn’t employ his method of rapid breathing, “his skin temperature would fluctuate between about 33.5 degrees Celsius with the warm water and 31.5 degrees Celsius with the cold.”
However, when he did use his method, “his skin temperature stayed almost perfectly steady at just under 34 degrees Celsius.”
They found in the PET scan later that “the rapid breathing exercise worked by warming the capillaries in the lungs.”
Additionally, and weirdly enough, “Hof didn’t demonstrate an increase of activity in the anterior insula, where higher-function thermoregulation is done. Instead, he had an unexpected spike in the periaqueductal gray matter, which is associated with control of sensory pain. Maybe it really is mind over matter after all.”
During the filming of the movie Robert De Niro had a huge crush on her.
He even asked her out on a date.
But she turned him down.
After that during the entire shooting De Niro did not speak to her except when he was in character.
Shooting over.
Movie released.
Taxi Driver did really good business at the box office and also received positive response from Critics.
But rejection from his crush did not stop De Niro. He did classic films like The Deer Hunter, One upon a time in America, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, Casino, Heat , Goodfellas, Cape Fear, The Irishman etc.
image 4
He won an Oscar for the Best Actor for Raging Bull.
image 3
And now he is considered as One of the Best Actors of all time.
On the other hand Cybill Shepherd was forgotten with time.
The only character she played worth remembering was Betsy in Taxi Driver.
40 years later when she wrote an autobiography, She wrote that she regretted turning him down a lot. She wrote, it was the biggest mistake she made in her life.
Now what De Niro did after she turned him down is worth reading
Did he threaten her boyfriend? NO
Did he start doing drinking and drugs? NO
Did he try to get revenge from her anyhow? NO
What he did was – He kept working. He concentrated on his career. And now he is THE ROBERT DE NIRO. Who inspired hundreds of other actors from all over the world.
image 2
So if a girl rejects you, what is the best way to get her to regret her decision?
Respect her decision and focus on your career. Build an empire. Self destruction and revenge mindset (Easy Path) will not do anything. Forget about her. You’ll regret later if you choose the easy path.
One of the most badass thing ever uttered was: “We’ve been fighting in the West throughout the war and we have enough experience to assess our situation. We will not allow ourselves to be taken hostage! You will die like rats when we break out of here!” – Viktor Leonov.
This man is Viktor Leonov:
image 7
In 1945 after the fall of Berlin, Viktor Leonov, a grizzled old Russian naval commander who had inflicted crazy amount of death and misery on his Axis enemies was sent to fight the Japanese in the east.
Viktor was assigned to a naval parachute division and was dropped with over 145 men into what was supposed to be a lightly-defended airfield somewhere in the midst of china. Fun fact, it wasn’t lightly defended. Over 3000 Japanese soldiers were waiting for them and the second they landed they were rounded up.
image 6
Viktor and his officers were forced marched into the Japanese HQ where the Japanese garrison commander ordered their surrender. Viktor refused and told the Japanese to surrender.
The Japanese officers laughed and told them this is no place for jokes and that he should just sign the papers for the Soviet official surrender and get it over with. Viktor was not joking. He jumped out of his chair, slammed his fist on the table and yelled in a heavy, very deep and intimidating Russian accent:
“We’ve been fighting in the West throughout the war and we have enough experience to assess our situation. We will not allow ourselves to be taken hostage! You will die like rats when we break out of here!”
Right at the end of the sentence, one of his men pulled out a hidden grenade and threatened to blow up every single man in the room.
The Japanese surrendered.
Viktor and his troops walked back to the soviet base with his over 3,000 Japanese prisoners who only hours ago were telling the captured soviets to surrender.
After that, he went back to fighting and captured four Japanese ports along the Korean and Manchurian coastlines. During his daring operations against the Japanese, he lost a grand total of nine soldiers. Seven of them died parachuting into that airfield I just talked about. Viktor apparently only retired because there was no more room on his chest for any more medals.
Viktor died in 2003, his death was not even mentioned in the newspaper.
Back in the late summer of 2000 or 2001, I was looking for a job because a freelance customer had stiffed me on six weeks’ worth of invoices. I wasn’t thrilled about either of those things, but hey, at least I like my field. Anyway, my brother called me up out of the blue and we had a conversation that went something like this:
“Hey, you’ll never guess who I sat with on the plane today: John Prine!”
“Oh, cool. How’d he look? He wasn’t looking all that good last time I saw him.”
“He looked OK. He was coming into town for a show tomorrow night with Mary Chapin Carpenter and someone named Lyle Lovett.”
“OMG! Don’t ask any questions, just GO.”
“Oh, I’m going. But I was wondering if you want to go.”
“Uh… I’m broke and in Winnipeg. And I have to be at a job interview at 3:00 pm the next day. Is that even doable?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s totally doable, I have a zillion points. Let me see…” <keys tapping> “OK, I can get you on a flight that comes in about 4:30. I’ll pick you up, we’ll grab some dinner, take in the show, then I can drop you at the airport in the morning and you’ll be back in town by… about 1:30.”
“Uh… OK!”
Next day I take the bus to the airport, fly to Toronto, Scott picks me up in his minty 89(?) Porsche 911, zoom we’re downtown, bam we’re getting a falafel for supper, then we’re off to the venue. Prine was awesome as ever, Mary Chapin Carpenter was great, but Lyle Lovett and his Large Band absolutely killed it. I’ve seen a lot of damned good shows, and that one was right up there with the very best. Then it’s back to Scott’s place, up early, zoom back to the airport, fly back to Winnipeg, and I’m taking the bus to my interview and asking myself, “Did all that really just happen?”
It was an incredible pick-me-up at a time I could really use one, and by far and away one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. (He’ll probably read this, so I’m just going to say “Thanks again!”)
After a 4 year stay in Japan, representing my husband’s company, we returned to the States and settled in California. We registered our children in school. After a few days our youngest daughter came home and reported that a man had come to the school and taken her out of class and they had gone for a walk. The man had shown her lots of pictures. I was horrified and asked what kind of pictures. She told me one was of a policeman with a bad guy.
next morning I was at the school and in the Principal’s office demanding to know if it was true and if so, why. I was told that I had made a mistake when filling out the enrollment form and had put down that my daughter was born in Japan. My reply was that as her mother I would certainly know where she was born and that was in a hospital in Tokyo. Then I learned that California law requires that any student that doesn’t understand English must have an interpreter.
I told the Principal that if she had spent two minutes in conversation with my blue eyed daughter, born of a British mother and American father she would have known my daughter was fluent in the English language.
Hungarian Pork and Sauerkraut Sandwich (Peshene)
2024 01 04 19 08
Ingredients
4 slices pork butt, as meaty as possible, sliced thin, pounded if necessary
1 large can (27 ounces) sauerkraut, rinsed, squeezed dry
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt
Pepper
Hungarian sweet paprika
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) salted butter
8 slices of the best rye bread
Instructions
Prepare the pork butt and add some seasoning to it. Gently brown the pork in the butter until done. Don’t over cook.
Set pork aside and add sauerkraut, onions, garlic and seasonings to the pan. Be generous with the paprika. Fry the kraut until browned.
Make up 4 sandwiches being generous with the sauerkraut mixture.
I sometimes add 1-2 peeled raw potatoes (diced small) to the frying kraut.
Every time I visit my parents’ house, I would see someone drinking tea and talking to my mother. They’re usually female, ages 20 through 40. From their appearance, I can see that they are not doing well financially. I call them my mother’s “projects.” She has maybe 4–5 “projects” at a time.
They are visiting my mom to get help, discuss a problem, get some advice, and occasionally some of them would bring gifts to say thank you. I don’t know how it started, who these women were or how they met my mom. But their stories are depressingly similar. All of them were women who had kids, frequently didn’t have husbands, or were in abusive relationships. Let me tell you about one of them.
I’ll call her Zaya. Zaya is a young woman, around 27 years old. First time she met my mother, was when she was 20. She’s developmentally a little slow. Reads and writes with difficulty, and it takes her some time to understand difficult concepts. But she is a hard worker. Always does her tasks diligently. From what I know my mom helped her in some small things:
One winter she bought her and her child winter clothes.
Helped her daughter go to a good public school nearby. To do that my mom registered her to her house.
What is special about her? Nothing really. But she has encountered so many problems in her life that, I think, really shows how difficult it is to be poor:
She was adopted and her family, except her mother, treated her like an unpaid maid.
She became pregnant when she was 18. The father of the child disappeared, never to be seen.
She worked as a cleaner in a small company and received a modest salary. My mom took her to a bank one day and helped her open a savings bank account. After several years, she saved an equivalent of 5–6 months salary.
When her relatives learned about it, they pushed her to liquidate her account and contribute to her brother’s wedding.
She met one guy, who was a driver and they decided to live together. They built a small house. She used her savings to buy appliances, furniture etc. Just before they officially registered, the guy died in a car accident. His family, moved in and kicked her and her kid out on the streets. I offered to help her write a report to the police and go with her to submit it. She didn’t want to go to all the trouble.
She opened a new account and kept the bank book with my mother for safekeeping. Her family learned about it and forced her to pay for renovation at their house.
Her mother, the only person who supported her, passed away. She told her on several occasions that if she passes away she wanted her daughter to live separately from their family.
The last time we heard from her, she was moving to a different city, since her oldest brother was moving there and opening a small barber shop. He promised he would pay her salary. After she moved there, she changed her cell number and stopped calling my mom. It has been more than a year since we heard from her.
Whenever I hear people say that the poor are lazy, or bad at managing money, I always think about her. Her life is like a boxing match with a pro boxer. She gets knocked down, she gets up to be knocked down again. The sheer amount of sh*t that she experienced in her life is really astounding. This is why many of the poor remain poor. Because life is unfair…
Neocon Debacle and Declining Empire | Richard D. Wolff
When I was a young boy, I reckon somewhere around 7 years old, we were living in Monroe Connecticut. It was (at that time) a growing middle class neighborhood, and my father bought a plot there and was building a house.
(Later on, it became a wealthy suburb, and our house that we sold at a loss in 1965, became worth many, many millions of dollars. Sigh).
I used to explore the woods around the home.
And one Easter, my father woke us up with our baskets of chocolate, and Easter eggs, and a live white rabbit.
And us kids… being kids… well, we spent all day feeding the rabbit chocolate. And that is what happened all during Easter.
Well…
The very next day, we woke up to find the rabbit dead.
Yup.
Chocolate ends up killing animals like rabbits, dogs and cats.
Sheech! We didn’t know!
So that morning, once we all got our clothes on, we filed in a line… a procession… and carried the rabbit to the swamp and trees behind our property.
And there, my dad dug a hole, and we buried the rabbit.
We all threw some dirt on the cardboard shoe-box, and said goodbye to our short-lived friend.
Sometimes, the best intentions… due to ignorance… can be lethal.
Napoleon Bonaparte, who became Napoleon I, Emperor of the French, is the most famous self-made man in history. The other great men with whom Napoleon is compared, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, began their careers with tremendous advantages. Alexander was already king of Macedonia when he conquered the Persian Empire and earned the title “the Great.” Caesar was born into the aristocratic patrician class, and was governor of Spain before he conquered Gaul and became dictator of Rome.
Napoleon was born in Corsica, a backwater province of France, and through his father’s efforts attended military schools in France. At any other time, he might have simply served as a career officer in the king’s army, perhaps with some distinction. Instead of this fate, the chaos and violence of the French Revolution provided opportunities for ambitious men. Like hundreds of other French military men and politicians, Napoleon was literally the right age, at the right time in history, in exactly the right place to exploit fortune.
Through a combination of talent, ability, patronage, boundless energy, and great luck, Napoleon circumvented potential rivals and rose rapidly to prominence and power. By 1807, fourteen years after his first success at Toulon in 1793, Napoleon had created an empire unlike anything Europe had seen since Ancient Rome. He was 38 years old.
From the siege of Toulon to the battle of Waterloo twenty-two years later, Napoleon fought more battles than Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar combined. However, this era was far more than just the sum of his military exploits. The transition period between the 18th and 19th centuries was the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. People listened to the new, powerful sounds of Beethoven’s music, were inspired by the Rights of Man to overthrow the rule of kings by divine right, were appalled by the beheading of thousands during the Reign of Terror, were awed by the discovery of an ancient civilization in Egypt, and read the first works of the Romantics like Byron, Kant, and Goethe.
Gifted military commander, innovative administrator, and ruler of an empire, Napoleon seemed to influence everything and everyone. His enemies were so impressed with his genius and abilities that Prince Metternich, Austrian Minister and Chancellor, named the period the “Age of Napoleon” shortly after the French Emperor’s death.
Napoleon Bonaparte rose from obscurity on a small island to become the most powerful man in Europe, then lost it all to die in exile on another small island. It is one of the most incredible stories in history.
We got scam calls alot at our office…always an India accent. One Tuesday a call comes while I was on lunch break and frankly bored. I listen to the spiel. An American stranded desperately needs our help to get to the embassy. Why he/she had an Indian call would have been a good question, but I’m in this for the fun. So I loudly relay to my co-worker what they’re telling me…”Oh my gosh! Sarah you’re not going to believe what’s happened to this poor woman!” Making a long story shorter, we strung them along all week on lunch break having them email and call back while we tried to figure out how to make this $5k transfer. Friday rolls around and they call with wire #’s so I can send the cash on my lunch break. We wait about 20 minutes and they call back. I very innocently explain that I couldn’t send the money because my bank said they’re scammers, but not to worry…I gave the bank their phone number, wire numbers, and email address so the bank can verify they’re legit. Lot of cussing in the background and they hung up. It was quite satisfying and we got no more calls.
A young immigrant taxi chauffeur had raped a girl who was 14 at the time. Oh well, sexual crimes happen and often the perpetrators come from cultures where the woman’s value is somewhere between cows and furniture. The Swedish law is rather jovial and lenient, also on what comes to sexual crimes.
The girl’s boyfriend had gotten furious, and had decided to avenge. He had called his brothers, and together with the girl, they had ambushed the chauffeur. They had assaulted him, tied him, kicked him and finally hanged him on a tree in a nature reservate.
The chauffeur’s colleagues had gotten worried as he had not arrived to work, and they found him hanged on the tree a week later.
The gang of five was caught on basis of the mobile phone data. They are charged of murder. But since they are all underagers (under 18), they cannot be tried and sentenced as adults.
It is easy to see the girl was a native Swede, as the boyfriend and his brothers killed the assailant to avenge the rape. If she had been an immigrant, the boyfriend and his brothers would have killed her as a honour murder.
All in all, I am not amused of this case. It is a direct slap upon the Sweden’s collective face. First, this whole case would have not happened if rapists were punished severely enough in Sweden. Second, vigilantism is a sign that the official crime investigation and punishing machinery is not working as it should. Third, because murdering a rapist is not an eye for an eye – murder is a far more grave crime than rape itself. And fourth, because the murderers are all underagers. It is utterly unlikely adults would have taken the law on their own hands and murdered the rapist, but underagers with too much testosterone and too little consideration can commit crimes like this.
He asked him, “don’t you feel cold being outside, and not wearing any coat?” The old man replied, “l don’t have it but I got used to that.” The billionaire replied, “Wait for me. I will enter my house now and bring you one. ‘ The poor man got so happy and said he will wait for him.The billionaire entered his house and got busy there and forgot the poor man.
In the morning he remembered that poor old man and he went out to search for him but he found him dead because of cold, but he left a NOTE, “When I didn’t have any warm clothes, I had the power to fight the cold because I was used to that. But when you promised me to help me, I got attached to your promise and that took my power of resisting.
MORAL: Don’t promise anything if you can’t keep your promise. It might not mean anything to you, But it could mean everything to someone else.”
Only the British will know the “Slaughtered Lamb’s” most famous extra.
If you drink ten pints, your body will GPS itself towards a Kebab shop.
Only the British will know what Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson and Robert Lindsay have in common.
Only the British will know that Roger Moore nearly appeared in an Andrew Lloyd-Weber musical.
Only the British will know why the bowler was holding the batsman’s willy.
We know which part of Spain the rain mainly falls on.
It’s not a great idea to look the guy at the next urinal in the eye and smile!
Men know that five shakes and more, is getting ‘iffy.’
Only the British know what “Dogger” means when I say radio four.
Only the British knew about ENIGMA
Only the British will know about the use of inflatable tanks in WW2.
Only the British will know what an Anderson shelter was.
There’s always going to be one fat bridesmaid.
That part of the wedding where the vicar says, “Does any man or woman know why this man and this woman should not be wed?” – that’s the bit where Brits start playing in their head, what the outcome would be if someone says yes.
Only British drivers can navigate a double traffic island, with traffic lights and live.
Only British people know that a 747 over London actually STOPS, mid-air, then proceeds to land at Heathrow, while barely moving.
Only British people standing on the beach of Dover know that on a clear day you can see France, and that no bugger has yet seen France.
Only British people that the only thing that the City of London was designed for, is lunch.
Only the British know that the USA has NEVER lost a war in which donkeys were used.
Only the British will think that American history is an oxymoron.
Only the British know that the difference between burned toast and the US Army, is that you can still make soldiers out of burned toast.
Only the British know that the sea at Southport is only half true.
The French call it an outside cafe. The British equivalent of tables and chairs outside is called an eviction.
It is horrible to be forced to keep a brain dead 16 year old on massive machines because the mother knows God will do a mighty healing and threatens legal action and calling me a murderer. By the way I am a Christian Doctor and I do pray with my patients and families. Two Neurologists declared this man brain dead. All the protocols were done proper . She refused any organ donation from her son. She had all the pastors and elders praying for this miracle. She glared at me horribly. I had prayed with her. She called me a murderer. I felt overwhelmed and miserable and helpless. I did not dare “ unplug “ this young son of hers. Very very depressing and sad . I consulted with the neurologist who said from his long experience to just stop trying to fight mom. He said the patient will “ die “ within a week even with full tubes and support. Forget the ethics and all the money lost and wasted that could have gone to better use. Just let it happen.
This helped me a lot.
After a week the patient went into total heart failure and no rhythm and was declared heart dead finally and the mother gave up. She was satisfied all was done and God took her son home.
Who gets to win even when the family are flat out wrong by science ? Who gets to pay all these bills? Who just eats it? We could build a whole school for what this all cost. And this sad game plays out all the time.
Olaf Scholz and Annalena Baerbock and that group have single handedly performed Harakiri on their Industries and People
By tacitly cooperating with the destruction of Nordstream and by getting access to Cheap Gas and Oil taken away, they have subjected their people to inflation of almost 9% and forced their industries to pay between 57% –117% more for energy
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Joe Biden, Blinken and that group have single handedly forced a level of de dollarization never seen before even in the 2008 Global Crisis
They have forced inflation on their Citizens
They have ignored Financial Struggles back home
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Boris Johnson and Sunak and that group have done the same
Kept Europe in a state of war, Kept Oil and Gas impossible to buy for Europe or UK Without paying a 20% premium on the price to 40% premium
Plus knowing their actions have caused double digit inflation of 11% across the last two years
Are these really Democracies??????
Are they doing a SINGLE THING for their people?
In the US, more people have been cut off from Healthcare in the last two years
Anything being done?
Nopes
The US has been flooded with more illegal migrants in the past four years than under any other presidency
Anything being done?
Nopes
The Politicians of these Countries are being elected to power on the basis of deluding their voters by mass media and social media every time and once elected, commit every act of atrocity against the people
The exact opposite is happening in these AUTOCRACIES
In China, the focus is Food Security, Energy Security, Technological Independence, removing poverty, increasing healthcare participants
In Russia, for the first time Putin is focused on ensuring his people have enough to eat, work and the ability to buy homes at lower prices
In Saudi Arabia, MBS has made life much easier for women, more education, cheaper prices and a return to free healthcare for its citizens
Not to mention moving away from religious dogma
Even in India
Our Government never talks of Food or Energy Security or Water Security or Agricultural Security or Healthcare or Education
It’s always :-
Fifth largest economy
Third Largest economy by 20XX
In China meanwhile it’s always :-
So much Poverty gone by 20XX
So much energy dependence removed by 20XX
Own Soybean Production increased
I believe the very system of DEMOCRACY is collapsing across the world
Every Democracy now reveals a fatal flaw of how much more dangerous a Democracy can become for its people when it’s leadership becomes poor like the case of most democracies today
Xi and Putin have nothing to do with it
They didn’t sponsor Maidan in 2014
They didn’t blow up Nordstream
They don’t Publish lies about other countries
All they have done is REACT to unfair decisions taken by democracies and in the process caused greater damage to the same democracies
My daughter was 2 years old when I considered returning to school for my masters. I called Millersville University and requested a catalog be mailed to me.
After I called, I had misgivings. Should I wait until Lauren was a little older? The easy way out is always so attractive, so tempting.
The catalog arrived while Lauren was napping. I made myself a fortifying cup of coffee, sat down at the kitchen table, and perused this ominous looking catalog for, by now, that’s how I came to view the situation. Having consumed my coffee, I decided waiting was the better decision.
Two days later, the mailman delivered another catalog. I placed that on my desk beside the first one. Things began to look a little sticky when day five produced yet another catalog. Was Someone trying to tell me something?
Instead of placing the catalog beside two of its fellow conspirators, I took this into the kitchen, made myself a cup of coffee, and read the requirements.
Dad’s graduation photo.
Having finished the catalog and my coffee, a memory arose. It was of my father. I remembered walking through the kitchen on my way to bed. He sat at the kitchen table with the light shining on his textbooks, pencil in hand, working the problems his professor at The University of Dayton had assigned.
Dad worked full time at Delco Products in Kettering then attended night school to finish the degree he’d started years before. His studies had been interrupted when Pearl Harbor was bombed. At 40, he returned to college to complete his degree.
If Dad could do this, so could I. I put my feeble excuses aside, and spent the next three years completing my MEd and reading specialist certification. It felt good and my parents were quietly proud of me.
This is a very old Welsh recipe. The word “Bara” is the Welsh word for bread and “brith” is the Welsh word for speckled.
bara brith
Ingredients
1 pound mixed dried fruit, chopped
1 1/4 cups freshly-brewed tea
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 3/4 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten to blend
3 tablespoons orange marmalade
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
Place fruit in large bowl. Pour tea over fruit.
Add brown sugar and mix well.
Cover and let stand at room temperature overnight.
Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.
Add flour, milk, egg, marmalade and cinnamon to soaked fruit mixture. Stir until combined.
Spoon dough into the prepared loaf pan.
Bake until bread is brown and crusty and wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 2 hours.
Cool slightly. (Can be prepared up to 4 days ahead. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature.)
Makiwnyk (Poppyseed Loaf)
Here is the recipe for the makiwnyk, poppyseed loaf. This recipe was written down by me when I was about 15 years old as my mother was making it. The paper is old and falling apart, so bear with me. Don’t let this scare you from making it. I just found it and haven’t had a chance to re-do it.
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Ingredients
Loaves
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 envelope active dry yeast
2 cups milk, scalded and cooled until lukewarm in mixing bowl
3 cups flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup melted butter
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
2 cups flour
6 to 6 1/2 cups flour, divided
Poppyseed or Nut Filling
1 pound poppy seeds or ground nuts (I think she used walnuts)
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) melted butter
1 cup hot milk
1 to 2 tablespoons grated lemon rind
Instructions
Loaves: Dissolve the 1 teaspoon granulated sugar in lukewarm water (100 degrees F). Sprinkle active dry yeast into water/sugar mixture and let stand for 10 minutes.
Stir briskly with a fork. Add softened yeast to lukewarm milk and stir. Beat in the 3 cups flour. Cover bowl and let sit in a warm place until light and full of bubbles, approximately 1 hour.
Stir in the 1 cup granulated sugar, salt, melted butter and lemon rind. Beat just until mixed.
In a small bowl, beat with a fork the eggs and egg yolks. Stir into the batter. Add 2 cups flour and beat vigorously. Add another 4 to 4 1/2 cups flour working it in with a rotating motion of your hand. Turn dough over on a lightly floured surface and knead 8 to 10 minutes.
Shape into a smooth ball and place in a greased bowl turning the dough once. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, approximately.
Poppyseed or Nut Filling: Combine all filling ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat until totally incorporated, set aside.
Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
Punch down dough and divide into 3 equal parts. Roll each into a 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Spread with poppyseed filling or nut filling and roll up each rectangle in a jellyroll fashion. Pinch seams to make edges secure and turn under loaf. Place on greased baking sheets and cover and let rise until doubled in size. Brush tops with butter and bake in oven for 1 hour.
Makes 3 loaves.
* I just go out to the supermarket and purchase the Solo poppyseed or nut paste and use that – it’s quicker.
I’ve had two similar circumstances. In one, they had fired me and later discovered the program I had written that tracked orders in the company required an extensive update. They wanted to bring me back at my old pay level to fix it. I counter offered with a contractor based fee. They laughed and declined. I found out later it cost them ten times my offer to get it updated. The contractor they hired wouldn’t work on the old hardware they had been too cheap to update, wasn’t familiar with the legacy format of the database file involved, would only work during business hours, stretching out the job over many days, etc. I had offered to have it done over a weekend for $5k. It took over a week and cost $47k. I was told they inquired into suing me for damages. Since they had not fired me for cause, and because I had made a reasonable offer, I was told they were advised not to pursue it.
in the second circumstance I had left the company voluntarily six months prior. My replacement had been given all the passwords with instructions to change them on my departure. Six months after my departure I received a phone call from my old bosses’ lawyer – on a holiday weekend, no less. They wanted to know the password for a critical piece of hardware and threatened me with a lawsuit if I did not provide it. I said I would not even talk to them without my old boss conferenced in. She was on the line in ten seconds, leading me to believe she had been listening in all along. I reminded her that I gave my replacement all the passwords, including the one requested, with instructions to change them. She said he abruptly left and they are locked out. They were trying to make it my problem. I expressed my sympathy, said there was nothing I could do, wished them well, and hung up.
In general, unless you did something nefarious, the location of their files is not your responsibility after they fired you.
I’d like to define “honeytrap” for others first before answering…
A honeytrap occurs when a person, political organization, etc. use sexual favors or romantic relationships to gather information. It’s also known as “sexpionage”. This was used quite ofted during the cold war.
In WWII it would be used more for spying on others rather than gathering information in a prison camp by using sexual favors. I really can’t think of anytime that prison camps did this, certainly not the Japanese who looked down upon those who surrendered.
Claire Phillip’s set up a famous honey trap. Claire was a U.S. citizen who escaped Manila when it it fell to the Japanese. She spent a number of months caring for other guerrilla figthers in the hills of Bataan. She was eventually convinced to go back to Manilla and spy on the Japanese. Phillips ran the Tsubaki Club which was a nightclub eventually most frequented by the Japanese soldiers (really the officers).
“Madame Tsubaki” would sing and socialize with Japanese businessman and officers along with girls she trained to flirt with them in order to get information. Her girls were able to gain information pertaining to troop units, troop movements, and important goings-on by flirting (and sometimes more outside the club in the nearby hotels). The next day, Phillips would gather the information gleened from that night by her and her girls and smuggle it by courier to the guerrillas.
She also helped smuggle food and notes into nearby prisoner of war camps. Her luck eventually ran out and she was captured by the Japanese police in 1944 after one of her couriers that had been captured (who had been brutally tortured and eventually killed) gave her up.
She was sent to one of the worst prisons on the island and was put in solitary confinement. The Japanese had plans to execute her, but instead commuted her sentence to hard labor. She was freed when her prison camp was liberated.
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For her brave acts, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1951 upon the recommendation of Douglass MacArthur.
For further reading, I’d recommend – MacArthur’s Spies: The Soldier, the Singer, and the Spymaster who Defied the Japanese in World War II by Eisner, Peter (2017).
I’d also look up the story of this woman:
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Betty Pack was an American-born British spy nicknamed “Victoria” who worked for the famous MI6. She was the one who first discovered that the Poles had broken the German Enigma code.
I’d recommend The Last Goodnight by Howard Bloom (2016), to read more about her in detail.
I was a Critical Care Transport Paramedic for one of the largest prison systems.
I was picking up a 65+ year old “Lifer” who was suffering chest pains from our unit Infirmary, to transport him to the main prison hospital…
A young CO was putting the Old Guy (“OG”) in the required Full restraints while OG was laying on my ambulance cot, with a mile of wires, IV tubes, oxygen tube and sensor cables running everywhere….
Since OG had a high security rating, the rules required handcuffs with a “Lock Box”, belly chain, leg irons and a “trip chain”…
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The kid was fumbling everything…
Finally the OG, told the CO… “Dammit Kid…!! I ain’t got enough heartbeats left to wait on your ass….! YA DO IT LIKE THIS….”
….and Old Guy proceeded to direct Young CO in how to properly restrain a High Security Prisoner, quoting the Procedure Manual chapter and verse.
And the OG did a darned fine job of it…
When the young CO finished he told his LT he was going to write the inmate up, the LT told him to STFU and learn…
We had an uneventful ride to the hospital, and OG survived that and several more cardiac events before he finished his sentence… so to speak…
I liked OG…
He was respectful with the Medical Staff and COs tho hard as nails and well respected by the other inmates…
I was working for an independent Mercedes repair shop in Richmond Virginia. A customer had moved to Richmond from West Africa and had his Mercedes shipped by boat to Newport News and then flat- bedded directly to our shop to get it checked out and get a state inspection. The boss told me to drive it to another shop a few blocks away that did engine cleaning. When I got there we popped the hood and the guy proceeds to turn an industrial-sized pressure washer onto the engine. Out pops the biggest rat I’ve ever seen, maybe the size of a small dog, and we watched it run across the road and behind the nearest building. If that’s the kind of rats they have in West Africa I’m definitely steering clear of that place.
A semi-friend in high school days had a lot of connections where we worked part time. As a result, he believed he could do (or not) anything. He had been right for a year running. If he wanted Friday night off for a date — granted — something none of the rest of us got. If he wanted to come in later on Saturday morning, granted.
He’d “volunteer” to straighten up shelves, etc. and in reality he’d goof off. Sometimes he’d hang out in the stock room, other times in the break room. Sometimes he’d leave the store for as long as 20 minutes. The manager, who “knew,” nevertheless never went looking. He also knew that if he caught the kid, then what? He couldn’t fire him (connections) and yet he’d now officially know he was goofing off.
What if one of the rest of the staff complained. Even worse, what if one of the staff filed a complaint with the Dept of Labor or something like that? So he maintained his “deniability” by never going to look.
Then one day, one bagger was at lunch and the second was on break. The store had been empty but all of a sudden, there was someone at the check out. The rules of the store were that that the cashier never bagged … that was the bagger’s job.
The manager knew Jon was somewhere in one of the aisles goofing off, so he paged him to the front. No response. Paged again, no response. Finally, Jon comes wandering up, the manager points to the checkout line and Jon erupts.
“Go do it yourself you Effing lazy <religious slur name>. I bet you think that just because I have pull downtown that I’m in your <religious slur> religion but I’m not. So if you want to bag that b&tch’s groceries, get up off your lazy <backside> and do it. I’m going out for a smoke …”.
The manager said (very quietly I was told), “No, you’re fired.”
Jon started to laugh and the manager once again said, “You’re fired. Get out of this store right now.”
Jon: “Yeah right you little piece of <religious slur> <word for crap>. You’ll be the one fired when this is over.”
The manager stood his ground and told the woman in the courtesy booth to call the local PD. To Jon: you’ve got until they get here to get out or you will be arrested and I will press charges. I assume that the store will also back up any charges the cashier and the customer might want to level at you.
Then he hears the siren … he sees the cop car coming toward the store. With that, he tore through the store and ran out the back emergency exit and to his car. Not long after, he’s on the phone to his grandfather, who was his connection downtown.
But the grandfather had already heard the story so when Jon went off again, Granddad let him rant and then said “as your manger said, you’re fired. Is that all you called me about?”
I heard the story from coworkers and from him and both sides agreed on all the essential details. This was very possibly the first time anyone had ever told him no and made it stick.
In 1976 I was in college, and one afternoon a girl was screaming on the balcony of my dorm. So I went out there, and saw a student lying on his back, very pale, barely conscious, with blood coming out his mouth. Another student was kneeling over him, and said “if he dies I’ll kill myself, but he shouldn’t have messed with me”. A rifle lay on the balcony between them.
They were both freshmen, and had been on campus for only two weeks. The victim apparently was a bit of an asshole who had pranked the perp the previous week, destroying some of his property. On this day, he had been at it again, locking a different student in a bathroom and walking away. That was his last prank.
It was a small town, which did not have “911” service yet. I think there was some confusion about who was calling the ambulance – most of us were teenagers at that point. We should have carried him into the parking lot and put him in a pickup; the hospital was only a half-mile away. Finally the ambulance arrived; I think I saw his hand move as they loaded him in, but he was dead upon arrival.
The perpetrator surrendered without resistance. Apparently he had a history of mental illness, so he was found insane and was transferred to a mental institution. The rifle did not belong to him.
We can’t control the past. Wasting time to worry about it is lost time.
Sadly, we don’t get what we give. Don’t expect people to always give back. Not everyone has as giving a heart as you.
Good things usually don’t come easily. And if you think about it, great accomplishments take time too. Don’t expect rewards instantly.
Not everyone will support your dream. Haters, doubters, and pessimists will sabotage every move you make. To overcome this, follow your gut and forget them.
You are responsible for the problems you encounter, regardless of who caused them. So instead of blaming others, find a way to get out of situation.
Our words have the power to hurt. Cruel remarks wound others for life. Use your words to inspire and to liberate instead.
Failure quickly gets to our hearts, but success goes to our heads. Our character is revealed at our highest and lows. Be humble at the top. Be faithful in the valleys.
Our assumptions about what happiness should be are what makes us unhappy. Let go of your expectations about what would make you happy.
We judge ourselves by our ideas and others by their actions. Be a person who others want to meet and be around.
We all will die. No one will live forever. Start living a purposeful life and try to mend broken relationships, because you never know when life will end.
Hating oneself starts with breaking one’s promises. Once done, it feels terrible. When it becomes a habit, you hate yourself more.
Sometimes we have to ditch toxic friends from our lives and surroundings.
My first jury trial my client was accused of knowingly applying for Oregon resident hunting licenses and tags without qualifying for residency. My client owned about 40 acres of land in Oregon and had a trailer home and a large shop on the property and had utility bills for that property. He had one pickup truck registered in Oregon and one in California, where he taught at a community college, but his witnesses testified he spent summer and sabbaticals and holidays in Oregon and did not own a residence or have a permanent address in California. He paid state income tax to California and not to Oregon and had a California license, and a resentful Oregon neighbor had turned him in to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). ODFW regulations required proof of residence by any 3 of a long list of documents, including a utility bill, a Passport, and a Social Security Card.
At trial, the arresting state trooper took the stand and on cross examination I handed him the booklet of regulations, which was 20 or 30 pages of fine print and was, at the time, distributed to every place that sold licenses, and asked him to turn to the page that described the residency requirements where my client could have found the requirements when he purchased his licenses and tags. I expected the trooper to turn right to that page and I planned to establish that all my client had to do was show a utility bill with an Oregon address, his social security card and passport (which have no addresses) in order to establish Oregon residence to the satisfaction of the vender.
To my great amusement, the trooper could not find the page. He fumbled through the pamphlet, back and forth. I enjoyed that for a few minutes, and finally told him the page number. He went to that page and scanned it and said “no, it’s not there” and went back to flipping through the the booklet. I let him do that for a minute more and said “look at page _ at the last paragraph set out with darker highlighting” and he then found the part and I went on with my questioning. At the end of the trial in my closing argument I hammered on that: My client is supposed to be able to read these rules while standing in line for his license and he is supposed to understand how they apply and the trooper can’t even find the rules when I tell him what page to look on . . . “
The jury acquitted my client on all counts. I cannot say for sure, but I believe that cross examination was the best moment in the trial for me and my client. My client was found not to have “knowingly” violated the law. And my brilliant cross examination was not planned or even anticipated. I assumed the trooper would be familiar with the regulations and would turn right to the page. The witness did it to himself.
My father-in-law looked me in the eye and angrily laid a curse on me by saying: “You’re going to die a miserable old man all by yourself.” With that, he got out of his chair and stalked away.
The circumstances were I was divorcing his daughter. Understand that his daughter had had several affairs, had made my life hell for several years, and truly didn’t want me in her life. She only claimed she wanted to stay married to save face and for the Machiavellian goal of making me look like the “bad guy” because I was the one filing for the divorce.
The lead up to the above talk was my then father-in-law had called me up to come by and talk to me. I of course said yes. I had always had a good relationship with him.
I spent the first half hour listening to him about how the Christian thing to do was to not get divorced. I made sure to fully listen to him. I mirrored back to him what he was saying to make sure I understood. I didn’t interject with my counter thoughts.
When he had finished I only got about 30 seconds into what I had to say in response. He cut me off. Said I wasn’t listening to him (because I wasn’t agreeing with him) and then he laid the curse on me per the quote above.
That was the last time I talked with him some 20 years ago. As I write this I’m sitting here with my wonderful wife of 10 years enjoying a scenic overlook from the back deck of our house.
Hot Dog Sizzler, an Auto Oven Cooks Hot Dogs From the 1950s
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Want a hot dog on the road? Just plug this heater into your car’s electrical system. This 12 volt electric cooker could cook two wieners at the same time in three to five minutes in your car!
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It was called the Hot Dog Siezzler and was made by the Thomas Manufacturing Co., of Chicago sometime in the 1950s while drive-in’s were around. This was thought up has an alternative to what they saw has an expensive meal at a White Castle or McDonalds or even Carols. It only makes sense because after all who wouldn’t rather have a hot dog instead of a hamburger?
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Priced at $3.95 in the 1950s. And it also comes in a 115-volt version for the home.
Keep in mind that this is my opinion so you may/may not agree with me.
Spanish Donkey
This was a torture method that was used during the Spanish Inquisition (period of forced conversions to Christianity, killings, prosecutions and torturing). It was mostly used on women (but it was common to use on men as well) when they were stripped naked, put on the Donkey, weights were added on their legs and the point of the Donkey was to pressure the woman’s genital area and if the weights were heavy enough, it would split the victim in half. Weights were added to prevent the victim from falling off the device and to increase the agony.
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Judas Cradle
Similar to the Donkey, Judas Cradle was a torture method used to punish criminals mostly. It was a pyramid shaped seat on which the victim was put slowly to make them suffer more. The victim was tied with ropes above the Cradle and then slowly lowered to the top of the device. Men were impaled through their anus and women through the vagina. The device would leave victims in agony and if those that were torturing wanted to make the whole process worse than it already was, they would add weights to the victim’s legs. If the victim didn’t die from the pain and exhaustion (as the device was known as “the wake” as it prevented victims from falling asleep) they would die from infections as the Cradle wasn’t cleaned.
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The Brazen Bull
This torture method first appeared in Ancient Greece. The victim was placed inside a bull and fire was set under the bull causing the metal to change it’s colour to yellow as it was heated. The victim was roasted to death in the bull while the bull itself was designed in such a way that the screams coming from the victim sounded like the bellowing of a bull.
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Scaphism
This was a Persian torture method. The victim was placed in a boat and covered with one more and then forced to ingest large amounts of honey and milk. Diarrhea occured as a consequence and the smell would attract various insects to the victim. Additional amounts of honey were poured on the victim to attract more insects as he/she was left to float in a pond on the sun. The insects would burrow through the victim’s skin destroying everything on their path. It was a long-lasting torture method so the victim was in agony for days.
Back a few years ago, I had a class with a lot of kids who hated going to Phys. Ed. The teacher wouldn’t let them participate without sneakers on, so they would (accidentally on purpose) “forget” their sneakers on Gym Days. I hit up the stores and bought sneakers (on clearance) in a variety of sizes so that no one would miss their Phys. Ed. time again. One day, “Josie” wanted to wear the pink sneakers, but “Susie” was already wearing them. She cried for a minute, then got over it. That evening the principal came to me and said that “Josie’s” mother had called an insisted on a conference with both of us. When he suggested that she just talk with me first, she said that what I had done was so awful, she needed him to be there to back her up. He asked me what I had done to this child. I had forgotten the sneaker business (It was a tiny part of a very busy day) and I couldn’t think of a thing. She was a complaining mother, and I was pretty sure nothing big or important had happened. He didn’t believe me. He was sure it was something really awful. Well, the mother comes in the next day, and her huge complaint was that her daughter had wanted to use my pink sneakers the day before, and I hadn’t let her wear them. The principal gave me a look, and I gave him a look reminding him that I told it wasn’t anything big. I explained to the mother why “Josie” didn’t get to wear the pink sneakers. She was still angry and said I should have taken them off of “Susie’s” feet and let “Josie” wear them. Happily for me, the principal told the mother that if her daughter needed pink sneakers that much, she should buy them and send them to school with her. We had a good laugh after the mother left.
I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to tell you my story.
I was that 8 year old child once.
My father was an alcoholic, my mother severely depressed. I raised my sister and provided her with the emotional support when our parents were too immature and abusive to give that to us.
I would get beat up, thrown against the wall, kicked, punched repeatedly on the head by my father, his rage would shake my soul. My sister and I would drown ourselves in books, homework and play as quietly so we wouldn’t anger our father. Our mother was verbally abusive, she would break everything in our home.
My father would tell us to get lost, to get out of his way, to shut up, leave him alone, brain dead kids.
He hated us.
One day my sister and I went to the neighbors house and asked them if they had candy.
It was an elderly lady and her husband. They giggled and came out with candy for us and told us to have a good day.
A few days passed and we knocked to ask them again. This time they pulled out some chairs and sat down with us. We talked for a few hours. We told them about our hobbies, favorite books, favorite everything. They gave us candy and told us to go home and not be out so late.
The next day we visited the elderly couple and they played the piano for us. We were so amazed by their warm atmosphere, love and kindness.
Some days we would go visit and they would just sit on the front porch showing them our sweet rock or toy collections, our art and we would even sing classical songs with them.
With time they began to tell us they were busy, then they didn’t open the door anymore.
We wanted to do something nice for them and picked out flowers for them and left them at their doorstep.
I still look back and I’m thankful to have met such a sweet couple. I strive to be like them one day as an old lady with my husband.
You have no obligation, but for me those strangers meant something worth remembering in my rough childhood.
When I was in my 30s and moved into my first house (as a couple). I waited to re-paint, decorate and have locks changed and things fixed and restored, then I had a party/BBQ in my new house and invited some relatives. The party was on the patio with access to the guest bathroom and I placed sticky plastic runners on the new rugs. A couple of the relatives (the younger ones) brought some friends with them (rude to not clear it with me first) and a good thing that I have a tendency to cook way more food than I need (Nana taught me well). I was a little hyper aware of everyone’s comfort and whereabouts when I notice that two female friends of friends were missing. I knew that only one person at a time would use the bathroom so I went into the house. They were both trying the door to my bedroom (“Maybe it’s stuck”) which I had locked along with the two guest rooms and I went casually behind them and asked softly what they were doing.
They both whipped around startled. One of the women said “The door’s locked.” I actually did that because I didn’t want one of the kids to accidentally let my cats out. I didn’t say anything and they exchanged a look then asked why I had the door locked. I drew in a breath and asked them “Why do you need to go into my bedroom?”
“oh we just wanted to look at the house.”
“I think you’ve seen enough, now go outside or leave.”
They went outside…to complain. Why are there doors locked, why is there plastic runners all over the house, did you know there’s nothing in the medicine cabinet and the only thing in the vanity is an extra roll of paper (I did that on purpose).
I cleared my throat and said, “The why is because of people like you.” Their friends (Our relatives) just chuckled and kept their heads down.
Chase Explains Why Women SUCK At Picking Men And She Got UPSET
“I’m 70 y/o and this has been the case for many of the women I have known. Horrible in their choice of men. It’s on you girls, wise up.”
Sigh. Yes, completely unexpectedly. This past Friday night, my girl was actively dying from liver failure. She was within hours of death and I was staying with her to help comfort her. There were no vets to call to help ease her passing at that time of night, so I was doing my best to comfort her through it as best as I could. I was lying on the floor with her and softly petting her, telling her I was there, she would be OK, that we all loved her, she was the BEST friend I ever had, but that I knew she was very sick and when she was ready go it was OK to go, and see her mama who had passed several years ago. I was trying my best to stay calm (because me being upset always concerned her) but at one point I broke down and cried a little. My dying cat made a huge effort to stand up, rub along my side and then lay down facing me. She looked me in the eye, and put her paw on my hand and purred. This is what she did after I came home from the hospital with my baby years ago and was suffering from postpartum depression, and after I had had gallbladder surgery and was sitting in pain on the couch for days, after my mother in law passed away and any other time I was distraught in the twelve years she knew me. She was always wonderful, and even when she was dying herself she was still thinking of me. Good lord, I’m missing her!
Dong Jun 董军 was named as defense minister, taking the position formerly held by Li Shangfu.
For the first time, a Navy veteran was named to the senior defense minister position. This likely means that the Chinese government believes that, for the first time, its major challenges will come from the sea, which includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines. If conflict breaks out in any of these areas, the navy, air force and rocket forces will play a more important role than the army.
In terms of defense spending, this likely means a steady increase in budget for the navy, which is now building two more Chinese aircraft carriers.
If there is a major conflict with the US in the western Pacific, the navy, air force and rocket forces will form the tip of the Chinese spear.
This is what Xi is preparing China for, just in case.
I think by “train without wheels” you may be referring to it
In July 2021, the 600 kilometers per hour high-speed maglev transportation system developed by CRRC was mass-produced in Qingdao. This is the world’s first high-speed maglev transportation system with a design speed of 600 kilometers per hour.
In 2022, this maglev train will be exhibited at the German International Rail Transit Technology Exhibition.
In 2023, this maglev train will be displayed at the World Manufacturing Conference.
It is not a new thing, at least it has been around for 2 years.
It is a complete solution and requires a dedicated track to operate. This means that it is not a “train” that can run on ordinary rails.
It has no wheels and is suspended on the track by magnetic levitation. There is no resistance from the track. The propulsion power comes from each carriage. Technically, it’s flying in the air, just a few centimeters above the orbital surface.
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The forward power of the maglev train comes from the conversion of the electromagnet polarity between the track and the carriage. S and N are alternately converted to push the train forward.
When it needs to reverse, the control system changes the conversion sequence of each magnet, and the vehicle can drive in reverse. Since there is no need for a gearbox and complex transmission mechanism, its reversing becomes very simple.
Why Men Are NO LONGER Approaching Women!
“I’m reminded of the BLIND guy that a chick said was staring at her in the gym. The guy’s defense was obviously “I’m blind, I can’t stare at anymore” the gym still kicked him out.”
A few times people have asked me very intimate questions about my sex life; I just looked at them and cussed them out.
A hairy but non-intimate question that has been asked of me a few times: Why won’t you have a Christmas tree? Why? Because I’m not Christian, I am Jewish, and although there are some Jews who do put up and decorate Christmas trees, I don’t.
I had a friend from high school who grew more heavily Christian, and she peppered me with questions about this. One time on the phone (perhaps the last time we spoke) she asked me why I wouldn’t consider putting up a tree for the holiday. I asked her if she would consider setting up a Hanukkah menorah with candles for the holiday. When she said no, I laughed drily.
I told her this was offensive to me and she couldn’t understand why. I think that people who are of the “dominant” religion sometimes forget that not everyone is of their belief. And yes, it is offensive to me to be pestered about this. Ask once, and if I say I don’t, accept that. Otherwise, you’re going to get a jawing from me.
Maturity does not come with is age it comes from experiences it’s damn true because you can find a kid in 30 year old person and a wise person in 12 year old kid .
Some people come in our lives just for some time and then they leave us as if they never met.
Money is really important in life and It can solve at least 99% problems of our life .
No one is permanent in your life, one day everyone is going to leave you and We all know this but it’s takes guts to accept this fact .
No one can love you more than your parents, maybe at one point of life you will think that someone loves you more than them but it will be just illusion for fraction of time, which will get over with time.
Looks matter, Good looking people do get some benefits over others but of course it’s what others can do but we should always love ourselves the way we are.
Don’t give too much importance to someone or don’t do too much care because one day they will get bored of this.
There is nothing like BFF (best friend forever) because one day that forever gets replaced by never.
There is some problem in everyone’s life, so don’t compare your life with anyone; No one is really happy all the time.
We all have someone who extremely love us but only some lucky people have someone in their life who can understand them too.
I was around 30 and went through a phase where my right foot was much heavier than my left foot. I got pulled over for doing something like 80-85 in a 60 in an area about an hour from where I lived. When I went to court, the conversation between me and the judge went something like this…
Judge: This is your 4th speeding violation within the last 12 months. Do you realize this carries up to a $10,000 fine and up to six months in jail?
Me (suddenly feeling very dizzy because I actually did not realize that): Yes sir.
Judge: I assume you paid a fine each time before this one.
Me: Yes sir
Judge: It seems that taking your money isn’t getting through to you. How do I get through to you?
Me (on the verge of a breakdown): I don’t know sir.
Judge: I’m sentencing you to 6 months in jail, suspended. I’m also sentencing you to a $10,000 fine, suspended. You’re going to come back here in 3 months and we’re going to look at your driving record. If there’s nothing on it, you’ll go home. If there’s anything on it, your sentence will be carried out. Then we’re going to do that again 3 months after that, again 3 months after that, and again 3 months after that. In other words, I’m going to inconvenience you to drive back here every 3 months over the next year so we can look at your driving record. Does that sound fair to you?
Me (barely able to speak due to a throat like the Mojave desert): Yes sir.
Judge: I thought you might think so. I’ll see you in 3 months.
I walked out of there not believing my good fortune. Instead of just throwing the book at me and moving on, the Judge took mercy on me and pretty much made me walk the line. I went back every 3 months and he congratulated me each time for not having any other traffic violations.
If we’re only talking about sheer intensity (and not effectiveness) then the Soviet bombardment signalling the start of their Berlin offensive at the end of World War 2 is the clear winner.
According to Cornelius Ryan’s book “The last battle”, Soviet guns were lined up for mile after mile and stepped back caliber by caliber. The mortars were in front. Behind them were tanks, their long main guns elevated. Next came self-propelled guns and, following these, batteries of light and heavy artillery. Along the rear were 400 Katyusha multiple-rocket launchers. In all, over 20,000 guns took part in this bombardment.
At exactly 3 AM on the 16th of April 1945, three green flares soared into the sky and the huge collection of guns roared into life. In merely 35 minutes, half a million shells of all types and calibers were let loose. Many soldiers on both sides were battle-hardened veterans of the Eastern front, yet even they didn’t expect the true intensity of this barrage.
The noise was terrible. Gunners had to keep their mouths open to equalize the pressure on their ears, otherwise their eardrums would rupture. One experienced Soviet battery commander even warned his crews to not only open their mouths but also scream at the top of their lungs. The crew did exactly that but blood still ran from their ears. The most fearsome sound of all came from the Katyushas. The rocket projectiles whooshed off the launchers in fiery batches and screeched through the night, making terrifying noise like “huge blocks of steel grinding together”.
Everyone on both the German and Soviet sides suffered from some degree of deafness and could not hear very well at least for a while. In Marshal Zhukov’s command bunker, only when the bombardment was over could the staff barely hear their telephones ringing. Even residents of the eastern districts of Berlin, some 55 kilometers away from the target area, could hear the bombardment like distant thunder.
Also according to Cornelius Ryan: The German countryside beyond the western Kustrin bridgehead seemed to disappear before a rolling wall of bursting shells. Whole villages disintegrated. Earth, concrete, steel, parts of trees spewed into the air and in the distance forests began to blaze. Years later German survivors would vividly recall the strange hot wind that suddenly sprang up and howled through the forests, bending saplings and whipping dust and debris into the air.
Antony Beevor’s book “The fall of Berlin” cited Gerd Wagner in the German 27th Parachute Regiment: “In a matter of a few seconds all my ten comrades were dead.” When Wagner recovered consciousness, he found himself lying wounded in a smoking shell crater. He was only just able to struggle back to the second line. Few escaped alive from the artillery barrage which smashed trenches and buried their occupants, both alive and dead. Bodies are still being discovered well over half a century later.
The massive barrage also produced strange concussion effects. Troops and equipment alike shook uncontrollably from the shock. In houses closer to the front, pictures fell off walls, windows and mirrors shattered. In Muncheberg, a cross tumbled from the church spire. In the police station at Mahlsdorf books fell off their shelves and telephones rang for no reason. Lights dimmed and flickered in many areas. In Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten an air raid siren suddenly went berserk and no one could switch it off. Along the edges of Weissensee and Lichtenberg a sudden wind caused curtains to whip and flap with ghostly abandon, and in Erkner some inhabitants of air raid shelters were jolted out of sleep, not by noise but by a sickening vibration of the earth.
The world had never seen such a massive artillery bombardment like that before, it has never seen anything like that since.
Brian KICKS OUT PSYCHO Obnoxious Feminist!
“I genuinely don’t think she’s trolling, I think she’s literally just crazy. She has no idea how crazy she really is.”
John W. Campbell got his engineering degree in 1930. In 1970, he wrote about what would happen if an SR-71 Blackbird was magically time-traveled to 1930.
It was clearly from the future. But how far in the future?
Electronics: not a single vacuum tube. Just little plastic cases with pins sticking out. They decide to sacrifice one to understand it. It appears as if the circuit diagrams are drawn on the chip. They can’t be sure, because much of the drawing is below the resolution the optical microscopes of the day allow. They do a spectroscopic analysis of the material. It is 100% pure silicon. Turns out the spectroscopes of 1930 cannot detect the parts-per-billion of the dopants that create the semiconductors.
Power: they’ve never seen a jet engine. There does not seem to be any way for the engine to operate. They try to run it. The fuel does not burn. Turns out the special fuel (if I recall, something called J6) can only be ignited by throwing some hypergolic igniter in on the ground. If it flamed out while running, it could not be restarted.
Radio: the circuitry is more magic drawings on silicon. They can’t figure out how any of it works. Turns out it runs at a higher frequency than anything they know how to detect.
Radar: They have no idea what that horn in the nose does. It seems to emit some kind of energy, because a tech got his hand in front of it an experienced some heating. So they tried using infrared detectors but saw nothing. Centimeter radar was beyond anything they knew about, and they had no way to detect frequencies that high, beyond anything they could even imagine.
Construction: it is made of pure titanium. More titanium than exists in the entire world! Extruded into thin sheets. And welded! Everyone they checked with said that it was impossible to weld titanium because it would essentially “catch fire” and it would start oxidizing and would all burn away.
So how far in the future did it come from? They got all kinds of people together, scientists , engineers, scientifiction authors. Where did this come from? Or, when did this come from? Consensus: maybe 400 years in the future.
No, it was 40 years.
So if we can’t reverse engineer something of human technology from 40 years in the future, do you think we have any chance whatsoever of reverse-engineering something from an alien planet?
When I became a programmer in 1963, if you added up all of the bits of memory in all the computers in the world, you would have at most a few megabits of memory. I am typing this on my iPhone, which has 128 gigabytes of memory, that is, one terabit of information. Plus a GPS, Internet access, three cameras, and a telephone that can allow me to talk to anyone who has a telephone anywhere in the world in seconds. That’s a bit longer than 40 years, but not that much longer. This thing I’m holding in my hand is at a minimum 100,000 times more powerful than the supercomputer of 1963, and could be construed as a million times more powerful along some measures. It has more RAM than our mainframe of 1983 had disk space to support 30 programmers. If I walk a block in any direction I will probably pass 20 phones equally powerful. And I live in a neighborhood of single-family homes
So we probably won’t be able to do anything with that alien spaceship. It might use quantum computers that compare to our quantum computers like my iPhone compares to an IBM 704 vacuum tube computer.
When I was working in the arctic we had a mass mutiny after the boss cut our paid hours from 12 to 8, while we were down for repairs. Which was about 5 days. Those extra hours were all over time, so it almost cut our pay in half. We had signed up for 12 hour days, and just because we couldn’t work more than 8 hour days, we didn’t see that as our problem.
Our boss refused to budge, and at least 5 people submitted resignations, and said that they wanted tickets home, because the company wasn’t meeting the terms of employment.
The next day, a new boss showed up and took over, and pay was reinstated retroactively. The people who had quit ,hadn’t flown out yet, and they all returned to work.
Its hard to find qualified help in the Arctic. Cutting pay for five days, would have meant that we were shut down for at least another ten days before they could have flown in new qualified people. They wouldn’t have flown in for an eight hour day.
The old boss was transferred somewhere else, where he could do less damage. He wasn’t fired.
Back in Fort Bragg I stopped to get gasoline while I was wearing my fatigues. That was during a time when gasoline was being withheld by the producers claiming a gasoline shortage. There was a long line leading to the cashier.
To make a long story shorter, four young men came into the store and one of them came to members in the line making demands of them. I thought it was a prank on friends of the young men until he came to me. He demanded a coke I had in my hand intending to purchase when I paid for my gasoline.
I offered to buy the gy a coke and told him to go to the cooler and bring it back. He said that he was perticulaary fond of the coke in my hand. I refused to give it to him. He told me “we’ll see you outside”.
They were gone when I left the store, so I pulled up to the pump as was pumping gas into my car, when their car screeched up to mine and all existed the car. The same guy walked up to me and demanded the coke. I did not know him or his buddies and I was alone. He shouted “give me my coke”. I hit him across the head and face with the coke which was in a bottle. The bottle broke ! The broken glass sliced his head and face from above his left temple down to his lower right jaw.
He fell bleeding profusely. His buddies asked if they could pick him up without me cutting them. I told them to get him.
Skipping a bunch of details, I ended upon in court before a magistrate to be charged for assault on a minor. The boy’s father was in the courtroom and drunk as a a skunk. When he saw me walk in in handcuffs, he shouted pretty loudly “There’s the Son of a Bitch who hurt my son”.
The Judge admonished him telling him that was drunk and that he would not tolerate causing and such in his courtroom.
He man looked up at me and loudly said “Tell that son of a bitch (the Judge) that I’m not drunk”.
It turned out that the four young men were terrorizing local stores and people doing this same stuff over and over. I was released based upon defending myself.
The kid and I later became decent friends with him crediting me with saving his life. He has a scar across his face until this day but he is a law abiding and friendly young man. He is not hostile toward me at all.
As a very poor college student, I used to go dumpster diving. I found several things (radios, alarm clocks, amplifiers, etc) that I fixed and sold. I found that I could make about $40 a week that way, with only a couple hours work. Minimum wage was about $3.25/hour so it was relatively lucrative. But there were two items that I kept for myself.
In 1985, I found an old computer in a dumpster, complete with 8″ hard drive. I took it home and took a look inside. Everything seemed okay, so I went to the library and started looking for information about it. It turned out to be an Altair 8800BT, one of the first commercially available microcomputers. I stuck it in my closet and ignored it for a couple of decades, just taking it with me every time I moved. A few years ago, I came across a listing for a similar computer on eBay, and was astonished to find that it was worth about $5000! I spent about $200 getting it working again, but it is so much fun to play with that I haven’t gotten around to selling it, and the value fluctuates wildly. There is an amazing amount of code and documentation available for it on the internet.
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A few months later, I found a Sylvania Superset in excellent condition. I took it home and plugged it in. The flyback transformer was blown. I spent $30 for a replacement, soldered it in, and the TV worked flawlessly until 1999, when my (now-ex) wife gave it to a friend.
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The photos are not mine, but they are the exact same models.
The Saigon Execution photo, but not for the reason most people think.
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“Two people died in that photograph. The recipient of the bullet and General Nguyen Ngoc Loan. The general killed the Viet Cong; I killed the general with my camera.” – Photographer Eddie Adams
This picture is both moving and tear jerking for me because I know the back story. Most people look at the picture and think the South Vietnamese general as some kind of monster. When the general lost a leg in combat and received medical treatment in the U.S., many were outraged. Then-Sen. Stephen M. Young (D-Ohio) called Loan a “brutal murderer” and said his treatment in the United States was “a disgraceful end to a … disgraceful episode.”
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What most people don’t know is that the real monster was not the South Vietnamese general, but the Vietcong terrorist. Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem was the leader of a hit team that infiltrated into Saigon to execute political opponents and members of the police force. Just that morning, he had murdered 34 people. 7 of the dead had been General Loan’s own men. 2 or 3 had been Americans. The rest were wives and children of South Vietnamese police officers. All had been bound at the wrist, forced to kneel near a pit, and executed. The prisoner and all of his hit squad were terrorists who dressed as civilians to attack civilians.
Loan, fresh from intense combat with Viet Cong, literally caught Van Lem red handed. The most recent victims were one of Loan’s men, the policeman’s wife, and his 6 children. The general had literally caught the terrorist standing over the bodies of his own God children.
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Combat was ongoing. Loan had to rush back into battle. He didn’t have time to read a Viet Cong terrorist his rights. He put a bullet in the brain of a terrorist who had killed dozens of women and children. But for decades, the picture was reprinted over and over, with no context. The ignorant believed General Loan to be a villain, rather than a hero taking a monster off the streets of Saigon.
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Now the picture itself was not deceitful, nor was the photographer. But the picture was stripped of context and used to deceive the reader of American newspapers.
Late and absent both. Let’s call her Patricia. Patricia, our receptionist, was late or absent at least once a week, and she was always very apologetic and always promised it would never happen again. Eventually she was put on last chance, final written warning.
The owner and I discussed it and thought that maybe if Patricia felt that the company was willing to invest in her, she would feel more invested in the company. So we sent her to a class to improve her skills. She was very excited about the opportunity.
The day of the class was monstrous. A new client signed unexpectedly and we had to immediately come up with eight workers in the right specialty to send them, but to come up with travel arrangements and temporary living quarters in a city a thousand miles away for those eight workers. We got through it finally but I’d been covering not only my own job but Patricia’s as well and I was exhausted.
The following day Patricia came in and I asked her how the class went. She said, “I was a little late and they wouldn’t let me in.”
“So why weren’t you here? If you weren’t in class you should have come to work,” I told her.
“Well, I would have, but I thought you’d yell at me.”
I told her to sit down and I’d talk to her later. Before I said anything further I wanted to talk to the owner, who wasn’t in yet. I also called the company that provides the class in question, and they told me that while the attendance records weren’t in yet, Patricia would have had to be at least an hour and a half late before she would be denied access.
The owner and I agreed that where Patricia had already been on last chance warning for her attendance, this was the last straw. As I told her, “If you’d come in to work when they wouldn’t let you into class I would have yelled at you but you’d still have a job. As it is, you don’t.”
Old-fashioned sailboats were able to sail across the Atlantic by using the power of the wind and the skill of the sailors. They did not just sail back in the other direction if the wind changed, because they knew how to adjust their sails and navigate according to the prevailing wind patterns. Sailboats work by harnessing the force of the wind on their sails, which creates a lift that pushes the boat forward. The direction and speed of the boat depend on the angle and shape of the sails, the position of the rudder, and the resistance of the water and the keel.
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By changing these factors, sailors can control the movement of the boat and steer it towards their destination. However, sail boats cannot sail directly into the wind, because the wind would push them back. Instead, they have to sail at an angle to the wind, called tacking, and zigzag their way forward. This way, they can sail in any direction, even against the wind, as long as they have enough space and time.
The Atlantic Ocean has very reliable wind patterns, called trade winds and westerlies, that sailors used to their advantage. The trade winds blow from east to west in the tropics, near the equator, and the westerlies blow from west to east in the temperate zones, near the poles. These winds are caused by the difference in temperature and pressure between the equator and the poles and the rotation of the Earth.
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Sailors who wanted to cross the Atlantic from Europe to America would use the trade winds, and sail south until they reached the tropics, then sail west along the equator, and then sail north to reach the Caribbean or North America. Sailors who wanted to cross the Atlantic from America to Europe would use the westerlies, and sail north until they reached the temperate zone, then sail east along the higher latitudes, and then sail south to reach Europe. These routes are known as the Atlantic triangular trade because they formed a triangle on the map.
Sailing across the Atlantic was not an easy task, and it required a lot of skill, courage, and luck. Sailors had to deal with storms, waves, currents, pirates, diseases, and other dangers. Sometimes they had to navigate using the stars, the sun, the compass, and the log, and estimate their position and speed. They also had to cooperate with their crew and follow the orders of their captain. Sailing across the Atlantic was a great adventure, and a great achievement, for the old-fashioned sail boats and their sailors.
One famous example of someone who was extremely wealthy and lost it all due to a bad habit is Howard Hughes.
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Howard Hughes was a prominent American business magnate, aviator, film producer, and philanthropist who was born on December 24, 1905, and passed away on April 5, 1976. He initially gained wealth through his inheritance of the Hughes Tool Company, a successful oil tool business. Hughes expanded his empire into various industries, including aviation, film, and real estate.
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Here’s how he lost his wealth due to a combination of factors:
1.) Excessive Spending: Hughes had a penchant for extravagant spending, particularly on ambitious projects. He founded Hughes Aircraft Company and designed and built innovative aircraft like the H-4 Hercules, also known as the “Spruce Goose,” which was one of the largest planes ever constructed. These projects consumed vast amounts of his wealth.
2.) Film Ventures: Hughes ventured into the film industry, producing movies like “Hell’s Angels” and “The Outlaw.” His fixation on perfectionism and costly reshoots significantly inflated production budgets, leading to financial losses in the film sector.
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3.) Reclusive Lifestyle: In the latter part of his life, Hughes became increasingly reclusive and struggled with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). His reclusiveness made it challenging to manage his various business interests effectively, and he withdrew from public life, which hampered decision-making.
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4.) Legal Battles: Hughes became embroiled in numerous legal disputes, including battles over his inheritance, control of his companies, and allegations of fraud. These legal battles drained his financial resources and added to his woes.
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5.) Mismanagement: Hughes entrusted the management of his vast empire to a series of individuals, some of whom were not always acting in his best interests. This mismanagement further eroded his wealth.
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By the time of his death in 1976, Howard Hughes had gone from being one of the wealthiest individuals in the world to a recluse with a much-diminished fortune. His life and financial decline are often cited as a cautionary tale of the perils of unchecked ambition, excessive spending, and reclusiveness.
A woman was at my local bar in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, drinking a beer. It was a quiet early evening, maybe a dozen people in the place including the bartender and bouncer. A guy carelessly bumps into her, spilling her beer on her. He doesn’t apologize. Irritated, she points out that he just spilled her beer. I don’t recall exactly what he said, but it was very much not what a gentleman who just spilled a woman’s beer should have been saying.
Two large, tattooed dudes with shaved heads come along and sit on either side of the guy and ask him if he’d still be talking like that if the woman wasn’t alone. Because she very definitely was not alone. She was there with these two guys who had been up picking some music on the jukebox when the incident happened. And all three of them were good friends with the bouncer and the bartender. So they wondered if maybe the guy would like to apologize to the woman, buy her another beer to replace the one he spilled, and be a lot more thoughtful about how he treats people in the future. Which he agreed to. They pointed out how fucked up it was that it wasn’t until they came along that he started behaving more like a gentleman, and that maybe he should rethink his behavior towards women.
The guy left soon after, having wisely left a generous tip in exchange for leaving with all his teeth still in his mouth.
I was working at Office Depot as a cashier. A lady had over $100 in merchandise. She had a coupon from Staples that was for $10 off of $50 and asked me if I would honor it. We did accept competitor’s coupons. I told her of course, not a problem. She produced it, and I was reading the fine print to make sure that it was valid. Some coupons will have exemptions, such as not being allowed to be used with HP ink. As I was trying to read the fine print, the lady told me that I said I would accept it. I agreed and asked her nicely to please be quiet so I could read the fine print. She was quiet for a few seconds and stated again that I promised that I would accept it no matter what. I told her that I didn’t promise, but please be quiet, I need to read in silence. She was quiet for a few seconds and brought up the fact I said I would honor it. I slammed my hands down on the checkout counter and told her if she would just shut up, and let me read it, we would both be happier. That shut her up long enough to see why she was trying to distract me. The coupon had expired two days prior. I looked at her and she blushed. I said, now I get why you were so insistent about my saying I would honor it. She started stammering out an apology. I told her not to worry, I would still honor it. I did because I figured, we were still making $90 from this sale, and most likely she would come back here to shop. I did ask her if she tried to use it at Staples and they wouldn’t honor it. Yes, they told me to try and see if Office Depot would accept it.
I expected to be fired for the way I talked to her and that I accepted an expired coupon from Staples.
Instead, she filled out a survey saying how wonderful I was and now she would only shop with us. She transferred her printing over to us, which generated over $1000 in sales monthly. The general manager asked why I honored it knowing it was expired. I told him because I said I would, but I did tell her that all the conditions had to be met first. Once I saw it was expired, I figured the $10.00 loss was nominal in making a customer happy.
My mother saved my life by cursing me out and making me go to school. It was the day after my 11th birthday. I had every intention to stay home and play the new Super Nintendo games I had received for my birthday. Usually, my mother wouldn’t have had any problem with this, but that day she was adamant that I was going to get up and go to school. We got into a terrible argument and both said very hurtful things to each other. I had no choice but to go.
As soon as I got to school I had this overwhelming feeling that I just wanted to go home and lay on my mother’s lap and cry. It wasn’t because of the argument but it was something else I just couldn’t put my finger on. The school day was finally over and I still couldn’t shake this feeling. My godbrother and downstairs neighbor wanted to come over and play the game and even though I still just wanted to get in the house and cry, I reluctantly agreed.
When we got to the door it was locked. No big deal. Looked under the mat and the key wasn’t there. Still not unusual. I climbed up the back patio and let myself in. I immediately went to the front door to let my company in. After I let them in I went to the kitchen to get a piece of cake and my downstairs neighbor went straight to the tv and cut it and the game on.
For some reason, my godbrother started to walk through the apartment. When he came back into the living room he told us that we needed to go outside. We begrudgingly went. Once outside he proceeded to say “I don’t know how to say this, but your mother is dead”. I darted back in and went straight to her bedroom. She was tied to the bed with the phone cord and her throat had been sliced open. There was blood everywhere.
I ran back outside and downstairs to call 911 as our phone wasn’t connected at the time. I didn’t really know what to say and I think the operator must have thought it was a prank because she hung up on me. So I called my grandma and told her. After that, I just sat on the bottom step until the police and paramedics started pulling up. My grandma arrived shortly after and it gets blurry from there.
It will be 26 years on September 26 that this happened. Still no arrests. I feel like everyone in town knows exactly who did it, the same people I’ve been saying for years, but no one is willing to say anything. Mind you her boyfriend was killed in the same way about a year before. This happened in Plymouth, North Carolina, and her name is Sonja Day. You can also look at details of her boyfriend’s murder on the North Carolina Innocence Commission website under the Spruill case. My cousin was wrongfully convicted of his murder and after all this time they are finally trying to do something about it. I’ve always been adamant that the same people are responsible for both murders.
Sorry for being so long-winded. Probably should have made this its own answer. So that’s how my mother saved my life. I would like to think that if I stayed home that day, I could have saved her somehow, but it likely wouldn’t have gone that way.
Edit: Wow! I never thought that this many people would read this. I would like to thank everyone for their comments and well wishes.There are a few things happening that may lead to an arrest. I feel like the end may be within reac. I’ll definitely let everyone know how it works out.
1-Everyone is on a different journey. You may just be starting yours while the other person might be at the end of his/hers.
2-Comparing yourself to others is a losing battle. In the game of life, you will never reach a point where you are better than others in every way.
3-What you are comparing against is inaccurate information. What people present to the outside world is usually an edited version of their reality.
4-Your dream is likely different from others. If you have a big dream, it will take a while before you achieve it.
5-Comparison saps you of your limited time, you’ll be better off paying more attention to your dream.
6-All you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.
I once left a backdoor on an Android app since I was working with a client that couldn’t be trusted whether they would pay me or not. Heard from another developer that they let him develop and ran away with the software and never paid him.
It was like this, whenever the app starts it proceeds as usual but on the background it sends a request to one of my servers, if the request reaches the server and the response is code 200, then its ok, am still waiting for the payment the app can proceed as usual, if 201 then I wasn’t paid, so crash the app, clean all preferences and change url that was saved in preferences makes the app completely unusable for good. If 203 then I have been paid in full, proceed never send any request to my server again.
And my guess was right,I made the app, haven’t send the code to the client yet (they didn’t need the code though, it was a full running app), they started using the app, told me some stuffs, I fixed them, everything is set, they love the app, it was even more than they expected, I even made them an admin dashboard with a bunch of analytics to monitor all their data for free as a way to make them like me to work with them in the future, in my price I even included free up to 3 months bugs fixing if any were to occur, they were so happy with the results.
Then they immediately disappeared, waited for their reply for two weeks, nothing, not even a reply to tell me to wait, its like they all died from a hurricane or something, they even changed the pass to their server so I couldn’t get in and kill it, that was proof enough that they clearly ran away with my software. So I sent the 201 status code from my server and the whole app froze, all clients they connected couldn’t use the app anymore, immediately the following day they tried to contact me, I tripled the price after seeing they wanted to scam me. They paid me in full the same day through western union, I sent a fully working app with no backdoor, and all the source code. And that was it, I’ll never work with these guys again.
I will put a backdoor if you are a bad client, if you are a good one or pay in advance I’m not putting any, or if we are in the same country because I know I could sue you. I hate backdoors anyway because they are too risky no matter how much I try to secure them, the fact that they exist is a problem.
My wife has a face painting and balloon business. Before the pandemic, she was booked over three hundred gigs every year at hourly rates that would make a lawyer happy.
Once April 2020 hit, her business dried up. No parties. No festivals. No grand openings. No fairs.
We shrugged our shoulders. Oh, well!
She refunded her pending contracts to keep good customer relations. I went to work as usual. We actually increased our savings since then. My job covers our needs.
We’re fine!
The reason is our modest house. We made do with a smaller home and aggressively paid the mortgage down when times were good. When rates dropped, we refinanced. Our mortgage payment is only 1/4 of my monthly net income.
This could have been a very stressful time financially. I’m very grateful that it hasn’t been at all. I wouldn’t trade that security for an extra room or a big garage.
Modest home all the way!
It’s a true story
Said by “Al Bundy” actor of Married with Children. But it is a true story.
Funny story. The Air Force never wanted the A-10 and never wanted to support the Army in ground attack roles. They only adopted the A-10 to save their budget from the Army demanding to develop and provide their own CAS solutions.
Fast is great for a lot of things but the A-10 is able to loiter and remain aloft at much lower speeds, allowing pilots to see what was developing on the ground.
Six A-10s can be produced for the cost of one F-35.
A-10s are 1/6th the costto fly each hour.
A-10’s are mission capable at nearly double the rate of the maintenance intensive F-35.
The F-35’s are rife with problems that are slowing production and have cause groundings.
F-35’s stealth is far less useful in low and slow engagements because it can be detected and killed by people with eyeballs and manpads. The A-10 suffers this problem too but it’s more durable and cheaper to replace.
Every F-35 lost to CAS missions will be detrimental to other sorties the plane might have flown.
I like the F-35 but it’s not really a good plane choice for getting down in the mud with the grunts.
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If an F-35 was shot up like that’ I seriously doubt the pilot would have managed to fly it home.
EDIT:
Folks, I never mentioned Ukraine. I never suggested sending the A-10 into combat without other types of aircraft designed to make their use tolerably safe. I also never made the A-10 put to be some sort of superhero airframe, unable to be killed. I specifically answered a question about the A-10 vs F-35/F-22 in close support of troops.
During my son’s 12th grade year of school another student broke his leg during football.
At the hospital, after the X-ray the nurse came in to wrap my son’s leg. She grabs his leg and bends it to the side, and I hear this pop noise as my son screams out.
I yelled at the nurse and made her leave the room. At this point the head doctor and head nurse rushed into the room. I told them to get my son’s pain under control. They gave him a shot and after he relaxed I explained what the nurse had done. I told them that I should sue the hell out of the hospital for allowing a person man or woman to work with patients that clearly has no damn idea what the hell she is doing.
The doctor and nurse took the bitch into an empty room and she walked out of the room and walked out of the exit door. She looked at me with a hateful look and I called her a bitch, and the doctor witnessed it. He told me it will be dealt with.
Not sure if she was fired or just sent home on probation.
Barley with Mushrooms (Scotland)
mushroom barley 3f
Ingredients
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
2 medium onions, chopped
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 1/4 cups boiling water
1 cup barley
2 teaspoons instant chicken bouillon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
Instructions
Cook and stir mushrooms and onions in butter 5 minutes; place in ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole.
Stir in remaining ingredients.
Cover and bake at 375 degrees F, stirring once, until barley is tender, about 1 1/4 hours.
When I was in 3rd grade my parents got a collie for me. Lassie was big on TV and I wanted my own Lassie. We named her Lady. She was the perfect pet and protector, especially of me. We lived in Omaha in a split level house. The kitchen, a bedroom, and a combination laundry room/bomb shelter were on the back of the house, the lower level. My brother, sister, and I shared the bedroom.
My parents both worked so when we got home from school, we’d stay with the lady across the street, who also took care of my younger brother who was not school age yet. We would leave Lady in the neighbor’s back yard during the day.
One day I wanted something from my room so I took Lady with me to our house. I was part ways down the back stairs when I realized the back door was open and a man was standing in the kitchen. He had apparently just forced the door. He was holding a pry bar. I froze and he started towards me, not seeing Lady behind me on the stairs. She met him as he was coming up and tore into his arm holding the pry bar. He dragged her to the door and out and I called her back as he ran away. We never learned who it was, though my dad suspected one of the neighbors.
There were two other times Lady probably saved members of our family. She woke us up the night our house burned down and got us out within five minutes of the entire ceiling collapsing.
The other time was when we had moved to South Carolina. We lived on the last street at the edge of town. Behind us was a wide field, then some woods. A few miles past the woods was a prison work camp.
My dad was gone bowling and my mother, sister, brother, and I were watching TV. It was summer and the side porch wooden door was open. The screen door wasn’t latched. My mom’s car was parked right outside the door.
My mother saw a man come over the back fence and look in the car windows, probably for keys, then walk up onto the porch and look through the screen. She called out, “What do you want?”
He didn’t say anything, just walked into the living room. He saw a woman and three kids but he didn’t see Lady, who was lying by the TV. She saw him, though, and without a word from us she was across the room and tearing into him. He bolted out the door, and she was chewing away at his legs as he went over the fence. We ran outside and turned on the porch light. He was running across the back yard, and Lady backed up to get a running start and leaped the fence. She caught him again at the back fence and worked on his ass some more. When he got over the fence and disappeared into the night, my mom called her back.
The police came and said he was an escapee from the prison camp. They brought dogs and tracked him from our house and found him in the woods. I suspect he had a healthy fear of dogs by then.
He wanted the car keys and who knows, he might not have wanted any witnesses to call the police.
Lady passed away while I was overseas in the military. My mom told me my dad sat on the floor and held her for hours until she was gone. We all loved Lady as much as she loved us.
I’ll narrate two instances where I’ve witnessed a beautiful manifestation of “bro-code”.
Mine was a co-ed school. Our class strength was divided almost equally between girls and boys. One of the guys, Inzy, had a massive crush on a girl from another section. He was too shy to speak up however. He thought she was out of his league (whatever that means!).
Our class fellows immediately got down to image building. They casually started talking about Inzy with the girls of the other section. Not with his crush. They chose the other girls, carefully avoiding “the one”. The tales of his intelligence, humility and humour started being discussed amongst the other girls and this piqued the interest of his crush.
Some girls soon started interacting with Inzy with their casual helloes. And as expected, Miss. Crush bumped into him outside our Chemistry lab and asked him to clear some doubts. Inzy did not know what hit him! He did manage to sail through with his explanation.
Inzy found his girl, all thanks to his bros who worked behind the scenes and set the ball rolling for his love story. We girls also contributed our bit… by keeping quiet about the entire set up. Wasn’t easy!! :p
The second instance is a bit gory. There were a group of boys who used to hang out regularly at the corner of our street. They were college students who had known each other since their childhood. One of them was Omi bhaiya (elder brother). He was a gentle giant, forever helping others.
One day another gang of boys from some other neighbourhood came to our locality. That day our regular group of elder boys had not yet converged. The gang went up to a lone guy who coming back on his cycle and started fighting with him. He tried to escape but was surrounded. The gang was getting aggressive and soon withdrew hockey sticks and bats. The commotion drew the attention of Omi bhaiya who was casually walking towards his usual hangout. He ran towards where the whole scene was unfolding.
Just as the cyclist was about to be slashed with a blade, bhaiya caught the sharp weapon, with his bare hands! His hand was slashed across the palm. Seeing blood gushing out, the neighbouring gang guys ran away. Turns out that it was a fight over some insult.
When bhaiya was asked why didn’t he call for help and instead held the blade, thereby harming himself, his answer was simple. “The boy being attacked is my friend’s younger brother. He’s like my own. Couldn’t take a chance. Bros always look out for each other.How could I see him get hurt?”
Cesnica (Serbian Christmas Bread)
Cesnica Serbian Christmas Bread
Ingredients
7 3/4 cups flour
3 tablespoons yeast
1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons salt
Warm water
Instructions
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
Combine flour, yeast, shortening and salt. Knead with enough warm water to moisten until dough separates from hands. Dough should be firm, not tacky.
Put dough on greased pan. Let rise for 10 minutes in warm area.
Perforate dough with fork. Insert clean coin (quarter or gold dollar) and spread dough flat like a pizza.
In one of my job interviews this year, I was asked, “How much do you think the chewing gum market is worth in the United States?”
If you haven’t encountered a question like that before, it might sound like a crazy thing for an interviewer to ask. For one thing, I knew absolutely nothing about the chewing gum industry. For another, if I ever actually needed that information, the smartest response would probably be to pull out my phone and Google it.
But the purpose of doing estimations like that isn’t to figure out the right answer – it’s to practice structuring your thinking in a logical way. You can learn the gist of how to do it in a minute, and you can use this kind of logic for the rest of your life.
Estimations like these are often referred to as Fermi problems, or back-of-the-envelope calculations. To solve one, you’re supposed to figure out a way to break the main question into a series of smaller components that can more comfortably estimate. Then, you put them back together to arrive at an approximation of the final answer. The trick is to ask small questions to reach a bigger solution.
For example, this was how I estimated the size of U.S. chewing gum market:
I knew that there are about 320 million people in the U.S.
I knew that the average lifespan in the U.S. is about 80 years. We’ll assume that age is evenly distributed among the population (not actually true, but close enough for our purposes.)
Teenagers and adults – say, between the ages of 10 and 50, so about half the population – are the demographics most likely to chew gum. Let’s guess that about 75% of them are gum-chewers.
Small children under the age of 10, and older adults over the age of 50, are the demographics least likely to chew gum. Let’s guess that 25% of them are gum-chewers.
If we do the math, that gives us a total of about 160 million gum-chewers in the U.S.
On average, each of those people probably chew at least 1 stick of gum every week.
Most of the packs of gum I’ve seen contain about 15 sticks of gum.
There are 52 weeks in a year. If we round up a little, that means the average gum-chewer buys about 4 packs of gum every year.
I’d guess that an average pack of gum costs about $5. That means that 4 packs would cost $20.
That gives us about $20 per person * 160 million people = $3.2 billion spent on gum every year.
I had no idea if that was right or not – for all I knew, some of my assumptions were completely ridiculous. But maybe some of my wrong assumptions canceled each other out. I Googled the question afterwards, and I found that the U.S. chewing gum market was worth $3.9 billion in 2015, which means I at least got to an accurate order of magnitude. And best of all, I got the job!
If you want to try doing one yourself, here are a couple of fun ones:
How many gas stations are there in your country?
How many hair are on your head?
How many airplanes are there in the world?
How many customers visit your favorite restaurant every year?
How many Quora answers have you read in your lifetime?
Right before I attempted suicide (and 2 months after my heart attack), I asked my “wife” to tell me that she loved me. She refused. We weren’t fighting or anything. She just refused. So I asked her to lie to me and say that she loved me. I was feeling low and my body was failing me. I’m a veteran who been through a lot. So she decided to make confessions. She said that it was NOT her responsibility to tell me that she loved me or that I was attractive. If I wanted to feel loved or attractive, go to therapy instead. She also revealed that she hated the educational gap between us and said that she despised living in my “shadow” and being known as my wife.
This absolutely BROKE me. The final straw was when I told her that she broke my heart and she just shrugged. I absolutely wasted 20 years of my life.
Originally Answered: what was the most interesting thing your teacher said?
Original question: What’s the best thing you’ve heard your teacher say?
The first day I walked into my 10th grade chemistry class, the lights were off. The teacher was waiting at the front of the room, holding a small candle in front of him. The candle’s tiny flame was the only source of light in the room.
The class murmured a bit, confused and excited. Once we’d all quieted down, the teacher said, “Tell me some of the observations you can make about this candle.”
We paused for a moment. That seemed a little too easy for chemistry class.
“But keep in mind,” the teacher added, “that observations are the things you observe empirically. Inferences are the things you conclude… and inferences can be wrong.”
We stared at him, wary now.
At last, someone piped up, “Um…The flame is yellow?”
“The flame gives off heat.”
“The wick is burning.”
“The wax is cylindrical!”
The teacher raised his eyebrows at that one. “Are you sure?”
We stared harder at the candle, not sure how to respond to that. It definitely looked cylindrical.
The teacher shrugged. Then he put the candle into his mouth and started chewing.
The class stared at him.
At this point I was wondering if I ought to call the emergency room or something, but the teacher just kept chewing as though nothing was wrong. Eventually, he swallowed, shrugged again, and said, “Actually tastes okay.”
As it turns out, the so-called “candle” wasn’t made out of wax at all. It was actually just a slice of banana, with an almond slice for the wick.
The student’s “wax” statement had actually been an inference.
After explaining this to us, the teacher turned on the lights and said, “If there’s one thing I want you to learn in this class, it’s the first rule of scientific thinking: Never assume that your mind can’t lie to you.”
And that’s the story of how my 10th-grade chemistry teacher swallowed a candle to teach us the first principle of scientific thinking. Here’s to you, Mr. Miller.
Test someone’s attentiveness. Alter a sentence slightly. If they’re attentive, their expression changes or they ask about the change.
Handshakes reveal personality; they can show anxiety even if you hide nerves.
Avoid being too available, especially to close ones, except for parents. Excess availability makes you seem less important; they might take you for granted.
Instead of dinner and a movie, watch the movie first, then dine. It gives you a dinner conversation starter.
Don’t react hastily. Don’t expect acknowledgment. Think before acting!
The thing that people remember the most about you is your personality, way of talking and attitude.
The Communist Party of China (CPC) originally did not have any party property and was a political party with 0 assets. The word “bankrupt” cannot be associated with CPC.
But the Kuomintang (KMT) in Taiwan owned party assets and was indeed bankrupt.
image 566
If you mean “the Chinese government / State Council (PRC)”, then I can tell you for sure that the Chinese government also has 0 assets, and they are only the managers of state-owned capital, not the owners.
If you mean “China’s financial sector”, then I can tell you with certainty that China’s savings rate is 45%, 10 times that of the US. China’s savings rate is even 11% higher than Japan’s, despite the fact that Japan is also an ardent thrifty nation. The main reason for this is:
Chinese people have a sense of worry and are always used to saving money to prevent and cope with emergencies and unforeseen events.
Chinese people generally have the habit of saving, no matter poor or rich, they all like to save their income in the bank to accumulate more money, instead of using credit cards to spend money in advance as westerners are keen to do. You can even ask the little black brothers in San Francisco why they like to rob the Chinese, because they know that the Chinese like to go to the bank and save their money, and they rarely spend tomorrow’s money today like the whites do.
The savings of 1.4 billion people is a huge amount of money, which is the “ballast” that keeps the ship stable, so the risk resistance of China’s financial industry is much higher than that of Wall Street’s financial industry.
In other words, even if the global finance collapses, China’s finance will not collapse.
Becket (1964) Richard Burton & Peter O’ Toole
Debauched King Henry II (Peter O’Toole) installs his longtime court facilitator Thomas Becket (Richard Burton) as the Archbishop of Canterbury, assuming that his old friend will be a compliant and loyal lackey in the King’s on-going battles with the church. But Becket unexpectedly finds his true calling on the ecclesiastical side, and aligns himself against the King’s selfish wishes, causing a rift and an eventual showdown not only between the two men, but also the institutions they represent. (IMDb)
The story of the wife that assisted in my “retirement” from the ONI; MAJ is a long one and very painful for me to revisit.
You see, I was the FOURTH “husband” that she “retired”.
I originally thought it was two, but I discovered out later that she had three previous "husbands". Of course, they were bad, bla bla bla... And yes, each one ended up with problems. Where she profited greatly.
And while I don’t know ALL the details, it appears that I was the one that she got NOTHING out of. For she was living off the collective finances of the three previous “husbands”, whether insurance, alimony, or selling their resources. She got none of that with me.
Because of this…
… because of this failure in her efforts (sure she got me arrested, and I lost everything, she gained nothing.) She ended up with nothing. No profit. No money. No resources. No insurance settlements.
I think when you are expecting millions of dollars from bringing in “one big fish” only to see it go South, it turns you a little crazy. Or “crazier”.
And she has kept on doing everything in her power to “trip me up” and give me a hard time. Here is one such story…
…
When I was in the ADC, prison, I had to endure an all morning lie detector test. I, along with another 16 inmates were marched down to the gym, and waited as one by one, we were given lie detector tests. This one was quite different from the stuff that you see on television.
While it did measure heart-rate, body temperature and nerve impulses, it also measured voice. It was designed to look for changes in frequency and amplitude. Which was a novel idea. I had never thought about this. So all these measurements were taking place while watching my pupils dilate and all the rest. The system was designed to see ho my body reacted to all sorts of personal questions of a sexual and an interactive nature.
I answered as best as I could, and at the end the investigator told me that I wasn’t hiding anything. And of course, I wasn’t. As at that time, I had given up everything. I was stripped, defeated and was completely unguarded… an open book. Once you lose everything, you just don’t give a fuck any longer. It just doesn’t matter.
In fact, the other inmates made fun of me saying that “you can’t lie for shit“. I was that much of a predictable open book.
The point of this was to adjust our threat level. There were three threat levels. And when I was “retired” from MAJ in the ADV Pine Bluff, they established the lowest threat level for me.
But, apparently, my ex-wife, the one trying to poison me as part of my “retirement” wanted to raise all sorts of Hell for me, and this was one of her efforts. So she got the ADC geared up to give me a hard time. Sigh.
Federal Rules for classification are fixed.
I have level one. I possessed illegal pictures.
Level two would only be granted if I had physical contact with a minor.
And Level three was bodily harm to a minor.
So there was no way that my level was going to change. But they had to run a lie detector on me, by request by my ex-wife, to make sure that I wasn’t hiding anything. Sheech!
And if they suspected anything… they could keep me locked up indefinitely. How about that for control and power?
…
Ugh. Memories like this really get me into MAJ induced rages. Good thing that I auto calm, and am way, way, way outside the USA right now.
Not me but happened to a friend of mine: she worked in a large law firm in Dublin, Ireland. Her boss was a total prick, probably a psychopath. During the recession they cut people’s wages and even stopped serving coffee at meetings in order to cut costs – not that any of the senior partners took wage cuts. It is very expensive to live in Dublin; the situation was so bad that there was a constant stream of young, under-paid, financially struggling solicitors entering his office and begging for a pay-rise, any kind of pay-rise. With every one of them he pointed to a tray on his desk filled with c.v.’s and said if you don’t want to work here I have a large bundle of applicants who would be happy your take your job. No one got a raise.
Things came to a head when my friend entered an open competition for a position with the state-run Residential Tenancy Board, a kind of mediation body for disputes between landlords and tenants. It was known that my friend, along with several others in the same firm had sat the exam, and she scored extremely high, placing near the top of the panel. It was rumoured that the boss had applied as well. At the end of the office day he approached her desk and basically accused her of rummaging through another colleague’s desk and stealing his notes for the exam – something along the lines of “How can you prove to me that you didn’t go through Brian’s desk, and read his notes?” (Not that he gave a shit about Brian). This is a lawyer, asking another lawyer to prove her innocence under the presumption of guilt, that she was guilty until she could prove herself innocent. She knew this situation was untenable and said well I wouldn’t do that because it’s immoral, and illegal but it now seems clear to me that it might be best if I work somewhere else – she basically quit there and then in the most tasteful and honourable fashion. He exploded on the spot, demanding to know who would take over her cases and workload. She replied, “Well, you have a large bundle of c.v’s on your desk, hire one of them.”
China has been the biggest power for 4800 out of the last 5000 years yet China did not invade or colonise nations thousands of miles from their shore!
China will not do what the U.S. do. That is for sure. It does not want to dictate to the world. It is too mature and responsible. China don’t see it is right or is it worthwhile for it to interfere and intervene every where. The repercussions to the U.S. is much greater than the U.S. dares to admit and bit by bit the U.S. benefits will evaporate and the humongous cost to the US will come home to roost.
China wants a free and vibrant world that is doing well and prosperous. When a peaceful and harmonious world becomes a reality China will trade with everyone. That is good for China, the Chinese people and the world too. Wars, interference and interventions are costly and harmful for the world. China sees it vividly and clearly that respecting the sovereignty of all nations is good for the world.
Just think about the U.S. spend billions building aircraft carriers and spend further billions to manned it and spend more billions circling the globe aimlessly. And if these interference lead to war, more billions need to be spend to fight these wars. And what does the US gets in returned? Mainly hates and disdained is all that they earn!
China is not blind and it is certainly very smart. It won’t want to do what the U.S. do. Not now, not in the past and not in the future! To China, the U.S. is “throwing sand in the sea” and basically self destructing.
Thirteen years after my dad died, we were notified that his father purchased land in another state, now owned by his children. A gas well was drilled on the property. Since my dad had died, his portion went to his three children. This is where the greedy part comes in.
My mom heard about this, I assume from my sister. She discovered that only us kids got to divide my dad’s portion. This news pissed her off to no end. Immediately, she got an attorney and demanded her share of the gas lease.
When the company that drilled the gas well communicates with the family, they copy EVERYONE. This is how I learned that my mom hired an attorney to ensure she got a piece of the pie. (I have been no contact with my narcissistic mother for fifteen years.) My mom took me out of her will years ago; she wanted to make sure I didn’t get too much. My mom’s actions were out of revenge and greed. If she couldn’t get it ALL, then she was going to make sure that I didn’t get more money than her.
Here is the best part. After years of waiting, my husband and I finally got a big check. One day, out of the blue, we received a envelope which we thought was another letter about the gas lease. After opening the envelope we could see it was a check. We were in disbelief, our jaws dropped, we could barely contain our excitement. As we looked at the numbers on the check, our minds began to wonder about the amount that was on my mom’s check. This was unreal. It was like no other point in our lives. This check changed our lives. It was the answer to our prayers. It proved to us the existence of karma!
After my husband and I calmed down, we started discussing how and where we would spend our $35.00. But more importantly, we laughed all the way to the bank, thinking about how much money my mom spent on an attorney to get a check that was less than $50. It was the best check we had ever received!
My dad’s share of the lease was 1/8th. Since he had passed, his three kids would split that into three equal portions. From what we can tell mom got 1/2 of dad’s share and left the other half to be split into thirds. In the comments people say that my mom is entitled to my dad’s share. I agree, yes she is. But the way she went about it was based on anger, revenge, and manipulation. I would have gladly given her my share if she’d asked. The last time my mom and I talked it was on this issue, I told her if I got any money from this I would put it in savings for my son – her grandson – who has a neurological disease. She decided to get the money for herself, which meant that she was so mad at me that she would take money from her grandson.
I worked in security at Heathrow Airport for a number of years and one of my roles was to process departing passengers. One day a tallish man tried reaching over a perspex barrier to retrieve a bag that was emerging from the x-ray machine. I was in the process of removing it in order that it could be inspected. He said “Do you know who I am?
I did. I won’t name him but he was the son of our serving prime minister at the time. He was the one who got lost for a few days whilst engaged upon a car rally across the Sahara desert.
Had he been as important as he thought he was he would have been escorted by the security service.
When I was a young boy in Calcutta, one of my mother’s friends used to come over to our home on Sunday evenings and enjoy a glass (more like 7 glasses) of scotch. He was the MD of a medium size publicly listed company, a colourful character, had led an exciting life and always had stupefying stories to tell. He later went on to become the chairman of a very, very large listed Indian steel giant.
It might just have been the alcohol talking but he told us this.
He was at work one day when an ordinary looking man entered his office without an appointment. He invited himself in, sat down across the desk. Put his hand inside his bag, took out a sleek black pistol and put on on the table, barrel facing the Managing Director. He said, “look how bad your current security is, I could get in with a gun and so can anyone else. I represent XYZ Security firm. Our retainership amount per annum is Rs ABC. When do we start?”
When we moved in to our new house in 2020, my then 17-year-old son got his own bathroom. It wasn’t an en-suite, but it was right next to his bedroom and rather isolated from the rest of the house, so while others may use it, that was “his” bathroom.
One of the first things he did after moving in was get a nice-looking basket which he filled with a selection of high quality feminine hygiene products and placed on the back of the toilet.
He had read that a courteous host does that to make the women in their lives feel comfortable and welcome and to save them embarrassment if the need arises.
I think your husband’s friend needs to grow up at least as much as my teenager.
Edit —-
Before you think he’s too awesome, realize if I didn’t clean his bathroom, no self-respecting woman would ever use it.
I had tickets to see Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young at the Tampa Bowl on a nice warm evening. We got there early and as it was stadium seating we spread our blanket maybe 20 rows from the stage, right in the center. When the band came out they announced that they had a permit that would allow them to play into the wee hours but they were going to start the concert with some acoustic music.
During the first bars of the first tune the boos started. “We want rock and roll!!!” and so on. The noise from a mob of clowns down front was drowning out the music. Then someone threw a beer bottle onto the stage. The concert stopped abruptly. One of the singers again announced that the would play rock and roll until the wee hours but they intended to play an acoustic set first. The cheers drowned out the boos.
They started again but the assholes made it difficult to hear. For the second song, Neil Young sat down at the piano and started doing a solo. You may not believe this, but a “cool” thing to do among assholes back the was to get a mouthful of lighter fluid and as they spit it out they’d light it. People were shooting flaming liquids toward the stage. Finally, the police came in and hauled off a couple of morons. Young started to play again and there was more shouting and a beer bottle landed in the piano. Then a cherry bomb landed on the keyboard and exploded. Young got up and walked backstage.
The stadium went silent. Ten minutes later a helicopter landed behind the stage and it took off right away. The stadium lights came up and a guy walked out and announced that the band had left and the concert was over. We headed towards the other end of the stadium and out because we feared what the scumbags might do. That was the entire concert.
The tattoo is supposed to be a very serious and deliberate thing because it is permanent in a sense. However, here are some people who did a very funny tattoo in Chinese character. Maybe they did not know what is the real meaning of these Chinese or, I don’t know, they just want?
I saw many tattoo pictures of the non-Chinese person on the Internet and they can be roughly divided into three kinds.
1. Chinese old sayings
People did this type of tattoos generally know the meaning of that, but Chinese people rarely tattoo them on their bodies.
Beckham’s Chinese body tattoo
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(Translation: Life and death are fated, riches and honour depend on the appointment of heaven)
Kenyon Martin
image 371
(Translation:Worry about personal gains and losses)
This Chinese idiom refers to very selfish people who pay too much attention to their own gains and losses.
Jameer Nelson
image 370
(Translation: Nothing is a taboo.)
2. Chinese food
A 20-year-old British designer fancies Chinese cuisine very much. One day, she came up with an idea that tattooed Chinese cuisine names on her waist.
image 369
(Translation: Sweet and sour chicken; fried noodle with beef; fried rice with egg and chicken meatballs.)
It looks like she printed a Chinese restaurant menu on the body. Next time she walks into a Chinese restaurant, all she has to do is rolling up her tops and say: I want this. Interesting.
This man got “Fried rice with pork” on his calf.
image 368
(Translation: fried rice with pork)
???
Are these people trying to cook themselves?
image 367
(Translation: Fish ball soup and sweet sour meat)
3. Some very confusing tattoos that are beyond my imagination
This is the funniest part. Many tattoos are far beyond my understanding.
My husband had been raised by his grandparents so felt he owed them. We devoted our time to taking care of them and their house. We took them shopping, did the gardening, painted, built the wheel chair ramp and anything else they wanted. They had a daughter and grandchildren who refused to do anything. She said they lived their life now we are going to live ours. Then grandparents and us got the flu, they had a disabled daughter who was staying with us since grandma was in the hospital. She got released and we were told not to go near her. We asked the daughter to go get her and take her home, she sent the granddaughter. Granddaughter let her out in the street and drove away. Grandma called us and disabled daughter wanted to go home. I called the other daughter and told her off, granddaughter had to go to the airport to get her boyfriend. Why couldn’t she come after she got him, or her married brother? Her brother had to be home with the wife and kids. Grandma said let the disabled daughter come home. Grandma defended the daughter’s family. My husband was not included in the estate only his aunt. He was nothing to them but a handyman. He gave up and said we were moving unless he was in the will. We moved away and let them take care of the grandparents however they want. Grandma was widowed by then. Not sorry I told off his aunt. I never lose my temper or use harsh language, so they knew I was mad.
Chicken with Mangoes
Mango Chicken 3 1
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 whole chicken breasts
1 (2 x 1-inch) piece fresh ginger root
8 scallions
1 (15 ounce) can mangoes
3 cups vegetable oil
3 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons dry sherry
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons instant chicken bouillon granules
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Instructions
Combine flour, 1 cup of the water, the salt and baking powder. Beat with whisk until blended. Let stand 15 minutes.
Remove skin and bones from chicken and discard. Cut chicken into 1/4-inch wide strips. Mix strips into flour mixture.
Pare ginger and cut into wafer-thin slices.
Cut onions into 1/2-inch pieces.
Drain mangoes and cut into 1/2-inch wide strips.
Heat vegetable oil in wok over high heat until it reaches 375 degrees F. Add chicken, one strip at a time, to hot oil (cook only 1/4 of the chicken at a time). Cook until golden, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on absorbent paper. Repeat to cook remaining chicken.
Remove all but 1 tablespoon oil from wok. Reduce heat to medium. Add ginger to oil in wok. Stir fry until ginger is light brown, about 2 minutes.
Combine remaining 3/4 cup water, the vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, sugar, cornstarch, bouillon and sesame oil. Carefully add to ginger all at once. Cook and stir until mixture boils.
Add onions. Reduce heat and simmer 3 minutes.
Mix chicken and mangoes into soy sauce mixture. Cook and stir 2 minutes.
There’s a newspaper in St. Catharines, Ontario, called The Standard.
The lady who worked the classified ad desk never missed a day of work. Rain or shine, sickness or health, she was there taking orders for classified ads which, at the time (the 1990s), were the lifeblood of any newspaper.
Then, one day, she had to be rushed to hospital.
And that day, ad revenues were twice what they had ever been.
A quick check of actual advertising revealed the paper was only being paid for half the ads they ran. An investigation showed that their classified clerk was moving large amounts of money through her bank account, mostly to go on shopping sprees.
They quickly figured out the reason she never missed a day is that her replacement would immediately notice that a lot more money was coming in than usual, which would indicate she was skimming half the proceeds for herself.,
I was working in Manhattan. I got a call from my kid’s school that he wasn’t feeling well and had to go pick him up. I had just finished developing a CD-based training program (this is early 90s, before this stuff was done online). On my way out, my assistant told me the CD master had just arrived and gave me a little plastic bag with the CD in it. I was in a hurry to leave and figured I could drop off the CD at home with my kid before returning to work.
Getting around Manhattan basically means getting into and out of yellow cabs. It’s pretty easy to find one.
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Typical New York street
I catch a cab to my kid’s school. About 15 minutes later, I get dropped off. I greet my little one in the headmaster’s office and tell him we’re off to the doctor’s. As I’m waving down a taxi with my kid’s hand in mine, I realize I don’t have the CD bag. We go back into the school and it’s not there. Nobody remembered seeing me with a bag and, frankly, I didn’t remember having it in hand when I walked into the school. Oh, well, I thought, that was stupid. This was before Uber where you could call your ride to check on the back seat. This was, in fact, before everyone had cell phones. The bag and CD were gone.
I refocused on getting my kid to the doctor. Got him checked out. Got into another cab to a nearby pharmacy to pick up a prescription. Walked home and dropped my kid off with his nanny who was waiting there.
All this time I was hopeful they would be able to reproduce the CD master, wondering how long it might take, if it might delay the project, if I should tell my boss, etc.
I wave down a cab to go back to my office. While I’m thinking about all these things I see a bag on the floor. I pick it up and pull out my CD.
My assistant sees me walking in with the bag. “How is your baby? I thought you were dropping that off at home.”
“Kid is fine. Oh, the CD, yeah…” I figured she wouldn’t believe me if it told her the truth.
I watched an investigative reporter type show look at liens in Ontario. It turns out that in Ontario they have this weird, habit of leasing hot water heaters, like it’s a car or something expensive. When they install the hot water heater, you sign a contract that lets them put a lien on your house until the hot water heater is paid off. They were typically 10 year leases. The lien is on the house , regardless of who owns it, and new owners just continue paying the lease, if you don’t pay it out. Anyway, there were some crooked companies that took advantage of this, and wouldn’t let you sell your house, without paying out the lease, and they wanted huge penalties, tens of thousands of dollars for early payment. Picture this, you have sold your house for $800,000, and everything clears, but it can’t be completed, because of this lien. They ask you for $15,000 to break the lease on a hot water heater that was worth $800 new. What do you do? Lose the sale? Pay the breakage fee?
So I would do what you can to find out early, because you don’t want to be held over a barrel when you go to sell it.
When I was in, I think, my 2nd or 3rd job in computers, my company was rolling out email and word processing applications on our central computer. This was the late 80s and it was all green screen with satellite offices using PCs as dumb terminals.
I was sent out to all the sites to do maintenance on the PCs and train the personnel how to use the new applications.
Our business was primarily prepacked concrete mix for contractors and homeowners. At each location they would mix and bag the product for distribution to their regions.
At every plant I went to, when I opened the PC case, there was a 1/2in of powdered concrete covering the motherboard. It’s a wonder any of the machines didn’t crash from overheating!
Decades ago, I received a past-due notice for a loan payment to a bank I’d never done business with. Puzzled, I called the bank. After explaining my confusion three times, I finally was talking with someone who had sense enough to look into it instead of fobbing me off to someone else.
“Did you make a purchase from Such-and-such Music Store?” Indeed, I’d purchased a piano for my wife a month or so earlier. (Might’ve been nice if the salesman had mentioned they’d turn the loan over to a third party, but whatever.)
I then asked the bank worker how the *very first* communication I’d received from the bank could be a past-due notice.
“You should have received a payment coupon book,” she said. (As indicated, this was ages ago.)
“I’ve received nothing from you till this,” I replied.
And then, to my everlasting amazement, she said, “I know. The printing company we use had an equipment breakdown and the coupon books haven’t gone out for a while.”
That “I know” blew me away. The bank *knew* their customers weren’t being told when their payments would be due, and how much they would be—and, in cases such as mine, didn’t even know their loan had been sold to that bank—and instead of notifying people, they just sent out overdue notices.
With a late fee attached, of course.
So I told the nice lady that I’d be happy to make the payment, but I would not stand for a late charge.
Now it was her turn to be puzzled. “Why not?”
“Because I wasn’t late—*you* were!”
In the end, she had to have a VP call me later, and after I went over it all again, he agreed it was kinda dumb for them to send late notices to people who didn’t even know they had a loan with that bank, he waived the late fee.
I got my driver’s license near the end of my sophomore year of high school. I got my first car a few days before that… a used ’86 Bonneville.
From that week forward, I was 100% responsible for getting myself anywhere I needed to go, including to and from school, my friends’ houses, and my after-school job. I already had a key to the house. I had a “curfew” of 10pm, but my parents always said that “whatever side of the door I’m on when they go to bed at 10 is where I’m going to be all night.” They had a chain lock on the inside of the door, so my key was useless if they locked it that way, which they did every night when they went to sleep.
Fortunately for me, I wasn’t very social and I didn’t stay out late anyway. They made exceptions for nights when I was working. I was a prep sports stringer for the local newspaper, and some nights I didn’t get home until 1am because I was covering a game several counties away.
My parents never actually locked me out. My sister, on the other hand, was locked out a few times because she missed curfew. My father was nice enough to put a recliner and a blanket for her on our screened-in porch. She slept out there more than once because she got home late.
It was the South, so it didn’t get too cold most nights. I doubt I could get away with that with my kids here in Chicago.
In 2015, one day a school boy named Amit was going to school. On the way he was hit by a car. Amit was bleeding, he needed immediate medical help but that car driver didn’t even stop and he didn’t feel to take Amit to nearby hospital. Amit was lying on the road, some people came and took him to a hospital but unfortunately he died. Amit’s dad Jitendra ji came to see his son and he was shocked to know about his little child is no more. Amit’s mom was in deep grief. In just a moment a happy family was shattered.
image 353
Image source: Web/Google
Jitendra ji filed a complaint but the police didn’t investigate. They even closed the case without informing Jitendra ji. This was ridiculous!
Jitendra ji and his wife just wanted to know his son’s killer. They wanted to question that man why he left Amit alone to die, he could have been saved if he was taken to hospital on time. They just wanted a Sorry. Was that so difficult??
Jitendra ji decided he will find that man who killed his beloved son. On the accident spot, he found a broken rear mirror and a broken car number plate. Car number was not full, but on the mirror there was a number. He asked from the local service centre but every time he got dissappointment. One day with hell lot of efforts a mechanic told him that this mirror is of a Maruti Car. Jitendra ji went to the manufacturing unit of the Maruti cars. He told his story and there people helped him. With the mirror number he managed to find the car registration number and with registration number he found the car owner’s name – Gyan Chand. It took 8 years for Jitendra ji to find the real culprit.
He went to police again with all the proofs and now again police disappointed him by not filing the complaint. He then moved to court and here also he didn’t get justice, his plea was rejected not just once but 4 times repeatedly. In Jan 2023, he again appealed to court for the 5th time. This time court accepted his request and asked the police to re-open the case but till now no arrest has been made.
Jitendra ji fought 8 years to find all the evidence and the person who killed his son. He is still fighting for the justice and he has told that he will fight till his last breath untill and unless his son’s killer get punished.
This story is deeply heartbreaking…….
image 352
Image source: Web/Google
I Salute Jitendra Ji from the bottom of my heart🙏
Amit would be Proud of his Dad❤
**Update : On 21st Oct 2023, Police has arrested the accussed, Gyan Chand.
One of my former student’s mothers. This was several years ago now. Her son was in 8th grade and read at a second-grade level. His handwriting was illegible. When he typed his assignments, his sentences were incoherent or not related to the assignment at all.
This was made worse by the fact that he was not a discipline problem. He sat quietly in class and looked like he was on task and understood the material. But he didn’t. He didn’t understand any of it. Even the easiest things in all of his classes were well over his head.
His mother said, at every single parent/teacher meeting, that her son was “a nice kid and just a little slow, but he would get it together soon.”
No. He needed special education services that our school couldn’t provide. The mother had been told that for years, but she didn’t want to hear it. In her eyes, her son was perfect. She was paying for private school for the purpose of avoiding the “special ed” label they’d give him at the public school.
So, the teachers did the best they could to accommodate his needs. Of course, it wasn’t enough, because he really needed a one-on-one, full-time tutor.
I actually know what happened to him. I heard through mutual friends that he went to a private high school which did have a special ed program (although they called it something else), he graduated from that special program, and is now working full-time as a helper in his uncle’s business. Good for him. That’s probably the best thing for him… to find meaningful work with a trusted family member.
I never really had a last conversation with my mother. She was in a memory ward in a nursing home. She had been having strokes was no longer able to walk, and the strokes had affected her swallowing. Her care was beyond us.
Unfortunately, COVID hit and the nursing home was locked down so we couldn’t go in to talk with her. We had been visiting almost daily. The conversations had become one sided due to the alzheimers, but at least she remember us. The day came when we got the call that she had slipped into a coma and that we had finally gotten permission to go in and see her. My last words to my mother were that I loved her, that she had been a great mother/grandmother and that it was OK to go home. She seemed to be waited for my sister to get there and say her goodbyes. My mom died a few hours after my sister left.
No matter how much time you have, somehow it’s never enough.
MY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SAVED ME FROM HUMILIATION.
It was the evening of farewell for our 10th Grade. Our juniors had arranged an eventful farewell for us.
After all the entertainment and other stuffs, it was time to felicitate the top rankers of our class. I was called on stage to receive the award for securing the 1st Rank in the class.
I went on the stage brimming with pride to receive my prize from the School Principal. Little did I know what a blunder I was going to commit.
Here, 2 things you all need to know are:-
First, this was the first time I was going to stand on the stage in front of 100s of people. You can deduce what my condition was, from the fact that I was so immature that I didn’t even know what stage fright was!
Second, this whole scenario was taking place in the Evening. (Yes this is important to know!)
Then came that doomed moment. I was asked by the school principal, a young and kind-hearted lady, to speak a few sentences about my experiences in this school and the hard work behind my academic achievement.
I held the mic, still happy on receiving the award. As soon as I formed a few sentences in my mind and was just about to utter those words, the reality hit me. I saw an ocean of heads staring at me curiously to listen to what I am going to say. I went numb. I forgot everything I wanted to say. There was a complete silence for a few seconds. I knew I had to start. And then my brain which had ceased to work since a few moments, told me, “OK buddy, it’s not that difficult. You can begin by greeting the crowd .”
Feeling the breeze of that contrastingly cold evening, I gathered courage, forced a smile and softly greeted the crowd by saying, “Good Morning”.
There was a dead silence. Before I could even realize what a silly and humiliating mistake I have just committed, my principal took the mic from my hand, turned towards the crowd and said ,“As this is his first appearance on a stage, this is a new morning for him. So, it’s not a Good Evening but a Good Morning to everyone from this bright young kid.”
And then I realized what a silly mistake I just did. I felt embarrassed but at the same time I stood there in utter disbelief and appreciation of the intelligence of my principal. She just protected her student by her brilliant presence of mind.
I can’t think of a better instance of presence of mind in my whole life.
In 1859, a geomagnetic storm called TheCarrington Event¹ disrupted electrical infrastructure across the globe.
…what there was of it.
…which was telegraph service at the time.
(and that’s pretty much it)
The Event was perpetrated by solar flare activity so unprecedented that the Auroras Borealis and Australius were visible from both poles to the equator, with such an intensity that night became day, disorienting humans and animals alike.
Telegraph offices that failed to go offline in time caught fire and burned, and those that did shut down remained operational for hours, despite being disconnected from their power source, due to the massive worldwide electromagnetic surge.
All news, for all intents and purposes, was once again local for the duration of the aftermath.
Newspapers couldn’t report on events outside horse riding distance.
The 19th Century reverted to the 18th Century in one fell swoop.
Now…what we do know for certain about the Carrington Event is that it wasn’t a one off.
It had happened before and it will happen again.
And THE NEXT TIME, unlike 1859, we will likely have satellites in orbit, and planes in the air.
…and cars that run off batteries, and those that don’t which have electronic ignitions.
…and power lines to heat our homes in the winter and cool our homes in the summer.
…and an Internet that we’ve basically come to rely on to maintain a global economy.
(that too)
And all those things are gonna go bye-bye for a time.
The quote about living “in interesting times” is erroneously attributed to the ancient Chinese, but it was actually coined by the American politician Frederic R. Coudert on the cusp between the Great Depression and a second world war.
No matter how bad things get for Mankind, we can all rest assured of one thing for certain:
It certainly can be. On my second trip to India I suffered a broken cheek bone and two black eyes at the hands of several youngsters who were barely teenagers. It was my completely my fault, by thinking that playing Cricket twice at school would allow me to play with these kids who live and breathe it. Having came across a game just starting my Indian friends talked themselves into playing and must have imagined that being English I played the game. But being brought up on a council estate in London it was football or boxing never cricket or rugby. I had played it twice at school and never even touched a bat. Anyway I thought I’d have a go and how hard can it be? Fucking hard thats how hard. The bowler could only have been 13 at the oldest so I was not worried I stood there holding the bat as I had seen them do it on tv. I then saw him running up, his arm lifted to throw and then white light and pain as I stepped forward straight into the bounce of the hard cricket ball. Wow I felt stupid and had a few weeks of discomfort. But I did gain respect for cricket and often go and watch it at Lords. I always support India(unless playing England) in thanks for this lesson.
My mom died when I was 9 of a cancerous brain tumor. It hurt like hell and it took me years to recover. Maybe I still haven’t.
My Grandma, a widow, got remarried when I was about 15 or so to a great man, and when I left at 19 to do a couple years of volunteer service at my own expense in England, I remember hearing he wasn’t in good health. About 4 months in, I learned he also passed away.
It was at this time I got a letter from my oldest sister. As I pulled it out of its envelope (most letters still went this way), a small slip of paper fell out. On it was written, in my sister’s handwriting, in a purple pen, just one sentence, “Aaron, always remember to be my strong little boy” and under it was something that looked like somebody trying to get a pen to work – quick scribbles back and forth in a small area.
I thought it cute, but odd, and set it aside, then I read the letter. My sister quickly said, “Aaron, I was going through an old drawer of things today, cleaning it out and found this. In her last days, Mom asked me to write out a little note to each of her kids, and then she signed them at the bottom. I’m sorry it’s not very legible”.
I immediately began sobbing as I picked up the little paper again and felt the warmth of a mother’s love well 10 years after her death.
Dan and I were headed into the Canadian Rockies in September. The weather was miserable. On the way it a younger guy had passed us by. He was carrying a day-pack sized backpack and he made fun of our big “old-style” backpacks. He was nice enough about it and we just smiled and watched him fly by.
A couple of days later we were camped in place just below timberline and it was raining hard, windy and not far above freezing. We were comfy and dry in our tents, had hot food, good raingear and all was well, even if it wasn’t all that much fun. The young guy came into the area and set up his camp. He had a thin foam sleeping pad, a thin down bag, and a tarp measuring about 8′ x 8′ that he set up very low to the ground.
The next morning it was still drizzling and cold. The young guy came over to our camp. He was shivering and soaking wet. He had a light rain jacket and no rain pants. Also, he was barely coherent. “Ggggguys …. I … I … I’m uh, I’m ….uh …. I need help.” We sat him in the entrance of Dan’s tent and gave him hot coffee and some oatmeal. We got him out of his wet raincoat and wet shirt and wrapped him in a fleece jacket. He began to relax. We all decided the he just needed to get out of there ASAP. Dan and I went over and packed up his gear. It was like a wet sponge, all of it.
When we got back he was doing OK. He had semi-dry t-shirt in his gear and he put that on plus his wet raincoat. Dan walked down the trail with him for a mile or so. When he got back Dan said that the kid had warmed up and seemed good to go. Oh, and that he’d apologized for making fun of our packs.
It happened last night. To be fair, she was likely 18–22, so barely an adult.
STORY! My husband and I went to our city’s downtown area for dinner and a carriage ride. We paid for dinner and realized we needed money to tip the carriage driver because we only had a $50 on us. DOH!
Note: No, we aren’t bougie like that. My company paid out a small company bonus with $50 bills.
It was okay – there was a candy store and we had time. We poured out a small scoop of chocolate and checked out. There was some issue with the cashier understanding that us paying $50.04 for $6.04 was in her favor, but math is hard.
Now, this is what the US $50 bill/note looks like:
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Actual quote from her: “Who’s on the $50 bill? Is that King Edward?”
Blink. Blink. What? A KING?!
We had to explain to this adult that no, this was not a king. It was Ulysses S. Grant. There’s even a county in my state named after him.
Her manager, who was a few years older, then said, “Oh yeah! I remember his picture on the wall in my history room. Didn’t he wear a really tall black hat? He looks fatter here though”
We pulled out a penny and asked if she was thinking of Abraham Lincoln. The manager then said, “Oh yeah! That’s the guy. Isn’t that the same guy?”
Oy. I’m sure President Grant is rolling over in his mausoleum.
My cousin had an old beater car. He always drove it on empty, and only added a dollar or two of gas at a time. He didn’t think it was worth stealing, so he left the keys in it, in his back yard, while he ran into the house to get something.
He heads back to the car, just in time to see it go around the corner. He calls the police, expecting he will never see the car again.
The police phone him 10 minutes later, to tell him that they have his car.
Its at the local gas station. It had run out of gas, they had pushed it in the last few feet, and filled it up with gas. But we’re having a hard time starting it, after it had run out of gas. The gas station was only a few blocks from the my cousin’s, and the attendant recognized the car, and called the police. It was a very distinctive, beat up beater.
My cousin needed a boost to get it started, and then worried that the weight of the full tank of gas would wreck his car, because it had never seen a full tank before.
It turned out to be a bunch of teen joyriders, and the charges were dropped against them. My cousin said that they doubled the value of the car, by filling it up, so he wasn’t too stressed.
So in this case the first thing they did after stealing the car was fill it up with gas.
I’m cranky and I’m tired, and I worked hard at school…
Not me, but my sister. She was a manager for a membership warehouse and they had this one woman that would come in once a month, demand a one-day pass, do her shopping and then pitch a fit when she couldn’t use her credit card (it was cash or debit card only). And she did this every month. Well, she demanded to speak with a manager and since my sister was on duty, she got to deal with her. Once again, my sister explained the rules to her and offered to take care of setting up a membership right then and there. The woman didn’t want to pay the $55 and began to berate my sister who was waiting her out. Finally, the woman shouts at her “To go to hell” to which my sister responded, “Ma’am, I’m already there.” Could have heard a pin drop in the membership areas as all the employees turned to stare at her. The “customer” had nothing further to say, so my sister calmly turned and left.
*The woman never came back to that warehouse. My sister wasn’t fired (for that) although her boss had a good laugh about it.
Two effing massive barbecue grills that I didn’t order that were on my back door when I got home from a business trip around midnight. Thankfully UPS or whoever delivered it (can’t remember which carrier) was naive enough about cyber security to have included the correct recipient’s phone number on the shipping label.
I texted the correct recepieny about it and, being way too nice, told them that I have a pickup and could deliver them but they were way too heavy to load on my own so someone would have to come help me load them.
The husband came over, we loaded them, i delivered them and we unloaded them at his house – all was well. Years later I still get packages and mail for them. I realized that we have the same numbered address and street but I’m SOUTH xxxx Avenue and they’re NORTH xxxx Avenue.
The mail that comes omits the north or south so I assume they’re too dumb to specify that important data element when giving out their address (because the address on the envelope, each time doesn’t specify north or south). it’s happened way many times to just be a coincidence.
So now I don’t bother delivering items, I text them that it’s happened AGAIN and ask them if they want to come me pick it up from my front porch or have me mark it as “wrong address” and see what happens.
In 1967, Doug Hegdahl was on a recon mission in the Vietnam War.
His boat cruised along the river, and as he it did, a battle broke out and he was thrown into the water. He panicked and swam for shore.
Unfortunately, Doug swam towards the Vietcong side of the shore. They greeted him with prompt beating and dragged him ashore screaming.
Doug was tied up and thrown in a cage. They debated on whether to execute him. As they interrogated Doug, he realized they were trying to determine his usefulness. He gave goofy, incoherent answers, talking crazy. Then he repeatedly shouted, “No water buffalo!”
In Vietnam at that time, owning a water buffalo was a sign of moderate wealth. He was saying he was poor.
Being poor was good. The Vietcong hated wealthy people. His rambling earned him the nickname, “The Incredibly Stupid One”.
And while other US soldiers were tortured and killed, the Vietcong felt too bad for him. They thought he was an American version of the poor, dumb man forced into the front line in a war.
Little did they know, he was gathering information. During his years in prison, he memorized the names of 200 prisoners of war, along with the intimate details of the enemy base.
During a negotiation, the Vietcong chose him as their release thinking he was a simpleton and no threat.
Doug got home and immediately gave a press conference.
He told the US of those prisoners, and their freedom was obtained.
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He memorized the 200 names using the song Ol’McDonald Had a Farm. He even needed to hum it when reciting the names back over.
You may not relate to his situation, but Doug’s experience gives insight into dealing with dangerous authority figures.
For example, if a cop pulls you over, it is better to play dumb rather than listen with your mouth, and explain everything you didn’t do wrong.
More broadly, it’s generally better to be guarded with what you know. True genius is knowing when not to reveal it.
Chicken with Walnuts in Plum Sauce
Plum Sauce Chicken Recipe3
Ingredients
1 cup walnut halves
1 teaspoon beaten egg
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon cornstarch
6 chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds), boned, skinned and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/2 cup oil
2 teaspoons plum or hoisin sauce
1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
2 green onions, finely chopped (garnish)
Instructions
Pour boiling water over walnuts and let stand 5 minutes. Drain and pat dry.
Combine egg with 1 teaspoon oil and cornstarch in small bowl. Add chicken pieces and toss gently to coat them evenly.
Heat 1/2 cup oil in wok over medium high heat until haze forms.
Add walnuts and fry until golden about 45 seconds. Remove with slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
Add chicken to wok and cook until golden, about 3 minutes. Drain well.
Pour off all but thin film of oil. Return pan to heat, add plum or hoisin sauce, ginger, sugar, soy sauce and sesame oil and stir until combined. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring constantly until sauce begins to glisten, about 1 to 2 minutes.
Add chicken and walnuts and mix thoroughly with sauce.
Transfer to heated serving platter and garnish with chopped green onions.
Today, my friend told us a joke. 70 years ago, the United States led 18 countries to fight with a P5 country on the Korean Peninsula (let’s call it a draw). 20 years ago, the United States led 11 countries to invade a small country with domestic troubles and foreign invasion ( eventually failed). In the past few days, the United States found 10 countries to against Yemeni Houthi. Because of the shortage of troops, they even ask China join them，China certainly refused without think too much.…Fighting with a Yemeni local armed force, even ask China to help big hooligan?(´•ω•̥`) 🐼: I suggest you back home,massacre the kindergartens and sweep the geracomiums…
Houthi isn’t ET…
The changes of opponents by the US Army shows they are more and more laggard indeed.
Now they even often make this kind of arguments,enough to explain two problems:
Some US people already brain dead.
The infrastructure in the United States has been in disrepair for a long time, and even the frequency of failure is ‘on and off like a light switch’.
So, we don’t care what you say，today communications ‘on and off like a light switch’ and tomorrow there will be more things ‘on and off like a light switch’.Keep complaining, you’ll get used to it.
The U.S. Navy has ‘experience, the PLA-N has ‘experience’ in reading about what the U.S. is doing, and how they do it. Asking ‘probing questions’ (even here on Quora) is one direction, as well as ‘working’ with Canada, which has a record of ‘loose lips’ regarding ANYTHING military that China seeks.
I’m sure China has some ‘tricks’ up their sleeve as well. This is one of their newer ships (21NOV23) in which they ‘seem’ to be ‘faking’ damage to their ship, which may come in handy when they DO find themselves under attack. NOTHING would break-off an attack faster than ‘looking like this’:
One morning, a new guy showed up. As was customary, he “shared” his tale with the rest of us.
He was legally blind, but somehow managed to work as a successful stock broker. Unfortunately, on the side he had also developed one hell of an addiction to crack.
One Christmas morning, he had dressed up as Santa to entertain his kids. But he needed to sneak outside to take a few quick hits of crack before the family woke up.
Due to his visual impairment, he didn’t see the cop car rolling up the street. He got arrested.
Next day the local newspaper featured the headline that a crack-smoking Santa Claus was arrested Christmas morning.
I looked down at the grass. Clenched my jaw. glanced around and people were desperately trying to contain themselves.
The guy said, “it’s OK. Go ahead and laugh, guys. You have to.”
It was a full minute before we’d laughed off the image of a crack-smoking Santa Claus in cuffs.
I and a couple of friends headed to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor for a conference followed by dinner. We ate at the Tir Na Nog Irish pub and sat next to the windows that looked out over the little amphitheater space where street performers entertain tourists. Lovely view of the corner of the harbor and the other pavilion. Directly below the window was a vendor’s cart selling all sorts of electronic gadget accessories (think cellphone covers, etc).
As we were eating, I watched the crowds milling around the plaza and people buying stuff from the cart. Then I saw a teenager sneak around the back of the cart (which was facing the window) and start pilfering stuff from the cart. He just jammed it into his backpack with glee while the vendor was busy talking to customers on the other side.
Turns out those “customers” were the teen’s parents. Once the teen had filled his pack, a second younger child moved in and did the same thing while the other one kept watch. Then a third child, even younger, darted in and took stuff as well. The vendor finally caught on to the scam and screamed for police. The BCPD always patrol that plaza to protect the tourists, so three bicycle cops appeared pretty quickly.
Meanwhile, we watched as the three kids met with mom and dad to show their loot. Then they spotted the police and all three bolted in three different directions, which appears to have been predetermined as a method of escape. One of the kids wasn’t so lucky and got pinched.
Mom and dad were screaming bloody murder about the police harassing their children.
At that moment I realized how stupid we’d been up in the restaurant because none of us thought to video the incident. But we all felt we owed that poor vendor some help, so down we tromped to the plaza, leaving one person to man our table so no one thought we’d jumped the check.
We informed the police of everything we saw, that the kids were the shoplifters, but that the parents knew full well and participated. The officer asked us if we would testify to that and we said of course.
End of the story: All three kids were arrested, but the police didn’t have enough to arrest mom or dad (because that’s how the scam works). We were called back to Baltimore to testify. The kids were really hard core according to the prosecutor. They were playing all sorts of innocence BS. But when she told them four witnesses were primed and ready to name them all, they folded and agreed to plea deals.
Very sad day for American childhood that parents used them in this way.
There is no such thing as the world’s best? Each country ought to have what they each see as the best for their nation and their people under different circumstances unique for them, over a development level that is different from country to country.
You can say every nation thinks they have the world’s best for themselves. They ought to be. Otherwise why would they choose it? Surely they all want to do the best for themselves right?
These words or symbols or slurs such as Communism or Democracy or Socialism are tags for various purpose. Some times to simplify some times to discriminate one against another or worst to slur and demonised. These labels meant nothing more, as each nation is shade of grey and not black or white.
The U.S. for example calls itself Liberal democracy. But in reality it is neither democratic nor liberal at all. Is 0.8% of the rich or and powerful decides that the 60 odd % of their people who bother to vote have only two choice Biden a senile or Trump a perpetual liar to choose from, surely that is not democracy!
The U.S. with a mere 4% of world’s population has 25% of the world’s prisoner’s population, surely it cannot liberal nor free? But U.S. can called itself whatever it wants!
China calls itself socialism with Chinese characteristics but the U.S. insists on the label. “Communism” for worst connotations to cast fear and hate on them! If you repeat it like this questioner do, it simply help your media cast hates on China.
To me if the west can call the U.S. a Liberal Democracy why can’t they tern China as Socialism with Chinese characteristics? It is no different from Western media calling Palestinians as “terrorist” and Isreal as freedom “fighter” These slurs and suggesting good is clearly a set. narrative!
It goes well for several months. They begin to squabble a bit and have disagreements.
He figures, if they don’t get along, they should just break up.
Later, he begins dating Rebecca. She’s pretty. But after a few months, he realizes she’s not smart enough for him. That relationship ends too.
Later, Mike begins dating Katie. Katie is super brilliant. And cute too. But he realizes he doesn’t think she’s cute enough. He wants brilliant and super cute.
And funny. Where is funny?
Finally, he meets Angela. Angela is smart, pretty, and funny. But not exceptional at either three. So he ends things with her too.
Mike never ends up settling down. He ends up living as a lonely old man in his final years.
He became a victim of advice taken too literally and at too much of an extreme “don’t settle”.
The truth is – we all settle. In some form or another. People regularly subject themselves to unfair expectations of a prospective partner.
We all have work to do. It’s better to find someone to do the work with. Or accept them as is and forget the work.
Remember, with any advice you read, from me, or anyone else, there is a huge grey area to work with. I can’t tell you how to read that grey area. That’s where you’ll need to swim on your own.
Don’t be a knucklehead who only thinks in black and white. We have enough knuckleheads in the world already.
It was a small local ‘high-class’ restaurant (no longer in business) I went to with some colleagues to celebrate one of their birthdays. The first thing I thought was a joke was the uninformative and poorly-formatted menu that contained things like “Different fish and chips 12”, with not another word to explain what was different about it and the ‘12’ meaning a price of £12.00 being far from obvious.
Even more of a joke was the way the food was presented. I ordered a burger from the main course menu (described of course as something like “house burger 11”), expecting something that would fill the plate and come with chips and salad as is the norm. No, what I got was a tiny bun less than half the size of the plate containing an equally tiny burger, a slice of tomato and a lettuce leaf, all by itself with not a single side. The punchline of the joke: to make it look bigger and fill the empty plate, the burger was served ‘open’ with the top half of the bun placed alongside it for no apparent reason!
I ate the whole burger and someone else’s leftover chips but was still hungry and had another meal when I got home. The whole experience still feels like a surreal joke, yet was deadly serious, and I wasn’t at all surprised when the place closed down not long afterwards.
Because Alexander the Great’s Army was leagues ahead of every other Army on earth. There was no close second. Alexander himself gets the credit but I don’t think this is fair. I honestly think Alexander was “meh” and won thanks to his great Army.
Let’s start by breaking it down.
1: Foot Companions
The regular infantry was called “foot companions”. These guys wielded a very long spear/pike and a small shield. Now at this time, everyone fought with a shield and spear however most spears were rather small.
It took years of training for the soldiers to learn to use the pikes. Additionally, these guys were all trained in small unit tactics, hand-to-hand combat, and all sorts of special stuff.
image 357
2: Companion Cavalry
The Companion Cavalry was the greatest unit of cavalry ever (arguably) and certainly the best at the time. Cavalry at this time were mostly scouts and fast-moving infantry. They couldn’t really charge into enemy lines given stirrups were not around.
Alexander’s cavalry was unique. These guys were trained for years and years on fighting on horseback. They could charge an enemy head-on, flank around them, or dismount and fight as infantry. They were the elite of the elite.
3: Shield Bearers
The Shield bearers were the “SpecOps” of the Macedonian Army. These guys fought like standard infantry with shorter spears, swords, and shields. They were hyper-flexible, extremely well trained, and capable of nearly anything.
Alexander’s Army was capable of things NOBODY else could do. They could fight in the trenches, outmaneuver an enemy, perform complex tactical actions, and do it all with ease. These guys were the most experienced, best-trained, and most elite soldiers on planet earth.
In a time when armies were civilian-based militia with a small core of trained troops, Alexander had a professional Army at his back.
A stack of bricks isn’t a house as much as a mob of men is an Army. Make sense?
Now, most give credit to Alexander and his brilliance but I disagree with this.
Alexander made mistakes. At the Battle of Granicus Alexander recklessly charged across a river with a waiting enemy Army on the other side. This would have been a disaster for any other Army in history except Alexander’s and even Alexander’s Army took way too many losses.
Alexander was overconfident. In engineering, there is an acronym called “KISS” which stands for keep it simple stupid. Warfare is much the same. If tactics are overly complex then it creates situations where things could go wrong. No plan survives contact with the enemy so plans need to be simple and flexible.
Alexander didn’t create anything. This great Army Alexander had- it was created by his dad. These guys also gained experience fighting for Alexander’s father. Alexander didn’t unite Greece nor was attacking Persia his idea. Sure Alexander did conquer Persia however his Empire immediately fell apart because he was a terrible King and a terrible State-builder.
Alexander was wreckless personally. Alexander’s job was the lead the men, not fight with them. Yet Alexander led every battle from the front. Sure this is brave and all but this is the wrong place for a General. In an Army of 50,000 there are lots of fighters but only 1 leader. Caesar for instance would place himself behind the crux of the battle, issuing orders and watching as things develop.
Alexander the Great’s father was Phillip the 2nd. This guy fought and won dozens of Battles and conquered all of Greece for the first and only time. Was Phillip the greatest General ever? No. Like Alexander, Phillip benefited from a highly experienced, highly trained, and uber-expensive professional Army.
Hiring for our county office out in the boonies was done centrally, so often times someone was hired before we knew who it was. So when we saw the name Jim (redacted), we let out a collective moan.
Jim was well known around town. He was 6′7″, about 325 pounds, and was mean looking as hell. He often did rent collection/ evictions for local landlords, usually by intimidation. I mentioned this to HR, and was told to “work with him.”
So he started in our office. First order of business was to banish certain words from his vocabulary. Words like “wetback”, fag*ot, and of course, nig*er. Also, because he had contacted so many of our clients from his rent collecting days, often when clients found out he was to be their worker, they immediately withdrew their application for welfare. They were terrified of him.
After a couple of months, he seemed to have calmed down and was doing an OK job. But then, in the break room, he said the following:
You know what would be fun? If (co worker) Corrine would drive around in a convertible with a bikini on, and when someone would hit on her, I would be hiding in the back seat with a shotgun, and would suddenly sit up and point the gun at them, and watch them sh*t their pants!
This was it. The next day, three fraud investigators (armed) plus two sheriff deputies came in and escorted him out. I wanted to call HR and tell them “I told you so” but everyone was just glad he was gone; especially Corrine.
Note: he also helped get the head of HR fired. When he was removed from the office, he was put on paid administrative leave pending his firing. But the head of HR had a fear of lawsuits due to improper firings, so he was on paid admin leave for almost a year! Worse yet, there was another guy that had been on paid admin leave for even longer. So the HR manager eventually got fired…with no paid admin leave, just gone out the door!
I come from a family that struggles with finances severely. In the second grade my teacher noticed that the few clothes I had were now Ill fitting so she bought me new ones so I would fit in. I lived in a very, very wealthy area and because of this I was already being bullied for not having what other kids did. I was happy to receive the clothes. I came home with them that night and my mother, who spent our food stamps on cigarettes (the cashier at the liquor store rang them up as other things) and a disgusting quantity of mountain dew every month, walked into my school irate and high off of my ritalin prescription ( that was prescribed to me for my ADHD, as an 18 year old I still haven’t had thr medication that I need since I was 6), bypassed the office and walked into my classroom and began to yell at the teacher. I thought the bullying was bad then, she made it a lot worse. I am thankful for that teacher though. My mother threw the clothes back in her face (literally) and so my teacher kept them in the classroom for me to change into when I got to school and washed them for me. This is only one of several scenarios involving my mother. To put it shortly, I had my first suicidal thoughts around 11 and the state took away her rights to custody when I was 15. You are not your situation, you are how you deal with it. To anyone in that situation or any situation they don’t want to be in, it gets better.
Maybe it is just my imagination, but I think my “locked up” ploy has somehow made the rounds of all those backroom scam operations which call to say your computer has a virus.
Initially, I kept the “agent” and his manager on the phone for nearly an hour, until they finally just gave up. The exchange went something like this:
Scammer: Please press the Windows and CTRL key at the same time.
Me: I can’t. The computer is locked up. It won’t respond to the keyboard, and the mouse does not move.
Scammer: Turn the system off, then turn it on again.
Me: I can’t. The computer won’t shut down.
Scammer: Use the power switch!
Me: I did. Nothing. It stays on, but doesn’t do anything.
Scammer: Then unplug the machine.
Me: Ok. Still nothing. It stays on, and is still frozen.
Scammer: How can that be?!
Me: I don’t know. I guess it just switches over to the internal battery.
(Then, a manager is put on the phone, and promises to make the machine right if I pay $99 for a one time fix, $200 for an annual plan, or $499 for a lifetime plan)
Scammer: Which plan do you want?
Me: Uh, lifetime, I guess.
Scammer: Ok, please give me your credit card number.
Me: I don’t use credit cards. How about PayPal?
Scammer: We can’t take PayPal.
Me: Hey! Wait a minute! The machine just started working! It’s perfect! Everything is working! What did you guys do?
Scammer: That’s impossible! We didn’t do anything!
Me: But, didn’t you say you had detected a virus on my machine?
Scammer: Yes, that is why we contacted you.
Me: So, that must mean you were connected to me, right?
Scammer: No. Your machine sent a message to us!
Me: Ok, so I was connected to you, but you weren’t connected to me?
Scammer: That’s not how this works!
Me: Well, you must have done something, because everything is fine now.
Scammer: It is not. Machine still infected. It will lock up again and be destroyed. You still have virus!
Me: Wait, wait. I’m going to shut down and reboot. Hold on.
(I tap a few keys to make noise, then…)
Me: Ok, I shut down and started up again. Now, I am running a virus scan. Hold on… ok, scanning memory, registry, hard drive, checking for malicious code… stand by, almost done. Great! No virus detected! Fantastic! And, it seems to be running faster than ever!
Scammer: That is not possible, it will fail!
Me: Look, I don’t know how you fixed it, but I would like to send you $100. I’ll send a check. What’s your name and address?
Scammer: We can’t accept checks.
Me: A money order, then?
Scammer: No money orders. I think you are bulls****ing me.
Me: Do ya THINK?!
Scammer: I will f**k your mother!
Me: You like f**king dead people? You’re going to get a sooty Johnson; she was cremated.
Scammer: Click.
I can’t recall when I have had a more uplifting conversation, but the ultimate result has proven to be the most valuable. For several months after the above exchange, I would continue to receive the virus calls; but the moment I said the machine was frozen, the caller hung up immediately. So now, I just say, “Am I ever glad you called, this machine is totally locked up!” In response, a reassuring click.
Saw this question and immediately thought: Teresa.
Teresa is my sister in law’s best friend. She was also good friends with my brother, Dale. When Dale disappeared, Teresa was right there grieving with us. She shared stories about things she and Dale had done that had me rolling with laughter. Teresa is a bright spot where ever she goes.
Teresa is a respiratory therapist. Been doing it for years. Been single for years. Been putting smiles on peoples’ faces for years. She collected crochet afghans to give to her patients. They loved it. They loved her. She retired recently, bought a house in another state, and moved there on her own. I will miss her.
It was 2020, the year we buried my brother’s remains, after he had been missing for many years. It was around the time of the services, and I was having a rough time. Crying a lot. Teresa popped in one day and called me out to her car. She dug around in some bags and boxes in the back seat, and pulled something out. “This is for you” she told me. It was a cross made of wood with fragments of broken glass glued to it to make it shine. And in the middle it said simply, “laugh”. She told me she thought of me as soon as she saw it. It touched my heart. It made me realize maybe it was time to laugh more than cry.
Teresa is a special person. Salt of the earth. We need more like her.
huawei mate60 is using 5nm chips from unknown source, but for sure its made in China with 100% Chinese technology. Although it’s not the most cutting edge technology yet, it is the most widely used. So it’s going to bring down the price of all chips and ASML EUV will be too expensive in terms of producing chips. China is infamous for it industrial crushing ability, Whatever technology they proceed they will smash the market price to under half even to just 10% of the original market price. everyone in the same market will be gone in no time
On August 2, 2007, Majid Kavousifar was excuted along with his nephew Hossein Kavousifar for the assassination of Masoud Moghadasi ,a judge from the Islamic Revolution Court in Iran.
Masoud Moghaddasi was one of several judges of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Court, that collectively sentenced more than 2800 to 3800 political prisoners to execution during the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners.
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Majid Kavousifar showed no remorse to hangman in his last words, telling them “I reached the point at which I decided to eradicate any injustice.”
His last words before being hanged next to his nephew Hossein Kavousifar:
“My name is Majid Kavousifar, I am Iranian
I didn’t wait for someone in this world to give me my right
I reached the point at which I decided to eradicate any injustice
I smile because I know that a small smile at that moment will be a great message of hope for every oppressed human being on the face of the earth.
The memory of Majid Kavousifar and his triumphant smile will live forever in the hearts of freedom lovers in Iran and all over the world.
Actually, a police officer once said to me: “What did you do with my patrol car? Why did you steal it?”
The back story is that when coming out of the back door of the courthouse late one evening my friend and I saw a running, unlocked police car sitting in the driveway between the jail and the courthouse. My friend and I wondered why this was and decided to watch a while. After 10 minutes nothing happened and the car was still parked, unlocked, and running. My friend and I decided something needed to be done to prevent the car from being stolen so we flipped a coin and I lost so I got in the car and drove it around the corner and turned it off, locked it, and returned to await the arrival of the police officer who had been assigned the car. My friend and I watched and waited and about a half an hour later the offending officer came out and found his cruiser missing. Since he left his radio in the car he couldn’t radio the missing car in and he’d left the jail and the return door was locked. He panicked and started running around in a confused state. My friend and I who were hiding began laughing and he couldn’t understand why. He was really confused and upset. I held up the keys and told him I’d “stolen” it to keep it safe and showed him where it was. He was both relieved and highly pissed. Relieved at first and the gradually more angry. My friend and I just kept laughing and he got even madder. Then he said he was going to arrest us. I said why? It’s not stolen and who’s going to prosecute me, I’m the County Attorney? Then he said he wasn’t worried because he knew the judge would put it on me because he was a good friend of the judge. I just kept on laughing because my friend who had been standing in the dark background listening came forward and said, “You mean me, Steve?” And the judge began to laugh too. He then said he’d get us both hand I said, “Go ahead! How do you think the Chief is going to feel when he learns you let your cruiser get “stolen” under these conditions? He didn’t say much else but just took his keys, got in his car and drove away. So that’s the story on how the Judge and I stole a police car.
My husband got offered a higher paying job with a different company, and one that treated their employees better. He tried to refuse the exit interview, but when pressed, agreed, if the big boss was in the room. He proceeded to tell the room exactly what led to his exit, and then they had the nerve to ask for 2 weeks notice. He looked the big boss right in the eye and asked if he would have gotten a 2week notice if he was being fired. The boss’ eyes dropped to the floor and he said no. My husband then asked if he could expect any changes to be made in policy regarding the treatment of blue collar workers. The boss again said no. My husband said, “ok, don’t consider this a ‘quit,’ consider as me firing you as my employer.” Then he walked out. We had to wait almost a month after he left to receive his last paycheck, even after calling the state labor board.
Christmas Watch-Along / AMA / Goof-off
Lot’s of good stuff in blurbs in this fun video. Grab some popcorn.
I enjoyed all of them, but my favorite is Non-geological shock. HAARP.
The USA government that was designed back in 1776 can no longer function. It is not suitable for the new global order. The USA is at a strategic inflection point. Great discussion by Colonel Douglas Macgregor.
See below deep in the article.
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There is a formula used by wives that wish to leave their husbands. It is a devastating reality to the husbands of the West. The “three step rocket“. It is a template that is followed over, and over, and over again. It is important for all married people to know about this reality.
See below.
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Guys, back in the 1970’s. I would guess around 1972, my father came back from a work trip and gave me a present. It was a tiny book. The cover was plastic, and it was about 2 cm thick. It was about 4cm x 5cm or so. It was red. A little red book.
Because the cover was plastic, it was flexible and compact, and easy to slip into the pocket of my Levi jeans.
It was (the now infamous) “little red book”. And I loved it.
It was in English.
And it was page after page of sayings. All of which seemed to make a lot of sense to me, even though I was in my teens at the time.
I carried that book with me to college. To my various homes as I worked, and all the way up until I moved to China. I cannot say for certain that it influenced me to join the Chinese Communist Party, as I wouldn’t even begin to consider how to do so. But it absolutely DID influence me.
I could feel the “revolutionary spirit” of what was being birthed so far away at the other end of the world.
The Three Main Rules of Discipline are as follows:
(1) Obey orders in all your actions. (2) Do not take a single needle piece of thread from the masses. (3) Turn in everything captured.
The Eight Points for Attention are as follows:
(1) Speak politely. (2) Pay fairly for what you buy. (3) Return everything you borrow. (4) Pay for anything you damage. (5) Do not hit or swear at people. (6) Do not damage crops. (7) Do not take liberties with women. (8) Do not ill-treat captives.
“On the Reissue of the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention – Instruction of the General Headquarters of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army” (October 10, 1947), Selected Military Writings, 2nd ed., p. 343.
How can you possibly not be impacted by such profound and intelligent direction?
Me and my friend were about 17 hanging out at the local McDonalds. Let me remind you my friend had the physique of a 25 year old because he constantly roofed with his dad. We heard a father screaming at his son if he didn’t finish eating his food he would pull his pants down right there and beat his bare ass. He would jump up and act like he was going to punch the child who appeared to be maybe 4 or 5. When he did this the child would jump and cower in his seat. Then the father would let out this horrendous laugh making fun of him. Me being a child from a physically abusive father knew exactly how this poor kid felt. My friend who had always protected me saw the look of horror on my face.
The next time he jumped up screaming he would beat his bare ass, my friend jumped up grabbed his arm and screamed “you will not be touching him as long as I’m sitting here!” The mans facial expression changed to sheer horror as he saw this kid twice his size threaten to put him in his place. He suddenly asked the boy if he was done. and scurried out of the restaurant. That day my friend grew about 10 feet tall in my eyes and saved that little boy from receiving a severe beating for such a small infraction.
I was truly desperate for work. My husband and I had returned from his Naval station in Italy to find that the military was being cut back so he was out. It was August, so I couldn’t find a teaching job anywhere and he was having trouble finding anything at all.
The local paper yielded only two jobs for which I was qualified. One was as a cashier at a supermarket for $1.95/hour (1972…what can I say?) and the other was as a paste-up artist at a newspaper for $1.90. I figured the newspaper job might be more upwardly mobile, so I applied.
The manager didn’t ask for an interview. He called to tell me that he appreciated my interest, but that I was over-qualified for the job so he wouldn’t hire me. He said he figured I’d quit if I find something better. I told him my story. He still hesitated, pointing again to my advanced degrees. I waited a beat then said, “Even college graduates have to eat.”
He hired me right then and I made sure he never regretted that decision.
Look at how serious they look and how old they are
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Their Median age is 61.3 years
They are all extremely talented people with tremendous ability and have proven themselves over and over again
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These Generation of Chinese in the 1970s and 1980s could have easily recognized their ability and merit and voted them into power due to their sheer efficiency
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Even the 1990s generation would have voted for them to a great extent, understanding the value of long term planning and hard work
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Todays generation?
Naah
They are all modern and highly opinionated by Social Media and the outside world
They have more money than any previous generation and have seen so much development that they are liberal by nature in their Outlook
Sure today they regard the Government and the Party as Grandfatherly figures who make the laws like they see their own grandfathers. As Strict people who will take care of you and who shouldn’t be questioned
However give them a choice and it’s likely they will fall for the same BS that others in democracies fall for including issues that are:-
LGBT related
Feminism related
Ageism related
Nationalism related (Vote for me and I will take Taiwan in a week type of Chinese versions of Modis)
Separatism related (Freedom for Uyghurs, Freedom for Hui, Freedom for Bouyan etc)
These are the Hu Jintao period Chinese
I wouldn’t trust them to vote for the best leaders over most populist or handsome or the best talkers or some other version of divisive propaganda
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The Next generation is fine
Xi Jingping has instilled a revival of the admiration for the One party meritocracy and these guys will vote always for the Party over any other
So maybe 10–15 years later, if free elections were held, the Party may win heavily as bulk of the 18–41 voters would be proud nationalists of the One party meritocracy
Today?
Bulk of the 18–41 voters would vote stupidly
So I hope not
India becoming China is admirable in its own way
China becoming India is a nightmare scenario
God help China having 100 parties and doing the idiocy Indian leaders do
US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor Reveals TRUTH About China
This primarily shocked me because of where I live (Chicago) and my profession (teacher). I knew it was bad, but I didn’t know it was this bad:
Seventy-six percent of Chicago’s high school students, and forty-five percent of Chicago’s elementary school students, do not go to their assigned neighborhood public school.
That means that 3/4 of all high school kids, and almost half of all elementary school kids, have parents who took one look at their local public school and said, “no thanks.”
Every student in Chicago is assigned a neighborhood public school, simply based on where they live in the city. The students who don’t go to those schools go to private schools, magnet schools, charter schools, or selective-enrollment schools. Or they homeschool.
Magnet, charter, and selective-enrollment schools are public schools, too, but they require some effort on the parents’ and students’ part to get and stay in them. The selective-enrollment schools, in particular, require the most effort to get into.
All of those “public, but not neighborhood” schools were created due to parental demand or necessity. It was either create them, or watch as, year after year, even more of the city’s tax base (parents who give a damn) move to the suburbs.
This has been in the local news a lot the last week, and it even made an appearance in the national news, because the city government passed a resolution to prioritize those neighborhood public schools (which the parents reject) over the selective-enrollment schools.
The stated goal is, of course, “equity.” The idea is that, without the selective schools poaching all of the “good” students, those “good” students will go back to their neighborhood schools, and help them improve.
Except those students would not actually go to those neighborhood public schools, no matter what. Their parents would just pay for private schools, home school, or move to the suburbs. I’ve been teaching in Chicago long enough to know that most parents really don’t see the regular public school as a real option. Students here use the neighborhood public school names as the punchlines of jokes or as threats. As in, “You better be careful, or you’ll end up at [local public school].”
Also, the “good” students aren’t a tool for the city to use to improve “bad” schools. It’s not the job of the “A” students to diffuse the averages of the “F” students by enrolling in the same schools as them.
While the stated goal for this new push by the city government is “equity,” the real goal is, as with most things in government, money. The Chicago Teachers’ Union, which gets most of its money and influence via the neighborhood public schools, contributed over $2,000,000 to our current mayor’s election campaign. The quid-pro-quo is right out in the open for all to see, but the only people who bother to open their eyes to it are the people who didn’t support the mayor in the first place.
So the city government has a five-year plan to prioritize Chicago’s failing neighborhood public schools. I’m making a note to myself to check back in five years and see how it went. I predict that things will actually be worse, but they will change the metrics by which they define success, to make whatever happens fit that definition. Then they’ll say it’s not enough, and double-down on their bad policies.
All the while, private schools in the city will see an increase in enrollment, suburbs with good schools will see their property values go up even more, and home schooling will become even more popular.
Ever the cynic, and opportunist, I’ve actually been exploring ways to capitalize on this. A colleague and I have been toying with the idea of opening a tutoring center. The competition for spots at the good schools in Chicago is so tight that a lot of parents gladly pay thousands of dollars per year for their child to receive 1:1 or small-group tutoring in specific subjects, or generalized test-taking tutoring. Three of my colleagues in the last five years have left teaching to go into tutoring, and are making much more money that way.
This TikTokker Finally Realized Why Men Don’t Find Her Attractive
Let’s scroll through Instagram account of Avicii, the world famous musician.
December 26th, 2017
Caption: Where am I?
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Amazing. He is living life to the fullest. Damn!!!.
December 29th, 2017
Caption:Friends of Mine
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All these friends to watch his back and enjoy the ocean of life. I am jealous.
January 11th , 2018
Caption:Music is a big part of my life
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A blazing career with all the talented people around and loving everyday what he does with passion. God I am envious.
January 15th, 2018
Caption :A cuddle a day keeps the instinct away. (The hunting instinct.) (Just kidding.)
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Awwww….
January 19th, 2018
Caption: Fact of the day: More people die every year from taking selfies than from shark attacks. Stay safe out there ✌️❤
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LOL!!!!
February 18th, 2018
Caption: So I invested in Sweden’s first cold brew coffee company. Pretty cool startup that’s innovating the Swedish way of coffee drinking. You should definitely check them out.
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Damn. This guy means business.
March 27th, 2018
Caption: Studio Mode
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Workaholic and passionate. Damn I wish I could be like that.
April 5th , 2018
Caption: It’s always sunny in California
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Woah!! Dude is rich. Dude is passionate. Has everything one can dream of.
April 20th, 2018
Caption:
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So yeah.
That’s why I don’t use social media.
Edit: This answer is for people who don’t realize everyone is just a PR agent of themselves online. Everybody else sucks too. There is no reason for being miserable comparing your lives with social media. But I do believe social media should be used for generating content around your product or service like blogging, creating audio or visual content etc.
I would do just like I did for my daughter in Germany when she was going to a DOD (Department of Defense) school. She came home for a month and a half complaining about a boy bullying her on the playground. We called the school and told them almost every other day. They keep telling us the teachers are keeping him away from her. Well she kept coming home complaining. So I took it upon myself to really see what is going on. Sure enough he was harassing her. When she came home that day from school complaining about that boy. I set her down and told her that tomorrow is the time you have to do what Daddy has been teaching you how to defend yourself. Her response was, but I don’t want to get in trouble. I told her the only one that you will be in trouble with is me and how can you be in trouble if I am telling you to do it. Then I told her it is your choice if you want to end this or not. Either way I love you.
the next day around lunchtime I get a call from the school that she assaulted another student and I need to pick her up.
Well, well, well I took time off and drove miles and miles to get there. I told the officer who I was and that the principal is expecting me. She said yes Sir go on in. My daughter was standing in the corner of the office facing the wall waiting. I did not even acknowledge the principal and told my daughter to come sit in the chair in front of his desk. Then I ask the principal what is the problem ? His response was she assaulted another student. I told him that the next question I as you. I want you to think long and hard about your answer. Did she assault the student that has been assaulting her all these months! I then told him that he has 5min to respond and 4.5 of those minutes are gone! Go!!! He said Yes! Yes! Then I ask him so what are you going to do about it? He had the gall to tell me.that he was to suspending her for three days for putting her hands on another stoner. I leaned over his desks and told him that she it not going to miss another second of class. I told her to go to her class that she is supposed to be at this time and I will see you back home after school. Then to lighten her spirits I told her you are not beating me again tonight playing crash bandicoot!!! (Yes that was way back). After she left the office I locked the door to his office and turned around and told him that you made you decision, and now I have made my. I am going to take out the last two-to-three months my daughter, my wife and I have been stressing over and tag you are it!!!!
Sorry so long,but a true story.
When I went to jump over the desk. He jumped trough the window. The sad part was it was closed. 😂😂😂
Anyway, my Chain of Command knew all about the problem that my daughter was going through. I was a Platoon Sergeant at the time.
Now it gets good, my battalion commander was briefed on it. However he had to do something because because I threaten the principal and there was damage to government property, the window he jumped out of. So after the UCMJ (Uniform code of justice). My extra duty was to walk from the Commander’s Office down the street to my place of duty, which was only about 80 yards.
True story!! Need less to say my daughter did not have anymore trouble and got to get her education without any harassment from the students or the faculty.
I know this question was about a teacher slapping a student. If it was a teacher slapping my child I would have not gone to school. I would have followed that teacher after school and discussed it in another manner.
I got my first period when i was in 5th grade i was 10 years old. Worst part is i was in school, the last period was going on and I was sitting on the last bench in the corner row. i didn’t knew anything about it, and i was so clueless that wtf was happening with me. I told this to my bench mate and she said that she does not understand what I am saying. I ran to the teacher and told her everything, she said go to the office and ask the female staff to give me a sanitary pad.
I did that I went to the office and told the staff I want sanitary pads, she went inside the office. I was trembling with fear, but for a while I felt that everything would be alright.
The staff came out of the office and said that they are out of sanitary napkins, go buy them from the nearby shop.I was bleeding and literally begged her to come with me but she said she can’t leave the office and refused.
I was a kid and my body was not strong enough to bear the pain of periods. I was terrified, I couldn’t walk, I could feel the stains on my clothes. Still I walked to the nearest shop, and the shopkeeper was a male.
My eyes were downcast like I’m a terrorist, my voice was ashamed like I’ve committed a crime. And I asked him for a pad in a trembling voice, he took out a sanitary napkin’s packet and put 10 layers of news paper on it as if it were a bomb.
For me bravery is avoiding thousands of restriction and questions of the society and to say that yes I am a woman, yes I bleed and it is not my fault, it is not a crime.
I Saw the 11 Dimensions of the Universe in DETAIL! (Near Death Experience)
No, the Houthis are not a terrorist force indiscriminately targeting civilians, they are just an anti-American and anti-Israeli resistance force.
What the Houthis claimed was that they would attack boats “associated with Israel”. What are “associated with Israel”? Western bloc, of course.
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70% of Europe’s oil shipments will pass through the Red Sea. Europe has already interrupted Russian oil and gas, and now oil and gas from the Middle East will be stopped by the Houthis. Things will get even harder for Europeans as winter approaches.
The purpose of their attacks on Western Group boats was to support the Palestinians. It is well known that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. And the United States is stubbornly biased in favour of Israel.
The Arab countries and the Muslim world, while not supporting the Houthis, are not against them either, and some even secretly support them.
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Chinese boats transporting oil do not pass through the Red Sea, only merchant ships pass through the Red Sea, and there are china railway express that can replace merchant ships.
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I recall that the last time when Taiwanese Shipping Company large container ship blocked the Suez Canal, the china railway express became the main freight transport route to Europe.
Taiwanese Shipping Company leased the Japanese shipowner’s ship and hired Indian crew to drive the “Ever Given” large container ship through the Suez Canal. It would be surprising that there would be no accidents.
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The Houthis will not attack Chinese boats, and China has no intention of joining the Western bloc, which is the unjust side.
The U.S. and Israel or Western Group should be reflecting on why they were attacked by the Houthis instead of looking to China as a lifeline to grab when they are drowning.
Korean Braised Short Ribs
Serve Korean Braised Short Ribs with cooked cellophane noodles, dipped into the cooking sauce.
Korean Braised Short Ribs
Ingredients
4 pounds beef short ribs, cut into pieces
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 tablespoons ground sesame seed*
2 teaspoons chopped ginger root or 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon pepper
* Ground sesame seed is available in Oriental food specialty stores and some supermarkets. Whole sesame seed can be ground in the blender: 1 tablespoon whole sesame seed yields 2 tablespoons ground sesame seed.
Instructions
Trim fat from beef ribs; place beef in shallow non-reactive dish.
Mix remaining ingredients; pour over beef.
Cover and refrigerate, turning occasionally, 24 hours.
Drain beef, reserving marinade. Cook beef in 4-quart Dutch oven over medium heat until brown; drain.
Pour marinade over beef.
Cover and bake at 350 degrees F until tender, about 2 hours.
I was required to issue a monthly report of sales by geographic region, listing each project.
One was a project in China sold to New Sun (China) Energy. I dutifully indicated the sale was in Asia.
My boss protested. “No!” said he. “You need to report that in Europe.”
I blinked and said, “But it’s in China.”
“Yes,” said he. “China’s in Europe.”
“Um…no.. China’s in Asia.”
He slammed his hand on his desk and said, “China’s a state of Germany, now report it in Europe.”
Me: “Ok” while silently muttering dumbass.
We had another dispute over Egypt. Apparently Egypt is also in Europe.
I had a grand time explaining to our lead sales person (a Chinese lady citizen of China) and our production manager (a German citizen) that Germany had expanded its population by a billion with this master stroke of geopolitical theater. They both rolled their eyes.
Oh yes. “Give me your purse you b*tch!. I want £50 now!” screeched the entitled teenage daughter of one of the company partners. I was PA to both partners and had only been there for a couple of months.
Princess was used to dropping into Daddy darling’s office if she and her little friends were shopping in town and she needed more money.
This particular afternoon Daddy was away at a meeting and our accountant was on a half day (she held the petty cash and was used to dealing with the occasional demands of the Princess).
I explained that Daddy was out and the accountant wouldn’t be back until tomorrow so nobody could help with her (obviously desperate and life threatening) need for cash. She decided that I should meet her need by handing over my own money. She threw a tantrum when I refused, and immediately called Daddy’s mobile, interrupting his meeting and demanding that he tell me to give her the money. He told me to do so, and I refused.
I didn’t have £50 in my purse (or even £10) but if I did she wouldn’t have had a sniff of it. After she stormed out I wrote my resignation and called the other partner to explain why I quit.
Found out a while later that the partnership fell apart and nice partner sued Daddy darling for financial mismanagement and fraud. Princess wasn’t the only family member thinking the business was her own personal piggy bank.
Can China Save The American Dream ? US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor Reveals
China is not a Muslim-phobic country. It’s all United States propaganda to destroy Muslim world.
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China tells its Muslim citizens to live well and love their state and also their religion as Xi Jinping said.
If China got attacked, know that the aggressors will fail.
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If the aggressors try to attack Uyghurs like they did in Middle-East, bombing their Mosques, etc. Know that the Uyghurs won’t be silenced defending their home and mosques.
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The Muslims of China will stamp out the hypocrite country.
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~ Sunni Muslim from Asia here, appreciating China.
I was once the daytime caregiver for a little boy with a massive brain injury. The damage was so extensive that a large part of his right brain had been surgically removed. He was paralyzed on his left side. He also probably suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, but the doctors were unsure. He hoarded food, because he had gone hungry many times in his earlier life. Altogether a really lousy start.
I was pushing little X in his stroller. He was about three years old at this point. We were walking toward the high school, and there was a group of girls on the sidewalk. Black clothes, black hair, smoking, swearing girls.
X was a bit unusual looking, due to his injuries. I was thinking that these girls were going to laugh at him, or tease him, or something. I was getting tense and defensive.
As X and I get close, he hollers out, “HI”, which was his only word at the time. I was not expecting the response he got from those girls.
They were totally sweet. They were all saying hi back and asking his name and saying how cute he was. One asked me about his injuries, and I gave her the short version. She started to cry, and then I did, too. It was hard for me to talk about his history. We ended up hugging each other.
I have always remembered that group of girls, and how completely wrong I was about them.
They remind me often not to judge people by their appearance.
Internet access is better than any other nation except maybe Singapore. The Public Wi Fi means you have free internet while travelling almost anywhere and uninterrupted
Sure many western sites are restricted as are many apps
You can use VPN but VPN is very unreliable unless it’s Nord VPN and that too for a proper router rather than for mobile phone
Yet with a proper VPN, you can access any and all apps and sites in China
IT IS NOT ILLEGAL UNLESS YOU MAKE COMMERCIAL USE OF VPN (Meaning downloading and selling pornography etc)
If you really want to go to western websites that are banned, you can visit a PUBLIC LIBRARY with your ID Card and access any website you want. There is NO RESTRICTION.
I accessed Quora openly in a Public Library whereas the VPN never gave me a connection beyond 6–7 minutes at a time
So yes, I would say if you really want to watch CNN and CBS and want to view the BBC Website and access Twitter all the time, then China is not for you
Otherwise if you simply want Gmail & your Online Banking & online calling & chatting – you have 1001 apps to ensure you are connected
Non Acceptance of International Driver Licenses
This is stupid again
China has NO ISSUES with a International Driver License provided there is INSURANCE available on that license
You want to lease a car in China with an International License, you either pay a fat deposit as incidental insurance premium so that if you bang the car, the rental company doesn’t shell out the cost
Otherwise you get a local license holder to co sign and you get your car in 3 minutes
Imagine you bump a car, park it and dash off to your country. That’s a huge loss to the rental company isn’t it.
You cough up the Incidental Insurance Premium Deposit which is FULLY REFUNDABLE on returning the car and they will accept your International Drivers License
This is nearly 3100 RMB so most International Drivers are cheapies who promptly blame the Chinese for not recognizing International Driving Licenses
Lodging restricted to certain hotels
Again a Stupid way to put it
Hotels in China connected to the Real Time Security Network accept foreigners all the time
That’s 100% of all hotels in Big Cities and 90% of Hotels in smaller towns
They scan your passport and in ten seconds, the data comes up from your immigration and that’s it.
Tomorrow if you disappear, no issues, the hotel informs the MSB who will promptly print out your passport and deliver a copy to your consulate
Sadly smaller hotels DON’T have this ready connection to the digital security system
They need to scan your passport, print that out, take the print out and deliver it to the local police outpost who will then deliver them to the main outpost
It will take 1 year to hunt for such a print out tomorrow if there is a problem
It’s too much effort so such hotels don’t accept foreigners UNLESS A CHINESE BOOKS THEIR ROOM with his Identity Card
Mostly such tourists have a Chinese Agent who will give his ID or his company’s ID and book the rooms
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Our Vicky Bhaiya has no issues because his wives ID is sufficient
This isn’t only China
Even in France and Europe, many small provincial hotels don’t accept foreigners because of the same reason
They need you to get a clearance from a local gendarme who sees your passport and okays you
Hell in Scotland an Indian friend of mine couldn’t get a hotel until 12 Noon because of such a problem when a Local Britisher could get a room at 5:30 AM
Same for booking a car
Outside the West, an International Driving License doesn’t get you a car without a hefty deposit
All that China says is asks for the deposit towards Incidental Insurance
The Censorship?
Yes that’s unique to China among the big countries
Like I said if you want to access BBC and Twitter all the time, China is not for you
Maybe not into a completely different person, but it definitely will change you, and how you view life. Before I enlisted, I was an annoying 17–18 year old boy who played video-games all day, mouthed off to teachers, and had terrible acne. When I finished boot camp and AIT, I respected authority figures, I had better self-esteem, and I wasn’t as much of a smart-aleck anymore. I actually did stuff with my life.
I was still loud and sometimes annoying, at least when there were no senior NCOs or officers around, and I still made dumb jokes and toed the line around my family. I was the same kid as before, just disciplined and happier. More confident in myself, because I knew I could do stuff no one else in my family or my graduating class, except my father, could.
Then, I was deployed 3 times between 2004–2010, and actually saw, and participated in, combat and firefights. I saw the bloody, seedy side of things. It wasn’t like a movie or a video-game anymore, I didn’t tell jokes anymore, I was quieter and more serious. I didn’t tolerate people goofing off or making idiotic decisions around me anymore. Making the wrong decision, or playing games, on the battlefield could mean death.
Of course, I wasn’t firing my SAW at the Taliban and ISI 24/7. There was a lot of sitting around and waiting, marching, digging holes, and sitting in a hot, tiny truck for days, squeezed against another hairy, sweaty dude. That’s the part movies don’t show. It’s not action all the time, there’s a lot of stuff that goes into it that civilians and celebrities never think about when they hear the word “war.” And when there is action, you don’t have drawn-out speeches about family and honour, or whatever. You don’t goof off and walk up-right, unless you want a bullet between the eyes.
When I came back, I could not understand the struggles and pain of my family and friends that didn’t serve. Unless it’s an unexpected divorce or a death of somebody close to you, there’s no reason to grovel and whine about how hard and unfair life is, and how miserable you are. I’ve seen guys say they’re in “so much pain that no one understands” after a girl they knew for less than a year broke up with them. Especially these young Gen-Z kids and teenagers. All this “I could defeat anyone in a fight, I bench more than you” attitude is arrogant and laughable. You wouldn’t last a week doing the stuff we did, so stop acting like you’re so tough when you’re only 16 and cry in your room at night over a girl.
These (at least the males) youngsters also brag about Navy SEALS being better than anything and everything on earth, and use our military as a tool to justify their biases. You’re embarrassing us, and if any military veteran met you, they’d laugh.
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Accurate depiction of what modern warfare is like: lots of sitting around and waiting, or guarding stuff.
In general, combat did change me a lot, and my outlook on life, and perspective on common civilian “struggles” and issues. It also gives shell-shock/combat fatigue/PTSD and nightmares to those who served, which changes them as a person. I personally suffer from some of these things. It does suck a lot, and played a part in changing me as well, there is simply no way to explain to a civilian what combat is like, what war-trauma is like, the things you saw and how horrific it was, how impossible it is to cope with things like that. In the moment, you never think about what you’re doing or seeing, you’re disconnected from reality, and in your mind you dehumanize the enemy. It is just “eliminating a threat” or carrying out orders, not opening fire on the 10-year-old coming at you with an RPG.
Later though, your mind thinks about what you did and what you saw over and over again, tries to rationalize it, process it, cope with it, and finds that a lot of the time, it can’t. It’s easier to push these things away and pretend it never happened, pretend you never saw that teenager choking on his own blood and gasping for breath in the sand after you shot him, or never saw your friend get blown to bits. I can’t say I regret doing these things, as they were threats to the livelihood of myself and my friends. I can say, however, that it’s inescapable to feel human empathy and sadness over what you done, even while knowing there was nothing else you can do, even while knowing that they wanted to kill you.
It’s just a natural human feeling, but you learn to suffocate it and push it down. I’ve had some idiots call me a terrorist and a war-criminal, for shooting enemy child soldiers, and the like. These people aren’t worth arguing with, they will never understand that morality doesn’t matter when it’s you vs them, and they’re literally a threat to your existence, no matter how young they are. They think in black and white, never understanding how complicated this is, and how necessary it is to defend yourself, even if it’s a child soldier.
Cop Warns How Women Manipulate Divorce Law
This is a pretty important video. The “three step rocket”.
“It’s really more of an in-person kind of explanation,” he demured, then suggested a dinner date.
I hesitated. Normally I don’t meet my online dates until significantly more text and phone contact. Partly for safety reasons, partly because I don’t want to waste my time on guys I know will not work out. But mostly because I have been on A LOT of bad dates.
He said he was living in his friend’s spare room because he’d hit a few “speed bumps,” in life. I totally got that. I’m the queen of speed bumps myself. I let myself dare to hope maybe— just maybe— I had found a kindred spirit. I agreed to the date. And just like that, there I was, listening to him tell his story from across the candlelit table.
”About a year ago, I went out with some friends after work,” he began, and I smiled and nodded to let him know he had my attention. “I met a girl at a bar and we really hit it off. We ended up going home together. Next day, there’s a cop on my doorstep. And yada, yada, yada… long story short, she didn’t LOOK sixteen.”
I stiffened. Did she look 30? Because you’re 44, dude.
“So,” he continued, “I have a felony on my record. I was put on probation, and my job fired me. And then, just to kick me when I’m down” —and this is my favorite part— “my wife left me.”
?!??!!
“Bummer,” I said, because what else is there to say?
“So I was out of work, and my mom and I couldn’t live off her social security check alone, so she started driving for Uber…
The current supreme leader of Vietnam, Nguyễn Phú Trọng, is a very typical pro-China faction.
This means that Vietnamese diplomacy should be like bamboo, whose branches and leaves may sway in the wind, but whose poles are very tough.
Vietnam may pander to the U.S. in some cases, but the bamboo’s backbone is straight. After all, they fought the Yanks, and US pressure doesn’t always bring Vietnam to its knees.
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diplomacy
According to VnEconomy, in 2022, nearly 70 foreign affairs activities will be carried out by agencies under the Party, State, Government and National Assembly of Vietnam. According to statistics, by the beginning of 2023, Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with 190/192 countries; economic, trade and investment relations with 224 partners, and cooperation with more than 500 international organisations. The country is also a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation Forum (APEC), the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Trade Agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and 15 other free trade agreements.
Vietnam-China relations
From 30 October to 1 November 2022, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Nguyễn Phú Trọng paid an official visit to China after General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and President Xi Jinping assumed the office of the third President. He is the first senior leader to visit China after Xi assumed his third term as President. It was also Nguyễn Phú Trọng’s first visit to China after the 13th Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Both sides later deemed the visit a success. The Vietnamese side called China “a good neighbour, a good friend, a good comrade, a good partner, a good partner in the same boat, a good partner in solidarity and a good partner for the happiness of the people”. According to Reuters, the meeting between the two leaders was overly intimate, with no masks, They handshakes or hugs, against the backdrop of China’s strict embargo policy that it still maintains because of COVID-19.
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Vietnam-United States relations
At the end of August 2021, the Vice President of the United States of America, Kamala Harris, paid a visit to Viet Nam from 24 to 26 August 2021. During Ms Harris’ visit, the US side also confirmed a land lease agreement worth US$1.2 billion for the construction of the US Embassy building in Vietnam. Before leaving Vietnam, the US Vice President said the visit “marks the beginning of a new chapter in Vietnam-US relations”. After the visit, the Vietnamese media also carried a message inviting Joe Biden to visit Vietnam by the General Secretary and President of Vietnam.
On November 12, 2022, at the 40th and 11th ASEAN Summits, Vietnamese Prime Minister Pạm Minh Chính met directly with US President Biden. During the meeting, Mr. Pạm Minh Chính continued to “convey” the remarks of the General Secretary and President of Vietnam inviting the President of the United States to visit Vietnam. However, VOA caused a wave of controversy when it released a video in which Mr. Pạm Minh Chính chatted with subordinate leaders before meeting with the United States and “make it clear, to be fair, what are you afraid of?” The video was originally posted on May 14 but was not edited and was deleted on May 23. However, the video was later released by Voice of America but with the offensive phrase hidden. The reason why VOA deleted the video was that Khanh Nguyen, an official at the Vietnamese Embassy in the United States, asked VOA to delete the video. The email said the video “violates the principles of respect for privacy and journalistic professionalism and ethics.” Furthermore, VOA’s reporting has been misused and distorted for political purposes. The deletion was later protested by VOA’s Vietnamese service because it believed press freedom was being hindered. RFA, considered VOA’s “sister”, also released the video but did not receive any deletion email.
On the evening of March 29, 2023, General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng had a phone call with US President Biden at request. During the phone call, the leaders of the two countries both emphasized that 2023 will be the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam-US comprehensive partnership. When Mr. Biden spoke by phone with a foreign leader who was not a head of state or prime minister, the calls were rare, Reuters reported. The United States is currently also Vietnam’s largest export market in 2022. Soon after, from April 14 to April 16 of the same year, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a high-level visit to Vietnam. He visited Vietnam and met with Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn, Prime Minister Pạm Minh Chính, President Võ Văn Thưởng, and General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng. A contentious issue also arose during a meeting between Mr Phạm Minh Chính and Anthony Blinken, with only the Vietnamese flag in the background, not the American flag. According to Radio Free Asia, most of this information comes from Chinese media. The agency analyzed that because this was a meeting of different levels, there was only the Vietnamese flag in the background. According to BBC News, when US President Joe Biden may visit Hanoi in May or Vietnam’s General Secretary visits the United States in July, diplomatic issues between the two countries are likely to continue to heat up. The media also said in its analysis that the statement that Vietnam now “stands shoulder to shoulder with the United States at a time when we need each other’s support most” is often used only to refer to the country’s allies, but Mr. Blinken used it to refer to Vietnam.
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And the Philippines is a blade of grass that falls when the wind blows. The Philippines was once a colony of the United States, and the colonial mentality of the Filipinos is deeply rooted. As long as the United States exerts a little pressure, Marcos Jr. will give in.
I got a notification from the Amazon app that my packages were here. They were my sons birthday presents. I didn’t go outside immediately though as I was changing my twins diapers.
When I was finished I went out to get them. Some woman was out there picking up my boxes. I asked very loudly what she thought she was doing.
She tried to spin some story about how my packages were damaged and had been recalled and that they would be replaced in a few days,
I called her story bullshit and to get off my property or I would call the cops. I wasn’t quiet about it. She started to leave WITH my packages.
Before I could yell again or call the cops my neighbors Rottweiler mix was in front of us growling loudly with my neighbor limping fast towards us. He’s an older guy and an absolute sweetheart. He told her to drop the boxes or his dog would attack. She dropped them and ran to her car and drove away. I got her license plate number and reported her to the cops.
I hugged my neighbor and thanked him for saving my sons birthday. I also baked him cookies and brought him a slice of my sons cake the next day.
Ok, this one has irked me for some time. I went to see a blood doctor. Had a bit too low iron in my blood. Called, confirmed my insurance co-pay, went to my appointment, paid my co-pay and left.
A few weeks later I get a bill for $250 bill for the visit. I call to remind them that I paid my co-pay (which was a hell of a lot less then $250). They acknowledge that, but “remind me” that this isn’t a co-pay, it’s a “facility charge.” I say I have no idea what they’re talking about. I never agreed to a “facilities charge.”
Well their office is in a hospital building so I should understand there will be a hospital “facilities charge.” I inform them that, I didn’t go to the hospital, I went to their office which happens to rent space from the hospital. They argue that it was in some paper package they gave me when I came for my appointment. I disagree refusing to pay, they insist I have to. I disagree after some argument end the call. They try to collect a few more times ending similarly. Eventually they get the point and realized their threats were falling on deaf ears.
They call me back a few days later, apologize for the confusion and agree to a one time reduction of the “facilities charge” to $75. I inform them I came to them for a doctor’s appointment, not to pay their rent and refuse. Another argument ends in me ending the call. More threats and calls ensue.
Finally I get a call from them stating that, “for this one instance” my “facility charge” is going to be waived but I’m going to be responsible for the full facilities charge for all future appointments. I assure them I understand, and make sure they understand that based on this fiasco there will be no future visits. The doctor that sent me to them also took them off his referral list.
After my husband passed away I drove his old Jeep Cherokee for a while, but it was starting to show its age and I could see some big repair bills coming up that I did not want to deal with. I started to look at new cars, and was impressed with the Subaru Outback. Then Subaru started a big promotion with discounts and 1.9% financing, so I drove the old Jeep to my local dealer. Talked to a salesman who qualified me (I had a good job in Information Technology, so the payments would not be a problem). I found one that I liked and we started to work out a deal. After some negotiating, I was summoned to speak with the Finance Manager – some dude in probably his mid-20s who informed me that, due to some late payments the previous year, there was no way I would qualify for their 1.9% financing, but he could offer me a loan at around 8%. I was startled, as my credit had been excellent for years, so I asked for clarification. Yes, there were a couple of late payments on a couple of credit cards that corresponded to the last few months of my husband’s life when I was… distracted much of the time, to say the least. Taking care of him was my priority, and sometimes other things, like writing checks to pay a bill got overlooked temporarily. Then the finance dude started lecturing me on the importance of being responsible and taking care of what is important (paying bills, of course), and how clearly my credit report was showing that I didn’t take the important stuff seriously. I looked him in the eye as I stood up to leave and said that maybe when he got a little more life experience he might understand what it is like to watch someone you love, with whom you were planning to spend the rest of your life, to watch that person waste away, in pain and terrible suffering, then we could talk about responsibility. During those months, my single highest priority was taking care of him. Yes, a few bills got paid late, but I know that I had my priorities correct. So don’t condescend, and do NOT lecture me on personal responsibility, frat boy.
I am writing anonymously because I hate pity and I have friends on quora that know me.
I was an orphan. I don’t remember ever enjoying my childhood except sometimes playing Cricket with other boys of my age in my village. I came from a small village just outside of Lahore, Pakistan. I was told that my parents had an accident when I was 4 Years old. My childhood memory starts from my uncle’s home. I can’t remember my parents.
When I was 7 years old, my uncle had enough of me and sent me to Lahore to work. He dropped me off to his friend who owned a teashop in a busy market. I didn’t want to work, I wanted to play and study. I loved to go to school which now I couldn’t. I was hired for 4,000 Rupees which was alot of money for me but I came to know that I will get only 1,000 Pakistani rupees for my work and rest will be paid to my uncle.
After one year of working there, I used to deliver tea to a complete surrounding area of the teashop. I was responsible for the collection of money, delivery of tea and retrieval of tea cups. One day, the teashop owner asked me to make a special delivery at a compound nearby. When I took the tea to the compound, there were men sitting around in a round table in an open area. I delivered the tea to a person named Aqil, which the teashop owener Mr. Bilal told me. When I delivered the tea, and asked for the money and said that “Please kindly give me the money because I have alot of other deliveries to make” I don’t know what happend but this Aqil guy flipped and threw two cup of teas on me which was extremely hot and I started crying because of pain and then he said to me “Do you know who I am” “Now you will remember me always, scum”.
I left from the compound scratching my neck from burns. Now, when I remember back nobody stopped me and asked me what was wrong. It was approximately 3 minute walk back to the tea shop. The market was full of customers and a child is crying and walking and nobody stopped him or asked him what happend.
Then when I reached the shop, Mr. Bilal asked me what happend and I told him everything. Then he accused me why I asked them for money. Then I replied, you told me to ask for these things. Then he said forget about it, you don’t ask those guys for money. Here keep this 50 rupees and buy toothpaste for yourself to put on the burnt area. Also Mr. Bilal was a bad guy who used to beat me and slap me around just because I was late or because somebody didn’t pay me.
From that day, I knew life was not fair. When I was 12 years old I ran away from the Teashop and started living on the streets. I knew from my time in the shop to keep distance from people who are living on the street. I used to eat from a shrine known as Data Darbar in Lahore.
Then I knew I wanted to get a job so I can become something like the people that are sitting in an AC car. I knew I had to get an education but how. I didn’t knew anything about studies. So I decided to join a canteen shop in a school. There was one school which was very famous, I went to the canteen shop of that school and begged the guy in there to hire me because I wanted to study. I don’t know why but he did hire me and used to pay me 3,000 Rupees per month.
There was a female teacher in this school who was very nice. One day she approached me as I was working in the canteen and asked me about studies. I don’t know what prompted her to ask me this but she did. I told her that I wanted to study but I don’t have any money. She just said that don’t worry about it.
The next week I was enrolled in the same school I was working at.
Now I am 37 Years old. I’m married and have my own software house and a small general store which I acheived with my sheer determination and hardwork and some help from extremely generous people.
I have three Boys and 2 Girls. My wife often asks me regarding the burnt marks on my neck and chest and I always reply it’s a burnt tattoo.
I am happy. I got lucky. Not many people get lucky. Child labor is one of the worst things that can happen to a child. It’s my secret and now nobody can call me lowlife scum. Nobody can use me as their punching bag. Life is beautiful now, but I know from experience how ugly it can be.
It happened in Dachau, when a dozen SS were executed by US army personnel who were appalled by the sight.
Remember that the Allies despised the S.S. for a variety of reasons: the Canadians despised them for the Normandy massacre, the Americans despised them for the Malmedy massacre, the British despised them for Wormhoudt, and the French despised them for the anti-bandit operations carried out by the 2nd Das Reich SS division in occupied France (for example, Oradour sur Glane).
Another minor episode occurred in Bavaria, when Twelve members of the 33rd SS division were executed near a forest by Spaniards of the Nueve; their bodies were never brought to France and were left to decompose.
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Leclerc witnessed the fall of France and the devastation of French towns firsthand, and like many other Frenchmen, he lamented the loss of Ouradour sur Glane while actively seeking the annihilation of the Third Reich. During the liberation of Lorraine, his battalion was forced to untie from a community, and the mayor was later killed by the Germans once the village was retaken.
His division’s health service was retroceded in order to assist the released inmates from Dachau, and he witnessed the awful misery of the prisoners’ conditions in those sites; many of his fellow people were imprisoned in horrible conditions. He even got into a violent confrontation with a priest who was trying to keep an eye on what was going on.
So, sure, the execution of S.S was the culmination of months of frustration by Allies soldiers, which amounted to war crimes.
“Why should we hire you?” Luigi the arrogant recruiter asked.
“I have with me a written proposal of how I will positively impact your organization during my first 90 days in this position. We can go over it together if interested,” Mario said as he showed a sneak peek of his document.
“Sure, let’s take a look at it,” Luigi’s eyes shone with amazement while thinking, “Ohh wow! This guy has a plan? I’m curious as to what he is proposing.”
“Mr Luigi, has anyone ever brought you a plan before you hire them?” Mario asked, taking control of the conversation.
“I must admit, this is pretty uncommon,” Luigi said.
“Mr Luigi, I’ve done my homework. This is how I do things. You should hire me because I’m self-sufficient, I don’t need you to be all over me to give you results. I’m always ahead of the crowd.”
He paused to look Luigi in the eye.
“You should hire me because I don’t need to be micromanaged. You will never have to be chasing me or telling me what to do. You should hire me because I’m here to make you money. Mr Luigi, I’m an asset to this business, I’m a producer — not a taker.”
“Let’s see the plan,” Luigi insisted.
Mario got the document out and placed it on the table. Still holding it, he paused and said, “Well, Mr Luigi, I still don’t know if this is the right job for me. Can I ask you a few questions?”
Luigi arrogantly laid back on his chair and said, “Ok, shoot.”
Mario started asking questions, “What are the company values? Do you really live by them? Who will I work with? Can I talk to these people before I get started?”
“Interesting questions, Mario,” Luigi said.
“Mr Luigi, the reason I ask these questions is because I’m more worried about WHO I work with than my paycheck.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s important who I surround myself with. I like to work with smart people. I don’t like to be limited by what I can accomplish. I want to push my professional growth. A big paycheck is NOT worth being surrounded by idiots.”
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To answer your question, what are the best answers for “Why should I hire you?”
It really doesn’t matter the accuracy of a 90-day plan document. It doesn’t matter if it works or not. It will definitely make you stand out by showing you invested time thinking and understanding the job description and the company’s needs. (Most people only care about what they’re going to get paid.)
Show self-confidence. Show you care about yourself and that you have high standards for the quality of the people, the challenge and the job. Make the future employer feel they need to deserve you. (Most people will be almost begging for the job; that’s not very attractive for a recruiter.)
During a 10-hour flight, she was heading from Seoul, Korea, to San Francisco, USA. This mother distributed more than 200 passengers on the plane a plastic bag for each one. The bag contains candy, chewing gum and earplugs as a kind of advance apology for using them in the event that her 4-month-old baby screamed during the flight.
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The bag also contained a message containing (hello, I am Jan Woo. I am 4 months old and today I’m traveling America with my mom and grandmother for my aunt’s outfit. I’m a little nervous and scared. This is my first flight in my life. It’s normal for me to cry or cause some disturbance. I’ll try to stay calm, but I can’t promise you. Please use it if my voice gets too loud.. Enjoy your trip. Thank you)
I was 12-years-old. I had a paper route and my mom wanted to go out for a beer with her best friend.
Let’s get a couple of things straight before I continue. This was the 1970s and no, she’s not an alcoholic. Going out with the girls for a beer was pretty common in the 70s. It wasn’t quite “Mad Men”, but not far off.
The thing is, my parents were terrible with money. We were poor(ish). We frequently had to move because the landlord raised the rent. All of our furniture was used (if the couch cushions wore out, we flipped the cushions over). You get the idea.
There used to be a company called “Grenada” that would rent appliances to the poor.
My parents rented a colour television for something like 25 bucks a month when a new colour tv would cost $500.
Rather than do without a tv for a couple of years and then simply buy a new set, they went with the “just put it on credit” style of living.
My mom was in debt her entire life.
I said, “I’m not going to live like that.” After graduating from college, I lived at home for 3 years (paying $200 a month out of my $700 bi-weekly paycheques/$1400 a month). I saved $32000 in those 3 years and bought a small freehold condo (freehold means no condo fees. You have to mow your own lawn and shovel your own driveway).
I was 24 years old at the time. I was mortgage-free when I was 37, which was great because I was laid off SEVEN times in my career.
I worked 2 part-time jobs along with my full-time job.
I’ve never been in debt in my life. If I couldn’t pay cash (car loans and mortgage aside), I didn’t buy it.
I’ve only ever bought a new car twice in my life. I drove that first car for a decade. My car now is 12 years old. I hope to drive it for another 8 years. I’ll buy myself a new car before I retire and you can bury me in it.
I was immediately attracted to this question. My 79-year-old father is German and was a young boy during WW2.
I asked him to write something to respond to this question, and he provided this excerpt from his memoirs. (I’ve changed the names of my uncles.)
tl;dr: During the war, bad. After the war, worse.
“In the spring of 1942, as the RAF bombing raids started, our family was evacuated by the German authorities from Krefeld to the Black Forest in southern Germany. The operation was called MUKI (for Mutter und Kinder).
By train my mother and we 3 children arrived in Schönmünzach in the Black Forest. We were ordered into a requisitioned hotel. The money the government paid the hotel must have been pretty low, judging by the unfriendly service we received.
After a few weeks, we were moved another 15 miles deeper into the forest to the little village of Obertal into the Hotel Sonne and a little later to Hotel Günther. There we had a single room with toilet and washroom down the hall. The hotel was run by two sisters and a brother, who also was a blacksmith. Two of their nieces, Lilo and Inge, were the food servers. The food was without much variation: potatoes, carrots, mushrooms that we helped collect in the woods, and blue trout. I hated the trout because of their bulging eye balls and disliked the mushrooms, they were so slippery.
It must have been in the summer of 1942 when we kids played in the garden of the hotel. There was an umbrella stand with a heavy concrete base. In passing, I pulled the stand askew and let it snap back. Unfortunately, my brother Hans was close behind me and the pipe of the stand hit him in the face. He was bloody all over, but this guy is hard to kill, he healed soon enough, but today still has a scar under the left side of his nose.
In the fall of 1942, Hans and I started elementary school in Obertal, Walter, our younger brother, followed 2 years later. We were so proud of our satchels, packed with a slate board with attached sponge, and our freshly sharpened slate styluses.
One winter evening my mother left us alone in the room and locked the door (this was before the invention of baby-sitting). We were up to some mischief: I collected pine needles from the Christmas tree and stuffed them into an electric outlet. All of a sudden there was a big flash and the light went out. I had managed to put the entire hotel into darkness.
Shortly thereafter, in early 1943 we were moved to a farmhouse near the edge of the village. The farmer by the name of Haist and his wife were not happy at all to see the unwanted guests they were forced to take in. They had two children, Alma, who was about 4 years older than I, and her younger brother Egon. We were placed in the upstairs of the small house and had one bedroom, a living room and a small kitchen with a single spigot for cold water. The toilet was half a flight down and consisted of a board with a lid-covered round cut-out hole and a cesspool below, no running water. The bedroom had no heat but was placed above the stable where a pig and a cow were supposed to warm the room from below. It was not quite sufficient, and during the coldest part of the winter we had to hack the ice off the jug and wash basin that served as our bathroom.
One day my mother had to run some errands. She again locked us up in the living room and we thought of some new mischief. We found matches and tried to burn off the fringes of the curtains by the front windows. To our disappointment the fringes didn’t burn very well and only generated smoke. So we gave up on the idea, extinguished the smoldering fringes and looked for some other entertainment. I suppose my mother was upset when she came home, but I don’t recall any punishment.
Food in those days was strictly rationed and we had to use food stamps for every purchase. My mother managed to get beef bones once a week. First she made a soup from it, then burned the bones on the charcoal in the stove. She recovered the ashes and we had to eat them as our calcium supplement. It tasted almost as bad as the weekly cod liver oil that we had to swallow. (Cod liver oil is rich in vitamins and chemicals, such as iodine. The lack of iodine was causing a high occurrence of goiters among the locals.) One day the local grocery store, the Konsum, had a big surprise: they sold strawberry jam without food stamps. Everybody rushed to the store and bought as much as the store keeper would hand out. The jam was delicious, sweet and crispy. A bit later we found out that the crispiness was dozens of wasps that got processed with the strawberries.
In the spring of 1943 I got scarlet fever and an infection of the middle ear. I was quarantined in our bedroom while Hans and Walter were moved to stay in the bedroom with Egon. When I got worse I was sent by ambulance to the hospital in Freudenstadt, some 10 miles away. I must have been pretty sick because I had to stay at the hospital for more than a month. Later I was told that both of my ear drums had ruptured. When I finally was discharged the nurse confiscated my only toy, some kind of a construction set with interlocking wooden chips, because it was “contaminated”. Really they did disinfect it and let other kids play with it. I was very unhappy about the loss.
In the summer, war came to Krefeld. On 6/21/43 the Royal Air Force (RAF) launched a heavy air raid on Krefeld where we had lived. Our house took a full hit and was totally destroyed. We would not have survived had we not been evacuated before.
Once a week we were ordered by the school to collect potato beetles in the fields around town. The beetles were threatening to kill the potato crop and rumors were that the Americans dropped the beetles on Germany, an early application of biological war fare. We had to pick the beetles off the leaves which was ok; they looked pretty in their yellow and black stripes. What I didn’t like was crushing the larvae and the eggs between my thumb and index finger and, most of all, I didn’t like the young Hitler-youth supervisor who hit us with a switch in the back of our knees when we didn’t work fast enough. However, when we were doing well we received small propaganda stickers with a printed “Kohlenklau”, the energy thief with a sack of coal over his shoulder, and “Pst, Feind hört mit” the sticker to remind you that enemy spies where everywhere.
During the summer vacation of 1943 we helped our farmer to collect ferns in the woods that he used as bedding for the cow. The fern was spread in the courtyard to dry and piled up overnight. I still remember that one night the three of us kids were allowed to dig some cave into the huge pile and sleep in it. The fragrance of the dried fern was wonderful. We also helped to make hay, a very labor intensive process. In the morning the farmer went out to his large meadow behind the house and cut the grass by hand with a scythe. Every half-hour or so he paused, pulled out a whetstone from his hip pocket, and sharpened the scythe. Frau Haist, Alma, Hans and I used rakes to spread out the grass to dry. In the early afternoon, the grass had to be turned and in the evening it had to be collected into piles. This was repeated for several days until the hay was ready to be collected into a big net which the farmer then carried on his back into the hay loft above the stable. Every evening the farmer sharpened his scythe by straddling a stone bench that had a small anvil at the end, and hammering the edge of the blade razor thin. He then finished the sharpening with a whetstone.
To obtain firewood the forester assigned and marked one tree for each family and sent a notice where to find the tree. Our tree was up the mountain some 10 miles away near a logging road. The farmer, my dad, who was on furlough, Hans, Walter and I set off at 5 in the morning. After some searching we found the tree. Dad and the farmer cut it down, chopped off the branches and sawed it into 3 ft. sections. The 3 kids had to drag the pieces up the hill to the logging road and pile it up for pick-up by the forestry people. Hans didn’t like touching the slippery, mossy branches and decided to go home. He snuck away, took the cart with all our food and beverage and rolled down the road all the way home. You can imagine how furious we were, no food or drink and another 6 hours of work and a 3-hour hike back home. At home Hans got a severe thrashing, the only one my father ever administered to him. As a further penalty Hans had to do overtime in chopping wood after the man with the mobile band saw came by and cut the sections down to firewood length.
In the fall the farmer called in the local butcher to slaughter the pig. From our bedroom we could hear the poor beast squeal. When we went downstairs, the pig was already in a tub of hot water where it was being scrubbed clean and its bristles were scraped off. We kids had the job to wash out the intestines in the fountain in the courtyard and get them ready for sausage-making by turning them inside out. When the whole pig was processed we all sat down to a “Schlachtfest” (butcher’s party). The farmer’s wife dished out “Metzelsuppe”, the broth of the sausage cooker, and freshly baked bread, followed by various cuts of meat and sausages with potatoes and sauerkraut. It was truly a feast because we could eat without needing our ration stamps.
In 1944 we moved from the farm in Obertal to Baiersbronn into one side of a duplex that the town had built for bombed out refugees like us.
The house was very small, the living room was 7 by 12 feet, the eat-in kitchen was 8 by 14 feet, and there was a single bedroom upstairs, about 10 by 12 feet. Hans and I slept in a regular bed, Walter slept in the big bed with my mother and later, after my dad got back from the POW camp, he had a crib in an alcove. Later that year, Frau Ilse Mueller – who lived in the other half of the duplex – let us use her upstairs bedroom and the 3 of us kids had a bit more room.
The house had no road connection and no water. We had to haul the water by bucket from a neighbor some 300 yards down a path to the road. For three more months we kept hauling. When the town finally installed a single tap in the kitchen, it was truly a high point in our lives.
The toilet was a hole in a wooden bench, again with a cesspool underneath. It smelled terribly, especially during the hot summer days. Worst was the maggots that kept creeping up from down below. We didn’t have any toilet paper; none could be bought in the empty stores. So my mother sacrificed the love letters my father had written to her from the war, for us youngsters they were fascinating and so romantic.
Meanwhile, our neighbor, Herr Lampert, decided we needed a road, so he organized the neighborhood and we built a dirt road, about 200 feet long, to connect to the main road. We logged tons of stone from the nearby Sankenbach creek and set them by hand into a foot-deep road base. The bed was consolidated with rams made out of tree stumps. On top we put gravel and sand, and our foot path turned into a respectable piece of road.
In early 1945, the front was drawing nearer and bombs started falling nearby. One bomb hit Café Mueller and killed their only daughter. My mother barely escaped a machine gun salvo from a low-flying French fighter plane. She feared for our lives and we all went back to the more remote village of Obertal. There we shacked up with our friends, the Siehr family, into a 3 room+kitchen apartment. They had 3 boys, our best friends, and a younger daughter. Their father was a chemist who had volunteered to join the army in 1939 and was killed in action during the first few weeks of the war. Frau Siehr became a war widow at age 28 with four children, then 4, 3, 2 and 1 years of age. There was one bedroom for the children with triple bunk-beds for the boys, and the three of us doubled up with the boys head to toe. The girl had a small bed in the same bedroom.
Then, one day in April of 1945, the French army moved into the village. The German army had retreated to guard the next bigger town of Freudenstadt. Hans and I, at age 8, had to join the “Volkssturm” (People’s Army), the last resources of the army, consisting of men over 70 and kids of 8 to 15 (everybody between 15 and 70 had been drafted earlier). We had been trained, using wooden mockups, to shoot RPGs at the incoming tanks. But the German army retreated and had taken all the real weapons with them and, luckily, we didn’t have to make that “last stand against the enemy”. The village surrendered to the French without a shot being fired.
Then the French started to search each house for soldiers and also for quarters for their officers. They came to the upstairs apartment and knocked (!) at the door of the children’s room. My mother had posted all 7 children by the door; when the soldiers opened, they exclaimed “Mon Dieu” (dear Lord) and shut the door. We kids then moved swiftly through a connecting door to the living room where Frau Siehr posted us near the door. The soldiers knocked again at the next door and saw another mother with 7 more children. With a baffled “beaucoupd’enfants” (lots of children) they gave up on their search for accommodations in the house.
After the armistice was declared there was great joy all around. Our family went back to Baiersbronn to our “Behelfsheim” (emergency shelter) as it was officially called. There we found a big mess. French soldiers had celebrated the end of fighting with a big party and had turned the place upside down. Also, they ate all our food and we had nothing left to eat. One of the French soldiers, he called himself Bari Mulut, an Algerian, came by a few days later and asked my mother to hide him; he was a deserter and just wanted to go home. We hid him in the attic and played ignorant when the French MPs came by and searched the house. They overlooked the trap door in the ceiling, leading to the attic.
At that time, food rationing was not working anymore; the whole civilian service structure had collapsed. We went around to several farms and tried to get enough food but the farmers were reluctant to accept the worthless “Reichsmark” currency. My mother taught us some French and we went begging at the hotels the French had requisitioned. “Avez-vous des conserves pour nous?” we asked again and again. We also eagerly picked up cigarette butts, rolled them into new cigarettes of ever increasing nicotine content, and traded them against food at a farmer’s. One day we were very lucky, a French officer gave us eleven 32 oz. cans of meat and vegetables, it was a memorable day. Other days we were not so lucky and the entire food for the four of us consisted of a single sugar beet that the farmers usually feed to their pigs.
There were no toys around so we made some ourselves. We carved little boats from thick pine bark and let them float on the puddles in the ditch behind the house. We made whistles from willow branches, stilts from square-cut slats, catapults from beer-bottle tops and slingshots from inner tubes, discarded by the French soldiers.
The French commanded every inhabitant of the town to watch a film about the Holocaust at the movies. Everybody was horrified and some people said this was all propaganda. Apparently, they had lost their clear thinking after years of Nazi propaganda.
During the summer of 1945 stores had nothing to sell. To survive, my mother, Hans and I went on “Hamster Reise” (shopping trip), where we scratched up some tradable goods, among them mother’s pretty lingerie that dad had sent her from Paris, loaded them on a hand-wagon and walked first from Baiersbronn to Obertal, staying at Siehr’s for a short night. The next morning at 3 am we moved on across the “Ruhestein”, the watershed between the rain-drenched (130 in/yr) eastern part of the Black Forrest were we lived, and the fertile Rhein valley. We walked 22 km (14 miles) to Kappelrodeck, Hans and I barefoot because we had no shoes, to a farm where we traded our goods. We got some 140 pounds of potatoes, fruit and vegetables. By then it was almost noon and we started our trek back. While progress in the valley was fairly good, things got really slow climbing up some 10 miles to the “Ruhestein”. Luckily, that day there was a farmer who put a pair of oxen to work, trailing a bunch of ropes for us and other “Hamsterers” to hang onto, helping them to move their handwagons up the steepest part of the climb. Down the other side it was easier, 5 miles back to Obertal and then another 5 miles to Baiersbronn. We got back home just before curfew at midnight, an exhausting 21 hour, 33 mile barefoot trek. The trip added several new layers to the callused soles of Hans’s and my feet.
The next day we had to start preserving our food. All fruit was sliced and air-dried. For that we took the doors off the hinges and covered them with the fruit slices to dry outside on the grassy patch in front of the house. After the drying, the unpainted doors had a negative leopard pattern with light spots where the fruit slices had been and sun tan around them. Carrots, potatoes and beets were stored in a sand bed in the basement. Cabbage was shredded, salted and fermented into sauerkraut in a big ceramic jar, eggs were stored in silicone gel in another earthen jar, and bread was air-dried. We had no refrigerator, and only glass jars with lids, but without rubber gaskets which then rendered them useless (all rubber had been reserved for tire production for the army).
We did the trip twice more during that summer. On one of the trips we found another friendly farmer who too was trailing half a dozen ropes behind his tractor for people to hang on and get pulled up the mountain for a few miles. His tractor had a “Holzvergaser” (wood chip gasifier) that generated carbon monoxide by partially combusting wood chips in a man-size vessel mounted on the side of the vehicle. The monoxide was then burned to carbon dioxide in the engine, generating just enough power to pull the whole convoy up the hill.
My dad had a tough summer as well. During the last days of fighting in April of 1945 he was with a few other soldiers on the south-shore of the Danube River in Ulm. The Americans were on the north shore. My father was happy to see them, so he stood up and waved to them across the river. Next thing, the Americans trained their mortars on him and he jumped back into the trenches, barely surviving the attack. A short time later his unit was overrun and he ended in a POW camp in St. Avold in Lorraine, France. The Americans were mean to the officers, ignorant about the difference between the regular army and the SS-stormtroopers. My dad was regular army, but the Americans gave all of them their Holocaust special. They fed them 4 course dinners where, e.g., the fish course was a single sardine that had to be divided between 8 people. They made them sleep under the clear sky, no tents or other shelter. Luckily, it was a dry and warm summer, so they survived. My father weighed 210 pounds going into camp and 98 pounds when he was discharged 7 months later.
Things got better when my father came back from the POW camp in November of 1945. As a former officer, dad had to register and report every Saturday to the police station in Baiersbronn. Hans and I were with him one day when Hans saw a sign on the way out where the new administration was looking for “Applicants with business education”. Dad applied and just a few weeks later got a job with the “Preiskontrollbehoerde” (price control agency) in the newly established regional administration. He got a 98cc motorbike as the official vehicle. His job was to visit shops and businesses and control that they adhered to the fixed prices set by the authorities. But his main concern was how to feed the family. So, he always brought a brown bag with him when he checked the local butcher or baker. He told them “I am not corruptible, but I have to feed my family with 3 small children”. Depending on the “crimes” he discovered, the bag got filled, more or less, with food. Once he brought back 4 pounds of lard, an exceptionally good day. At home, we cut it all up into little cubes and rendered it on the stove. The greaves tasted delicious with some salt, and the grease was a welcome change from frying potatoes without any fat. We didn’t mind that the grease was more like wax and stuck to the roof of our mouths.
Here ends the WW2 story and what it was like for me to grow up during that time in Germany.”
I’m a service dog handler so I’ve seen quite a few.
This Time I’m in the bathroom with my dog. We’re at the mall and I really have to pee and my dog has just alerted me I’m about to pass out. I really want to use the bathroom before I pass out so I don’t pee myself.
I walk into the bathroom and I see this mother changing her kid.
I think “oh god. The kids gonna notice and get upset she can’t pet Callie.@ I was so worried because I really needed to use the bathroom and I was already dizzy and had blurry vision.
To my surprise (and relief) this little angel is smiling and giggling at her mom as she gets her diaper changed and she’s too busy to notice Callie.
So I get out of the stall and the mother looks up at me.
She didn’t see Callie who was sitting behind a pillar between me and the woman as I washed my hands. This woman starts interrogating me while her angel is saying “mommy can you hurry so I can help you pick out shoes?” This kid is a perfect angel.
The woman ignores her kid and starts yelling at me. “You are so disrespectful you shouldn’t be using the handicap stall! What if somebody in a wheelchair comes in needing it? Or somebody else with a disability?!!”
I can tell this kid wants to leave (her belated butt must be freezing by this point) so I calmly reply “Ma’am not all disabilities are visible, and I am in fact disabled”
This woman glares at me and says “Oh yeah? And what the hell is wrong with you?”
I step aside and call Callie to my side. I then inform her “While I am not comfortable sharing that information with you, I am willing to tell you that I used this stall so my service dog would have room and would not be inched away from me as I use the bathroom.”
This woman is dumbfounded for a moment then turns around to resume changing this poor kids diaper. I was so thankful.
Then, to my horror this woman does the closest thing she can do to turn this child to a monster. In a high pitched voice she says “Look at the doggy! Look at the doggy!”
I’m terrified this child will go crazy until she pets my dog (keep in mind I’m still very dizzy and about to pass out. Preferably in a chair)
Instead, this angel says “Mommy can I please pet the doggy?”
This is the part that horrifies me. She then gets in this kids face and screams “NO. THAT DOG IS WORKING YOU CANT PET IT”
She had very politely asked, and I may have said yes. (It would be good practice for Callie) but I was dizzy and this mom just told her no.
Now, this child was an angel by my standards and I’m guessing those of most people reading this, but she was not a perfectly behaved robot. Her mom had obviously scared her so she started wailing and sobbing because the woman she trusts most had just screamed at her in a demonic tone.
This woman then turns to me and says “You know. This is all your fault. We were fine before you showed up. No I have to deal with her.”
This kid was an adorable child who was one of the best behaved toddlers I had ever seen. (I am a babysitter) I could not believe her mother would do that. She wouldn’t have noticed and she was so polite.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we have a problem with our wings,” announced the pilot.
True story. This happened to me last week.
The plane was making its final approach to Houston Intercontinental Airport. Suddenly there were three consecutive “ding-dong” sounds in the main cabin.
I saw both air hostesses run from the back of the plane to the front and grab the phone. They talked for a few seconds to the pilot, then the pilot came on with an announcement.
“We have broken off our approach. We have a problem with our wings. The leading edge slats won’t come down. We have declared an emergency and we will be landing shortly,” he said.
“Fire trucks will be waiting for us on the runway. It’s probably going to be a hard landing because we can’t slow the plane down as we normally would. We’ll see you on the ground.”
That was it.
Immediately the air hostesses started preparing everyone for the emergency. Uncertainty filled the cabin. Everyone of us felt vulnerable and scared.
I reflected on how fragile we are. There we were, trapped inside a metal tube flying at a high speed, … nothing to be done, simply pray and trust that everything would be okay.
The wind shook the plane from one side to the other. I could sense how the pilot was trying to find the optimal speed to land, not too fast, yet enough to fight the winds.
I could finally see the runway through my window. We all braced for the impact and as soon as we touched the ground, the pilot hit hard on the brakes.
The captain did an amazing job. We cheered and clapped for his fantastic landing.
Fire trucks followed us to the gate.
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It was not fun. That leading edge slat on the front of the wing is responsible for the addition of a few more grey hairs to my head.
My first — and hopefully my last — emergency landing!
Fun outing in college, canoeing down the American River. Only… unbeknownst to us (and I suppose the trip organizers), unseasonably hard rainfall has made the river fast and dangerous in certain spots. Being completely inexperienced, my canoe-mate and I had no clue that going widely around the sharp bend would put us into the deepest, fastest-moving water, which coincidentally had just undercut a very large tree, which was now toppled into the water. So we get sucked into the fast-moving water under the tree and capsized. We surface. I come up with my torso against the tree, which is several feet in diameter. Some idiots immediately behind us apparently decide that they will “rescue” us (canoe-mate was a few feet down, straddling the tree by this time). They capsize. Their canoe catches the current side-on and lands against me. Both of my arms are over the top of the tree, keeping me above the surface.
I now have a sideways canoe with its flat hull pressing my torso into a giant tree, with the force of a raging river behind it. I feel it crushing me, and think I’m going to die.
And then, I didn’t. Apparently the angle was slightly off, and the canoe slid off and landed on my friend, a few feet downstream. Her leg was trapped and it took a whole lot of people a whole lot of time to move the canoe against the current enough so she could scrape her leg out. She ended up with severe bruising and was on crutches for awhile, due to the pressure. Yeah, I would have died, with puny ribs and lungs fighting the current instead of solid bone.
Chinese Black Pepper Steak
Chinese Black Pepper Steak 5
Ingredients
750g eye fillet (in one piece)
2 onions, sliced
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons dry sherry
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
2 tablespoons whole black peppercorns, crushed
Instructions
Partially freeze steak. Cut into thin slices.
Combine steak, onions, sesame oil, sherry, sugar, ginger and soya sauce in bowl. Cover, marinate several hours or refrigerate overnight.
Stir peppercorns through steak mixture. Stir-fry steak and onions in a wok over high heat until steak is cooked to your liking.
I’m astounded that Japan could be confused about the reason dead fish are washing ashore in the hundreds and more. They just released the most toxic water to date into the ocean. Gee, I’m sure that has nothing to do with it. Just a funny coincidence.
Would you drink water from Chernobyl? Would you drink water from Fukushima? So why would you eat fish that live in an an environment of toxic nuclear water? Why would you be surprised that the fish are dying in such water and washing ashore?
Literally everyone with common sense could’ve and did predict this. It’s basic cause and effect. No, I’m not surprised.
Years ago I had a blind date. We had talked on the phone and the guy asked if he could take me to lunch. Not MEET me for lunch, but take me. He was inviting me so I assumed he would pay.
We met at a casual inexpensive chain restaurant. I had something modestly priced – it was probably around $7 (like I said, years ago). When the bill came, he told me what my share was – he actually said, “You had the french dip plus an iced tea, so your total is…..” I was pretty surprised but I figured that the cost of my lunch was worth finding out what a cheapo he was so I wouldn’t waste any more time dating him. But here’s the kicker – he had a Buy One Get One Free coupon! So his meal was free and I paid for mine! That was enough for me. He walked me to my car and asked if he could see me again. I said, “No” and he looked surprised and asked why. I said that anyone as cheap as he was shouldn’t date. Thank goodness he never called again.
EDIT*** For those who comment why it should be presumed that a man always pays for the first date – I do not presume that! Whoever invites another on a date (not a casual “meet up”) should pay. This man invited me. He said he wanted to “take me to lunch.” That is an invitation for a date and it was logical of me to assume he would pay. I have invited men on dates and I have paid for both of us. This is not a feminist issue – this is an issue of manners. And this guy had none.
Music CDs – it was announced recently that a couple of big box stores are dropping them from their shelves.
The word “TWICE”. No, really! Just start listening out for it and you’ll notice that almost every TV advert that should be using the word will say “TWO TIMES” instead…and it’s spreading, I hear this ugly replacement for a perfectly good word in news stories too. Why? It’s a total mystery! (Of course “THRICE” already went the way of the Dodo…so…)
Stick-shift cars. Most new cars no longer come with the option to drive stick. (Boooo!!!!!)
The grammatical rule that disallows “split infinitives” (Like “To boldly go where no man has gone before!”…which should strictly be -> which should be strictly “To go boldly…”)
In the USA – extending tape measures with inches on one edge of the tape and centimeters on the other. I broke mine a few months ago and neither of the local DIY stores have anything other than “Easy Read” tape measures with only inches. I had to hunt around online to find one that I could still order.
Cash. Already, several countries are considering completely abolishing cash…and a while back, I needed cash for something (I forget what) – and realized that I’ve had no cash in my wallet for more than two years!
Philips screw heads. (The ones like a ‘+’ sign) The replacement is the six-sided “torx” head screws (like a ‘*’ sign) – and in some cases the Allen head – which is a regular hexagon. With the improvement in design of electric screwdrivers, the old philips screws (which are DESIGNED to strip under high torque to protect the tool from damage) are overdue for replacement.
We could go on forever…
Point is that with all of the new things in the world – some old things have to “go away” to make room…either intellectually or physically.
Sometimes it’s sad…sometimes, it’s good…mostly it’s just “Meh”.
When I was in college I went to bed hungry many, many nights. I used to steal cheese from Administration wine and cheese parties so I could eat that night. My food budget was 5 dollars a week. Then one day I learned about food stamps. In those days, food stamps really were stamps — they resembled currency but could only be used for food. I think I was eligible for 90 dollars a month in food stamps in 1981. That increased my food budget to about 22 dollars a week.
It absolutely changed my life. Suddenly, I could keep peanut butter in my house, and bread and cereal, things I could eat every day. And if I had the right coupons, I could buy tuna fish and mayonnaise as a luxury. I can still remember my hands shaking with joy as I made a tuna fish sandwich. I was a six foot tall 19 year old man with a 28 inch waist.
Pride made me unable to let people know how bad things were or how hungry I was. Money from my work-study job was used to pay rent and utilities. I balanced my check book to the penny because every penny counted. But when I did go to the DeMoulas in Fitchburg near the college (and I always walked), I always felt ashamed when it came time to pay. And don’t think I didn’t get many dirty looks and the occasional snarky comment from others in the line.
I vowed one day to make up for taking those food stamps and never criticize people who used them. Hunger is real and hunger changes your life, what you can do, how you view your work, your study, your play, your pride, your sense of worth – everything you are, because what you eat today walks and talks tomorrow. Yes, I felt real shame using food stamps. I never took charity before, I was a white man in America and taught that men don’t take charity — you work for what you get. But they saved my life and I am grateful today for the generosity of the taxpayer of yesterday who saved my life and ability to graduate with high honors from college and become a productive member of society.
Many moons ago, I found myself in perplexing life circumstances.
While I had a decent paying corporate IT job, my divorce of several years back had finally to ground my finances down to the point of near crisis.
Despite appearances of success, my disposable income after supporting two households was drifting into the negative.
In addition to faithfully paying child support for my two children, I also took them every weekend as they were the joyous bright light of my then stressful life.
While not extravagant per se, I made sure they had fun doing normal things kids do, as their mom tended to be frugal in this regard. No blaming, per se…
Backstory set, my current financial crisis was that the annual car insurance bill was due, and I basically didn’t have it. Ironically, a recent necessary car repair depleted my reserve at a bad time. Big sigh.
After spending days trying to sort this, no solution was apparent, and the strain of the bills due date was a preoccupation.
The next morning as I leave for work, the neighbor who lives across our sloping alley was standing behind my car looking at its bumper. His own over-the-top customized pickup is at an odd angle behind my car.
He apologetically explains that his big truck slipped out of gear, rolling over and hitting the back of my car. Hard enough that his trucks bumper was broken in the middle and partially dangled on one side. My heart sank, guessing at my poor cars condition.
Upon inspection, my early 80’s Volvo GL (very thick body metal) had a minor rumple in its rear corner. The trunk still worked, taillight undamaged, and bumper still fine as the lifted truck hit above it. Quite a comical mismatch of damage.
He gave me his insurance info and I went to work, grateful in part for light damage, but annoyed and worried. What was this going to cost?
I called his insurance agent who arranged to have an adjuster come my works parking lot, who I met about an hour later. He asked a few questions as he circled the car, tapping away on some hand-held machine that looked part printer (not a usual thing at the time).
Before I could finish explaining the alley incident, his machine starts spitting out some paper.., a check! He handed it to me with a smile saying There you go!
Sure I about to be low-balled for my repair, I quickly looked the amount. Easily quadruple what my car insurance bill that needed to be paid this week! Huzzah?
I look at the adjuster guy, clearly showing surprise in my expression. He says The damage is cosmetic and everything stiil works. If I were you, I’d just leave it and keep the money. Have a great day! We shake hands and off he goes.
And that’s just what I did, after paying my car insurance with the windfall from the other insurance company. A curious little shell game between these entities.
Indeed, Huzzah!
Billy Joel – We Didn’t Start The Fire (Historically Accurate Almanac) COMPLETE
Sailing into the wind is a sailing expression that refers to a sailboat’s ability to move forward despite being headed into (or very nearly into) the wind. A sailboat cannot make headway by sailing directly into the wind; the point of the sail into the wind is called “close hauled”.
image 287
Sailing into the wind is possible when the sail is angled in a slightly more forward direction than the sail force. In this aspect, the boat will move forward because the keel (centerline) of the boat acts to the water as the sail acts to the wind. The force of the sail is balanced by the force of the keel. This keeps the boat from moving in the direction of the sail force. Although total sail force is to the side when sailing into the wind, a proper angle of attack moves the boat forward
Old ships, such as sailing ships and square-rigged ships, had different sailing and fighting qualities than modern sailboats. They had to rely on their sails, rigging, hull shape, and crew skills to maneuver and perform in various wind and sea conditions. They also had to deal with challenges such as enemy fire, storms, pirates, and navigation. Old ships used various tactics and techniques to sail into the wind, such as:
Tacking: This is a basic sailing maneuver that involves changing the direction of the ship by turning its bow through the wind. This allows the ship to zigzag its way upwind by alternating between port and starboard tacks. Tacking requires coordination between the helmsman and the crew, who have to adjust the sails and rigging accordingly. Tacking also exposes the ship to enemy fire from both sides, so it was often avoided in combat situations.
image 286
Wearing: This is another sailing maneuver that involves changing the direction of the ship by turning its stern through the wind. This allows the ship to reverse its course without losing much speed or momentum. Wearing is easier and faster than tacking, but it also requires more space and exposes the ship’s vulnerable stern to enemy fire. Wearing was often used as an escape or evasion tactic when facing superior forces.
Beating: This is a sailing technique that involves sailing as close to the wind as possible without losing speed or stalling. Beating requires trimming the sails tightly and steering carefully to maintain an optimal angle of attack. Beating allows the ship to gain ground upwind by minimizing its leeway (sideways drift). The beating was often used as a pursuit or attack tactic when chasing or engaging enemy ships.
Pinching: This is a sailing technique that involves sailing closer to the wind than is optimal (i.e., with a too-small angle to the wind). Pinching reduces the speed and efficiency of the ship, but it also reduces its leeway and allows it to point higher upwind. Pinching was often used as a desperate or risky tactic when trying to gain an advantage or avoid a disadvantage in a tight situation.
The time when I was 16 years old and had a fake driver’s license to get into clubs. (This is a very long time ago when the licenses were paper).
A few weeks before, a clever bouncer realised my ID was fake. I won’t go into the details. He took it from me and advised that if I wanted it back I needed to go to the police.
I freaked out, went straight home (parents) and hoped I’d never have to think about it again.
There’s a knock at our front door. It’s the police (I can see them coming up from my bedroom window). I couldn’t understand what was happening.
My Dad answered the front door. I heard mumbling for a few minutes. I heard the front door close, and Dad coming up the stairs.
Dad called for my Mum. “Heidi, your Uncle’s stolen car has been found and it’s registered to here. I’ve informed the police that he’s living here at the moment (truth) and that he’ll sort it out tomorrow with them”.
Footnote: I heard all this from my bedroom as I was promising God that I will never, ever, ever have another fake driver’s license!
What you’re not being told about Apple Daily and Jimmy Lai
When Indonesia got loan from IMF in 1997, the Indonesian government was forced to terminate this project as one of requirements in order to get the loan from IMF.
image 285
The planes in the picture were N250s. The first ever plane produced by Indonesian airplane manufacturer, PT IPTN. It was in the 1997 N250 first prototype made its roll out. The plane successfully took off and conducted flight test. Unfortunately, Indonesia fell into a severe monetary crisis in 1997 and had to go to IMF to get the loan. The IMF told President Suharto to cancel the N250 project and it was mandatory before getting the loan. Suharto had no option at the time but approved it. Since then N250 project was cancelled. IMF also told Indonesia to stop funding IPTN totally but Indonesian government didn’t fully comply what IMF wanted. The funding to IPTN was only greatly reduced and its business cores were diversified in order to survive with minimum budget support from the government, now IPTN changes its name into PT Dirgantara Indonesia.
Many said and believed, IMF intentionally terminated the N250 project was to accommodate the requests from some foreign airplane manufacturers which didn’t want Indonesia to produce its own planes because they wanted Indonesia to keep buying from them.
I won’t say getting load from China will not be followed by terms and conditions but I just wanted to show you how IMF put pressures on countries that borrow money from them.
I parked in a hospital parking lot, and when I came back to my vehicle, there was this young couple, early twenties having a heated discussion. She wanted him to call a taxi, and drive to a mall and buy a battery. He wanted to call a locksmith. The battery in their key fob was dead, and they couldn’t get the door open. They were getting quite mad at each other, thinking that the others solution was going to cost more and take longer.
I asked them if I could be of assistance, and they both wanted me to explain to the other why their idea sucked.
The guy suggested that maybe I could take the battery out of my fob, and put it in theirs just long enough, for them to open the doors.
I asked to see their key fob, and he handed it to me, thinking I was going to do his suggestion.
I walked to their car, put the key in the lock, and opened the door.
They both were stunned. Saying OMG, how did you do that?
They had never seen a car door opened with a key. I felt really old, and just a little smug.
Def Leppard • Hysteria || Jennifer Connelly • Career Opportunities
This is great.
Curried Beef
2023 12 21 06 07
Ingredients
14 ounces (400g) lean boneless beef
2 teaspoons rice wine
3 cups (750ml) vegetable oil for deep-frying; uses about 2 1/2 oz (75cml)
2 ounces (60ml) clear stock
2 tablespoons curry oil
1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon ginger, chopped
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon cornstarch (corn flour) dissolved in 1 teaspoon water
1/4 teaspoon onion, chopped
1/4 teaspoon hot red chile pepper, chopped
Instructions
Cut beef into 1-inch square chunks.
Heat the oil in a wok over low heat to very hot, 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Deep-fry the beef until it is cooked through. Remove beef, drain, and set aside.
Pour the oil out of the wok, leaving a thin film on the bottom. Reheat until a haze appears on the oil surface. Add the curry oil, ginger, garlic, onion, chili pepper, rice wine, stock, salt, MSG (optional) and sugar.
Stir the cornstarch to blend and add. Add the beef, stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened.
Here is Claudia Schiffer in her earlier days. If you are a heterosexual male (my perspective on this subject), this picture make your genes scream “I wanna mix with those genes!”
It’s not an intellectual response. It’s not a moral judgement. It is a primal response. You couldn’t stop it if you tried. In this picture, she is the epitome of beauty. This yells “fertile”, and “your (our) kids will be successful at reproducing, too”.
Remember, the future belongs to the people who show up. Reproducing successfully greatly increases your odds of having children that reproduce successfully.
image 283
Brigitte Macron (wife of French President Emmanuel Macron) is not exactly an ugly woman, but I guarantee this picture doesn’t spur the same response as the one above.
In this picture, she is at, or close to menopause. That’s enough to shut down, or at least greatly mute the involuntary male response.
But looks don’t matter
Looks open up the door. They don’t keep you in the room.
The visceral response to those looks may last 6 months, or two years. But humans become acculturated to their normal surroundings. And even if your wife/girlfriend looks like this (Linda Evangelista in her prime):
image 282
There comes a point where you are inured to it. You care more about whether she picks her nose and leaves the snot on the bedsheet (or whatever annoying behavior she has).
And then there’s that standard male desire for variety. Arnold Schwarzenegger was married to Maria Shriver
image 281
Beautiful, smart, connected. She had it all. That should be enough, right?
Nope. He had an affair – and a child – with his nanny
image 280
I can’t tell you what was going on in the Schwarzenegger-Shriver marriage, but it’s rather obvious that Maria’s looks didn’t mean a whole lot at that point in time.
So let me repeat the point:
Looks matter – they get you in the door. But they don’t keep you in the room.
Are you beautiful? Lucky you. You have a greater selection of mates to start with. But after you choose one, you need to figure out a relationship, and that’s hard. Really hard. Work on that. The looks will stop mattering, even before they fade.
The Average Chinese don’t understand GDP growth or PMI or Productivity or other Indicators
To them the only source of their worry is the REAL ESTATE MARKET
They have no inflation whatsoever
They have no unemployment problems
Their businesses have plenty of credit available these days
The Chinese who have invested a large chunk of their money into real estate now see the downturn in these markets and feel poor
The Chinese Economists know this and allow this to happen knowing the alternative is to keep fueling real estate speculation and spectacularly crash a decade later
Yet the Chinese people are stoic and practical people
In the end they will shrug, accept that their investments in real estate are going nowhere and offload them or stick with minimal growth
It’s a harsh pill to swallow but one necessary for the long term
China thus is doing pretty well relative to the rest of the world from the eyes of the average mainlander
In fact, except for the real estate slump, he would rank his life as very good
2023 was a good year for China
First the lockdowns ended and that was a huge relief
Second the country is chugging back to life. The demand is back to 2019 standards and slowly rising again.
I personally feel Chinas growth in 2023 could have been as much as 6% but the Chinese are keeping a lot of their success on the books so that they can boost their 2024 growth rate instead
Rather than a 6% growth in 2023 and 4.1% in 2024, better for a 5.1% growth in 2023 and a 4.8% growth in 2024
This way China exceeds it’s target for both years
So there is no need to distract anyone
The Average Mainlander doesn’t need distraction
He has relatives who inform him of their lives in other countries and he knows not one of them is better off than him.
Today I walked my son to his kindergarten class. It was cold and we were huddled together like sardines as we stood outside the door waiting for the bell to ring.
I saw you with your little boy just a few feet from us, and I looked down when I realized you were looking at us. I hoped you didn’t know who we were. I hoped you didn’t know my son was “that kid.” The one who’s not transitioning well in this school year.
I know what the kids say about my son. They go home and tell their parents my kid is bad. Sometimes he pushes and hits. Sometimes he is defiant and refuses to sit down, be quiet, or stay in line.
image 297
I know because the kids tell him what they think of him on the playground. “Mark said I’m bad today.” Or “Aiden’s dad said I can’t play with him anymore.” And my heart hurts, because I know he’s struggling in school. And we are working every angle… in school with a specialist, at home, and through classes, books and resources.
Today, you looked at me, then at my son. “You must be K,” you said to my son. And I looked up and smiled sheepishly. It was an apologetic smile. Almost a “I’m sorry you know his name” smile, because that means you’ve heard the stories.
I said to you, “Yes, this is him.”
I whispered when my son stepped away that we are aware he’s causing some trouble and we are working on it. That we take his behavior very seriously.
And then you did something I never expected. I don’t know if I was waiting for you to tell me what you heard K did to your son, or just tell me off. But instead you told me about your older son who struggled with similar problems at this age. You told me that now he’s in high school and he’s a straight A student.
Instead of tearing me down, you lifted me up. You gave me hope. And you handed me an olive branch so I know that I do have an ally during school drop off. An ally I never expected.
You didn’t have to make that connection. You could have ignored us or pretended not to know us. Or yes — you could have told me what you think of my son (you would not be the first). But you didn’t. You showed me grace and kindness and you uplifted me more than I could possibly describe in words.
I told you I would love to learn more about steps you took with your older son. I would love suggestions and guidance and that I would call you. And you know what? I will call you. Even if no suggestions or guidance is ever exchanged. I will call you because you are a friend I want to have. You are a good person.
I will do something I normally despise: answer on behalf of someone else. This is just too good to not mention.
The words were: We are going to lie down for a nap. We are feeling tired and cranky.
It was just that: My wife, our toddler and I were going to take a nap on a weekend afternoon, because we were just not quite feeling ourselves. Before lying down, my wife called a doctor’s office to make an overdue appointment. All she got was a lady from the answering service – or possibly an Angel. We were not able to ascertain which, as we never met her in person.
The lady told my wife that the office was not open, and when it would reopen. My wife replied that she was going to try again later, as we were going to lie down for a nap because we were feeling tired and cranky. This had nothing to do with what she had called about – just making conversation. Still, only going by that, the lady deduced that we were dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. She told us to leave the house NOW, and called 911 for us.
Turns out the chimney had collapsed, and flooded the house with carbon monoxide. The levels were deadly – had we gone to sleep, we would not have woken up. The nice lady saved our lives, just based on my wife mentioning conversationally that we were going to take a nap. If that is not impressive, I don’t know what is.
Thanks, nice answering service lady, wherever you are.
MAJOR CORRECTION: My wife has read this answer, and she remembers telling the answering service lady that she was feeling woozy. That would have been a major hint – but I still find it more than impressive that she was able to save our lives just based on a brief phone call which was on its face about something else entirely.
When i was 12 there were a few kids at school who bullied me for whatever reason. It wasn’t bad physical bullying just name calling mainly. On weekend i was in our town centre calling my mother from a payphone. These 3 boys walked past and started banging on the phonebox shouting some names and proceeded to walk off.
Now for some reason, i this time i reacted. The only thing i had to hand was a full can of coke. I shook it up and opened it up just a tiny bit and threw it towards the boys intending to cover them in Coke. I threw it when they must have been 20-30 metres away and as the can approached them i shouted one of the boys names. “Paul!” (I’ll not use his real name) he turned round and the can hit the side of his forehead and he just dropped to the floor.
I ran. Oh, i did, i ran! Finally stopping at another phone box to call my mother and tell her exactly what happened. She was surprisingly ok about it despite me saying ‘Paul’ must have been really hurt. She just told me to get my butt home ASAP.
I didn’t hear anything about it until after the weekend and ‘Paul’ came in to school with a massive lump on his head coming out in a huge bruise. He’d spent the rest of Saturday in hospital.
Fortunately, i didn’t get into any trouble at all. I had only intended to cover them in Coke and could never have imagined hitting him square on his forehead at such a distance.
As kids are we all became friends in later years with even ‘Paul’ painfully accepting it was a one in a million shot.
Someone I know was diagnosed with cancer and given only 3–6 months to live.
It was a devastating diagnosis to her and her family. She was an amazing person, who’d lived a good, healthy life, and was only in her late-50’s.
But, as we know, cancer is a merciless disease.
She ended up getting on a strong treatment plan that allowed her to live almost 2 years.
The first 12–16 months of those 2 years, she more or less had a great quality of life and was able to travel, spend time with loved ones, her husband, kids, grandkids, making the very most of that time.
In the remaining 8–12 months of her life, things began to descend.
The cancer began to change her body, breaking her down. Her mind began to change and, consequently, her behavior did too. The medicine she was taking was no longer thwarting the onslaught of the disease.
In the end, in the final weeks of her life, it wasn’t pretty.
She eventually fell into a coma that doctors advised she would not wake up from.
In her final days and hours, her body seemed in great pain.
I won’t burden you with the details, but know this – her family had to see her in a state that would traumatize most of us had it been our own mother.
I’m not presuming the following statement would have been her choice; it is my, perhaps controversial, opinion:
People who know their life will end in an excruciating way should have the option, with the assistance of medical professional, to end their own life in a more peaceful manner.
It is far more humane than letting them be ravaged until the bitter end.
1. Just because you’re offended doesn’t mean you’re right. 2. You can’t be healthy and obese. 3. Everyone wants to GET old, nobody wants to BE old. 4. Most anger comes from feeling powerless. 5. The people you look up to are just as nervous as you are. 6. As people age, they get fewer chances to mess up. 7. All systems are essentially a minority ruling over the majority. 8. If you look in the mirror and find a dirty face, it might also be that the mirror is dirty. 9. HR is not there to protect you, it is in place to protect the employer. 10. Relationships are a one way street, whether you are the one in love or the one loved. 11. Some people will not like you no matter what you do. 12. In fact, some people are not qualify to have kids or even pets. 13. Upvotes on Quora are free. 14. Small achievements may come from hard work, but big ones require luck. 15. We are all biased, especially those who think they are not.
I was working in the seafood department of a major grocery store chain. We had on ad pink salmon for .88 a pound. My first customer of the day wanted me to scale it, fillet it, and pack it into 4-ounce portions. I refused! She immediately went and told the store manager about my refusal. I was willing to walk out if he insisted that I do it because, I was working solo and the cost of the fish was so low and the cost of the packaging was a lot, let alone the time it would take if I had to do them. He came back, we went into the back to discuss my refusal. I told him my reasoning. He told me that he would help me with it.
We returned to the seafood department, and he told her that he would be happy to cut it the way she asked. She was over the moon and handed him two packages of the fish. He gave me a disgusted look. He told me you refused to do the two fish, unbelievable, I am disappointed in your lack of customer service. I smiled. Then the same customer pushed into the seafood department the two carts filled to the top with the fish. She had over 200 packages wanting them all scaled, fillet it, and pack it into 4-ounce portions. I silently told him so! He refused to do it for her and told me that under no circumstance would we do anything to the fish but sell them in the bags. I agreed but did tell him that I was disappointed in his lack of customer service! He sent me home for the day! Being a union department, I was paid for the day since he didn’t follow protocol about sending me home. The meat department had to cover my shift; boy they were pissed at me!
I once stopped a very hot looking “model” (I use the term loosely) for speeding at nearly twice the speed limit. Mind you, I am not a ticket writer and can count on one hand the number of citations I’d written in the last decade. Truth be told, at my rank, I don’t even carry a ticket book. When I informed her why I had stopped her, she proceeded to hand me her business card with her cell phone number on it and leaned forward making sure I could see her quite ample bosom. Up to that point, I had no intention of citing her, and was just going to warn her to keep her speed down. However, once she suggestively tried to flash some skin, I called for a radio car to bring me a citation book so I could write her up.
“You’re going to write me a ticket? Nothing we can do to work this out?”
“Ma’am, I had no intention of writing you a ticket when I stopped you, but at this point, if I don’t, you’re going to go around telling everyone that all you had to do was bat your eyes and flash your breasts to get out of a ticket… Press hard on the pen, there’s three copies.”
The Airforce UFO Cover Up That Drove a Man INSANE | They’re LYING to US
I must have been in fifth or sixth grade. I was visiting my paternal grandmother, and I well remember just fooling around the maze of Pittsburgh hillside buildings. I remember peering though the network of porches and stairs to peer into the next door house. It was a home where my great uncle lived. He was my grandmother’s oldest brother.
And I peered in silence. It was a scene that impressed me deeply.
The old man, was in a bare and lonely dining room. He sat there, and slowly, very slowly was eating a bowl of soup.
Alone.
In gloomy darkness.
I do not know what my future holds for me, but one thing that I DO NOT WANT is to be eating alone in gloom, in a bare and empty house.
The U.S. cannot compete with China or for that matter, any oriental nations over time. American wants to earn lost of money but are willing to work half as hard, and as a nation they focus on wars, war mongering, and doing shit throughout the world earning nothing but hate of the American people.
The only way for it to be sustainable and functional again is to make Americans work twice as hard earn a pittance of money compared to now, and become discipline and retrained in new skills. All of which the U.S. government will not dare to change. Hence it will always have to buy from someone else and grow its deficits and debts.
Get use to it and prepare for the total implosion and collapse of the U.S. over time. The real income of Americans has ceased to grow since 1960 or 63 years ago! Meanwhile your political system will always select the most popular politicians who are not the best or the most capable. To run your country. They will make wrong choices but popular ones.
As long as you continue to operate the way you do, China and the world will eat you for lunch. I am merely saying the obvious. Something your media and politicians will be totally in denial. Hence its up to you to make a difference.
This gentleman Sun Zhengcai thought he was deep enough within the CPC to get away with a 170 Million RMB Bribe ($ 28.25 Million or ₹ 206.7 Crore)
He engaged in some bogus accounting
Back then CPC officials needed to submit their Asset and Liabilities every 3 years and so it was easy to hide money
Xi Jingping now said every CPC official of a certain rank had to disclose Assets and Liabilities every 12 months
He appointed the Xuebao commission, 192 dedicated people aimed to establish who were corrupt
Anyone who showed more than 15% increase in assets over a year or 100% across 5 years were questioned
Many proved they invested in property and shares and showed the source
No Issues said Xi
This Moron claimed he invested his money in a Spanish firm. It took a few days to establish that this was false because CPC members had to declare every outward transaction out of China, capped at a maximum of $ 100,000 a year that too for education or healthcare only
He was caught red handed
He tried to use Party connections to Jiang Zimin
A Total of 76 officials were caught
Xi and the Party offered them a choice –
4/5 of the Assets paid back to the Party plus permanent resignation from all Chinese politics and mandatory exile to the Outer Provinces with permission needed to return even for a 7 day visit to Beijing
Or
Trial & if guilty , life imprisonment
75 thankfully paid the Party and China and went to exile
Sun boldly said he would face Trial
He was found guilty and sentenced to life
Under Chinese law his daughter was recalled from Stanford and forced to establish her innocence and it took until 2022
He is in a 10*10 cell, languishing away
All because he was STUPID enough to believe he was immune
Lieutenant Ted Macie, an active-duty officer in the United States Navy Medical Service Corps, has been barred from accessing his work computer by the Department of Defense (DOD), after publicly revealing Heart Damage to Navy Pilots after the COVID Vaccine.
Macie’s exposed significant increase in heart-related issues among military pilots, post-COVID-19 vaccination.
The data presented by Lt. Macie reveals a dramatic spike in various heart-related ailments among fixed-wing and helicopter pilots. The statistics show increases in conditions like hypertensive disease (36%), ischemic heart disease (69%), pulmonary heart disease (62%), heart failure (973%), other forms of heart disease (63%), and cardiomyopathy (152%) compared to the five-year average prior to 2022.
After making public the horrifying, real-life, danger post-COVID-Vax, the U.S. Department of Defense has restricted Lt. Macie’s access to government computer data.
Hal Turner Personal Opinion
Apparently, the DoD has forgotten they work for the American people, and are trying to conceal the damage done to our military – and, by extension, to the American people — by the so-called COVID-19 “vaccine.” Especially galling is the 973% increase in Heart Failure; which DoD is apparently trying to cover up.
People in the DoD would do well to remember their entire organization was CREATED by . . . . us. The American people. We created the military to serve . . . us; to protect . . . . us. We train, equip, feed, clothe and house the military, to protect and serve . . . . us.
We PAY the military to do these things . . . for us.
If anyone in the armed forces of the United States is under the wrong impression that they work for anyone other than . . . . us . . . . they need to quit.
Many years back, my mother was frying chicken, not noticing that my baby brother, back then, managed to enter the kitchen and was crawling around.
He touched her leg, gave her a fright and before she knew it, the pot had flipped, and the boiling oil spilled on my brother’s face.
He got a huge burn on more than half his face. She thought she ruined his life forever.
My mother’s first instinct was to grab some ice and quickly place it on the burn. But she decided to call my father who’s a doctor first, thankfully. And he told her to never put ice or even very cold water on such a burn or it will only damage the tissue.
Instead, “the best thing to do for a minor burn is to cool it off by running the burned area under cool water for about 5 minutes. You can also apply a clean, cool, wet cloth.”[1]
And that’s exactly what she did before taking him to the hospital.
Thankfully, they gave him the proper care, and after a few months of using proper creams and honey to cover the wound, it was nowhere to be seen. It helped a lot that he was still a growing baby so his skin recovered fast.
But yeah, if she had acted on her instinct, and placed ice on it, who knows how that would’ve affected my brother’s face to this day?
My -ex used to be a nurse in a psychological care facility. When they were dealing with someone who was going completely ballistic, out of their control mind, the wrong thing to do was be completely calm.
She said she’d often go in and act a level or two calmer, but agree with the patient about their anger, because that would get them on board to listen to her and connect. And from there, she’d be able to wind them down a bit and talk them into chilling.
When she’d go in and immediately tell them to calm down in her ASMR voice, they’d just get even angrier.
It’s a good insight into learning to manage someone’s emotions. Leaning into them a bit allows you to get some control of the situation in many cases.
The other trick, that works big time, is to smile and look happy to see people. You’d be amazed at how far this goes to score points right off the bat. It seems like such basic advice, but many people don’t do it. It’s page 1, line 1 from the charisma bible.
It’s 2009. You’re in your friend’s basement, laying on a couch that doubles as your bed.
Your alarm is going off, but you don’t see the point in getting up. All you can do is stare at the ceiling and wonder how you ended up in this situation.
Bills are accumulating at an alarming rate and your savings account is all but depleted.
You know you need to make a change. You know you need to get back out there, find a job, and work your way out of this slump you’re in.
A friend tells you they could put in a good word for you at their office, but you hate the idea of working for some corporate snake that’s only out for himself.
Mark’s Landscaping posts a help wanted ad. No experience necessary.
It’s exactly what you’re looking for. It’s honest work, no managers breathing down your neck, and you can start immediately.
You brush yourself, put on your best smile, and sell yourself as a hard worker.
3 days in and you already hate it. It’s too hot, the hours are too long, and Mark is the one reaping the benefits of all your hard work.
You finish up for the day, head back to your friend’s basement couch, and start coming up with a plan to start a rival landscaping business.
The alarm goes off the next morning, but the snooze button is all too easy to hit.
You’re not worried about making it to work on time. You’re about to start your own company that puts Mark out of business.
The phone rings. Mark’s name flashes on the caller ID, but you send him to voicemail.
Instead of going into work, you fall back asleep.
The alarm goes off the next morning, but you hit the snooze button.
Mark calls, but you send him to voicemail.
Instead of going into work, you head out to look at landscaping equipment.
Everything is way too expensive and way out of your price range. If only you had the money.
You pull out your phone and give Mark a call, but he sends you to voicemail.
Mary’s Pool Cleaning posts a help wanted ad. No experience necessary.
It’s exactly what you’re looking for.
3 days in and you already hate it. You go back home to your friend’s basement couch and start coming up with a plan to start a rival pool cleaning business.
The next morning, Mary’s name flashes on the caller ID, but you send her to voicemail.
Fast forward to 2019. You’re in your friend’s basement, laying on a couch that doubles as your bed.
Your alarm is going off, but you don’t see the point in getting up. All you can do is stare at the ceiling and wonder how you ended up in this situation.
Best video Ever
Men, Listen up. It doesn’t matter (to anyone) if you win or lose. What matters is how you take it.
Two things to learn. 1, be strong regardless 2, pick your women better
New Zealand ARRESTS Government Database Admin for Revealing 24% DEATH RATE for certain COVID Vaccine Batches
A New Zealand Covid-19 vaccination database Administrator turned whistleblower, and revealed how many people died after taking certain batches of the Pfizer vaccine. New Zealand has now ARRESTED that man for “accessing computers for deceptive purposes.”
According to the man, certain batches of the Pfizer vaccine had death rates over 24% within about a week of persons being given the jab:
ARRESTED!
Today, Sunday morning, we are told the database Administrator has been ARRESTED by New Zealand authorities for revealing this information!
According to New Zealand media outlets “A health worker has been arrested and charged after allegedly misusing and disclosing vaccination data, while spreading misinformation about Covid-19.
The 56-year-old man will appear in the Wellington District Court tomorrow charged with accessing a computer system for dishonest purposes, police said.”
I worked for a company that decided to block ALL internet websites except for sites that were approved by management, one by one. There was no warning, not even a memo that went out that Monday morning it occurred. The IT person was overwhelmed the first day with complaints that the internet was broken. The reason eventually given was that too many people were using the company network for social media time wasting.
One small example, and there were many, of the short sighted policy, was in booking travel reservations. Sites like Continental, United, Delta, American, Hilton, Marriott, and Holiday Inn all had to be approved to allow for access, one at a time. What happened is people got approvals for one or two sites and used them, without regard to cost. The travel expenses doubled. Doing research to find the lowest cost supplier for parts was gone. You simply bought from the last guy you bought from since his site was approved. Costs went up across the board.
Sure, people weren’t using the company internet to access Facebook and Twitter anymore on their phones, so they switched to using cellular data. Time wasting continued. Expenses went up.
1: When my eldest son was about 2, I had a few friends come over for bridge once a week.
One time we were all standing in my kitchen and my stomach rumbled. He picked up my dress and went “Ewww! Sis! Stinky!”. I was so embarrassed and everyone burst out laughing.
It wasn’t a fart, just a growl of a hungry tummy.
2: This same son used to have timeout in the bathroom. This was more than 30 years ago, so please don’t judge me. Things were done differently then. He would open the door so I would lock it from the outside for the duration of his timeout.
One day I was using that bathroom and he decided to lock me in from the outside. Poetic justice, you may say, except…it wasn’t.
When I asked him to unlock the door again, he was unable to and he was becoming hysterical. Here I am, on a Friday evening, inside the bathroom and my little 2 1/2 year old on the outside. I wasn’t expecting anyone for the weekend and there were no cellphones yet. The situation was dire.
We tried everything. He tried to take the key out to pass it to me, but couldn’t manage. Tried to push a knife under the door, but I couldn’t use it successfully.
After about an hour and many hysterics from his side (and a little bit from mine), I leaned out the bathroom window to see if anyone was perhaps passing.
I live in a dangerous country. All windows have burglar bars and people stay off the street after dark. It is a city and we don’t really know our neighbours.
After a while, I saw someone arriving at their house about 30 meters from mine. I shouted and shouted for help. He first looked at this crazy woman and I could see he wanted to ignore me, so I shouted even louder.
Eventually he came to the window and I explained the situation to him. He was laughing a lot, I remember.
Thankfully he scaled a 6-foot high wall to get into my property and thankfully I hadn’t yet closed the sliding glass door which gave him access to the inside.
So a stranger had to come into my house to unlock the door my darling son thought prudent to lock.
Needless to say, that was the end of timeout in the bathroom.
Oh SH*T! This is why they’re INVADING America, it all makes sense now | Redacted w Clayton Morris
When I was a kid, I asked my parents for a cat. They smiled and said that I can have a cat if I can catch one and tame it. Living in the country, they figured that put the matter to rest, since there’s no way I could pull that off. Imagine their shock two hours later when they saw me walking up the holler with a knapsack in tow, carrying a stray barn-cat eager to live the cushy indoor life. We kept her.
When I was eighteen, we argued over a boy. Really, it was about boundaries. I roared, “I’m leaving!” They said that’s fine, see what it’s like out there! You’ll be back! Though it probably would have been best for me, I did not come back.
”We’ll show you.” No, I’ll show you.
After peeling an orange for my toddler this morning, she peered into the garbage can, wanting more. I explained that we don’t put our hands in the garbage, and that the bitter peel is nasty. “It burns, honey.” I had just changed the bag and the peel was the only thing in there, so when she grabbed it anyway, I thought, “Okay, good. This is a teachable moment. She’ll eat the peel, see that it’s nasty, and I can say, ‘See? That’s one reason…’”
I studied her face as she munched on the bitter skin and started to say, “See? It’s oogy oogy – nasty. Ewww -“
Except she broke out into her full-toothed smile and reached for another piece.
To my delight, we are very much alike. To my concern, I’m beginning to suspect that means we have our work cut out for us. Oh, yes, what goes around comes around.
The best advice I ever received was from my father, which may seem simple and homespun, but it has proven invaluable throughout my life. He had a certain protocol during mealtime in our family, emphasizing the importance of not wasting food and finishing everything on our plate. While he often had to remind me to be mindful of my butter consumption, it is not his specific advice that stands out.
His advice was rather straightforward – to eat what I didn’t like first and save what I enjoyed for last. I have carried this advice with me ever since. It doesn’t mean I suddenly become a fan of Brussels sprouts when I devour them first, but it has translated into other areas of my life. When faced with unpleasant tasks, I make it a point to tackle them first, so I can then fully enjoy the more pleasant ones without any guilt or lingering responsibilities.
I am grateful to my father for his wise counsel, and I still adhere to his advice by being mindful of my butter consumption and savoring the best moments until the end.
My wife and I were at a movie decades ago. It was shortly after Ace Ventura came out, back when they had previews and an attendant would come on stage and say a few words.
The attendant came on, a young guy of 16–17. He said, to the crowd’s astonishment, that he was quitting because his boss was a prick. Then he turned around and talked out of his bum like Ace did in the movie and told a hilarious story about his boss. Then he took off his uniform shirt and walked. He got a standing ovation!
I would say that one thing that has changed here in the U.K. over the past fifty years ago, or since the 1960s when I was a boy, is the etiquette of calling on or visiting friends and relatives. I remember in those days how instead of going to the coast or the countryside on a Sunday afternoon as many people do now, especially on a fine summer afternoon, my parents would instead drive to my grandmother or one of my great aunts, and this (or so it seemed to me at the time) was in the hope of being given a free tea when they arrived. Indeed it was the custom in those days, at least here in the U.K, to drive around and pay a surprise call on relatives and friends like that on a Sunday afternoon, who were then expected to welcome you and rustle up something for you to eat.
If my grandmother or elderly relatives did not do this, they were regarded as mean and inhospitable. They probably realised this too, and so they would make an effort to be generous hosts and feed their guests, and indeed would have some tinned food in their pantry that they could bring out. It was always tinned food rather than fresh food of course because the host did not know whether or not anyone would turn up, and if nobody turned up fresh food would go to waste whereas tinned food would keep for the next Sunday afternoon.
The meal would be tinned salmon, the brand usually being John West (popular in those days and pictured below). I should also mention that in those days smoked salmon and cream cheese sandwiches, which are so popular now, probably even more so than tinned salmon and cucumber, were unheard of because smoked salmon was so expensive and regarded as the food of only the very rich.
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The tinned salmon would often be followed by a tin of pineapple chunks, i.e. a tin of pineapple chunks (like the one shown below, except that in those days tins did not have ring pulls like this one shown, and would need to be opened with a tin opener).
Nowadays it is different, because people do not normally call on friends and relatives without making prior arrangements to do so, and people who do not do this but call unexpectedly without giving notice are regarded as selfish and inconsiderate for the way that they presume that the person they are visiting has the time or is available to see them, or indeed has food in the pantry for them. However when I was a boy it was different, and the onus was always on the person receiving unexpected guests to rustle up a meal for them, like my grandmother always did.
My husband was Covid retired at 66, and we thank God every single day it happened. At the time he was hurt and a little bewildered but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
We realize now that, left to our own devices, we would have just keep going. His job had changed and the stress levels were ghastly but we needed the money because we had two houses. We weren’t thinking clearly, really. We didn’t want to get rid of the one house because we loved the location and owned it outright, so it was our “vacation house” but it needed a lot of work, was in a rural area and would require a 300 mile move away from friends and family. Meanwhile our primary residence had been remortgaged due to my divorce in 2003. The inertia was powerful.
After Covid lock downs ended and some other experiences (specifically the death of three of our four cats, three months in a row) we did something we’d never been able to do, spend a full month in our vacation home. We packed up our last cat and went to spend what we thought was our last time there. It was supposed to be to grab our stuff and meet with a realtor last hurrah.
Long story short, we changed our minds. We realized how much we hated where our primary residence was. Literally it’s only redeeming qualities were that it was convenient to our loved ones, doctors and shopping. Suddenly the major repairs and renovations the vacation house needed weren’t so insurmountable with my husband retired. We would be moving to New England and were looking at an increase in expenses, and now we were on a fixed income, but a different heating system and smaller house generally offset that. Also, vacations wouldn’t need to be factored in because we wouldn’t be escaping from our noisy, smelly, increasingly urbanized and progressively more scary neighborhood.
I now live on a dead end street with a total of three neighbors and don’t expect to ever have more. The biggest noise is my neighbor’s roosters, and I can’t even hear them with the windows closed. I’m planning the gifts I want to give my neighbor/friends (homemade food) when we never used to even know the names of the people who lived in the house attached to our twin. We are on a budget, will always be, but money literally cannot buy happiness. We are so utterly at peace and content, more than we ever imagined, and it is a pleasure we never would have experienced if my husband hadn’t retired.
My husband took early retirement as a high school administrator a year before I did the same. The plan was for him to use that year when I was still teaching to fix up the house and get it ready to sell.
In November of my final school year, a stranger saw him working out in our front yard and asked if we wanted to sell our house. My husband said it would be for sale next June.
The man explained that he was the person who had just bought our next door neighbor’s house, and that he would like to buy our house as well for family members. My husband told him we’d think about it.
When I got home and heard the story, I was adamant that it wouldn’t work to move out before school ended in June. My husband had a plan, however. I didn’t have to lift a finger; he went on to arrange a short term duplex rental for us from a neighbor, arranged to have most of our furniture and “stuff” moved to a storage facility, and cleaned the empty house himself.
Our California house sold for our full asking price before it was listed for sale.
I wouldn’t recommend manipulating anybody, as the act itself is unethical. But I would recommend learning these tricks to stay aware of what is going on inside other people and behind their image.
The Zeigarnik Effect (named after the psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik): This phenomenon suggests that people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones. To use this, if you want to ensure someone remembers something, start discussing it and then intentionally leave it incomplete.
The Benjamin Franklin Effect (Named after the eponym of effect: Benjamin Franklyn) : This effect suggests that people are more likely to like you after they’ve done a favor for you. So, asking someone for a small favor can actually make them feel more positive about you. (Maybe even trust you).
The Illusory Truth Effect: The more you hear something, the more likely you are to believe it’s true, even if it’s false. Be cautious about repeating false information, and fact-check before sharing because this is how gossip negatively influences our brains and functions.
The Pygmalion Effect (Named after a Greek Myth): This is the idea that higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. If you have high expectations for yourself or others, it can lead to better outcomes. Of course, there are exceptions, where people would feel pressured when high expectations are placed on them, like a stone on their shoulders. But it is a valuable tip for your professional teammates or family members.
The Power of Visualization: Visualizing success can boost your confidence and performance in various situations.
Contrary to what one might believe, as you age you get less materialistic. My wife and I always laugh when we realized that we spent most of our young lives gathering “stuff” and most of our older lives getting rid of “stuff”.
As you age, you realize what’s really important in your lives (relationships and doing things you enjoy to do are the two biggest things) and understand that all that materialistic stuff just weigh’s you down. You not only shed material things but also things that you realize are of no value.
The “cranky old man” is usually more true than not because you stop trying to be everybody’s friend and discard relationships that add quality and enjoyment to your life.
You stop trying to present aires on who you wan’t to be and are now happy (in most cases) with who you are. My belief is that all this comes about when you realize you have more than likely achieved whatever you’re going to achieve in your lifetime and you have only a short time to really “enjoy” what’s left of your life. In effect, you finally become comfortable with who you are because, at this stage, you’re not going to change AND you’re not going to change what others think of you.
Don’t take this as a negative because hitting this “milestone” in your life, to use a common saying is like “taking the monkey off your back. You finally become “you” and the hell with what the rest of the world thinks.
My old manager at a fast food restaurant went for a night out. He was having a great time. Bar hopping all around town.
His girlfriend started receiving weird calls from random numbers, then his mom and dad, then his brother and sister. Everybody was getting calls. “Give us $20k or we kill Jacob” (name changed for privacy)
He was drugged and tied up while the men made ransom calls to everyone on his phone. They ended up getting no money and dumped him in the street below the most famous sign in town. The “biggest little city in the world” sign in Reno NV. He woke up there in his underwear. Police were called but none of the men were ever found
I did Houston to Dubai and I think that was 19 hours. Typically, once you get past about 9 hours, it’s all the same. You watch movies, read a book, chat with your travel buddy, sleep etc. It’s just really not a big deal.
Even if you’re a nervous flyer, like me, you can only be terrified for so long before you get over it and just get bored.
I have a few tricks that I use that I will share with you.
Every hour, on the hour, I like to get up an do a lap. That is, I will walk all the way to the back of the plane, use the restroom, Hit the galley for a water or a munchie, go all the way to the front, at then circle back around. Again, all of it where I need to use the bathroom or not. It just helps break up the monotony.
Any time they give you food, take it and eat. It breaks up the monotony.
Bring a laptop or tablet and put a BUNCH of movies on it. Some long flights don’t have good entertainment options and it can be difficult to find out before you are on the plane. I bring my Ipad with about 20 different movies and TV shows saved on it. It doesn’t even matter if it’s a bad movie, it’s just to pass the time.
Try not to get too wound up about it. Just relax and enjoy the ride. You’ll get there when you’ll get there.
Two instances come to mind, more funny than serious though.
After Army basic, we were in AIT and the Drill Sgt was a little guy, smaller than many recruits. He called everyone into the barracks for some kind of pep talk or something. I don’t remember topic but we were all “at ease” and he was sitting on a top bunk facing us. Just then a recruit runs in late, jumps up top with him, slaps his arm and tells the drill to scoot over. He didn’t realize it was the Drill Sgt. A good smoking ensued while we all tried not to laugh.
A couple years later my unit at the time was in Korea on a field excercise. We had a tent with our cots set up inside and the command tent was right next door. We all had blanks for training excercise and those muzzle blocker things installed. I forget the name, but they were red and cube shaped. Anyhow, day was over and a guy whos cot was against the wall we share with the command tent was carrying an M249. He walked in all tired, went to his cot, and kinda just dropped his weapon on the ground next to it. He never unloaded it. 3 rounds (blanks thankfully) went off from burst mode. It was aimed into the command tent. They noticed.
Some years ago I worked in a large office and the pretty receptionist used to wave at me every time I came in.
I used to grab a bite – usually alone – at lunch in the canteen, and she asked if she could join me. This became regular for a couple of weeks and we’d chat about non-consequential stuff. Sometimes she appeared to try and steer the conversation towards sexual stuff, but (back then) I was uncomfortable and didn’t follow up.
She would flick and twist her hair, smile and tilt her head when I talked.
After a while, when I walked past reception and she started blowing kisses to me.
I hope nobody else has already said doing press-ups with a backpack filled with vodka bottles, because that woud be disappointing. (Also fairly unlikely.)
Because my most bizarre injury was probably sustained doing press-ups with a backpack filled with vodka bottles.
Having recently finished Uni, I was living alone in a lovely (cough) studio apartment. Not wanting to shell out on a gym membership, I used some impressive initiative that would probably have been better served on finding a half-decent job.
I combined two of my main passions at the time — working out, and drinking.
You have to make do with what you’ve got. What I had, was several empty bottles, both plastic and glass, and a backpack.
Being a smart cookie, I realised that, if I filled said bottles up with water, I could make them pretty heavy. I could then put several of them in my backpack, and make my bodyweight exercises (press-ups and pull-ups) considerably harder, so I could continue to make progress (or at least maintain a bit of muscle) sans gym membership.
Being a not-that-smart cookie, I didn’t really foresee that glass could be breakable. (Well, I did put some form of clothing in the backpack, to prevent the bottles all smashing against each other, but I don’t think it would have passed a safety inspection.)
Halfway through a set of press-ups, one of the vodka bottles cracked, and started leaking over me. It also caused some of the broken pieces of glass to dig into my back, so my blood started leaking over me as well.
OK, actually, it wasn’t a particularly bad cut. I do still have a faint scar on my back from it, though. So, while I’ve had several much worse injuries, I don’t think any of them were quite this stupid, or preventable.
(Actually, spraining/almost breaking my ankle jumping over some small shrubs by a kerb while yelling “parkour” might give it a run for its money.)
I had never known true grief until my wife died four years ago. I did not know the cruel tricks my mind would play on me after her death.
Michelle was a diabetic. Her diabetes caused so many problems with her body. She had early onset osteoporosis. People would not believe that she needed a hip replacement in her early thirties. I lost count the number of times I woke up but couldn’t wake her up because her blood sugar had dropped. The day we closed on our house, she wasn’t there. I had to call 911 that morning. She was in the hospital when I signed the papers to buy the house.
Over the years, her health continued to worsen. She was shopping with her parents when she tripped and fell. She broke her leg starting a years long odyssey involving several surgeries and the doctors installing an external fixation device on her leg. The doctor had said at one point that the easiest thing would be to amputate her leg after her broken bone had become infected. She did not want to.take that option hence the external fixation device. For almost two years she had a heavy metal set of rings on her legs with pins that went directly into the bone. She was wheelchair bound as she couldn’t walk with the device on her leg. She required assistance from either me or her parents just to go to the bathroom. During this time she developed necrosis in some of her fingers. We spent one anniversary at home with her crying in pain because her fingers hurt so bad. She eventually had several fingers amputated. There was no choice. She also went into renal failure and required dialysis.
Hospital staff knew her by sight. Two week long hospital stays were a routine part of life. Then came the day that life ended. She couldn’t stay at home with me because she couldn’t take the stairs up. She stayed at her parents apartment. Her father woke up to go to work. He would assist her using the bathroom before going to work. That morning he couldn’t get her to wake up. He called 911. The paramedics performed CPR for over an hour but nothing more could be done. She was 40 years old when she died.
My wife was Jewish. Jewish funeral tradition states that a person must be buried very quickly after they die. She died on a Tuesday. Her funeral was held on Thursday. There was a rush to get her sister in from where she lived in a different state, but for the most part I spent the days between her death and her funeral in a state of shock. Feeling no emotion whatsoever.
During her wake, her coffin was in a separate room where only a few people could enter at a time. A couple of my cousins that Michelle had been good friends with over the years asked me to accompany them while they paid respects. They wanted me to be their rock. The funeral home had done Michelle’s hair and makeup. She had never looked more beautiful except for our wedding day. My cousins each cried a few tears but I was still in shock.
After her wake and the Rabbi giving his service, we went to the cemetery. There was a service held at the graveside. Another Jewish funeral tradition followed. Her coffin was lowered into the ground then each mourner would put a shovel full of dirt on top. I remember the Rabbi being very specific that you do not hand the shovel to the next person in line. You put the shovel down so that it is standing up in pile of dirt next to the grave. My turn came. I did as the Rabbi instructed. After placing the shovel back I took a few steps away then emotion hit me like a freight train. It was literally a surprise when the tears came. The tears flowed and I couldn’t stop them. I stood there for I don’t know how long. My best friend that I refer to as my brother came up and wrapped me in a hug. His wife also hugged me and tried to console me. She told me how there would be no more hospitals, no more pain, her suffering was over. Still I cried. I had known Matt since high school. It had been 20 years since we graduated. He had been married for six years by then. He told me how after the funeral his wife said she had never seen me cry. Matt realized at that point that in over 20 years of knowing me, he had never seen me cry either.
It took a long time for me to recover enough composure to drive away from the cemetery. Even then a had to wipe away tears as I drove.
The next week I went to a cell phone store to have her phone deactivated. I again lost control of my emotions inside the store. The act of turning off her phone was another finality that hit me. I had to leave the store and go cry in my car before I could finish that task
The worst cruel trick my mind played on me came a few days after her funeral. I had a dream about her. In that dream we went to a store to go shopping for coffins. She would lay in a coffin to test it out. She got into one coffin and the lid started to fall shut. In the dream she was saying “Don’t let that close on me, don’t let that close on me”. The lid fell shut and that’s when I woke up. The coffin lid had closed and would never open.
It’s been over four years. Not a day goes by where I don’t think of her. Often I will see something on the news that would interest her and my first instinct is to grab my phone and text her. She was a huge baseball fan. She loved the Detroit Tigers with a passion (I’m surprised our house was still standing after the umpire blew the perfect game call). When I learned that Tigers hall of famer Al Kaline had passed away, I had my phone in my hand hand before I realized what I was doing. There are emotional scars that will never go away. The pain doesn’t go away. You just learn to cope with it.
I’m going to try and shorten a long story. Many years ago we had one guy in the crew who seemed to have bad luck following him around. One morning he was hours late getting to work and the entire crew was wondering what new pitfall had occurred and when he finally arrived everyone ran over and asked him what had happened. He said a severe storm had hit during the night and lightning had struck his chimney and blew a hole in his roof and set it on fire. He climbed up on the roof with a garden hose and put the fire out. Got some plastic and covered the hole. Inside the house had gotten pretty damp from the rain and the water hose and about that time his neighbor came over and suggested he come over to his house to sleep where it was dry. Said he went to the neighbors for a couple of hours and couldn’t get to sleep so he returned home. There was a van in his driveway. Walking up to it he noticed while backing up it had dropped a wheel over his culvert and gotten stuck. He looked in the back of the van and could see many items from his home and no one around so he ended up calling the police. He inventoried all his stuff in the van and asked the police to sign it but the police refused. A few weeks later when he got his stuff back some of the electronics were missing. Just life as usual for the guy. On another occasion he said they built a new apartment complex behind his property and dug a huge drainage ditch and dead ended it up against the back of his property. He got out the tractor and started building a berm. Said he managed to get it three foot high before the apartment builder got an injunction to stop him from building it. At that time a heavy storm rolled in and the water came down the ditch and hit his wall backing the water up and flooding all the apartments instead of his home.
Because they were born, educated and grew up in China.
China has a completely different history and social record compared to the US; in China, the state is considered to be the parent and guardian of all Chinese citizens, and is trusted more than the private sector, who are often considered to be scoundrels who crave personal wealth at everyone else’s expense.
This is the opposite of what most Americans believe.
Full Metal Jacket is probably the most accurate film ever made about the US involvement in the Vietnam War. It is absolutely the most accurate film ever made about the US Marine Corps’ service there.
While I’m only 44, and was never a Marine, and have never even been to Vietnam, those are not the uneducated opinions of a viewer. They’re simply facts.
Enormous care was put into making this film as historically accurate as was humanly possible, largely independently of Stanley Kubrick, himself an obsessive researcher always aiming for absolute historical accuracy, even at the cost of his own story telling.
Every major player except for Kubrick himself who was involved in its writing and technical advice was a personal witness or participant to the events leading up to, including and following Tet 1968, in Da Nang, Phu Bai and Hue, the locations the film is set in in its second act.
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(Kubrick was the only major player involved in military and historical input into the film who had not actually been on the ground, at the locations described in the film, during the period of the Vietnam War shown in the film.)
Gustav Hasford, the novelist who wrote Short-Timers, the novel on which the film is based, and a member of the screenwriting team adapting the novel into Full Metal Jacket, actually served as a Marine Corps combat correspondent from 1967–1968 in South Vietnam (alongside his “frenemy,” future military advisor to Hollywood and actor, Dale Dye). He was actually present in Da Nang during the initial stages of the Tet Offensive, actually had to transit between Da Nang and Phu Bai during Tet and actually covered the Battle of Hue for Stars and Stripes. The character of Joker is based on him, personally.
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(Gustav Hasford)
Michael Herr, a member of the screenwriting team adopting the novel Short-Timers into the movie Full Metal Jacket, was the pre-eminent journalist of the US involvement in Vietnam. Dispatches, his 1977 memoire of his time covering the Vietnam War for Esquire magazine from 1967–1969, was judged to be the best book “to have been written about the Vietnam War,” by the the New York Times Book Review. Espionage novelist, former military intelligence officer and former MI5 and MI6 agent David Cornwell, better known to the world by his famous pen-name John Le Carre, described Dispatches as “the best book I have ever read on men and war in our time;” high praise indeed from an author generally considered the best British writer of the second half of the 20th Century. Any incident not directly attributable to Hasford’s service in Full Metal Jacket was something Herr himself had personally witnessed – in fact, the door-gunner incident is a verbatim account of a real incident Herr was present for, in which he was the journalist talking to a door-gunner killing women and children and asking to be covered in a story. Michael Herr also personally covered the Tet Offensive in Phu Bai, Da Nang and Hue.
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(Michael Herr)
R. Lee Ermey, the military advisor and eventually the actor playing Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, was actually a Marine Corps Drill Instructor from 1966–1967, and served in South Vietnam as a helicopter ground crew chief from 1967–1968. He was personally allowed to ad-lib 50% of his dialogue for this film, an absolutely unheard of event on a Kubrick picture, where, typically, you had to be named either Peter Sellers or Jack Nicholson to be allowed ad-lib at all. Ermey himself also served in Da Nang during the Tet Offensive.
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(R. Lee Ermey)
Street scenes were reconstructed from photographs belonging to Hasford, Herr and Ermey dating to late 1967 and early 1968 and taken in Da Nang, Phu Bai and Hue. Often the location and costumes reconstructed exactly matched the photographs, straight down to the clothing worn by civilians and the contents of the billboards and other advertising.
Some things in the film are notably SO accurate that those without intimate knowledge of the time and place sometimes call them into question – ie, the film enters the Uncanny Valley. For example, a Westland Wessex, a British-made, license-built clone of a Sikorsky H-34 Choctaw, is used as the helicopter transporting Joker and Rafterman. Most people assume only the far more famous UH-1 Iroquois, the Huey, was in use in South Vietnam by that point in the war. The USMC however operated the H-34 well into late 1968 and even preferred them to the newer Hueys. Its use, particularly in a second line role transporting journalists around, was absolutely period correct – as I said, it helps that Ermey, in addition to being a Drill Sergeant was also a helicopter ground crew chief, and that both Hasford and Herr personally recalled being transported by H-34’s at the time.
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(Picture of an H-34 taken from inside another H-34 in use by the USMC in 1965 in South Vietnam. This image is from the extraordinarily famous and important photo essay, One Ride with Yankee Papa 13, published in Life magazine in 1965. While used in the assault and even gunship role by the Marines in 1965, by 1968, unless requested by name – HUS – they were used in support roles; things like hauling journalists around, and doing mail and supply runs, as seen in the film.)
So an obsessive Kubrick surrounded himself with actual participants to the events described in the film. It makes the film absolutely accurate, except for the limited license Gustav Hasford took while writing the novel itself (his real-life Drill Instructor was not murdered, and there was no real-life Private Leonard Lawrence aka Gomer Pyle, but that’s about it). And while some of the novel’s elements were changed for the film, none impacted historical accuracy so much as they changed the tone and became less like Hasford’s personal experiences and more an amalgam of his and Michael Herr’s.
First China HAS DE-RISKED from the U.S. and the west in Chips, Software and Technology. Period.
China will never be dependent on the west ever again. It will make everything better, cheaper and faster than the west and make all the money themselves. It was happy to share a loaf of bread with the west but since the west wanted to cut China out. China do that as a favour for you. They cut you guys out. For good.
Forget 7nm. Think about Chinese 0.5 nm chips! For get google or IOS thinks Harmony that can do everything faster, more efficiently and cheaper. Forget blue tooth. Think a wider receivable less power consumption Chinese equivalent at half the price.
Too bad some players in these technologies sucked up to the west and threaten China. You harvest what you sow. China will cut out at least 70% of the world market. The west and make stuffs for your own small tiny market. You guys can cheat or coerce each other! Good bye Intel, Qualcomm, Nivdia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, blue tooth. China, the global south will cut you out. You asked for it. No tomorrow or in 5 years. Starting now!
I worked at a newspaper that had a dark room for developing negatives. When you enter and turned off the main lights, a red light turned on just outside the door. No one would dare enter as they could ruin hundreds of dollars of film.
It was a good place to go if you wanted to be alone. Just as I started my shift I entered the dark room and found about ten empty beer cans. They were from an employee on the shift before me and he had got drunk and forgot to get rid of the cans
From my arrival in the country as the head of school, I was concerned that people didn’t seem to be getting my emails. Many said they eventually found them in SPAM, but I couldn’t understand why a school email would consistently be sent to people SPAM boxes. I made a new address and saw a moderate improvement – better than nothing.
One of my employees kept getting viruses on his computer. We had brand new computers and while this was a poor country in Africa, the internet service was pretty good when we had electricity. Mac computers were not as susceptible to viruses as Windows, so I was getting pretty annoyed. I had cleaned up his computer several times by running software for that purpose, but after the second or third time of this, I decided I needed to delve deeper. What I found totally floored me.
This employee was running one of those money scams where people are told they can get millions if they simply help get money out of a bank in ‘country-x’. I found over 800 documents of copies of a variety of passports – many with his picture on them, official letterhead from the US embassy, letters that looked like they were from the US Ambassador, pictures of piles of US currency, pictures of credit cards that appeared to be from people who had been scammed, ‘official-looking’ documents from the local government, all used to convince people the plea was legitimate . . . I was up most of the night, printing off everything that I found.
Now I understood why our email was going to SPAM and why he got so many viruses. He had been running all of this on school computers, often doing this instead of doing the work he was hired to do.
If the people in your life aren’t happy for you after a big win, then you need to find new people. Full stop.
People say opposites fall in love but the truth is relationship having same music tastes, food vibes and night life lasts longer.
Choosing a romantic partner isn’t just about the romance-you’re also choosing a confidant, counselor, career advisor, therapist, investor, teacher, travel buddy, roommate, best friend, and business partner.
The reason why you can see through some people is that they have what you used to be.
Most people don’t care what you say, or do, most of the time.
No one is going to stand up at your funeral. Life is about loving people, not impressing them.
The longer you try to force what doesn’t feel right, the longer you delay finding what does.
My husband and I used to tease my dad and his “lady friend” when they would tell us what they ate on a regular basis—a small breakfast, a big lunch, and cereal for dinner.
But now the tables have turned as we’ve aged because my husband and I have become those people. In fact, I just had cereal for dinner about an hour ago.
With the exception of dinners with family or friends, we mostly eat a hot lunch as our main meal. Fruit and cheese, cottage cheese and fruit, or cereal and milk are our go-to dinner choices. I also like a spoonful of peanut butter for a quick snack if I start feeling hungry in the evening. And we both have a sweet tooth so some snacking does take place during the day.
When you age, your metabolism slows down and, for us at least, three full meals are just too much. We also feel better if our heaviest meal is midday rather than in the evening.
Again, we’re flexible and social occasions will find us eating a big dinner. But on those days, we just have a sandwich for lunch so we have room later to enjoy a big meal at night.
Norton’s Cafe Jambalaya
Whole30 Jambalaya Recipe Primavera Kitchen 1
Yield: 15 cups
Ingredients
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green bell peppers, chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 ounces Norton’s Cajun Seasoning (about 1 cup)*
2 cups (4 sticks) margarine
1 pound raw chicken, cut into bite-size pieces (about 2 cups)
3 cups hot water
3 cups tomato sauce or canned diced tomatoes
10 ounces andouille sausage, cut into bite-size pieces (2 cups)
10 ounces ham, cut into bite-size pieces (2 cups)
1 1/2 tablespoons beef base
2 1/2 cups uncooked white rice
Instructions
In a large pot, combine onion, peppers, celery, sugar, seasoning and margarine. Cook over low heat until margarine is melted.
Add chicken; cook for about 3 minutes. Add hot water, tomato sauce, sausage, ham, beef base and rice. Stir well, cover with tight-fitting lid and simmer for about 30 minutes or until rice is cooked, stirring4 or 5 times to prevent sticking. Add water near end of cooking if extra liquid is needed.
Notes
* Substitute Paul Prudhomme’s Magic Seasoning Blend for Vegetables if you cannot locate Norton’s Cajun Seasoning.
Once upon a chilly evening in late autumn, my friend hosted a dinner party. Among the guests was someone known for their rather abrupt demeanor. As the evening progressed, this guest, let’s call him Mr. R, made a particularly rude comment about the host’s choice of wine. The room fell silent, the air thick with discomfort.
My friend, the host, faced a moment of choice. She could either let the comment sour the evening or handle it with grace. Choosing the latter, she responded with a light-hearted yet firm tone, “Well, Mr. R, it seems this wine isn’t to your taste. I believe in embracing a variety of flavors at my table. Perhaps the next one will be more to your liking!”
The guests chuckled, appreciating her tactful handling of the situation. Mr. R, realizing his faux pas, nodded and even managed a small, albeit sheepish, smile.
This moment, while seemingly trivial, became a masterclass in handling rudeness with grace and humor. My friend’s response not only diffused the tension but also reminded everyone that kindness and a bit of wit can turn an awkward situation into a pleasant one. The rest of the evening continued with laughter and lively conversations, the earlier rudeness fading into a distant memory.
LOL. I opened an email in my in-box, sent out to our whole region. In the email my (less than intelligent) boss listed out why he wanted to fire me, and the next email – copied to everyone (from HR) said to “get rid of the worthless piece of s**t today”. I sent a copy home, made my rounds of my team, and started packing my office.
I sent a note to the region (not counting my boss and HR) thanking them for their help in my short tenure. Then I sat and waited for my boss to show up. He got there to find my office packed, my computer wiped and my paperwork in order. I made him count and sign for my petty cash and assume all liability on my corporate credit card, and I was gone.
I did send a copy of the emails to the head of HR and the Chief HR Officer, along with my intent to file a lawsuit for releasing confidential HR information to non-essential personnel. 60 days later, both the HR contact and my former boss were gone. So was I, but I shouldn’t ever worked for that company in the first place.
My husband and I thru-hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT) in 2000. Those who know of the experience know that most hikers cannot eat enough to for all the calories they burn. A friend’s in-laws lived just a little ways off the trail in NC and they offered to let us shower, eat with them, etc as we passed through.
First off we had to wait for another couple to arrive. Then, out came lunch: thin-sliced bread with low-cal cheese, one thin slice of sandwich meat, and lettuce, making it a sandwich. On the table there was a small dish of chips. A brownie for dessert. Steve and I looked at each other and sighed. These people were exceptionally kind and generous, but they also were very health conscious. They offered another sandwich, if we wanted, so Steve insisted that he could make his own, intending for it to be bigger. When we got back on the trail a couple of hours later, we hiked about two miles and then stopped for our usual lunch.
The people were so kind that we couldn’t let them know we were still hungry! It’s a story we still tell when giving highlights of our AT Thru-hike.
Back when my son was about 5 years old he was invited to a friend’s birthday party at a waterpark. There was also a park area where they set up a bunch of games for the kids and one was a sack race. Well I started to video this as any crazy parent of a young child is going to do.
They started the race and all the kids took off towards the finish and my son was absolutely last falling way behind. The other kids were passing the finish and he was still struggling. I started feeling horrible for him because every one else had finished and he was still going. My heart was beginning to break for him and I was ready to stop videoing and thought I am going to run out and give him a hand to finish.
Well that would have been my mistake if I had have because all of a sudden I could hear him and he was saying “I’m doing it! I’m doing it!”. I started beaming and continued to video cheering him on! He didn’t care that he was last, he was proud of himself for doing as well as he was and I knew I had to let him finish. I still tell that story to this day and it chokes me up. He still has that “don’t quit” attitude and he keeps moving forward. I LOVE this memory!
I woke up one morning with my eight year old son hugging me and telling me that “everything will be fine.” Yet, he wasn’t actually physically there. He was staying at his father’s far away. I asked him how he got home and then he was gone… I jumped out of bed and began searching all over the house for him. My daughter woke up and I asked her if she saw her brother. She looked at me like I was losing my mind – uh, mom, he’s at dad’s… But, I felt I had actually felt and talked with him and it was as real as anything. Kinda dazed, I went about my day until hours later I received a phone call from my children’s father – our little son had just died from a terrible car accident. I still believe to this day that he came to me ‘before’ he passed and have been comforted by this. The next day I traveled to the scene of where he had died. All of a sudden I heard him say clear as anyone “mom, look at me, I can fly!” Then he said another thing I will never forget. He said “mom, there is no such thing as time… and everything will be fine, you will be fine…” A couple of other things have since happened but the most important was the pre-passing hug…
Many years ago, I brought my Cortina to the local Ford dealership for its annual MOT test. This was not a major issue as I had thoroughly inspected the car in my own lockup beforehand. Since my father had an account with the garage and I was working late, the service desk was closed when I picked up the car. As a result, I simply collected the keys from a salesman and drove home. The next day, I collected the paperwork and was informed that they would send me the bill through the mail.
About a week later, I received the bill, which stated that they had replaced all four sets of brake shoes. Immediately, I phoned the garage to question the bill’s accuracy and requested them to verify if it was meant for my car or if they had made a clerical error. In response, I received a letter with a threatening tone, implying legal action if I did not settle the bill immediately. Frustrated, I replied saying, “I will see you in court.”
In Scotland, we have a system called Small Debts Court, where local magistrates preside over minor cases. I received a letter stating the date and time for the hearing, and I was quite eager for my day in court.
During the proceedings, the magistrate inquired why I had chosen to represent myself without a lawyer present. I explained that I did not believe the case warranted the expense. The garage’s lawyer then provided a summary of the facts. When asked if I disputed any of the statements made by the garage, I replied no, accepting everything that their lawyer had said. I proceeded to present copies of the correspondence exchanged between the garage and myself. At this point, it seemed like an open-and-shut case, as I refused to pay for something that was clearly not done on my car.
It was then that I inquired if the magistrate was knowledgeable about the technicalities of motor car braking systems. He confirmed that he was, but also mentioned that if there were any technical points beyond his understanding, he would seek expert assistance and pause the proceedings. I subsequently presented the bag of worn-out brake shoes that had been left in my car as per the garage’s regular procedure. I explained that as a qualified mechanical engineer and a car enthusiast who frequently participated in car racing, I had upgraded my Cortina’s brakes to disk brakes all around several months prior and had a bag of brake parts that were incompatible with my car. It was clear that the mechanic had never even inspected the brakes. I firmly refused to pay for work that couldn’t have been performed on my car.
Although the magistrate didn’t laugh, a broad smile appeared on his face as he declared, “Case closed.”
What most people don’t realize is how close the Germans came to victory.
Forget Bastogne and the river crossings, the crucial battle was the Battle of the Elsenborn Ridge.
The 21st Army Group was planning on crossing the Rhine in early 1945 in the Netherlands, but the massive supply depots for this operation were located in Belgium as the stretch of land held by the Allies in the Netherlands was too narrow.
Beyond the Elsenborn Ridge was the largest supply area in Western Europe and without these supplies, the 21st Army Group could no longer operate.
But US troops in the North belonging to the 12th Army Group also got their supplies from this crucial area.
By now, the port of Antwerp with a capacity of 40,000 tonnes a day was open and US troops depended less and less on French ports.
If the Germans break through at Elsenborn, this massive supply area falls into enemy hands meaning the Germans have all the fuel, food, and medical supplies they need while the Allies run out of ammunition in a matter of days.
The intense V-weapon offensive against Antwerp (the small city of Antwerp got more hits than larger London) is disrupting resupply at the port … so those 40,000 never actually materialized until March 1945.
With the 21st Army Group out of the way, the Germans can rather easily take Antwerp.
Thanks to the heroic resistance of American troops at Elsenborn, this never happened, but it came close.
Lloyd’s Cajun Blues Cafe Cajun Riblets
Lloyds Cajun Blues Cafe Cajun Riblets
Ingredients
1 slab ribs (split down the center)
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
All-purpose seasoning
Garlic powder
Cayenne pepper
Black pepper
Instructions
Pull skin from back of ribs. Trim all excess fat.
Rub ribs with Worcestershire sauce.
Sprinkle ribs with all-purpose seasoning, cayenne pepper, black pepper and garlic powder.
Sprinkle brown sugar on ribs and pat, rubbing sugar into ribs.
Oil grill or spray with nonstick spray.
Place ribs on grill. Slowly cook until fork tender.
Notes
Ribs may also be baked in the oven at 400 degrees F for about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Shortly after he and his wife moved in next door, he started nailing a squirrel trap to my side of the fence. I told him if he wanted a trap, he could put it on HIS side of the fence. He would regularly have workmen over and I kept catching them in my yard. When asked, they’d tell me he said he owned the property, so I’d set them straight and tell them to leave. He wasn’t big on asking my permission for anything, especially being in my yard.
But the satisfying one was when he parked in front of my driveway. I had some things delivered that were sitting in front of it, so he felt entitled, despite the fact that he had a long driveway, and I did not. And when I’d ask him to move, he’d yell at me. He liked yelling at women, and I lived alone. One day, after everything had been moved, he parked right across the driveway. There was nothing in front of the garage, lots of parking on the street, and his driveway was empty. So I called parking enforcement. When she showed up to give him a ticket, he came belting out of the house, screaming at both of us. Part of his rationale was that my garage was full of “shit”. Parking enforcement said she didn’t care WHAT was in the garage, and that it was MY driveway. After he got done screaming and stomped off, she typed ABUSIVE into her handheld computer, said, “No one yells at me,” got in her car and left. I looked it up later. He’d tried to go to court to fight it, and instead of a $47 fine, he got $250. And he never parked there again. I was thrilled when they moved.
Ok, this is weird and sordid and I’ve never posted anything like this before.
I was married at sixteen to a man seven years older, a felony convict, and illiterate. And NO, I wasn’t pregnant and was in fact a virgin when we married. And YES, this travesty took place in the U.S.A.
A couple years after marriage, we drove to Louisiana with a an eight month old baby so he could (he thought) get a job. Instead he and his brother robbed a gas station and my mom and dad flew me home. I went back to visit him at his request (I lived in Chicago) and he made me aware that he managed to pay the guards (with MY money) so we could have sex in a visiting room. In retrospect, (the kind you’re graced with fifty years later) I realize PART of the agreement was so they could watch!
When I think of how fucking stupid I was at that age, it makes me want to vomit. Anyway, someone shot and killed him a year or so after he escaped. So I married again in 1979 to a wonderful man and we’re still together and happy.
When I lived in Tangxia; Danguan there was this twice-a-year event that is worthy of reporting. You see, I lived in a little city part of a bigger city next to Shenzhen. It is a small manufacturing city located North of Shenzhen in the Pearl River Delta. And being a manufacturing city, dating back many centuries, there were a lot of old buildings and old roads, and old sewer lines.
Well, twice a year, the local government would “fog” the underground sewers. This was a release of insecticide in a mist fog that would be sprayed by huge trucks all over town. The idea was to kill off the insects and rodents, and the city had been doing this for centuries.
But…
Let me tell you all that when that happened, a virtual carpet of huge (mouse-sized) cockroaches swarmed out of the sewers and carpeted everything. Some flew, many just climbed all over, including on shoes and trousers and woman’s legs. It was darn crazy!
If you saw it, you would not believe it. Not a scrap of concrete could be seen; three layer deep of swarming cockroaches everywhere. Wholly shit!
Last time it happened, my wife was so freaked out that I had to carry her two blocks back to our apartment. She was hysterical and had goosebumps all over her arms and legs. Jeeze! So imagine the scene, they were crawling, racking, flying, swarming, on everything. On our feet, the trees, the sidewalks, the store windows, the cars. They were buzzing, hopping and leaping, and my wife was in goosebumps and hysterical.
An experience that I do not want to relive ever again. Let me tell you what!
I was about 13 and was asked by a family friend to help her step daughter out by babysitting her 3 kids while she worked at a pizza parlor in town. It would be from the time I got out of school till 10pm, but Summer vacation would start in a couple weeks so I figured I could manage it.
I agreed to try it and see how it went. The day I was to start, I rode my bike to the house. I could smell some horrible smell from the yard. Went to the door and it was wide open. I yelled “hello??” and 3 of the cutest kids I’d ever seen came running! They were full of questions. I asked where their Mom was and the eldest said she was already at work. I was surprised, but I figured something had changed with our plans and she had to go in early.
I walked into the living room and the air was thick with stench. It was a combination of animal waste, rotten garbage and food. The living room had a couch, a chair and was literally 3 feet deep in clothes, garbage bags and dirty diapers. I was a kid and wasnt sure where to start, but i found a roll of garbage bags and we began. I say we because those babies were such a help!
The oldest was Michael and he proudly told me he was 5 and would be staring Kindergarten the following year. He was short and stocky with a mop of curly blonde hair. What I first noticed was his serious expression. He had an excellent vocabulary and was a chatter box. Next was a little girl named Jessica. She was 3 and absolutely beautiful. She was quiet but didnt miss anything. She was petite and had hair to her waist that was full of tangles. The baby girl was Grace and she was 2. She was very frail looking, although she turned out to be anything but frail. She was in just a diaper which was soaked, so I asked Michael to show me where the diapers were. We all headed into the girls room. It was filthy. I find a clean washcloth and get Grace cleaned up. She smiled the whole time. They were all hungry, so we head to the kitchen. I found a can of soup and some stale crackers, which they devoured. While they ate, i started on the kitchen. The sinks and counters were i overflowing with dishes. I turn the faucet handle and no hot water! So i start heating water after digging to uncover the stove. Theyve devoured the soup and want more. There was nothing more, so i grab my backpack and find a yougurt to split, some cookies and an apple which was all split between the 3 of them. I noticed there was no bickering. These 3 were accustomed to looking out for each other.
We started with the garbage and those kids really worked hard…..even the baby! We started by getting the garbage bagged up, and I started laundry. We worked for hours, and those kids didnt want to stop! They wanted a clean house. We got the living room mucked out, we found clean sheets and got beds made. The kitchen had a good start. I went in and cleaned the bathroom while they found jammies. I looked up from scrubbing and those faces were beaming. Got Grace in the tub and started detangling Jess’s hair. I know it had to hurt……but she never made a peep. Grace was clean and ready to get out. Water change and Jessicas turn. When she was clean, we changed water and gave Michael his privacy. I took the girls and checked the magical backpack. I found some nice lotion and they smelled lovely! They both had beautiful hair and kept touching it. Michael gets out and wants some lotion too. We decided to move Michaels bed in with his sisters (his “bedroom” was tiny, i think it was a.closet) We found some books and read. They were all asleep in minutes. As I detangled myself feom the sleeping babies, Michael asked if I was going to come back. I gave him a hug and said Id see him tomorrow. He grinned and it made my day. I waited for Mom to get home. It was almost 11 PM by the time she got home and I could tell she had been drinking. She introduced herself and looked around the room. She was shocked. She asked who had cleaned and i told her we all did. I see a car pulling up and its my Dad coming to see why Im so late. She says she had a meeting and was kept late. He ssaid”Look, we need her done at 10. Not 1001! If you cant be home at 10, she cant do this “ He loaded my bike up. He asked how it went. I didn’t want to tell him how dirty it was because I was afraid he would say I couldnt go back, and I had promised Michael.
And so it went. Every day, the kids and I would clean up a bit more. The cleaner the house got, the more time we had to walk to the park or go to the community pool. We had a great time and those 3 kids were all amazing.
I babysat the kids all that summer and into the start of school. It was just too much and I had to quit after Christmas vacation. I still watched them occasionally and we always had so much fun. This was in the early 70s. I still see the 3 kids who are adults now with families of their own. Michael went on to become an executive chef and works at a very trendy restaurant in the San Francisco area. He has a couple of kiddos and a lovely wife. Jess is an RN and works in the Lake Tahoe area. Shes a single mom of 2 boys and Grace is still local and keeps me in the loop with updates. She married a local guy and they have a daughter. She teaches at the local elementary school.
Its weird because it was such a short period of time, but it left us all with a bonding of the heart. Their Mom passed away last year and I went to her services and got to see all the kids (lol at KIDS!!) They introduced me as the best babysitter ever.
Filthiest house produced some wonderful humans. I was happy to be a small part of that. Sorry this was so long. Was a lovely trip down memory lane. Thanks for reading.
When my husband caught me cheating on him. There are no excuses, it was an incredibly stupid, selfish, and insane thing to do to someone who didn’t deserve it. The person I cheated on my husband with wasn’t worth it, that’s for sure.
After telling most of my friends and family what I did, my husband packed his bags and left. I spent a week on my couch contemplating suicide and hitting absolute rock bottom. My friends all took his side, understandably. Almost everyone I loved turned away. I fell physically sick with some sort of insane flue—the worst I’ve ever had in my life, probably from the stress.
I could’ve turned to the guy and tried to start fresh. New life, new boyfriend, new friends… Get that divorce and start over. Instead, I realized that what I had was worth fighting for, even if it took years to get it back. I ended the affair with that guy.
I wrote to each friend and family member who knew about this that I was going to do whatever it took to build my life back. I wrote to my husband. I begged him to come back. By some miracle… he did. We went to counselling, I went to therapy. I opened my life to my husband: no more privacy. He had access to everything, which I was completely fine with.
It took a long time, but eventually my friends came back. My husband’s trust slowly began to rebuild. Years and years later, our marriage is strong-full of incredible love, respect, and trust. I look back at what I did in complete disgust. I live everyday with that heartbreak, wishing I’d never put such an amazing person through that. Although that time was dark, it was the push I needed to wake up and stop living like a selfish idiot.
I wouldn’t trade the life I have now for the world. It took incredible pain and humiliation to get here, but it’s what led to my amazing life now. For those going through a dark time, take it day by day… one step at a time. I never thought I’d ever get here, but with hard work and patience, it will get better.
Not sure of the exact date, but it would have been mid to late ’80s in Bristol city centre.
Late one evening I was in a crew of 6 in a transit van when we saw a knackered looking Fiat 127 (they were never brilliant when new, let alone one that was 15 years old!). Half of the lights were out, smoke from the exhaust (and lots of noise).
Pulled the car over, and found it contained 2 adults and 3 children (all under 6 or 7 at a guess). Occupants were of obvious Asian descent (not unusual for that area of Bristol), so I started to ask the usual questions whilst a colleague looked over the car (which was found to have 3 bald tyres, no window wipers and a lot of rusty holes in the bodywork).
The driver and adult passenger were almost in tears, and trying to speak in English, which wasn’t that great. I established that they were Mauritian, and had only arrived in the UK that day. Once I spoke to them in French they looked relieved (my French isn’t brilliant, but was better than their English). He produced a Mauritian Driving Licence, and when asked for insurance and registration for the car (which they had purchased upon arrival at the airport), they produced a hand-written receipt showing that they had paid £1000.00 cash for the car! (it was worth about 20 quid scrap value, and certainly shouldn’t have been on a road). Even worse, he proudly produced another hand-written “Insurance Certificate” for which he had paid the car seller another £300.
They had come here to attend a family funeral, and had been royally ripped off by some scumbag near Heathrow as they needed to get down to Bristol as soon as possible.
Obviously, we couldn’t let them continue driving as it was unlikely to get them very far anyway, and was a liability to everyone else on the road.
I had no intention of getting my pen anywhere near to an official ‘ticket’, and explained the game to my Sergeant – who fully agreed with me.
All the time, the family were getting more and more upset as they started to realise the situation they were in and the trouble they thought they were in.
We took them back to our station (and a colleague drove their car), fed and watered them, spoke to relatives by telephone, and sorted out as much as we could at that time.
They were taken to a hotel for the night and agreed to surrender the car for destruction.
As the story spread throughout the night (between other colleagues, paramedics, fire-fighters, hospital staff and taxi drivers…. that was the way things were in the City at that time) offers of help came in.
By the time we went off duty at 0700 hours, the hotel bill had been waived, a taxi was ready to take them down to Exeter (their intended destination), and a collection had raised just under a grand in cash. Toys had been donated for the children, and small ‘gifts’ for the adults.
By the time they arrived in Exeter, the local police had found and purchased a small run-around car which wasn’t great, but had a few months of MOT and tax left on it, and was roadworthy… enough for their use whilst they were in the country.
We got a lovely letter from them once they were back in Mauritius, thanking us for the help we gave (and arranged) – but we only did what we could to help someone who needed it, and had been badly treated by opportunistic scum.
Edit:-
Thanks for the gramatical corrections – I try my best, but often fail!
I’ve never had a higher-rated answer on Quora, or received so many comments – Thank you, everybody.
It is not often that I bother to answer many questions, being a ‘reserved’ British ex-cop many situations just don’t seem worthy of reply, or have already got a few good answers.
I fully appreciate that probably 95% of the questions (and thus, answers) are posted from the USA, and whilst i find them interesting to read, are often so alien to a British way of thinking that I see no advantage in adding to them.
Anyone who reads my other (very few!) answers on Quora will see that I have some views and oppinions on some things – mainly to counter the critics and troll posters when it gets a bit ‘personal’, or to defend those who I feel need it.
I have no desire to be a “super user” on here, despair at many of the “questions” asked, but still feel that (every so often) even the British have something useful to add to this world.
I have to tell this story. I started writing song when l was about 15 years old. One of my biggest influences was Harry Chapin. I live in Los Angeles, and Harry played at the Greek Theatre every year. I went to see him four or five years in a row after getting my drivers license.
Harry played about 300 concerts a year. He gave about half the money he made to world hunger. After the concert, he sat and sold and signed T shirts for the cause and would stay until every person who wanted to buy a T-shirt was able to . His Security guys, always moved people quickly through, because they knew Harry would talk to everyone. After the first concert l stood in line to get a signed T-shirt, and when it was my turn l told him l was a songwriter. He smiled and said, “ Really ? I wish you the best of luck”. The following year l went to where he was signing T shirts, and to my surprise , he saw me and asked, “ How’s the songwriting going?” While he was signing T-shirts, I stood to the side and talked to him about songwriting. His security tried to make me leave, but he said, “. Leave the kid alone. He’s not hurting anyone.”
l did this every year, and the last time l saw him, l was 20 years old and had got my first job playing songs at a Shaky’s Pizza place. I told Harry that and that l played Taxi, but that there was a part l couldn’t figure out. He turned to one of his security guys, and said, “ Go get me one of the guitars out of the truck “. Pretty much all the people who were buying T shirts were done . The security guy said, “ Harry! It’s midnight man. We got to get out of here!” Harry said, “ Just do it.”
The irritated security guy did it and Harry showed me how to play the part. One thing l forgot to mention, was that l had brought me mom with me to see him. She was so happy for me and told that story to people that story unt the day she died. Harry Chapin was a very special man.
Galatoire’s Trout Meuniere Amandine
2023 12 04 17 16
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 (6 to 8 ounce) trout fillets
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Oil
1 cup butter
1 cup sliced almonds
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley
Instructions
Sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper, dip into milk and roll in flour.
Fry in 3/4 inch of hot oil in a shallow skillet until golden on both sides.
Remove and keep warm.
In a separate pan, melt and whip butter until brown and frothy.
Add sliced almonds and lemon juice.
Place each fillet on a heated plate and pour sauce over it.
China has a system of Governance that is radically different to that in Western Countries
Thus it is imperative, if the West has to keep it’s “We are the guardians of democracy” model, they have to portray China as evil and the system as collapsing
Otherwise won’t the people ask how if the Chinese system is so bad, is the nation prospering so much?
My granddaughter and I were at a Denny’s. We ordered and ate lunch. The waitress came back and picked up the bill that she had left on the table. So we finished and waited for her to bring it back finally called to her as she went past.
We ask for the bill to be brought back and she said no it was paid for.
An elderly man sitting at the counter had paid for our lunch. When I asked her why she said he is a regular customer and told me that he always smiles at people and you and your little granddaughter were the only ones that ever smiled back at him.
My wife had a 6 month affair, when I found out I left her.
A number of people assumed I was the one who cheated on her. That bothered me. I corrected them.
Worse were all the people who assumed I must have done something wrong to deserve it and that I was still the bad guy. People told me I must have not paid enough attention to her, I must have some how drove her to it, etc. Some people refuse to believe that I somehow didn’t do something wrong to cause her to cheat.
All I can say is this – I loved her and treated her like a queen. When I’ve asked her why she did it, the response from her has always been that I was a terrific husband, that she loved me, and that she regrets it. The guy was nearly 20 years younger than her (he in his early 20s, she nearly 40), he was attractive and charming and started flirting with her and she found him irresistible.
So, that’s a double standard that I’ve lived through and find unfair; if I had cheated I would’ve been labelled a creep/jerk, when she has an affair I’m still somehow a jerks who is to blame??!
Back in 1997 in Canmore, Alberta, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin were in town filming The Edge. Mr. Baldwin decided one evening he wanted to eat at our local Chinese eatery.
I was an Eco-Tourism operator and frequented the establishment quite often. They had an orange chicken that I went bonkers for.
It was peak dining hour and the place was experiencing a 45-minute waiting period to get a table.
In strolls, cocky Baldwin and he demands a seat “NOW!”
The owner was this 5 ft tall fiesty Chinese woman and when she told Mr. Baldwin that he’d have to wait about 45 minutes he pulled the old, Do you know who I am?”
Man, if you could have seen this lady go into action it was an Academy Award for putting an arrogant prick into his place.
She yelled at him with her Mandarin accent, “I don’t care who you are, you get out of my restaurant and don’t come back!”
image 19
The rumours of his arrogance have always swirled in the tabloids and I got a front-row seat to see it in action.
And the winner is for putting the Douche BgAlec Baldwin in his place… The Owner of the Famous Chinese Restaurant, in Canmore Alberta.
I need do this anonymously, because it’s a sensitive subject.
I’m a father of two wonderful children, and my oldest, my son, has special needs. Due to his premature birth (roughly 30 weeks), he developed a condition called Periventricular Leukomalacia, or PVL for short.
PVL is essentially an under development, often by necrosis, of white brain matter near the ventricles of the brain. Read up on it a bit on wikipedia for more info if you interested: Periventricular leukomalacia – Wikipedia
We discovered this was case shortly after his first birthday, when doctors started noticing some developmental delays and some muscle stiffness on his left side. Some evaluations and scans, and it was confirmed what he has, and that it also the cause of his cerebal palsy. It was quite a shock.
Anyways, we start doing therapies and early intervention and it’s such a wonder watching him overcome it all in small steps, in his own way. You feel blessed at times to see his hard work pay off, to truly value life and love and family.
So what do I want to get off my chest?
It’s all bullshit. You know those parents who “wouldn’t have their child any other way because it taught us so much about ourselves and….” well fuck that.
I absolutely hate it. Hate. With a capital H.
I have other parents talk to me and they word things like “well, he’ll get past all this and so forth…”. Ummmm, no dumbass. His condition is chronic – forever. We can adapt to it, and work really hard and he’ll cope and be better off for it.
But while Johnny Awesome-Dad and Super Son are learning how to play catch, I’m helping my son learn how to alternate feet when climbing stairs, how to be aware of his raised arm at the elbow and to lower and swing while he walks, while that guy got to teach his son how to swing for the fences.
His mannerisms are collectively a huge brain capillary-exploding annoyance. From the non-sensical sounds that he repeats 100 times to the way he is so damn slow at e v e r y t h i n g.
Yeh, I hate being a special needs parent. On top of being one, I also have to be his political advocate, constantly representing other parents to our federal and state politicians to ensure kids like him get proper educations.
I really really hate all of it. I only love him – I just wish I could heal him. That’s probably the worst. Of all the things I can do and fix, I can’t make him better.
Fuck me.
(January 9th, 2019)
Edit: Wow, a lot of upvotes. Most I have ever received by far, my next closest has about 115.
Ok, to a few comments: Thank you for the kind words from most people, the support, sympathy, and empathy. I truly did not write this to receive that as I quite literally was getting something off my chest.
To those who think less of my answer, even angry at me for being so: Your opinion is valued and appreciated. My response to it though is simply a shrug and a “It is what it is.” I know my son didn’t choose to be this way, but understand I am not choosing to feel this way either.
I wish I was a better person in this regard but I’m not. However remember this: I don’t let him see it. Fuck, I don’t even mention it anymore to family because they’ll either blanket me with guilt statements and be angry at me (Fuck You btw) or keep telling me lies like “It’ll all be fine” (no it won’t) or “He’ll be fine” (no, you obviously don’t understand it at all).
How do I cope?
Weed. Makes me feel better.
Heavy bag – I punch the crap outta it. Actually split the first one and I’m on my second. Looking to buy a speed bag.
Bottle it up and get back to my life.
And lastly yes I have considered leaving because he deserves a better Dad. The problem with that is it would take a lot of time for my wife to find another person who wants to take this on. Secondly my other child would suffer the loss of Dad when they did nothing, or have anything, wrong. It wouldn’t be fair and life is unfair enough as it is – I don’t want to add to it.
Don’t be indecisive. Ain’t nobody gonna follow someone who can’t make up their damn mind.
Don’t be a two-faced snake. People can smell that crap from a mile away.
Don’t be a damn pushover. You gotta have a backbone if you want to make it in this world.
Don’t be lazy. If you’re the one in charge, you gotta put in the work.
Don’t be a know-it-all. You ain’t that smart, trust me.
Don’t be too proud to ask for help. We all need it sometimes.
Level 5 – Impossible
House of Blues Bayou Voodoo Smothered Chicken
2023 12 03 15 32
Yield: 4 servings; 1 pound Roux
Ingredients
Brown Roux
10 ounces all-purpose flour
1 cup vegetable oil
Chicken
1 pound butter, melted
2 pounds chopped onion
1 pound chopped celery
1 pound chopped red bell pepper
1 pound chopped green bell pepper
1 pound sliced mushrooms
2 ounces minced garlic
2 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
4 cups red wine (chef suggests Burgundy wine)
2 quarts dark beer
2 quarts water
2 tablespoons beef base
4 tablespoons chicken base
1 tablespoon liquid smoke
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons Tabasco sauce
1 cup Louisiana Seasoning
Instructions
Brown Roux
Place oil in a heavy stock pot and heat until it smokes. Slowly whisk in flour, 2 cups at a time, mixing well. Cook in oven at 350 degrees F for about 2 hours, stirring every 15 minutes. Roux is done when chocolate brown color is achieved. Allow to cool.
Chicken
In a large skillet or sauté pan, add butter.
Put onion, celery, red bell pepper, green bell pepper and mushrooms into the pan and sauté.
Add garlic and sauté for 1 minute.
Add flour and stir; cook for 1 minute.
Add red wine and reduce until thick.
Add dark beer, water, beef base, chicken base and bring to a boil.
Add liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce and Louisiana seasoning.
Whip some roux into the sauce. Bring to a boil then remove from heat.
Put some pre-made rice on a plate, put cooked chicken breast on top of rice and ladle voodoo sauce over the chicken and rice.
Ages ago in the late ’70s I worked in an engineering department for a huge manufacturing company – one of the big three in Detroit. A co-worker had about 30 years with the company and a ton of vacation time. He and his wife had a daughter late in life. She was about 8 at the time and daddy took vacation days every Friday and Monday during her summer vacation.
Big boss comes in one Thursday afternoon looking for the doting dad. We say he’s off until Tuesday, and reminded him of daddy’s schedule.
Keep in mind that all vacation had to be submitted and approved, by boss man, in January.
But in this moment he can’t have what he wants when he wants it.
Boss man hits the ceiling. We can’t have that. Everyone has to take vacation in full week increments.
The guy had a pretty specialized skill set, and no one else was really up to speed in his area of expertise. We could fill in in a pinch. Daddy could complete final draft when he got back on Tuesday.
the following summer, I had transferred to another department, but that department struggled when dad took his six-plus weeks of vacation consecutively!
it was a whole lot easier to cover his job for four days than six weeks.
It resulting in us trying for 6 months after ending the affair. To her cheating on me with another man to eventually leave me at the end of the 6 months. Tit for tat I guess. Lots of shame and heartbreak on my end but those are the consequences. Mostly life lessons though. Divorce was the anwser and we will both be happier in the long run.
Many years ago a young woman called me up one evening to ask some questions about insurance regarding the car accident that had happened between her car and mine that afternoon. Slight problem, I hadn’t been in a car accident. She had my name and license plate from the police report so I went out and checked the number of the license plate on the back of my car, and it wasn’t the same number. After a little more discussion I got my auto registration and that did match the number on the report – the license plates on the front and back of my car weren’t the same! After thinking about it I realized what must have happened: I had returned from a business trip a couple days earlier and while my car was parked at the airport parking garage someone had swapped the license plate on the back of my car with a different one and then put my license plate on the car that got in an accident (it was almost the same make and model as my car – they must have been casing the airport). Not surprisingly this turned into quite a mess to untangle, requiring multiple calls to insurance as well as a visit by the police officer to verify my car had not in fact been in an accident. The weird part that still bothers me to this day – the woman driving the car who’d gotten in an accident had the same last name as me. My last name isn’t an unusual one, but it’s not extremely common either. She told the police she was my niece (not likely – I’m white and she was black). How did that happen?
Have you noticed big brands dropping A, B & O from their signs and logos?
image 10
Most people who noticed the same, thought that it could be some malfunction but the real reason for the missing A, B, and O’s is something more serious and amazing.
image 9
NHS Blood and Transplant organization, along with PR agency Engine Group has launched the ‘Missing Type’ campaign. It has undertaken this campaign to make people aware the benefits of blood donation and its importance of saving lives.
image 8
Big brands and companies likeTesco, Mirror, McDonalds, Starbucks and Hardrock Cafe have agreed to be the part of the campaign to make people aware of blood donation.
As a part of this campaign, NHS has asked big brands to omit the letters that signify blood types from their logos and signs viz, blood types A, B, and O.
I watched a 90 lb female put a 235 lb guy in the hospital. This was a fight between 2 neighbors in my neighborhood. This guy harassed her for weeks then for some reason he decided to walk up to her front porch and knock on her door. I was sitting on my front porch when it happened. I was thinking this is not going to be good, and had my cell phone within reach.
She open her door and in a clear loud voice, she requested he get off her property. He said, what are you going to do about it. She said, I’ll call the police. He laughed at her and reached for the screen door. Before I could move she kicked him in the head twice, swept his legs out from under him, and he was down and bleeding.
I started to call the police, but again before I could dial the number a patrol car pulled up and the officer put the guy in handcuffs. I just sat there, drank my coffee and waited for him to come over and ask what I saw. I told him and signed the bottom of the form.
As he walked away he said you know the woman? I replied yes, she’s a former Marine. He chuckled and said. I guess the guy didn’t know that, and I laughed.
When I had an Amish girl come live in with me during the week to help take care of my three-year-old daughter and my brand new twin boys.My husband was in Vietnam.
The first night that I went out to play cards with friends I came home at 10:00 p.m. everybody was sitting in the dark. It was pitch Black and it had not occurred to me that she would not be allowed to turn on the lights or use the electric stove to heat formula.
From them and I would make sure everything was turned on before I left. I only played cards twice a month but they were never left in the dark again. I would heat formula and put it in the thermos bottle but I also showed her how to fill up pan with hot water from the tap to sit the bottles in.
EDIT due to the amount of people that think it was horrible to leave my newborn twins and 3-year-old daughter with a stranger I need to explain the Amish girl lived with me. I would take her home on Saturday morning and go pick her up on Monday morning. I even knew her family. She had helped raise 9 younger brothers and sisters.
When I was in high school I would get terrible menstrual cramps. I would leave school and go to the cab stand down the block. The dispatcher was a man that I’ll call Joe. He was blind.
I would walk in on a wooden floor and Joe would say hi Linda you need to go home? I would take a taxi and come in after school the next day to pay for it. This was in a small town about 15,000.
I grew up, graduated high school, moved away, got married and got pregnant. My husband was going to Vietnam and I went back home to stay with my parents. This was about 6 years after I had left home.
I stopped at a bakery before I went to my parents house. I took one step on a cement floor and a man standing at the counter buying some donuts said “Hey Linda when did you get home?”
I never understood how Joe recognized my one step on the cement floor and I was very pregnant. You would think the sound would be different but he recognized that one step immediately.
A guy I went on a first date with (set up by a friend) told me how his ex wife was having a breakdown and had messaged him that day, to say that she couldn’t cope and was going to call social services and have their two children placed in care. Shocked, I looked at him and said “Couldn’t you take them for a couple of weeks and give her a break?” I kid you not, his genuine, honest response was “Not a chance, I have them every other weekend, that’s enough for me!”. I don’t think I hid my horror very well. Ugly, ugly man. My own son was 3 years old and the time, and if he wouldn’t step up for his own kids, he was going nowhere near mine!
It takes about 66 days for an average individual to make something a daily habit.
Eye pupil dilates to 45% when an individual looks at somebody they love.
Food prepared by someone else tastes much better than your own preparation, even when you use the same recipe.
Hearing a single negative thing could damage at least five positive memories.
Studies have shown that consuming food without preservatives will increase I.Q by up to 14%.
Men aren’t more entertaining than women: they only make more jokes, they don’t care whether others like their humor or not.
Shy people tell others very little about themselves, but they do it in quite a manner that makes other individuals believe they know them better than they actually think they do.
People in blue rooms are also much more productive.
Being alone is harder for your health than you really believe.
Any relationship born between 16 and 28 years of age is more likely to be robust and long-lasting.
If we have a plan B, our plan A is less likely to succeed.
Being happy around people makes you happier.
Convincing yourself that you slept well tricks your brain into believing you did.
The sort of music you listen to influences the way you view the world.
A hug longer than twenty seconds will produce hormones into your body that makes you trust the individual who is hugging yo
Not so much amazing, as being extremely useful to me. I was on a European Standards Committee for several years. Members came from many European countries and it was customary to conduct all meetings in English.
Often the French and German delegates would speak to each other in the meeting in French or German to try and exclude the UK delegate from what they were plotting. This was on the basis that they assumed that the British could not speak other languages. It was advantageous to me for them not to know that I understood at least the gist of what they were saying.
However, when meeting in Dusseldorf the German delegated took us all out for dinner after the meeting. This was in a very German restaurant and the waitress approached me asking, in German, what I would like to eat. Not thinking, I blew my cover by replying in German.
The German delegate’s jaw dropped and said “you speak German!”. Trying to save myself I admitted that I could speak enough basic german to get by, but I couldn’t resist adding “ but my understanding is better”.
The Swedish delegate sitting next to me actually laughed and gave me a pat on the back.
A 26 yrs old with a decent job(in Indian Silicon Valley), beautiful girlfriend, about to be promoted, in short, enjoying my life.
But now,
A road accident(to save a little girl), which confined me to home for 4–5 months, had a kneefracture, operated, implanted with a metal plate inside(permanently).
Promotion aborted(as i m on Medical Leave for quite a longer period).
Cheated by my girlfriend when we were planning to get married, our parents accepted us.
My situation after surgery,
image 18
I was full of life. Travelling, working out in gym used to make me feel energized, lively, confident. But my eyes in the above picture are full of unnecessary thoughts, wandering with all the lively moments I had before.
Permanent Implant,
image 17
I was planning to call my parents to bangalore so that i can arrange some vacation for them and let them know about me and my girlfriend. But this was not the way i wanted them to come.
Even after accepted by my parents, she cheated on me. This was the time when i needed her the most. I know that,
“We should Forgive people in our life, even those who are not sorry for their actions. Holding on to anger only hurts us, not them.”
Also after one-by-one misfortunes, my self-confidence is f**ked like a Gangbang. So i’m not in a place to keep grudges with her and trying to move on, to forgive her and forget her.
Now they want me to settle downin an arranged marriage with a girl of their choice. And neither I am in position to ask for getting married with a girl of my choice nor in a position of getting married with any girl due to hindrances in my promotion, beautifully f**ked self-confidence.
I’m just trying to recover as soon as possible from the physical and emotional injury so that i can go back to my self made track of life.
Go ask Russians, nearly all western countries did the same as you mentioned to Russia, including the so called “nuclear option”: kicked Russia out of SWIFT, did Russian economy collapse?
Oh, maybe you don’t know the real world, just living in the “information cocoons”, you’re fed with selected information, which made you believe China is easy to win, like our beloved president 45 said, trade war is easy to win.
This is his easy to win:
image 2
Now, it is America who’s relying on China, not China relying on America. Say you to buy a Toyota and wait for over a month, sometimes you need to pay extra money, and its price is rising year after year, while in China, Toyota is to buy at will and drive away upon you paid, and its price is lower and lower. For example, RAV 4 in America starts from $29K, while in China, it starts from RMB 175,800, which is about $24.5K.
The problem is not China, it hides in America, destory China can’t solve your own problem.
The big heads are more informed and clever than you average Americans do. They know they can’t win, sanctions, trade wars, are just to slow down China’s pace, not to stop it.
Years ago, I was involved with a lawsuit against a tech company. Kind of “class action,” which meant a lot of people were there.
I noticed two levels of dress: casual and super-expensive suits.
As the process unfolded, I realized that those two levels of dress represented three levels of wealth.
The expensive suits were all worn by guys (and, yes, sorry, this was long ago, and everyone was a guy) who had high-paying jobs. Most would regard them as well off. They drove new, leased BMWs, etc. They were supercilious toward everyone because THEY were the only ones wearing expensive suits, shoes, and Rolexes.
The casual dressers represented two economic levels:
Those who could not afford expensive suits or Rolexes.
Those who had so much money they didn’t need to impress anyone.
At one point during the proceeding, I ended up in a room with four suits while I was dressed in jeans and wore a lightweight “Members Only” jacket. (You can tell this was long ago, right? Remember when those were cool?)
At first, they spoke only among themselves, treating the “obviously” poor guy like I couldn’t possibly matter. I let them go for a few minutes and then interrupted them for an important message on life. I told them how their expensive suits put them at a disadvantage because the only thing obvious in the room was that none of them were in the top tier financially.
They included me from then on.
To answer the question: The truly rich wear whatever they want. Only those who are still struggling to become truly rich are slaves to the “badges of honor” that they THINK demonstrate they are rich.
I was at a Home Depot and saw this lady trying to lift a 90lb bag of cement from a flat cart into the trunk of her car. I said let me help you with that and grabbed the bag and put it in her trunk. She said I don’t need your damn help. I said sorry and grabbed the bag and put it back on the cart. As I was pulling out of the parking lot I saw that she had dropped the bag and it broke open all over the parking lot. I honked and waved.
During the Vietnam war President Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara came up with “Project 100,000,” and the idea was to kill two birds with one stone by drafting men who were developmentally disabled or just too stupide to be left into the army. It was to provide more men for the war effort and give the less fortunate a chance at being productive members of society.
image 4
There’s typically an IQ minimum of 80 points to serve in the US military, but the rule was loosened, and they started allowing in men with mental disabilities. These men became known a “McNamara’s Morons” and died at 5 times the rate of other Americans in the war.
You had men turning up to basic training that couldn’t even tie their own shoes and couldn’t even understand the basics like dressing the bed. Some of these soldiers didn’t even understand why they were utterly exhausted at the end of a run when they were full of energy at the start of the run.
image 12
When in combat training, none of the men could pass their physical training because they couldn’t grasp the idea of throwing a heavy training grenade in a high arc to reach the target that was 90 feet away.
A lot of the men were protected from battle and kept safe by sergeants who took pity on them, but a lot were sent into dangerous battles on the front line. Not only were some of these men a danger to themselves they also put their fellow soldiers in harms way by not being able to grasp the seriousness of what they were involved in.
image 3
For example, in one platoon a dozen men were injured when a live grenade was tossed at them by another soldier as a prank. The soldier in question didn’t have the brain function to understand how dangerous a grenade was.
The word McNamara Moron’s was a derogatory term used by many of the sergeants to describe many of the men that fell under their care. Although the experiment was a disaster, not all of the men drafted under this new legislation failed to learn and grasp the fundamentals of combat. Many went on to have distinguished careers, and many were awarded the “Medal of Honour.”
image 11
The story of Forrest Gump was inspired by McNamara’s soldiers and the bravery some of these men showed when faced with impossible odds.
A quiet little boy was putting up with the abuse of a foot taller, loud mouthed girl. The girl was berating him for being a Nerd.
The teacher heard what the girl was saying to the boy, and admonished her, “Karen! You should be nice to Billy! He is a straight A student, and someday he just might be your Boss.”
Billy looked at the teacher and quipped, “But I don’t want to be a Pimp!”
When I had just turned 18, my mother came into my room with a birthday balloon. It was one of the nice fancy balloons. She was really happy to give it to me.
But I, being the selfish spoiled teenager reacted in anger.
“What! Is this it? I don’t get a cake or presents?!?!”
I will never forget the look of hurt and pain on my mother’s face. She turned around with tears in her eyes and quietly took the balloon from my room.
I knew instantly that I hurt her. I tried to run after her and apologize but the damage was already done.
I know she forgave me right away and gave me the balloon. But, you see, we were a low income family and balloons were rarely given. It was a gift I should have been proud of, but I turned it into something painful.
I learned a valuable lesson that day. You can’t take back words spoken in anger.
I will be 40 this year and my mother has been gone for 16 years and I can still see that look on her face as clear as if it had been yesterday.
I miss her.
I just do
Make America Go Away
The United States is like an abusive, narcissistic uncle that just knows that you will always need him; he is the indispensable uncle that just requires that you accept his authority by saying “uncle” otherwise he will sadly have to increase the level of abuse until you either “get the message” or die from the abuse. The vast majority of the world’s population understands this, whether it be the Latin Americans cheated out of democracy again and again, the Africans who had their post-independence dreams destroyed, the Middle Eastern modernizing and secular states that were eradicated, the Vietnamese that died in their millions to rid themselves of US occupation, the people of Gaza being murdered by US bombs and shells, or the Chinese, Russians and Iranians who face the wrath of the US for not understanding their place. The last thing they want is for the US to be “great” again, and they certainly do not see it as indispensable or a shining city on a hill, as the US political elite claim again and again in the form of religious-style mantras.
US politicians, policy makers and even international relations scholars accept this abusive, narcissistic narrative as they waffle on about a “Liberal International Order” where the US acts as the mafia-boss who makes the rules while not being subject to them, and bloviate about the decrepit “shining city” that must deliver its “gift” of liberal democratic capitalism to the world’s unwashed. Just as they did to the Amerindians in their three century war of extermination, ethnic cleansing and land theft, as they established the “new Jerusalem” of ethnic supremacy; personified by the racist bigot President Wilson who spun a good yarn about “freedom” while bringing the very opposite to not only many foreigners but also the US population. It was he who placed the velvet glove of sweet words about “Western culture” over the hard, racist fist.
So yes, the vast majority of humanity just want the US to go away and leave them to manage their own affairs. The problem with abusive narcissists is that they can turn into “family destroyers”, wiping out the rest of the family because they just know that the family (i.e. humanity) cannot survive without them. If they are to go away, then so must humanity. When those wanting a faster rate of change complain about the careful and patient diplomacy and actions of Russia, Iran and China, they must remember the dangerous lunatic that those nations are dealing with; one that can make humanity disappear with it if it so decides, in a global murder suicide. Anyone looking at the current psychopathic thrashings of the Israeli state must hold no flights of fancy about a US where a quarter of the population still believe in a heretical bible Armageddon fantasy, and its elite are wedded to their global dominance. Such lunatics have to be carefully managed and slowly subdued in order to reduce the possibilities of self-destructive and psychopathic rage-induced paroxysms.
Please Make America Go Away, as peacefully as possible.
The CORE FANTASY that drives women to ORGASM and WHY
I needed a “C” to pass my college communications course.
If I didn’t get a “C,” I would fail to meet my college major requirements setting me back an entire semester.
Here’s the problem: The semester was over, and I had a D+.
My only hope was to email the teacher asking for a bump in my grade.
I wrote an email to her explaining how my past school performance warranted a higher grade and that not passing me would only hurt an ambitious student.
When I hit send, I realized I made a HUGE mistake.
I addressed her using another teacher’s name.
I tried to calm down, but then I remembered we’d spent half the semester covering email etiquette.
Shoot!
What did I do?
Two days later, she emails back.
First, she addresses the glaring mistake then says she bumped my grade up to a “C” to never have me as a student again.
I went out for drinks that night.
This is by far the best mistake I’ve ever made.
US is Militarizing Itself to Death, While China Emphasizes Cooperation.
When I was in high school our physics teacher gave us a challenge that involved making a paper air plane of any shape. The only objective was to get it to fly as far as possible. I had some paper air plane making skills so I made the best plane I could and it flew pretty far.
image 6
One guy made the greatest, yet simplest paper airplane of all time. He stood there at the starting line with a regular piece of paper. Some classmates scratched their head while silently chuckling to themselves. Moments later he took the flat piece of paper, crumpled it up, and threw it down the hall way.
He beat the class with ease.
image 5
Some of the students got mad and said that he cheated.
The physics teacher said, “How so? I said it could be any shape. A paper ball is indeed a shape.”
He won the contest with flying colors.
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
When I graduated from nursing school 10 years ago, I was flush with cash for the first time in my life. Within the span of a month, I went from having an after tax income of $600/month to an after-tax income of $1200 every 2 weeks.
I felt rich. I was 21 years old. I didn’t want to just save. I would invest.
I read a couple of books, opened a brokerage account, and proceeded to buy and sell stocks and call options. I made a lot of money quickly.
I concluded that I was going to be a stock market genius.
So, when I started losing money, I of course knew that it was a temporary setback. So I played, er, invested some more, and some more, and some more.
After a while, I had to admit to myself that I had a problem. I stopped after a couple of years. I had maybe lost $30K by then.
I repeated the same experiment at the tail end of med school. I decided to borrow an extra $20K and invest. This time, I was going to be disciplined. I was going to focus on buying call options on companies that were going to spin-off part of their assets into standalone companies. The idea was that the market was mispricing the combined companies and that the sum of the parts would be greater than the whole, after a spinoff. It was not an entirely crazy idea. I’d made money that way before.
Anyway, my roommate started making a ton of money in penny stocks of companies involved in the marijuana business. I was jealous of how quickly he was making money. I joined in. I lost another $10–15K. I pulled out. He continued playing. He made money for a while. Eventually, he lost more than he had made.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I’d lost about $50K in the stock market over the past decade. That has been my worst financial decision. I see it as tuition money that I paid in order to learn that I am emphatically not a stock market genius.
I’m a physician. My mistakes are going to be relatively costless to me. Please don’t try this at home.
The U.S. has 2 choices. And Americans need to wake up to this reality to face the new world. China will always be independent from the U.S. in technology. In many cases it will from now onwards be ahead and with far better technologicallyDon’t than the US and the west. It is happy to share its benefits but it will never allow the U.S. and the West to ever threatened them again. Ever. Never Ever.
Don’t blame China. China were happy to play second fiddle till the despicable US foolishly thought that it can easily contain and control China in Chip technology for a generation. It took less than 3 years for China to catch up. It won’t look back. Now all the trillion of dollars shit it cost to do this shit will ll be wasted. If the U.S. never learnt then they can always lose more trillions. China don’t mind.
What does it mean for the U.S. government? It needs to know that the US has 2 choices. Either it work and I am cooperate with China and profit from China’s humongous market and manufacturing prowess or it loses it all including the access to the global south market representing som 120–150 nations around the world. The U.S. needs to make this decision. Americans need to learn humility and accept that it no longer can dictate to the world.
China will design its own chips, it will manufacture its own chips and it will sell to whoever wants to buy it and use it. It will do so at a faster rate and take less time, and make it a a lower cost and make it cheaper than the US and the west. That is what China always do and and the Chip Ban, the GPS threat and the ISS ban will simply motivate China to dominate all technology. Thanks USA
What do you like to ban, sanction, blockade from now onwards? I think China should stop the U.S. from using paper to clean their backside since China invented paper. Let the use their hands.
I worked at Apple in the 80’s and think the movie grossly underplays how much of an asshole he was.
I’ve worked with many billionaires in my career, and Jobs was the biggest asshole I ever met.
He would destroy people just for the fun of it. He would make it personal.
There were a few who managed to survive and even thrive, like Andy Hertzfeld.
Even on the original Mac team, there was a small number that Steve treated with respect, and the rest he treated like shit. It’s one reason the Mac team fell apart after the Mac shipped. Steve glorified about 10 of them; they were on the cover of Business Week IIRC. The rest he made clear were shit. They had worked their asses off and built a magical product, but Steve didn’t recognize them. So the glorified rock stars got big heads, and the others were deeply slighted. So the team fell apart.
It’s also true that at NeXT and then his return to Apple, Steve grew up and learned to treat people better. Steve v2 wasn’t exactly Mother Theresa, but he learned a lot of lessons and was much improved.
Yes, I still shiver 10 years later. My husband and I were thinking of buying a lot in a new intentional community in Belize (think semi-rainforest, not beach). We stayed at the guest house for several days to tour and explore the area. Activities included canoeing on the beautiful river, hiking, learning about the local culture, etc… Now, recall there’s a river, hence big rocky, sandy, soil-y hills that sloped down to it. Also, no paved roads yet. One day we decided to do a driving tour in our all-wheel drive rental (as opposed to a 4WD we had reserved). You can guess where this is going. We came to the top of a steep incline, and to continue, there was no choice but to proceed down the other side. Approximately 10 feet to our right was a cliff that dropped steeply into a gorge and the river. (I was driving because my husband isn’t crazy about manual transmissions.) Then, the brakes failed. As we gained speed, rocks began to bump us closer to the edge. Honestly, we were thinking that was it- the end of the road for us. But in a moment of something- not brilliance for sure- maybe instinct, I threw the car into first gear. It slowed, then came to rest about 4 feet from the edge. Finally I screamed, just to release the tension. Somehow I didn’t leave a puddle in my seat.
If that wasn’t enough, seconds after we got out of the car, we heard the screams of several women who were crashing through the dense forest to our left. When the three women reached us, they were completely out of breath but managed to yell, “Wild pigs! Wild pigs!”. Just as all of us squeezed into the car for (protection, not escape!), we heard the pigs retreating and running back where they came from.
“Snake” or sometimes “snakes”, Snakeye bombs. Mk-80 Series bombs of various weights fitted with a high-drag devise to provide rapid deceleration upon release.
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The special fins were held tight to the bomb casing until release, at which time they popped open to insure maximum horizontal separation between bomb and aircraft at detonation. Without the high-drag unit added, bombs could strike the ground and detonate under the aircraft. In some cases the explosion would bring down the delivering aircraft. At one time, this was called a “Low Blow”. Snakeyes were generally dropped at low to very low altitudes to enhance accuracy. Mk-80 series bombs without the decelerating tail unit were generally described as “Slicks”.
When I was 15 years old I made a decision that to this day still baffles me. I spent the weekend with my good buddy putting a hot motor into his car. We finished the work on Sunday afternoon and my friend told me he would come by my house and get me later so we could go celebrate the car and new motor.
When he got to my parents house that evening I walked out to the driveway and made that fateful decision by telling my buddy that I had “homework” to do and wouldn’t be going with him.
Later that night my friend and two others hit a tree going about a hundred miles an hour. It killed my friend and the other guy in the front seat and put the backseat passenger in the hospital for a month.
To this day I have no idea why I didn’t go with them. I really didn’t have any homework. It just came into my head that day and I said it and that was it.
I would have been the guy in the front passenger seat that night.
When I had a daycare I had a four year old who went through a terrible phase of pulling hair. He didn’t just yank; he’d get his fingers tangled in there and twist and pull with his entire body. It was extremely painful. He once got hold of my hair and pulled some out.
I tried everything to stop him. I watched him like a hawk. I stopped him when he got that look and lunged for someone’s hair. His mom acknowledged the problem she was having with him at home with his two older sisters. She tried everything; we both did, but nothing stopped him.
One day he got hold of this cute little two year old’s hair. She was screaming in pain as I tried to detach his fingers. And I finally had had it. I grabbed his hair and pulled just as hard as I could.
He let go immediately and started crying. And he never pulled hair again.
His mom thought he had finally grown out of his phase. I never told her what I did. I didn’t abuse the kids I watched; never spanked them or yelled at them. I still feel guilty for what I did. He probably would have stopped on his own.
My sister. It was the day of my mother’s funeral after a very fast illness and sudden, unexpected death. My husband had run an errand for Dad. He was gone about an hour. During that hour, one sister (older, middle one of three) cornered me as I sat at the dining table. She spent most of that time telling me what a horrible person I was, listing every perceived mistake I had ever made in my life, all the times I had disrespected her, etc. When my husband came home he found me sobbing, curled into a fetal ball behind the guest bed.
That afternoon and for the rest of that weekend I would not be in the same room with her. I spent my time composing a long email listing every claim she had thrown at me and why each was wrong (or blown out of proportion). It was all I could emotionally manage.
She never even acknowledged the email, let alone apologize for being such a bully. I waited two weeks and sent another email, asking if she got the first one. She acknowledged that she did. That’s all. Just a “yes I got it.”
I have not spoken to her since. And because my other older (oldest) sister just stood there, I have barely spoken to her. Their emails are automatically filtered to trash. They don’t even know my phone number in Spain, where I now live. I no longer have any sibling photos on the “photo wall” in the hallway. I consider myself an only child. I will not return to the US for either of their funerals when the time comes. They are not welcome to visit me in Spain and I don’t even want them notified when I die.
My daughter is a single mom, and once a week I help her out. I pick up her kids, aged 8 and 7, from school and watch them until their mother comes home around 8 PM.
The older one is a lot like me. Introverted, shy, a bookworm who goes through a couple of books a week. I never have a bit of problem with him. We understand each other. We’ll watch TV or play a game of chess together.
The younger one is the social butterfly of the family. She goes outside and plays with the other kids in her neighborhood.
She’s also stubborn to a fault. Just like her mother at that age.
And one evening about a week ago she started getting defiant. Refused to do anything I asked. I was losing patience.
Just then her mother came home and things escalated. I watched the two most stubborn human beings I’d ever met lock horns for about half an hour. I’d seen this behavior before — we got it from her mother, my daughter, when she was that age.
“Dad, I am so sorry for all the trouble I put you and mom through when I was her age,” she told me.
I laughed. “It’s OK. You grew up to be a pretty good kid and I’m sure she will too.”
But she was right. Everything she had put us through when she was young and stubborn was now coming back on her.
Thanks for the a2a. I have Chinese friends living all over the world. Some of them without fail ask me nearly every day if I have eaten yet. I have never thought it was anything other than kindness.
You see, I am from the Deep South in America. We Southern women show love and hospitality through our cooking. When I visit family, we’re having a meal and I have brought a dish. Or if they visit me, I’m feeding them and they probably brought something. I know my mother loves me because every time I visit, she makes tea exactly the way I like it. My brother knows I care because I make his favorite foods or desserts. My father is proud when I compliment his ability to grill a steak, and my sister requests my old-fashioned strawberry cake for her birthday. My daughter, she wants to make birthday cakes for everyone—whether it’s their birthday or not!
Food is a language, and that language expresses love, hospitality, kindness, care, and friendship. I believe Chinese people (as well as other cultures) understand this. I have always taken my Chinese friends encouragement to eat dinner or breakfast as a sign of their care for me, and I express the same care toward them. If they ever came to visit me, I wouldn’t let them leave my home without feeding them first. They don’t have to be fluent in English and I do not have to speak perfect Mandarin when it comes to sharing a meal together.
Americans foolishly screamed and shout that they are the leader of the free world without ever questioning if it is even remotely true or not! Please don’t be angry or upset if I help you guys since I understand you can pretend to be free or even dare says you are ordained by god to spread democracy and freedom but you Americans are one of the least free country on earth.
Let me help you good American. So first I like to explain how unfree you guys are.
35% of you cannot get health care when you fall sick! The most basic of freedom is the freedom to see a doctor and get cure when you fall sick. At least 100 million Americans don’t have this basic of basics of freedom.
Next 1 million Americans are homeless and don’t have another basic of basics of freedom. The freedom to have a roof over their head.! They have to live in makeshift tents on the streets.
20% of Americans don’t have 500 dollars to their name and don’t know where their next meal is coming from! Surely everyone must have the freedom to have a hot meal to stay alive!
USA with about 4% of world population has 25% of the worlds prisoners population! Think about this my American friends, prisoners are certainly. Not free. Many of them coloured people thrown into jail for the slightest reason. How on earth can you keep a straight face to say U.S. is the leader of the free world. No one know!
In many cities in the U.S. one cannot go to certain parts of the inner city like the Queens in New York. As crimes are rampant. So normal innocent and good Americans like you have to avoid that part of America! Surely freedom means you can go to anywhere or any part of America.
Kids and parents suffers the mental turmoils daily for just going to school. Many got shot to death in schools, public places, cinemas and even in Capitol Hill! Is that freedom? Even your kids are not free to go to school without a random mass shooter lurking with military grade weapons to murder them! Is this freedom?
If you are not fortunate to have a white skin you could be necked to death in the bright daylight of even driving a good car may be be shot to death just for suspected of stealing the car! Everyday you live in fear of a white policeman! Is that freedom to live? Freedom to avoid death at the racist inclination of the white racist? Surely not.
Freedom means you can choose who you really want to be your leader. Only 30% choose Biden. Or 35% choose Trump! Why are they your president? Your system allowed 0.8% of the richest and most influential people to choose your candidates! Surely this is not political freedom. This is far from democracy. How on earth can you call yourself the “beacon of democracy” who in a sane mind can claim that?
Oh today you country stop the Americans from having access to best 5G technology, Smartphone, best EV’s, drones and others for some geopolitical nonsense! Is this freedom? Freedom to be deprived? Let me help you understand. You are deprived from buying a 10 thousand bucks EV that need to be charged once a week but you are not allowed to! You cannot buy your Tesla like for half the price! Just to support your too big to fail auto industry paying 100 million bonus doing shit for good Americans!
But to me EVs and Drones are just the top of the iceberg of your draconian and suicide policies that takes away the freedom of Americans like you. Think about Jullien Assange, Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden! Freedom? American is anything but free.
I wasn’t fired, I just quit a job with a window replacement contractor after finding full time premanant employment. I called to inform the man and give him two weeks notice. He cussed at me and slammed the phone down. I called him right back and asked him to send me payment for the previous weeks work and he ratteled on about how I installed those last windows wrong and that he would not be paying me what was owed and told me never to call again followed by a loud “click”. So, I tallied all my hours plus all the OT I’d worked but was never paid more than a flat hourly rate. I took this document to the owners of the business he had contracted with, explained the situation and said “I just want to give you the opportunity to resolve this before I take the matter to the labor department” (they had a local office). The owner said “Thank you” and said they’d take care of it. The man was in a back office supposedly waiting for a meet so I said “Great! We will just need to come to agreement on what he owes me” The man said “Nothing to worry about there, whatever you say”. I asked when I might expect payment from him and the man said, if this amount on your records is good, I’ll cut you a check right now and we’ll just deduct the funds from his contract payment. I never saw the man again but he was a hot head all the same and I could feel the burn of his rage as I drove away.
As for my ability to install windows… The man had previously took me aside, giving me a raise because, as he said “You’re the only one I have who can read a tape measure”.
About 5 or 6 months ago, my girlfriend and I threw a little get together at our place for friends from work. I cooked dinner for everyone, and we just sort of made it buffet style. The whole affair was great fun and will make for great memories. After everyone had left Emily and I decided that we’d at least get the major stuff picked up, (the dishes and glasses into the dishwasher and the leftovers put into the fridge). While Em was finishing up in the kitchen I began moving things around in the front room, and there I found a pair of thong panties next to the couch. I picked them up and walk into the kitchen with them hanging on my finger. Em stood there looking at them and doing her best not to laugh. Because they were pink, I knew it wasn’t something that fell from the laundry basket by mistake. Neither of us likes pink.
To this day nobody has come forward to ask about them.
Best video Ever
Men, Listen up. It doesn’t matter (to anyone) if you win or lose. What matters is how you take it.
Yes. It’s 1986, I’m 9 years old and I come downstairs to get ready for school. My dad is reading the paper and he says, “Hey Corey, what do you know about comets?”
I immediately spout off everything a space-addicted 9 year old kid can/should know about comets. My dad beams at me and tells me bedtime will be postponed.
Night falls and my dad comes home early. We get into his Ford Escort and drive to K-Bee toys where he buys me a pair of GI Joe binoculars just as it is closing.
I can still remember what they looked like in the packaging.
We drive to a subdivision that is under construction and park on a mound of dirt that is now someone’s home.
We both lay on the hood of that car and look at the stars. We talk about space. We talk about life. He tells me that the next time this comet passes by Earth he will be long gone, but he hopes I will watch it and remember what it is like to be a child staring at the night sky with his dad.
We never saw Halley’s comet that night. Our binoculars were too cheap, the light pollution was too strong, the comet was too far away. To be honest, I think I prefer it that way.
Because what I want to remember about that day has nothing at all to do with a comet.
There’s a great many things I wanted for my life. Some of them have come to pass, others never will. But above all I hope that, one day, I will sit on a mound of dirt as an old man. I will sit with the great love of my life and our children and our children’s children.
And we, all of us, will look at the stars. And maybe we’ll see a comet and maybe we won’t.
But we’ll look regardless and we will think of the ones we have loved.
Your U.S. workers demand 5 times Chinese workers income, and 10 times more benefits and are willing to world half as hard and are 75% as smart or well trained and your CEO expects and demand 100 times more income!
As such if you produce here Apple 15 must be marketed and sold USD5000 instead of less than USD1500! Ask your local customers, friends and colleagues will they buy Apple 15 or save USD4000 and buy a Chinese phone this is faster, better and cheaper.
You decide. Tim Cook knows the answer! China knows Tim Cook knows the Answer and the 7.999 billion people except you and your 6 racist friends need to ask!
I had a coworker who disliked me the moment she saw me. Idk why, but it seems to occur to me a lot, “hate at 1st sight”, lol! I am a very friendly person who has found that if I treat an unfriendly coworker respectfully and don’t react to their nastiness, they will eventually grow to like me.
Well, after nearly 2 years of her passive-aggressive behavior and snide remarks, I finally grew weary of her abuse. FYI she was almost my doppelgänger in every way. Nearly identical facial features, hair color, style, figure and dress size Misses 0. Acquaintances usually couldn’t tell us apart.
So, one day she came to work wearing a very cute summer dress. I complimented her on it.
She smirked and said, “Thank you! I’d tell you where I bought it, but there are no extra large sizes left.”
About a decade ago, I got an Interview for a network administrator position. The phone interview went really well. I had a panel interview with an HR rep, some VP, and the manager I would have reported to. It goes great, and I get a conditional offer later that same day. They even offered me more than I asked for, though I suspect the recruiting agency may have padded my range to get a bigger commission (and I loved them for it). I sign the background check paperwork.
Two days later, I get a call from the recruiter saying that the offer was rescinded and that the recruiting agency can’t work with me any more. Ok, that’s really weird. My credit score is shot due to having been unemployed for a bit with bills piling up, but that’s not usually the kind of thing that gets a recruiting agency to drop you. I ask for details, but the recruiter will only say that I will receive communication by mail.
A couple weeks later, after I had finally accepted a lower-paying offer elsewhere, a letter comes in the mail with a copy of my background check. I read over it and see convictions for armed robbery, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember … except remembering I’ve never been arrested or charged for anything like that, let alone convicted. Well, I look at the paperwork l, and what do you know. The first and last name are correct, but the middle name and date of birth are wrong. It’s almost as if they Googled my first and last name and just read the results of whoever popped up first.
I kind of wish they had done a bit more reading, because it would have been hard for him to attend interviews seeing as he was literally in prison while I was in their office.
I did point out the error to the recruiting agency … and never heard back.
Originally Answered: What is the best case of “you just picked a fight with the wrong person” that you’ve witnessed?
A woman called my newsroom crying. Nobody wanted to deal with her. So they sent her to me. She was crying and hard to understand, but the basic story went this way…
She had bought a used car. She needed it badly to get to the THREE jobs she held to support her children by herself. No husband. Less than two weeks after buying the car, it broke down. She called the dealer who had told her it had a 30-day warranty.
He told her he couldn’t help. But, she told him, you said it had a 30 day warranty. His response — too bad. When she complained, he told her — “lady, you’re dealing with the big boys now.”
She was crying as she told me this. I was — to put it mildly — angry. My response to her — let me call you back.
I called him. I explained the problem and when I did not get what I considered a good response, I “explained” things to him:
He needed to respond appropriately to her and solve the problem.
If he did not respond appropriately, I would have my entire investigative news team look into his operation.
He did not like that.
Cautionary note here: My response – YOU picked the wrong person to fight with, and no, NOW, you’re playing with the Big Boys, expletives to follow…
He took back her car. Gave her a slightly newer model without any problems. She called crying and thanked me. I may have cried a bit too.
PS – I didn’t do the story about him. I wonder if I should have?
Operation Bodenplatte, also known as the “New Year’s Offensive” or “Unternehmen Bodenplatte”, was a large-scale aerial offensive launched by the German Luftwaffe against Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on 1 January 1945, during the Battle of the Bulge. The operation was intended to cripple Allied airpower and support the German ground forces in the Ardennes region.
Despite achieving some initial surprise and causing some damage to Allied aircraft, Operation Bodenplatte was ultimately a failure. The Luftwaffe suffered heavy losses, losing over 250 aircraft compared to Allied losses of around 130. The operation also failed to achieve its main objective of crippling Allied airpower, as the Allies were able to quickly recover from the attacks.
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There were several reasons for the failure of Operation Bodenplatte:
Poor planning and coordination: The operation was poorly planned and coordinated, with many of the Luftwaffe units involved not receiving their orders until the day of the attack. This led to confusion and delays, and the attacks were not as coordinated as they could have been.
Allied air superiority: The Allies had achieved air superiority over the skies of Western Europe by the end of 1944, and the Luftwaffe was no match for the combined strength of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Forces.
Adverse weather conditions: The weather on the day of the attack was poor, with low clouds and fog, which made it difficult for the Luftwaffe bombers to find their targets and for the Luftwaffe fighters to intercept Allied aircraft.
Allied intelligence: The Allies had broken the German codes and were aware of the planned attack. This allowed them to take evasive action and scramble their fighters to intercept the Luftwaffe bombers.
As a result of its failure, Operation Bodenplatte marked the beginning of the end of the Luftwaffe as an effective fighting force. The operation resulted in the loss of irreplaceable experienced pilots and aircraft, and the Luftwaffe was never able to regain its strength.
A top bunk is not “disrespectful”…. It is its own special fucking misery in a world of miseries…
Having to sleep in the top rack forces the occupant into constantly climbing over and disturbing the occupant of the lower bunk, denies the top bunk the use of “Privacy Curtains”, is fully exposed to the ventilation system which will always be too hot or too cold, is fully exposed to the lights, which can often be on 24 hours a day, prevents easy access to possessions stored under the bottom bunk, it forces the top bunk occupant into waking up the lower bunk every time he has to use the toilet or sink, and cuts down on the number of places the top bunk occupant can sit, since sitting on someones bunk without their permission is an act of disrespect…
I have seen more SERIOUS fights between cellies over “bunk territory” than any other issue… I’m talking about fights when one or both combattants require hospitalisation and a trip to The Hole…
My wife and I were out to eat with some friends. We were having a good time and enjoying ourselves when all of a sudden this horrific smell wafted towards us. The unmistakable smell of baby shit.
Eww, but whatever. Babies shit. It happens.
However, what happened next left us speechless and without appetite. The man with the baby was at a large round table with several other people. When they smelled it too, there was the standard, “Ooops, someone made a poopy” comments towards the baby.
The man picked the baby up, pushed some plates and glasses out of the way, and proceeded to open the offending diaper right there in the middle of the dining room. The smell was bad to begin with, but once he opened that thing up, it was nauseatingly bad. We had just received our meals, but there was no way we were eating anymore.
People around the restaurant were staring at the table, but no one at that table seemed to think anything of it. They were going about their conversations as though there wasn’t a shit-covered child on the table. One of the tables next to us went up to the bar to complain; the bartender said “That’s Jane’s family, she’s the manager. I’ll go get her.”
Jane came out of the back with an irritated look on her face. When the customer complained, she loudly said, “Oh, it’s not that bad. He’ll be done in a minute.” and walked over to the infant and made baby noises at it while the dad finished changing the diaper.
We and a few other tables all got up and headed for the door. “Hey, you didn’t pay!” was shouted after us. One of our companions turned and said to the manager, “You call the cops, I’ll call the health department. I’m sure they’d love to hear about this.” and we left.
I used to really like that restaurant, now I can’t even drive past it without gagging a little.
Seriously, how can people be so fucking disgusting?
Originally Answered: Have you ever stood up to a bully at the workplace and they back off?
Yes indeed. Two years ago, we had a hurricane. I had no food, no lights , no power. The next morning, I still went to work.
My manager raised his voice and was abusive. He wanted to push his work on to me, but I had no power, and didn’t see the email the night before. I spoke up to him and said he was totally unrealistic. He was stunned, like no one had ever spoken back to him.
The manager told the director, and the director texted me two hours later, getting harsh, saying “I know you have power supply issues, but the three of us need to meet“.
Ten minutes later, I sent a letter to HR complaining of harassment and abusive speech. I copied the email to an executive three levels above my director. The executive texted me back and said to keep him informed.
HR saw the executive’s email response, and the HR director called me within 40 mins of getting the email. I told her I wanted a management change. She switched me to a new set of directors an hour later. The new directors are professional and wonderful to work for.
The main point: Bully bosses don’t back down right away on their own. You must save yourself by contacting a boss two levels above your boss. Two levels, not one level. Use email letters to complain. Letters put everyone on notice, and they’re like a hand grenade.
When I was about 17 years old, my dad walked in on me and my then-boyfriend having sex.
The house I lived in at the time was located directly across from my high school. I was enrolled in a lot of sports, as was my boyfriend. Our practices often didn’t start until a half an hour or so after school ended, so most days we had a little bit of time to, um, kill. This particular day, I thought my dad would be at work. We raced to my house, went to my bedroom, and went at it. A few minutes later, without warning, my dad did the thing he always did – knock, then immediately open the door. Seriously? What was the point of knocking? I’ll never understand.
So there I was. His precious baby, naked with a boy. I did the only thing I could think of, which was to do a little *roll* off the bed, and then a second *roll* to hide myself underneath my bed. Leaving my bare-bummed boyfriend to the nightmare above me.
The only words my dad said was, “get dressed.”
I did not go to practice that day. Instead, I had to have dinner with my dad, alone. I couldn’t even look him in the eye. I was mortified.
We tried to have small talk???? “How was your day?” “Fine, yours?”
Two guys, college-age were yapping and I heard them say, it would be nice if the old f***er would let us go before him.
I looked up ahead of me in line and there were two young women, and then a man and wife and I didn’t see the advantage of them wanting to let these guys go before them, and they didn’t look all that old, then I realized that they were talking about me.
So I reached in my basket and took a shirt I was buying and pulled the tag off it, so when it was my turn and I didn’t let the sh**heads but in line, I left the shirt for last after taking my time unloading all the merchandise and striking up a nice conversation with the checker that always stalls a little and then she got to the shirt.
By this time the guys were really pissed. She said sir, your shirt doesn’t have a tag, let me call someone and get a price for you. I looked back with a grin. and said, you just got old f**kered.
I got married in 2008, my sister in 2009. My wedding was lovely and small but I felt like it meant a lot. My sister got married a year later. My Aunts bestowed upon her a family necklace (something borrowed and old) that was blue, and a simple flower bracelet for her something new.
They had done none of that for me.
I cried for 3 days. Like my marriage didn’t matter at all.
I was nearly killed in a multi-vehicular accident when I was 25. The first police officer on the scene pronounced me dead, but, luckily for me, there was a nurse on hand to confirm that, while I was gravely injured and in shock (which means that you don’t have a pulse in your arms and legs because your blood pressure is so low), I was actually alive.
By the time the ambulance got there, I was conscious and screaming from the pain of my injuries. I had broken both my legs, my pelvis and three vertebrae (they were not displaced), but the source of my agony was a dislocated knee joint. My knee-cap was 6 to 8 inches north of where it should be and my upper and lower leg bones over-lapped by 3 or 4 inches.
It hurt. A LOT.
So, they cut me out of my car and got me into the ambulance and rushed me to the hospital. I was in bad enough shape that they called ahead so an Orthopedist was waiting for me. Unfortunately for me, he was a newly minted doctor fresh out of his residency.
When he came into the exam room he:
did not ask my name
did not introduce himself
did not examine me
did not look at my chart
did not attempt to take the pulse in the ankle of the mangled leg
What he DID do was say, “Oh, that leg has to come off.” Those were literally the first words out of his mouth.
Now, my sister is a nurse and my mother wanted me to be a doctor, so I knew that he should have at least looked at my chart and attempted an exam. I was so angry at his utter lack of bedside manner that my immediate response was, “If I lose my leg, you’ll lose your license.”
Honestly, I don’t know who was more surprised, him or me. Admittedly I was having a REALLY bad day, but normally I would never say anything like that to anyone.
Now, what I didn’t know at the time was that in 95% of the cases where a person has a dislocated knee joint the way I did, the femoral artery that supplies blood to the lower leg is crushed beyond repair. But I was extraordinarily flexible, and luckily, my femoral artery was NOT damaged.
So after a short but pointed argument and a bit of malpractice (on the doctor’s part), my injury was reduced and I got to keep my leg below the knee. It has taken a lot of surgery to fix the damage and more than a decade of physical therapy to relearn how to walk but I can walk and 99% of people won’t notice my limp.
So that is how a split-second decision changed my life. If I had let the doctor amputate, no one would have known that my artery hadn’t been crushed and I’d have a prosthesis and be buying my shoes one at a time. I thank goodness every day that I said what I did to that insufferable jerk.
Women and their tests…
Heaven on Seven Chicken Voodoo Rigatoni
spicy rigatoni 3
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 tablespoons plus 1/4 teaspoon Angel Dust Cajun Seasoning
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup diced yellow onion
1/2 cup diced red onion
1/3 cup thinly sliced green onion, white and green parts
2 tablespoons Roasted Garlic Puree
1/3 cup diced celery
1/2 cup seeded, diced green bell pepper
1/2 cup seeded, diced red bell pepper
1/2 cup seeded, yellow bell pepper
1/3 cup seeded, diced poblano chile
1/4 cup seeded, diced cubanella pepper
1/4 cup seeded, diced banana pepper
1 tablespoon seeded, minced Fresno chile
1 1/2 teaspoons seeded, minced habanero chile
1 teaspoon seeded, minced jalapeno
1/2 teaspoon minced serrano chile
1/2 teaspoon seeded, minced fingerhot chile
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon Hungarian paprika
1/4 teaspoon Spanish paprika
1/4 teaspoon chile powder
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup peeled and diced ripe banana
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 cup water
3/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup mango juice
1/2 cup papaya juice
1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon Key lime or regular lime juice
1 tablespoon Hot as a Mutha hot pepper sauce or habanero sauce
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
2 pounds dried rigatoni pasta, cooked according to package directions
Instructions
Season the chicken with 2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning.
In a 5 quart Dutch oven, preferably enameled cast iron, heat the oil over high heat. When oil is hot but not smoking add the chicken and brown for 5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Stir in the yellow, red and green onions and the garlic puree cook for 2 minutes.
Add the celery, peppers, and chiles cook until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes.
Add honey, sugars, paprikas, chile powder, allspice, coriander, turmeric, salt, black and white peppers, red pepper flakes, remaining 1/4 teaspoon Cajun seasoning, and stir for 2 to 3 minutes to coat meat and vegetables with the seasonings.
Mix in the banana, tomato sauce, water, coconut milk, juices and hot pepper sauce. Bring to a boil reduce the heat to medium low and simmer uncovered for 1 hour.
When ready to serve, stir in the butter until well blended and toss with rigatoni in a large bowl.
Attribution
Posted by Recipethyme at Recipe Goldmine 8/18/2001 5:26 pm.
Source: Chef Jimmy Bannos – Heaven on Seven Restaurant, Chicago
While we usually call it the “sixth sense”, the military term for this phenomenon is “premonition and intuition”.
Soldiers who fought for a long time on the battlefield have often developed sharper senses. Their bodies and minds are adapting to a survival situation:
After you have been away from any artificial light sources for a while, your night vision will improve. Being constantly exposed to enemy fire, your ability to see and recognize objects at a long distance increases.
You will be able to fine tune your hearing so that you’ll will be more perceptible to all “man made” sounds, for example tank engines or sounds of movement in the underbrush.
There are even soldiers who are capable to smell human feces from long distances away.
And some soldiers go even further: they develop an elevated state of mind, where their subconsciousness is able to connect the tiniest sensory inputs with the soldier’s vast experience. This way, soldiers can “foresee” future events on the battlefield, can “sniff out” ambushes and “know” where the enemy has put the mines.
This is not a new phenomenon, though there are many accounts from WWII and the Vietnam war where soldiers acquired extraordinary perception skills. Unfortunately, the military often dismissed them as “spooky stories”.
I was able to acquire a limited set of “extrasensory perception” skills myself. Interestingly, while I was fighting in the Bosnian war, I wasn’t really able to develop above average senses. As the war went on, I became better in anticipating enemy positions, or mined areas, but this was purely because of my ever growing experience and improved knowledge of our enemy’s tactics. When you’ve seen the enemy attacking a couple of times, always in the same way, it’s really not too difficult to figure out what their next steps will be.
During the war in Kosovo, however, I went one step further. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that we were nonstop in combat. There were no clear front lines (like in Bosnia) and everyday was a fight for survival that demanded from us to be 100% alert and sharp.
I remember one particular day: it was the third day of a massive enemy attack and I was manning a position together with a comrade. We were expecting that the enemy’s main assault would happen just in front of our position. We were in a small house and the moment I entered the building I felt that something was wrong. I couldn’t put my finger on it, though, but an inner voice told me: “this place is no good!”
We waited, but nothing happened. The fighting had started on our right flank, but in front of us, everything was still calm. All of a sudden, I told my buddy: “Let’s go somewhere else!” He trusted my word and didn’t argue with me and so we moved to another house that was a couple of hundred meters up the road.
On our way, we passed two of our comrades who were waiting in another position. I took a short look at their spot and told them to move fifty meters up the road to another place. I didn’t know why I said it, but they obeyed my order and moved immediately.
My new position was in a big three story house, only hundred meters to their right side, and so I was able to keep an eye on them. After an hour, the enemy attacked us with tanks. I shot twice with an RPG, but the enemy was still advancing. Our house had a very safe place in the basement and more and more soldiers came from other places to find refuge there.
image 15
Our last position, the “big house”, seen from enemy side. Picture taken after the war.
Outside the house, bullets and shells were flying from every direction. Suddenly my alarms went off again. I stood up and said: “Let’s go! Now or never!” and we all exited through a small window at the back of the house.
When I got outside the house, the air was red from the dust of the houses’ red bricks. Trees were hit by artillery shells and one fell just one meter in front of my feet. I waved and screamed at the two comrades that I had left nearby and told them to join us. Somehow we all made it to a safe place.
What I found out later was that an artillery shell had hit the exact place where I had my first position, just minutes after we decided to leave the place. The shell went straight through the roof and would have killed us immediately.
The two soldiers that I had asked to change their position came to thank me. They told me that only one minute after they were in their new position, an artillery shell had hit the old one.
And the last man who had left the big house from the small window told us that the moment he was leaving the building, a tank round had hit the room in the basement where we had stayed the whole time.
Of course we had a lot of luck that day, but there was more to it. After having spent a long time in combat, I was able to trust my instincts, my gut feeling, although it didn’t make any logical sense. From a military point of view, the positions that we had been using that day were carefully chosen and the best possible choices. Still, some inner voice told me to abandon them.
There were more occasions where my extrasensory perception skills (or those of my comrades) were either saving our lives or made us better soldiers. Especially during night combat, we often “knew” where each of our soldiers was positioned and what they were doing, without being able to see them. We were able to move without wasting time figuring out where everyone was left and we could shoot without hitting one of our own people. This made us better and more lethal soldiers.
Yield: about 8 to 10 gallons of gumbo. Can cut recipe in half to reduce.
Ingredients
2 cups vegetable oil
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups diced onions
2 cups diced celery
2 cups diced bell pepper
2 tablespoons minced garlic
2 cups chopped green onions
3 gallons water
1 pound fresh or frozen okra
1 (28 ounce) can Ro*Tel diced tomatoes or 2 (10 ounce) cans
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 ounces crab boil
8 dashes Tabasco sauce
8 dashes Louisiana hot sauce
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 ounce Paul Prudhomme’s Seafood Magic seasonings
1 ounce Cajun seasoning
1 ounce dried basil
1 ounce dried thyme
3 pounds peeled and deveined shrimp (70 to 90 count)
1 pound claw crab meat
2 whole crabs, cleaned and halved
1 pint fresh oysters
1 ounce file or to taste
Instructions
First, you make a roux. In a large, heavy stock pot on medium heat, add 2 cups vegetable oil and bring to temperature.
Add flour gradually. It will sizzle when it is at the right temperature. Using a whisk, stir roux constantly. Stir until it reaches a peanut butter color. When it reaches the desired color, add the onions, celery, bell pepper, garlic and 1 cup of green onions (in that order) until all ingredients are cooked down or caramelized.
Add water, okra, Ro*Tel tomatoes, seasonings and bring to boil. After it reaches boiling, reduce heat to low and let simmer for at least an hour.
Add seafood and continue to cook on medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes.
Taste for seasoning and texture.
Add file to thicken.
Stir in the remaining green onions and simmer for a few more minutes.
It was older than I was. The biggest issue was, the floor pans were pretty rusted out (and the Flintstones jokes that came with it). I could see the road flow by if I looked down under my feet and pedals. Water would splashed up when it rained.
So I try to fix it. Some rolled stainless steel wouldn’t stay down right. Riveting just made more holes. And I gave it a break. Later that afternoon, I noticed my mom’s cookie sheet. It was almost the exact right size! And it wouldn’t roll up. A few clips with tin snips, and some epoxy, I had the floor of my car (on my side) waterproof!
Later that week, my mom wanted to make cookies. I, of course, had no idea where her cookie sheet was.
I think the worst part was me “helping” her look for 5 or 8 minutes.
A few summers ago, and 20 or so years later, I finally came clean about it. Time heals all wounds, and she wasn’t too upset.
I was quite a lonely boy, and longed for a relationship. On holiday, I met a girl who seemed interested in me, and we had fun: we walked, climbed, sailed together and did a lot of talking. At the end of the holiday, we exchanged addresses and corresponded for a year or so. I kept ALL her letters.
One day, she wrote to tell me about her new boyfriend. He was wonderful (apparently.) Being rather immature, I felt betrayed. I had no reason to feel this way, we were only friends and I should have felt glad for her, but hey. Teenage angst.
I took all her letters, threw them into my metal litter bin, and set fire to them.
IN MY BEDROOM.
I had the window open, and there was no-one else in the house, so that was cool. I remember the IMMENSE satisfaction watching those letters burn.
When the bin cooled, I decided to bury the ashes, and with them my heart. I lifted the bin – and there was a perfect bottom-of-the-bin shaped hole in the polyester carpet.
My father was fairly physical in terms of punishment, so my heart did not just sink: it scuttled itself. I knew that Armageddon would ensue were this to be discovered.
In panic, I looked around and realised that my room was a perfect oblong. The bin-shaped burn was in the left corner, my bed in the opposing right corner.
I have (up to this day!) never worked so hard or fast in my life. I removed the furniture from my room, managed to lift the carpet, desperately salvaging the carpet tacks, turned the carpet around, nailed it back down and replaced the furniture, with the bed covering the offending burn.
My parents wondered why I suddenly announced my decision to assist with the housework by taking responsibility for all upstairs vacuuming and cleaning. They were surprised but pleased: I was desperate to keep my crime concealed.
I am now 59. My father has passed away, but my mother still lives in the family home. And the burn is still under my old bed. 45 years later, my crime remains hidden.
1. Pretty people are automatically more acceptable by people. Average looking people have to do something above average to get accepted and ugly people have to do something extraordinary!
image 24
It is because the human mind appreciates physical beauty and repels ugliness because of immaturity of mind. But in the end what matters is inner beauty or ugliness and that wiseness comes with experience and time.
2. Leaving your girlfriend/boyfriend seems much tougher than leaving your friends.
image 23
It is because romantic relations induces strong pheromones secretions in your body that cause you to develop strong bonding feeling with your partner. It is not the case you have with friends and hence breaking a strong bond seems tougher.
3. People who get goosebumps frequently while listening to music have a special connection with it. These people listen to music very frequently and their work capacities and capabilities are partly dependent on it. If they are barred from listening to music for 1 month, their productivity will fall.
image 22
It is because the hormone adrenaline increases in their body while listening to the music and that causes more activation, more awakening and better functioning of their body. Plus, it keeps the mind calm.
4. The more attention you give to a person, the more attitude he/she will show you and the less crap he/she will give about you.
image 21
It is because as the humans get more attention, their minds tend to think that they are very important and good looking and the person who is giving them attention needs their company desperately and is not equal to them at all.
5. Money instils confidence and happiness in majority of people. It increases their desire to work.
image 20
It is because anything (money) that is able to complete every single desire of people is very much acceptable to them as human desire are insatiable.
In 5th grade I had a 1st year teacher, Ms. Craig, who was amazing and one of the reasons I went into education, but I digress. One day we were studying the United States and where all of the states were. I noticed that she had switched Missouri and Minnesota. I remember thinking – that is not right. you see my dad is from Minnesota and my family lived there for a short spell when I was 4. I decided, to ask her if that is really where Minnesota located. I will never forget her reply – You know Denise, I am not totally confident that it is let’s check. So in front of the entire class, she lifted the map she had written on to look at the map that contained all of the States written on it. Well, look at that Denise is correct, I made a mistake and mixed up two states!
Miss Jana Craig if you are out there and can read this, you made a very strong impression on a 5th grader in the very first class you taught. You were the BEST teacher ever! Thank you for making me love school.
The most important required secondary power is to be born in an upper class family. Most of those high IQ people who succeed, have born with silver spoon on hand.
The reason is trivial. Nobody makes it alone nor in a vacuum. To be successful, you need to get socialized with right people, to know the right people, to be encouraged, to have social support, you name it. The less you have those, the less likely you are to succeed.
Then there is the thrice-goddamned communication range. If you are a high-IQ person in a middle class environment, you are likely to be branded as a weird kid, a nerd, a geek, an egghead and bullied and ostracized. You learn very quickly to hide your intelligence to stay below the radar lest you are torn into pieces. And God help you if you are born in a working class family – you will be stampled as a weirdo, a misfit, an outcast, and eaten alive.
For a middle class and working class high IQ individuals, the best hopes are military and STEM branches. Military because militaries are meritocracies, and high IQ is an asset once you are past buck sergeant or lieutenant. STEM branches, because they are difficult and require brainpower, and you are likely to get networked with similar-minded youngsters.
Forget the rags-to-riches fairy tales. They are just that – fairy tales invented to deceive the gullible and to make the proles to blame themselves for their failures.
I know that I live in China, and that it is safe, safe… safe! But you know guys, I do miss my guns. Yup. I left them all behind back in the ‘States when I moved to China. I loved to take them out, and shoot them every now and then, and truthfully, I was lethal with my pistol.
I also miss my G3.
HK G3 Assault Rifle
I have had numerous weapons through the years, but I left behind my precious P99. It’s not that it is better than the trade-offs that I get here in China. It isn’t, but every now and again, I do miss firing that pistol.
Truth, you all.
Deep down, I still hold on to some of my American characteristics.
Walter P99
Of course, all of this is meaningless to you all, unless you are an American. But there is always something very nice about being able to defend yourself from the crime-ridden United States .
Here’s a (my) Martin .444 lever action.
Marlin 444 Lever Action
Man, oh man, those bullets were huge!
Marlin 444
It could really cut through the brush… I’ll tell you what.
Back in the day, Australians used to own thee kinds of weapons, and then a crazy guys in Tasmania (I seem to recall) went on a shooting spree “out of the blue”, and the Australian government started to ban everything… you know… to make Australia safer.
I hear that there are parts of Australia that remains very, very dangerous. I mean that there are some places that you do not dare go out at night…
…ugh. That is NOT a place where anyone should live.
But I don’t know if it is the wildlife… or the “wild” life. But if live in one such place, I would suggest that you leave. Life is too short to live in fear.
For my case, I was the boss who was later hired by the guy who used to work for me. Early in my career, I managed a construction crew of a dozen or so workers. One of my workers, I’ll call Scott, showed exceptional intelligence, drive and common sense. I promoted to foreman and then supervisor in less than two years. I left that company over a contract dispute and found another job.
Six years later, I’d grown bored with the new job and felt my future there was limited. Out of the blue, I received a call from Scott. A short time after I had left the old company, Scott ran into his old college sweetheart and a year later, married her. College? A menial laborer, promoted for foreman, and then supervisor, had a college degree? Yep. He told me that he was once a practicing attorney but disbarred for helping a client hide some assets. After disbarment, he slipped into depression and alcoholism. At his lowest point, he took the job of laborer.
His sweetheart and new wife was $$$ LOADED $$$. she had bought him his own successful construction company. He was a smart, ambitious guy but lack bossines (I mean business) sense and knowhow. He found himself over his head on a project and called me for help. It happened I had a couple of weeks vacation left, so for a nice fee, I agreed to spend that time helping him.
At the end of those two weeks, he offered the the job as Executive VP at salary over my current one and a share of the profits. He turned out to be the best boss I ever had and I worked for him until he retired (at forty-two.)
Ask the foreigner.? To them it is a million times safer than back home in the U.S. Chinese people like diversity and welcome good foreigners. But if he is a CIA or NED spy or trouble maker chances is he or she will be caught within 24 hours. If he likes the food, the place the people or the culture he or she is always welcome. If he is a hubris, xenophobic racist he should stay at home and join the KKK.
Let me warn you, China sniff you out in an hour and we will send you packing. But if you live China and wants to make China even better welcome. Let me tell you what you can do in China that you cannot do at home. You can open a 6 pack and you can drink as you walk on Chinese streets. You cannot do in the U.S. You can walk in the street at 3 am in the morning safely even if you are a women. In the U.S. you have many no go areas that even cops don’t want to go.
You cannot see homeless because there is none in China. Your chance of being shot by a random mass shooter is a billion to one in the U.S. if you fall sick everyone including foreigners get to be treated by the best doctors and given medical help. The life expectancy of China exceed that of the U.S. There is zero case of racial profiling in China but in the U.S. blacks can be necked to death in open daylight.
There are Sixty Eight Customized cars made for the CPC top brass every 5 years and PLA Top brass
Xi Jingping has four such cars, all similar and heavily armored
The Communication system is connected to a Chinese Satellite constellation and is not dependent on any other system allowing the president to talk to anyone he wants without any interception
Presently only Biden & Putin have similar systems
The Contract Tender price of this car was 972000 RMB ($ 136K)
I’ve been managing a brand for 9 years and have had stellar performance. I was promoted quickly and pretty soon assumed the role of second in charge for one of the key cities.
Part of my role includes bringing in big corporate sales. I was in the midst of closing a large annual contract with a major player.
And then my godmother had to undergo brain surgery.
I applied for some time off and spent a week with my godmother who lives in another country. I had accrued over 40 days in leave as I’ve been working myself to death to grow the company.
When I returned, my then boss wanted to know if I had finalised the sale. I was speechless. Everyone knew about my godmother’s surgery and it was an annual contract that the company could’ve afforded to wait a couple of weeks for. It wasn’t as if it was completely lost and I’ve been in communication with the client throughout.
But then came those words that I will always remember – “I don’t care if she’s dead. Money is money.”
I walked.
On a happier note, my godmother is fully recovered!
Story: He was the leading runner in the 2004 Summer Olympics marathon. At his pace, he was sure to win first place and secure the gold medal which would’ve brought pride and glory to his family and country.
Near the end of the marathon, he was attacked by a spectator. The spectator actually sidelined into him. Intentionally. In public.
That brief, 10 second-long distraction was enough to completely disrupt De Lima’s mental AND physical rhythm, both of which are critical to running long distance marathons.
He was quickly surpassed by two other runners and was evidently off his game for the remainder of the marathon. He finished in third place in surprisingly good spirits and received the bronze medal.
What people remember is that he crossed the finish line with a smile despite what had happened to him just moments before.
This was a man who was robbed of first place and an Olympic gold medal in a matter of seconds.
Imagine training for something your entire life and being so close to accomplishing something extraordinary. Something that brings you, your family, and your country great pride and happiness and puts you in the history books.
Only to be robbed in a matter of seconds in the most outrageous and nonsensical way possible. By something that should never have happened in the first place.
De Lima could’ve stopped running when that incident happened. He could’ve attacked the trespasser. He could’ve complained endlessly to the officials.
But he pushed past, he ran, and he finished.
Even after the fiasco, words like “furious” or “hatred” were evidently not in De Lima’s vocabulary. Holding a relentless vendetta against his perpetrator was clearly not important to him.
Even when a fellow Olympian earnestly offered his own gold medal to De Lima, De Lima responded “I am happy with mine – it is bronze but means gold.”
De Lima went on to win a variety of awards commemorating his self-discipline and spirit of sportsmanship.
He also went on to light the cauldron at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
image 152
It takes immense willpower and discipline to run and finish as a top contender for a marathon in the Olympics, but I think what makes De Lima so special is his willpower and discipline to look past something so ill-fated and still come out on top. He truly lives a life of no regrets.
And I don’t remember who won first or second place in that 2004 Summer Olympics Marathon.
Although I didn’t know how she died at the time, it later turned out that she had died by suicide. Nine year old me thought she’d just died of old age — she was 43 after all!
We were kept off school for a few days. My middle sister was in the year above me at the same school. Our classmates had been told that our mum had died (not how) and that they should be nice to us.
On my first day back at school, a boy from my sister’s class ran up to me and shouted in my face “Jordan, how’s your mum?” and ran off laughing.
I still remember his name 41 years later – Billy Smart; the same name as a popular travelling circus from that time. That’s all I remember about the boy now – his name and that he thought it would be funny to tease me about my dead mother. I hope he became a more sensitive and well rounded person as an adult, but I have doubts.
Ahahaha, memories! I worked at a publisher for a few years and the management had no clue how much work folks did. They were so clueless, in fact, that they were convinced people were shirking their duties, sneaking out early, coming in late, etc.
So, they ostentatiously installed an electronic time card system. We had to log in and log out every time we entered or left the building, respectively.
They informed us we were going to be paid for the “actual” hours we worked, instead of what we submitted on our timecards (we were “salary,” and yet had a low-budget pay system, so “salary” simply meant “submit a 40-hour timecard every week regardless of the actual work you perform.”), with the implication that we better watch out ’cause “now they were watching.”
Hahahahaha! Watch this!
This company was so delusional that it spent cold hard cash in a passive-aggressive attempt to not pay people, and it totally backfired.
To no one’s surprise, the next payroll was a blowout because we always busted ass and worked long hours. Plus, we completely stopped taking work home to do. Our rationale was “If you’re going to be a jerk about insisting that we are only paid for being in the building, then we’ll only work while we’re in the building.”
The company found themselves shoveling out overtime pay like it was Skittles.
They deactivated that system after Week Two.
I think, to this day, they still think we somehow “hacked” the system, because they could not acknowledge that we worked long-ass hours.
I learnt how to break into my own house when I forgot my keys.
I was waiting for my wife to come home standing in my doorway when a neighbour asked me if I was okay. I said I was fine and I was waiting for my wife to get home from work so I could get in.
I knew that he had a criminal history. He asked me if he could use a small branch of one of my trees to open the door. I agreed, and he put one into the letterbox of my door and he used it to nudge the Yale lock to open it.
I learnt that I needed a better lock. In fact, I bought a whole new door with several locks.
I also learnt that criminals can. and do. reform. For many years, my neighbour could have entered my house and stolen anything he wished.
Months before he died he wasn’t feeling the best. Where he used to NEVER take time off work he had started taking lots of time off. Or coming home early. His feet hurt him. He did a lot of walking at work.
I BEGGED him to go to the doctor. I told his mom to TELL him to go to the doctor. All it created was fights. So I quit begging him to go.
I went on a girls weekend and he died in our home. I have SO MUCH ANGER that he died so young, when it possibly could have been prevented. The main cause of death was a heart attack due to untreated diabetes. Clearing out his drawers I found many bottles of unused diabetic pills. They weren’t even his. Someone gave them to him to “help”, he still didn’t use them.
Now I tell people. PLEASE make sure the ones you love go to the doctor, use Dave as an example why. Also that you know how all the household expenses work. He paid all the main bills and spoiled me. I didn’t have to do any of that. Was a huge eye opener when I had to take over. Nearly lost my house to foreclosure, but am finally getting things under control, four years later.
So yeah, he died on me. I will never forget. We were high school sweethearts. Met when I was 15, he was 17. Got Married when I was 19 and he was 20. Married for 23 years. Together 27.
Make sure the ones you love take care of themselves and get medical help. Sucks being a 42 year old Widow.
So I was in a car accident with my then girlfriend. A teenage girl, driving her mom’s car ran a red light and hit us. It was a pretty bad accident and my girlfriend was taken out of the car on a backboard. The girl who was driving was really shook up, and her passenger had a minor wound that was bleeding. I had banged up my knee and my face got hit pretty hard. An ambulance came, but there was no room for me in the back, so I sat upfront, shotgun. When we got to the ER it was really busy. I sat there waiting for about two hours. Finally a nurse brought me to the examining room, where I waited about another 45 minutes to an hour. The nurse who brought me in looked at my swollen face and said if you had iced that it wouldn’t be so swollen. Finally I just signed myself out.
About a week later I got a bill from the hospital for treatment and an ambulance ride. I called and told them I wasn’t paying because they never treated me and I rode on the empty front seat of the ambulance. They told me that I was charged because if I had really needed treatment it was there. So I asked if they charged people who walked past the hospital also were charged for the same reason. My bill was graciously forgiven. That’s when I knew I would go to law school.
Not my husband but my bf. On Sunday passed I collapsed at the bar we were at having pizza and wine, and I suddenly dropped like a stone. I died for like 7 seconds, eyes wide open and no pulse. I was out for a few minutes then slowly came to. I had no idea what I was doing on the bar floor or who the girls were hovering over me. (Lucky the one girl was a chemist and resuscitated me) My bf tried to see if I could make it to the car but I was too weak, I could not walk at all. I could barely sit up. He called an ambulance for me. He sorted my ID with the drivers to help with my medical aid numbers (as the ambulance was going nowhere otherwise) Followed me to the hospital and sat by me while tests were being done. My blood sugar stabilised and I could go home. He drove us back at midnight, an hour journey…both of us exhausted. He’s not my husband so I didn’t expect him to do all that for me. I can’t believe he behaved exactly as a husband would. I’m a very lucky girl.
After the dotcom crash I got hired by a small software company. They didn’t really have a good product and it was obvious they were on the way down. One day the owner called in with instructions to fire all the sales people as they weren’t making any sales anyway. OK so at the end of the month he calls to ask how sales were going. I said about as good as can be expected with no sales people.
A week later the hammer comes down and we’re all let go and given our severance checks. I immediately go to the bank branch that check was drawn on to cash it and it bounced!
So since I still had the keys to the office, I went back and grabbed a bunch of high-end laptops and took them home. Another week goes by and he calls to ask about these laptops that have gone missing. I said they’re not missing, I’m holding on to them until you make good on the bounced check. I was told that was theft and they would be pressing charges. I said great, I’ll be contacting the Labour Relations Board about your shitty practices and also the Police about knowing passing a bad check for thousands of dollars.
Needless to say I was asked to stop by his office to exchange the laptops for another check. It was like the scene out of Scarface where Tony Montana goes to buy the coke.
Owner: Do you have the laptops?
Me: They’re close by. Do you have my check?
He gave me the check and I went and cashed it and then went back and gave him his laptops.
It is assumed that men can handle hardships on their own…
This is the best, most positive experience I had at the hotel where I worked in college.
As I was getting ready to close my shift out at the front desk of a large hotel on Capitol Hill, a woman came to my desk and said that she wanted to check in, but she lost her purse somewhere along the way between the train station and the hotel.
She was frantic. She was having a meltdown. I asked her about her reservation, if she was with a group? She said “Yes! I’m with X group!”
Awesome. I knew this was an incoming group, with a block of rooms, so I asked for her name. Her name corresponded with a name on my incoming list. I told her that I see her reservation and you have a room! So don’t worry about that, I said. Let’s get the rest sorted.
I then asked when was the last time she saw her purse, and she said that it was on the Amtrak that came into Union Station about 20 minutes before she got to the hotel.
I asked her if she’d had anything to eat. She said she hadn’t, in hours. I said well you better get over to the restaurant and let them give you something to eat while I make some calls! I sent her to the restaurant, and I made sure that everyone knew she was my guest, and why.
I got on the phone, called a few people I knew at Amtrak and asked them to find the cleaners on that train. They found her purse, and brought it to the hotel. Everything intact.
Kicker is? The woman I helped? She was in DC to lead a series of workshops on customer service. I turned out to be the star in her first session on “Getting service right.”
As my marriage began to unravel, my (then) husband became worse and worse with money.
First, he wouldn’t come home for days, leaving the kids and me with no car. That meant if I needed groceries, I had to walk 8 blocks to one store or 11 to another and carry them home.
I couldn’t ask my father for a lot of help, as my mother had cancer. More often than not, I was helping her, and my father was filling in when I couldn’t.
One day, I found I had no bread or milk for my children. I went to the cabinet where I kepy emergency money, only to find the jar empty. The “proud papa” took it. I scooped up whatever spare change I could find and went to the grocery. At the counter, I found I was short. I was ready to cry. I tried to think of which should I put back, when the grocer told me someone behind me paid for my groceries. I cried as I took the bag and said thank you.
Walking home I thought it couldn’t get any worse, but I was wrong. The jerk stopped his paychecks from going to our joint account. He wouldn’t pay the mortgage or utilities.
I had a bank book that he forgot about, and with that I paid bills for as long as I could. I put my children on food stamps to put food on the table. I put a lien on my house since you couldn’t qualify for services if you owned a house. Passover was coming and I didn’t have a penny.
Agencies that claimed to help made you feel like you were robbing them if you asked for food. I got one parcel and was sick. Everything was dated a month or two before: the juice, other items, and the raw chicken – which smelled so bad I threw it out.
I begged my brother for $200 so we could have a nice holiday. He gave it to me – and never let me forget it. If he needed a favor, he reminded me that I owed him. I was so ashamed I never told my parents.
The house went to foreclosure about the same time the utilities were shut off. I borrowed money from my father to move and pay first month’s rent on an apartment. When I finally started working I put aside $10 a month to pay him back. It was hard, and I barely made ends meet. My kids hadn’t gotten new clothes at this point in nearly two years.
I was still chasing my separated husband to get him to court. Finally, I hired three court servers for $200 a piece to wait at each exit at his job. He was served his subpoena to appear in court. After some delays – didn’t come with a lawyer, fired his lawyer in court – the judge asked him why he didn’t take care of his family. He said I’m having problems with their mother. The judge said “Why didn’t you buy food? Pay for the house? Clothes? What did you do for your children?” He kept trying to say he was having a problem with me and the judge got angry.
“What did you do with your money?” the judge asked. We presented photos of his new sexy sports car – bought with the money that was supposed to take care of his children. The judge told him “I’m done talking to you.” Then she asked me what I had done for my children.
I showed her the paperwork for food stamps, proof I sold jewelry and used the bank book I had to pay utilities. I just got a job, so we were under a roof.
She told my then husband “you earn almost 3 times as much as your wife and you did nothing for your children?” She ordered child support at the maximum allowable by law, as well as back pay of money he should have paid since January (it was now October).
He screamed “where will I get that kind of money?” The judge said “sell your sexy car, that doesn’t have room for your three children.” My attorney stepped up and said “we would like to show more mercy than he showed to his children. He can pay off his wife in semi monthly checks.”
He took the deal, never realizing he would be paying me for three years. The extra money coming in meant my kids could get new clothes for the first time in two years, I paid my father back the money he lent me – and I gave my brother $300 when he lent me $200. I told him the extra $100 was for him to shove it anywhere he wanted – I didn’t want him to talk to me like I was dirt again. In spite of my brother’s protests that he didn’t mean to humiliate me, he did in fact keep the extra hundred.
Today, I’m a bit better off. But I still need to watch my money. Sometimes I get depressed and buy junk I don’t need. But I try hard to avoid that.
Read some of the western propaganda. You can see it on youtube videos about non western hardware.
There’s a very common narrative.
Everything Russian is junk! None of it works! Russians apparently don’t even have working rifles according to most westerners. If Russian rifles don’t work how would these [slurs] be able to maintain nuclear weapons! Only the SUPREME MASTER RACE can maintain nuclear weapons. You can see smug British people say haha ours work! Like our SA80 the BEST gun in the WORLD! The Challenger 2 the MOST INVINCIBLE TANK IN THE UNIVERSE. You remember posts on Quora about 6 months ago? British people saying it would take nuclear weapons to stop a challenger2.
Chinese?
Everything in China is made of tofu! Pretty much exactly the same as the above.
The MASTER RACE is so confident that they think they can perform nuclear strikes and bomb our cities and we can’t do anything back.
It is a big problem
Blue Bayou Chocolate Mousse
Chocolate Mousse
Yield: 8 cups
Ingredients
12 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 ounces unsalted butter
5 ounces egg whites
2 ounces granulated sugar
3 1/2 cups heavy cream
Instructions
In a double boiler combine chocolate and butter, stirring until melted.
Whip cream and sugar until light and fluffy; set aside.
Beat egg whites at high speed until soft peaks form.
Using a wire whisk combine egg whites with the melted chocolate and then with the whipped cream.
A case like this actually happened in the 1960s. A programmer working on Wall Street opened an account and wrote a program that funneled all the forgotten mills rounded off of each penny into his account. It seemed like he was stealing nothing. It turns out that a weakness in binary systems makes it difficult for them to convert 1 penny correctly so they round up or down. There are often thousandths of a cent that are then ignored and few people, if any, on Wall Street look at the penny column. It was absolutely invisible. But those thousandths of a cent, multiplied by millions of daily transactions add up. He was caught by the sheer size of the numbers that were being generated.
He was prosecuted not because anyone cared about those fractions of a cent (they didn’t) but because he was stealing and stealing is against the law.
When you steal something it doesn’t matter what the victim thinks. The state is obligated to prosecute. The statutes don’t often say, “He broke the law but it’s ok because his victims don’t care”. The statutes, while they may take the scale of the injury into account, must prosecute you for breaking the law because “Justice is blind”. It’s a one size fits all approach, for better or worse.
In reality we know what really happens and there are plenty of ways for justice to be derailed long before the judge bangs the gavel and pronounces a sentence, but the theory still applies. It doesn’t matter what the victims think. Actions have consequences and you broke the law.
In 1994 my then-husband was arrested for soliciting a hit man to kill me. He was apprehended by federal agents through a sting operation. As more information was revealed about how he was caught, I learned that my husband had contacted a member of the Outlaw motorcycle gang looking for the killer. Turns out the gang member called the feds because he had been in my business a few weeks prior with his daughter and I had given the little girl change for the gum machine.
A quarter saved my life….and sent my now-ex husband to prison for 21 years.
Be nice, you never know 😉
Cat With a Broken Paw Went To The Clinic & Begged For Help, But The Vet Did Something Shocking!
Mao won because he and the Red Army had won popular support among the Chinese people. In fact, during the three main battles fought during the civil war, Chinese civilian volunteers provided logistical support to the Red Army, and abandoned the Nationalist Revolutionary Army.
In China’s cities, runaway inflation and corruption among Nationalist officials destroyed support among private Chinese businesses, and they moved to support the Communists.
From your question, you seem to assume that the civil war simply involved two armies fighting each other for the control of China.
In fact, just as Sun Tzu has said, wars are fought and won in the hearts and minds of the people; it is not just about two militaries.
For this reason, your belief that the Nationalists could have won against the Communists is an impossibility.
The Chinese people decided that they needed a new China, and that is the environment the world is living in now.
“I’m worried about you,” my grandmother told me. “You’re too nice. People like you don’t do well in the world.”
That was the last time I saw her.
I forgot about that conversation.
I didn’t even understand what she meant.
Besides, it’s easy to dismiss the words of an elderly woman suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s.
I’ve always been concerned with what others think about me. I wanted to do well in the world. I had a deep need for outer acceptance because I wasn’t embracing myself on the inside.
I thought that if I just stayed out of trouble—if I just avoided controversy and did my best to please the people around me—I’d feel safe in the world.
Perhaps even wanted.
And so I became the nice guy.
I let other people come first. I put my own needs aside. I sacrificed my wellbeing.
And I was miserable.
But in the last years, something changed.
I put me higher up the priority list.
It’s not that I became an asshole or stopped caring. I realized that I’m still someone who feels and empathizes deeply with others.
But I decided to stop operating out of fear and guilt.
And I’ve realized that, as much as it sounds like a cliché, you have to cultivate happiness within instead of expecting the world to hand it to you as a trophy for your “good” behavior.
So I started taking my career seriously and insisted on being paid what I knew I was worth instead of letting employers walk over me.
I began practicing martial arts and became more confident.
I resolved to not put up with other people’s shit.
I gave up being nice.
And in doing so became more empowered. More genuine. More me.
I finally understood what my grandmother was trying to say.
She was right all along.
I just wish I could let her know.
Yes and no
25 Strange Things That Only Exist In Vietnam!
Vietnam, nestled in Southeast Asia, boasts a multifaceted tapestry of history, culture, and natural beauty. The nation’s turbulent past, marked by the Vietnam War, contrasts with its vibrant present, where bustling cities like Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi are hubs of innovation and growth. In today’s video, we will be talking about the things you can only find in this country of the east. We cover everything from their markets to their religious beliefs, but if you stay until the end of this video, you will also find out what exactly is the balance of five flavors, and why is it the most important part of their cuisine. Enjoy!
After my divorce, I knew I’d have a lot more free time on my hands. I needed a hobby that would be productive.
I am very intense and passionate about anything I do. I was a hardcore gamer for years and was a high-level league of legends player at one point. Not good enough to go pro, but maybe just below the level at which people make money. But it was a problematic hobby that ate up too much time.
As a child, my dad had often said, “Wow imagine if you put as much time into your studies as you did into those games.”
I decided no more hobbies that will consume me.
I figured writing on Quora would be a quasi-productive, quasi-fun hobby, that wouldn’t consume me too much.
Everything except that last part was true. It spun into this whole big thing that I never expected. I got obsessed with writing. I think in the first 3 years I wrote 4000+ answers.
This love of writing led to opportunities to make money. I was able to work at the craft.
Writing also made me realize how much I hated my corporate job. I would liken it to when you are in a terrible relationship and some great, attractive person who has their shit together asks you out on a date.
You start to wonder, “What if there is more to my life than this crap relationship?”
Quitting my job was a huge decision that changed my life for the better. I have freedom. The money is great so far. I have control of my life.
It’s amazing what can happen if you just listen to your parents.
Because it was mainly an agricultural country and France was a major food exporter.
Britain and Germany had massive industries meaning fewer people working in agriculture. This resulted in food shortages, the need to import food, and higher food prices.
The French economy was doing very well being based on agriculture.
When I was in eighth grade, our science teacher held a school wide competition to see who could build the strongest bridge out of tooth picks.
My best friend, “J”, was very smart, very clever, and always mischievous. The rules only states that the bridge had to be made out of toothpicks and had to be a certain length (I think 12”, this was over 20 years ago). The rules did not limit what glue you used to join the toothpicks. Additional toothpicks could be earned by doing extra credit worksheets.
“J” came up with an awesome plan. He did dozens of extra credit sheets. He had thousands of toothpicks. His father was a machinist for a local manufacturer of printing presses and was able to procure some industrial grade epoxy to use as glue.
“J” set to work making alternating crisscrossing layers of toothpicks and epoxy. He essentially made a solid brick of toothpicks and epoxy.
The day of the competition came. The competition went in alphabetical order and “J”’s last name was pretty far down the list. The teacher had everyone gathered in the gym to see the competition. The bridges were suspended over a gap with weights hung from them until they broke.
Kid after kid brought up their bridge, some of them very fancy suspension type looking bridges. Most of them broke at 6 kg or less.
“J”’s turn came. He walks up to the platform with his brick. Kids in the audience are laughing at it. The bridge is placed over the gap. 1 kg, 2 kg, 3, and on until they hang the biggest weight of 25 kg and it’s not even flexing. All the kids are stunned.
The teacher, who was quite large and probably weighed 150 kg, puts two stacks of books on the floor, puts the brick over the gap between them, and stands with one foot on it. Not even flexing yet.
He then has the entire middle school follow him to the parking lot. He uses the books to prop up the brick again and proceeds to drive one wheel of his car onto it. It flexed a little.
At this point he has run out of heavy things to try to break the brick and declares “J” the winner.
As a teacher, what was the trashiest thing you’ve seen a parent do?
I’m frequently shocked at the language some parents use when dealing with the priests and nuns at a Catholic school. I’ve been in meetings where parents shouted and swore at elderly clergy people because they (the clergy people) had the audacity to remind the parents that they were way behind in their tuition payments, or their children were in danger of being expelled due to too many discipline issues.
I was always taught to treat older people and members of the clergy with respect. I’ll never get used to hearing a middle-aged parent scream and swear at an elderly priest or nun.
I was also always taught that you’re supposed to be extra nice to pregnant women. Apparently, a lot of parents were not taught that. I’ve seen parents scream and swear at teachers who were just weeks away from giving birth.
I was also always taught that you’re not supposed to swear in front of children. Yet every year, there’s at least one incident where a parent picks up their child from school and, in the course of a three-minute conversation within earshot dozens of kids as young as three years old, manages to drop a dozen really loud f-bombs.
I’ve also been preparing for my class in the morning, only to have the windows of my classroom shake as someone with stupidly-loud bass in their car drove up to the school to let their kids out… all kids who were under eight years old. There’s a time and a place for loud music. Seven thirty in the morning in front of a Catholic elementary school while you drop off your kids is not the time or place for that.
Get photos of the cord plugged in, photos of where it goes (unless you have to trespass), and make sure they are dated and time stamped (most digital cameras can do that and possibly some phones). Pull out your electric bills from the times you know he was using your power and try to see how much extra was used. If it is a lot over a short period, you have proof on the bill. Not sure about your power company but some keep track of just how much is used when to try to help you cut down and that information could also help you.
I always say, document, document, document so it isn’t your word against his.
I’m not sure this counts as ‘accidentally’ but: A long time ago I joined a startup company. We were doing some innovative stuff with fiber optics.
My roommate and I got into the habit of taking the accountant out to lunch or Happy Hour every few weeks; generally on a Friday. We’d get a few drinks into her and she’d open up about the financial condition of the company because she was worried.
We found out that the first unit we “shipped” was actually sent to a warehouse for storage because the CFO wanted to tell the investors we’d sold and shipped a unit by year end. There was a potential client but they hadn’t signed the purchase order.
When I found out that the CFO was lying to investors and employees I started looking for a new job. Sure enough four weeks later they announced a layoff. I was let go because “your software already works and we’re betting that it will keep working.” Meanwhile they kept a programmer that couldn’t get his program to compile let alone work.
When my manager called me in, I told him that he was cutting off his nose to spite his face. I also neglected to mention all of the semi-automated routines that I’d built in my spare time that no one had thought about or worried about ( things like builds, backups, space reclamation in the homegrown database, etc. ).
They offered us ‘outplacement services’ with the first meeting that AM at an offsite location. At the outplacement meeting they scheduled us for a follow up meeting the next morning. I told them I couldn’t attend because I had an interview already scheduled. Three other people also had interviews already scheduled because I wasn’t the only on that took the accountant out to lunch!
Yes. I have a school friend who was very bright and did well. He was in the rugby team and was a Prefect. He was very popular.
After school he went to a good uni but surprisingly dropped out. He got a good job in advertising but lost it. He got another, got married, but both failed disasterously. He was a raging alcoholic and was out of control. Finally he became very ill and ended up in a clinic. He was in his 20’s still and was given a year to live unless he stopped drinking.
He met a girl at the halfway house he was in. She was in the same position as him. Together they joined AA and got their lives going. They moved abroad, to a fairly undeveloped country that was growing quickly, and with some inheritance, started a small film production company. They did very well. He was responsible for starting many AA chapters there. He saved careers, marriages and lives.
We met for lunch recently. It’s forty years since his last drink and he’s happy and prosperous. Being dry is not a struggle, but he is still vigilant. He accepted a long time ago that he has a terrible weakness, possibly inherited, and this is his burden. Unwilling to hand on this weakness, he’s never had children. He’d have made a wonderful Dad.
Cold, but usually above freezing, at least here in the UK where nearly all buildings are made of stone or brick.
I don’t have central heating. I do have 18″ thick stone walls, but in a very cold winter my kitchen has been known to get so cold that my fridge stopped working, and my hands went numb within a minute or two of entering the kitchen.
However: yes, my windows are double-glazed but they’re a lot bigger than they probably would have been in the Victorian era, and in the Victorian era they would have had wooden shutters. I don’t even have curtains in the kitchen, because the room is laid out in a bloody stupid way which means I can’t even get *near* the window without climbing on top of a kitchen counter and walking across it.
In the Victorian era I would have had a fireplace in the living room and possibly the bedroom, and my kitchen would have had an actual stove that burned fuel and so put out excess heat.
Back in the day I worked as an assembly line “artist,” creating art that sold wholesale to decorators of office buildings and hotels. The company was owned by a foreign family that had fled prosecution in their own country and a few family members were employed as artists or support staff.
I was a poor lad but this job seemed really fun. It paid a bit more than minimum wage and it was cool to hang out with young artists like myself. I rarely went out to lunch, preferring to save money and bring my own, including yogurt cups for dessert. After a while I noticed my yogurt kept vanishing. I made a stink about it, even contacted HR (well, the supervisor that handled billing and HR) mostly suspecting another starving artist.
Then I had a diabolical idea – I read that consuming saline solution could cause diarrhea! I wore contacts so I had some, I just needed to find a way to inject my yogurt cups with it. After some failed attempts, I was still trying to figure it out when another yogurt cup went missing.
Struck by inspiration, I went to the HR supervisor’s office and “confessed,” with the door open and loud enough for nearby folks to overhear, that I had “spiked” the yogurt with saline. I regretted my rash decision and told her that whoever consumed the yogurt would likely have stomach problems for an hour or so but would otherwise be okay.
Sure enough, an employee suddenly went home sick, complaining of stomach problems! And it was one of the owners’ family members, a fairly well off individual compared to the rest of us. So did I get in trouble with the bosses for poisoning a beloved relative? Nope, because there was NO ACTUAL SALINE in the yogurt! The only thing the thief was suffering from was a guilty conscience.
There is a thing called sexual dimorphism. This refers to physical, physiological and even mental differences between males and females of a species, beyond their sexual organs.
The vast majority of species in the animal kingdom have sexual dimorphism, and even some plants. I’m sure you’re familiar with lions.
Males and females are fundamentally different, and in humans and all apes the males are generally bigger and stronger than the females. This isn’t just a matter of exercise. Testosterone in men promotes the growth of larger and more powerful muscles, something women cannot achieve without outside help like anabolic steroids.
Testosterone doesn’t just influence men’s muscles; it also affects their brains. Men and women are mentally different because of the different levels of testosterone and estrogen in their brains.
And guess what? This doesn’t just apply to humans.
Male birds, for instance, are the only members of the species that initiate courtship rituals. (That’s why the peacock has that huge mane of feathers). Male birds sing and court females because of the levels of testosterone in their brains, making them aggressively seek and impress females.
Most animal species from rats to humans to birds exhibit these mental differences between males and females, even in species where no physical sexual dimorphism is present (such as with dolphins).
These differences even cause societal systems to form in animals. Patriarchies aren’t unique to humans. Lions have a totally patriarchial society where the males head the pride, and the women serve and hunt for him. Wolves, apes, and other animals have formed patriarchies.
Guess what? Some of the other species have matriarchies. Elephants for instance are a completely matriarchial society, with males being cast out of the herd to find other herds to impregnate, which is about the extent of his involvement in society. The herd itself is guided by the oldest matriarch.
The fact of the matter is, differences between males and females affect society. Not just in humans, but in many social animals. Pretending that men and women are equal is like an ostrich hiding its head in the ground trying to ignore what is obvious.
Human societies formed into patriarchies around the world regardless of creed, religion or ideology for one simple reason: the stronger physical dominance of men made them better warriors and workers, while the vulnerability of women during childbirth meant it was important to provide a safe and stable environment for them to rear children in. Further, only women can produce milk to feed newborns. This meant that the role was locked in from the start, something a man can never do.
Thus men took on the role of protector and provider, while women took on the role of homemaking and childbearing. While modern society can allow men to just buy infant formula and women to rise to exemplary careers and bring home the bacon, this is a modern development and not one that was possible through the early stages of human evolution and society.
In today’s world and moving into the future, it’s certainly possible for us to destroy the patriarchy and create a different kind of society. Time will tell where this social experiment will lead humanity.
Terrorists Blow-Up PAKISTAN Air Base! 40 Fighter Jets Burning
The Taliban-Linked Terrorist Group “Tehreek-e Jihad” (TTP) has just claimed Responsibility for a Significant Attack tonight on Mianwali Air Force Base in Northern Pakistan.
The Terrorist Group appears to have Snuck into the Base using Ladders and are claiming to have Destroyed several Aircraft as well as some kind of Armored Vehicle.
The Pakistani Army is currently conducting an Operation to Secure the Base and have already Killed multiple Terrorists.
I viewed some answers above, I felt many answers didn’t get the main point.
The truth is: nobody of the 5 wants to share their rights.
Everyone of the 5 says they agree to extend the council but actually they don’t. Because it will add the bargain cost.
USA government says they support Japan to get into the council because USA knows Russia and China will veto. USA says like this way to keep Japan in hand to deploy USA army.
China supports Germany to the council because China knows USA and France will veto. Guess for what interest.
USA and Russia says they support India because they know China will veto. For what interest? Weapon sales.
So now do you understand what game they are playing?
Alpha particles don’t get far at all. They’re heavy, they’re slow, and they carry a charge, so they interact easily. They can travel an inch or so in air, but are blocked by a sheet of paper.
Beta particles are just elec…okay, um, so, correction. β- particles are just electrons. They’re light and zippy, so how far they get depends on how fast they go. Good rule of thumb, approximately 10ish feet or so for each MeV of energy.
β+ particles are positrons—antimatter electrons. In theory they could get as far as β- particles, in an antimatter world. In our world, they don’t get far at all in air before they hit something and annihilate in a flash of gamma photons.
Gamma rays? Oh, it is on. Hold my beer.
Gamma rays laugh at your puny “air.” Gamma rays laugh at your puny steel. Gamma rays might stop for lead, maybe, if you have enough of it to make things interesting. Six feet of concrete or one and a half feet of lead should do it.
This might as well be tissue paper to gamma rays
Gamma rays sneeze at this
This is not even close to what it takes to stop gamma rays
Starting to get there, if the gamma rays are going through lengthwise
Now we’re talking! (The whole stack, not one plate)
Gamma rays will go merrily through this planet’s entire atmosphere, plus the bodies of the researchers doing the experiment, plus the roof of their house, and then merrily on toward Alpha Centauri.
300,000 engineers and scientists in China will briefly look up from their work and say in a puzzled tone: “奇怪，那是什么声音？ 是不是美国放屁的声音？”. Then they return to their R&D projects in advanced chipmaking.
Not a mugging but I did have a break in at my apartment. I was assaulted, had both eye orbits fractured, broke ribs and fingers, and was choked almost to the point of loosing consciousness.
I however did manage to stab my attacker in his face and skull, scalping him from his left ear to the top of his head and causing brain dammage. He lost serious ammounts of blood passed out and was put in a medically induced coma for two days and had multiple blood transfusions before he was even conscious to be charged with aggrivated assault, breaking and entering and attempted murder (I dont actually know what he was officially charged with, just that he was sentenced to two years and ended up serving four)
I had my ass beat, and badly. But I was told by the police that if it wasnt for modern medical treatment my attacker would have died.
Now years later I was very drunk the night before my brothers wedding. Someone did try to mug me but I was apparently so drunk that I didnt know what was happening and I thought they wanted a cigarette and I kept explaining that I dont smoke. Their heart must not have been in it because they gave up and moved on to someone else without stabbing me. Some witness called police and I was supposedly too drunk to give a statement. They got me back to my hotel and I dont remember any of it
And thats my life story so far.
“Men Have No CLUE!” This Is Why Men Aren’t TAKING Western Women SERIOUSLY Anymore
Raw reality. I am so glad that I am no longer young.
U.S. and Europe Talking with Ukraine about PEACE NEGOTIATIONS with Russia!
U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official.
The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said.
Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.
The discussions are an acknowledgment of “the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine” and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.
In other words, despite all the media hype that Ukraine is winning, Ukraine is actually losing. Imagine that.
“Unchecked flooding of Chinese fentanyl into America”?
Fentanyl is a LEGAL drug. Fentanyl addiction is a problem only in America. NOT in China or anywhere in the world. It is Americans ordering, procuring and peddling this drug and not the Chinese “flooding” the U.S. It’s OUR problem because WE caused OUR opioid addiction. Why the shit are you blaming China for us not being able to control the trafficing of fentanyl within the U.S.?
“Mercenary bounties placed on British residents”?
“Mercenary bounties” is the farthest from the truth.
Bounties is defined as money paid for killing or capturing a person or animal.
However, Australia, the U.K. and U.S. have branded the rewards for information as “bounties” for 8 exiled pro-democracy HK activists for the 2019 riots in Hong Kong that these countries instigated through the CIA and NGOs. Hong Kong has every right to seek information on persons guilty of seditious acts against China.
This is Hong Kong issuing warrants for their citizens for serious criminal acts. And if they are stupid enough to return to Hong Kong, they will be arrested.
“Arrest warrant for Xi”?
Another stupid question. Who is to issue this? The U.S.? For what charge?
Are you dense enough to believe the U.S. has the authority to arbirtrarily order the arrest of the leader of another country? The U.S. has NO police authority beyond our border just like any other country.
And then what? Do you expect the U.S. or another country to invade the soveriegnty of China by going to China to arrest Xi?
China hate does not justify you to think, write or act stupidly.
This Just Ηappened In South Carolina, But Something Εven Stranger Ιs Ηappening Around The World!
Seems suspicious we never had this many huge disasters in our food manufacturing plants, trains, and other big plants.
The United States has been flying MQ-9 “Reaper” drones over the southern Gaza Strip of late. (HT REMARK: One wonders if they are giving intel to Israel so they can slaughter more women and children?)
They were first spotted on Saturday on Flightradar24.
Officials say the drones were being used to “aid in hostage recovery efforts” indicating that the U.S. is more involved than previously known.
Republicans are winning, they just don’t seem to know it nor can they give the rest of us some peace. What do I mean by this?
Traditional Republican values are what America still runs on and much of the rest of the world too. In fact, all of the countries where things work, they run on traditional conservative or Republican values. Like thrift, hard work, saving, putting your kids in school, reasonable but not high levels of tax, a hand up not a hand out. No corporate crony capitalism (this is in theory of course as there always is colllusion) , some type of religious base to your society and usually that is Christian though it could also be Jewish, or Hindu or Buddhist or Muslim.
So why are the Republicans winning and losing?
First the losing. Because they can’t stop themselves, they keep snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It is called extremism and the entire right wing of the Republican party starting with the so called Freedom Caucus which has nothing to do with either, not espousing freedom rather telling everyone especially women what they can and can’t do and it is not even a caucus, just a raucous group of malcontents.
Republicans are winning of course in the electoral college where they own around 30 states which gives them a disproportionate control of just about everything with state, local and federal government. They control red states which means military bases and expenditures (11 out of 15 largest are in red states, yet they cannot pass a budget that is focused on the military or allow the military to make promotions which their extremists block). They control state houses in the same proportion, they gerrymander like crazy and win more and more as the Supreme Court now rules in their favor, slowly whittling away black and brown rights in particular.
They are winning on dismantling and even the legitimacy of the federal govt and their chief avatar, Trump has his man in as Speaker who we found out this week doesn’t even have a bank account. No, he is not a traditional Republican.
What to make of this? Democrats feel they are in the majority, but control less and less and are fragmented. Republicans could control everything but the right wing crazies including Trump keep giving them opportunities which if it were not for Joe Biden, they would have squandered once again.
Republicans? Their values, real conservative values rule the civilized non autocratic world. Unfortunately in America, these values are not the values of the current Republican party.
Therefore you see, in the end they are winning in spite of themselves and with their losing their way and becoming extremist, they are literally taking the country down along with democracy with them.
Prizes…
Bank Notice: “Some Deposits May Be Temporarily Delayed”
Several US banks are facing service disruptions today. Meanwhile, users on the ‘free speech’ social media platform X complain that the Automated Clearing House system is down.
Downdetector.com shows Truist, Bank of America, Chase, US Bank, and Wells Fargo are experiencing widespread outages and disruptions that began around 0800 ET.
A message on Bank of America’s webpage reads, “Some deposits may be temporarily delayed … Some deposits from 11/03 may be temporarily delaved due to an issue impacting multiple financial institutions. Your accounts remain secure, and your balance will be updated as soon as the deposit is received. You do not need to take any action.”
Hal Turner Remarks
I see about 5 US banks listed as being offline over on down detector website. (HERE)
Bank of America Chase Chime US Bank Wells Fargo Huntington
My bank (Capital One) is **NOT** affected at all.
One wonders if the situation in the Middle East has Hackers going after the US banking system?
Apparently, it’s a particular clearinghouse that B of A, Chase and Huntington use. That went down last night. They just got it up and running and I was told that most will get their deposits within 2 hours. Tonight at latest”
BofA rep just told me that the Fed sent the banks a bulletin that there was an outage overnight but that the servers are back online now and the deposit backlogs should be worked through by end of day today.
My wife contacted her company’s bank this morning. They reported that the issue is with the banks that use what’s called the ‘Federal EPM Processing Clearinghouse,’ and that they had a widespread server outage overnight, but that they are back online and processing the backlog.
We were eating at Benihana’s one evening and sat next to a young couple who appeared to be on a date. They looked over the menu and ordered a variety of sushi. I was impressed by how adventuresome they were.
When their meal arrived both of them stared at their plates closely examining every item. They were clearly getting very upset. Finally they called over the waiter and the gal said in a loud voice, “You call yourself a restaurant?! Did you even CHECK this stuff before it left the kitchen! Look at it! Everything is raw!”
China has had the north Korea experience. It was embargoed (I.e. Total sanction) together with their war comrades for three decades, until the 70s.
China survived that, back in a time when they couldn’t even make fertilizers.
The soviets helped but only the first decade. China remained desperately poor into the 90s.
Today, a china embargo will not be cost free like in the past. Does the world even notice Cuba has been embargoed for almost 6 decades?
Not so China.
For one, Apple as a viable company becomes historical, because it will not have hardware to sell. Every single company in the semiconductor supply chain will be disrupted, because China is a key node, either as supplier, assembler or customer.
Moving on, the different festivals driving seasonal demand will have to be repriced, because it is hard to find a supply chain big and efficient enough to absorb demand spikes.
Study the pandemic. Why didn’t a black market develop for ppe, ventilators and other medical equipment despite exponential growth in demand? Prices increased but they stabilized and the quantity and quality of goods has been remarkable given months of spiraling demand.
It is the same story with work from home essentials, from bird feeders to children toys to video conferencing equipment.
Things are so out of whack containers are being shipped empty back to China while the cost of sending an FEU from Asia to Europe has crossed the 10k mark.
Embargo China if you must, but it will hurt big time, especially for the comfortable first world.
China has made itself relevant to the world. There will be no repeat of “let’s bomb Iraq back to the stone age using flour in the test tube as justification”.
If China is embargoed, you won’t only see it in the news.
You will feel it, deep into your pockets, and you will live the consequences.
REPORT: VIP Jets Now Airborne from DC to Cheyenne Mountain Bunkers – “Gov’t Going Underground”
I’m not sure what to make of this, but it was posted in a US Veteran’s Forum. The guy in the brief video seems VERY nervous as he reports EIGHT “VIP” Aircraft heading to Cheyenne Mountain (NORAD??) and says “They’re putting government into Bunkers.”
His voice is clearly trembling as he describes what he sees going on. Looks legit to me, at first glance.
I pass this along with the full Disclaimer that I have not (yet) verified these claims. But if he’s right, then time is of the essence and all of YOU should know.
*****FLASH ***** U.S. House Approves Resolution on Iran: “All means necessary” to prevent Nuclear Armed Iran
The U.S. House of Representatives passed a Resolution late last night “. . . to use all means necessary to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon; . . .” Now we know why our military is massed in Middle East.
It now seems clear to me that all the US military hardware sent to the easstern Mediterranean, has nothing at all to do with Israel, per se, and has everything to do with Iran.
That military hardware isn’t there “to protect Israel” as much as it is there to disarm Iran.
The Iranians have likely suspected this, now, they know.
Iran had better take a long, hard look at what is arrayed against them because once all that firepower starts shooting, the entire landmass of Iran will be like a hail storm of explosions.
What happened to Iraq in 1991, I think will look like nothing compared to what they plan on unleashing against Iran. But . . . . there’s a little problem. Russia.
Two weeks ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin casually reminded the world that his MiG-31 fighter jets, flying freely in international air space all the way up in the Black Sea, are equipped with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles. He also causally reminded the world that those missiles have a “known” range of at least 1,000km. Without actually SAYING this, it quickly became clear to everyone paying attention that America’s two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean Sea, are within range of those Kinzhal hypersonic missiles.
Moreover, it also became quickly evident that those missiles can carry either a conventional warhead, or tactical nuclear warheads of at least 5 kilotons.
The US cannot defend itself from hypersonic missiles. No one can.
So if the US goes after Iran, using carrier-based planes, Russia can order two of its MiG fighters to fire Kinzhal missiles armed with small, tactical, nuclear warheads, and utterly destroy both aircraft carrier battle groups.
Can you say “World War 3?”
A direct Link to the official US Government Website showing the text of the US House Resolution on Iran is HERE
Hal Turner Editorial Opinion
Interestingly, this now seems to be a method for declaring war without actually “declaring” it.
While the words “Congress shall make no law . . . .” does **not** mean what it actually says in the Constitution’s First Amendment, and while “. . . shall not be infringed.” does **not** mean what IT actually says in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, you can bet your ass that “. . .any means necessary . . .” means exactly what it says in this resolution!
So . . . . it now appears that the massive naval and military build-up we’ve been watching in the Middle East over the past two weeks was all part of a well-planned series of moves KNOWING FULL WELL they intended to take us to war with Iran. They just waited until ONE day before likely hostilities break out, to put through this new “policy.”
This is the level of sleazy, political, human, garbage we have in the Congress of the United States.
Oh, and by the way, have you noticed that this web site is the **ONLY** media outlet in the entire country pointing this out? That shows you you the level of sleazy, human garbage, infesting the mass-media these days. Keep it all quiet — on purpose. Keep the American people in the dark — on purpose.
Then, when actual war breaks out, the American people are blind-sided, afraid, and called to rally behind the troops. All one big plan.
As our military starts coming home in body bags, the very same politicians who literally caused the war, will cry crocodile tears for the men whose lives their vote snuffed out.
It’s disgusting to me on a level that’s hard to verbally describe.
Straight to the point
The Ukraine Peace Talk Trial Balloon
A trial ballon has gone up on the NBCnews website. It is testing the public reaction to the upcoming U.S. and NATO acknowledgment of their defeat in Ukraine:
WASHINGTON — U.S. and European officials have begun quietly talking to the Ukrainian government about what possible peace negotiations with Russia might entail to end the war, according to one current senior U.S. official and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.
This comes the same week that saw a Time piece about Zelenski’s unwillingness to consider the real situation on Ukraine and to admit defeat. The same week the Economist interviewed General Zaluzny who optimistically spoke of a stalemate at the front even while his army is on the cusp of disintegration.
Taken together the three pieces might well be part of a U.S. administration campaign to concede its defeat in Ukraine while blaming its Ukrainian proxy forces for the results of its blunder.
The conversations have included very broad outlines of what Ukraine might need to give up to reach a deal, the officials said. Some of the talks, which officials described as delicate, took place last month during a meeting of representatives from more than 50 nations supporting Ukraine, including NATO members, known as the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the officials said.
The discussions are an acknowledgment of the dynamics militarily on the ground in Ukraine and politically in the U.S. and Europe, officials said.
They began amid concerns among U.S. and European officials that the war has reached a stalemate and about the ability to continue providing aid to Ukraine, officials said. Biden administration officials also are worried that Ukraine is running out of forces, while Russia has a seemingly endless supply, officials said. Ukraine is also struggling with recruiting and has recently seen public protests about some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s open-ended conscription requirements.
The problem of the Ukrainian army is an obvious one. It is running out of men and has few it can still recruit. It is difficult to assess the real losses the Ukrainian military has had, but I would not be astonished to learn that they sum up to about 300,000 dead and some 500,000+ wounded, many of whom will now be disabled.
Finally these concerns about Ukraine’s manpower get acknowledged:
President Joe Biden has been intensely focused on Ukraine’s depleting military forces, according to two people familiar with the matter.
“Manpower is at the top of the administration’s concerns right now,” one said. The U.S. and its allies can provide Ukraine with weaponry, this person said, “but if they don’t have competent forces to use them it doesn’t do a lot of good”
The last sentence seems to be taken from the Time piece which had said:
In some branches of the military, the shortage of personnel has become even more dire than the deficit in arms and ammunition. One of Zelensky’s close aides tells me that even if the U.S. and its allies come through with all the weapons they have pledged, “we don’t have the men to use them.”
During the last days tanks from the 47th brigade (Leo 2) and 10th mountain brigade (T-64BM/BV) have been seen, and were destroyed, near Avdiivka. Both brigades had only recently been mauled during their hopeless attacks at the southern front. It does not make sense to throw what is left of them into another battle without reconstituting them. The whole experience and knowledge these brigades had gained will be lost with them.
The whole professional middle-block of the army, the sergeants and young officers, have mostly been killed or wounded. Without them it is impossible to constitute new forces.
The NBC piece has made news in Ukraine (in Russian) but I have yet to find Ukrainian reactions to it. While I was publishing this a first political reaction, total denial, appeared:
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not think the situation on the front in Ukraine is a stalemate and has said that Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia. … Quote from Zelenskyy: “This is not a stalemate. Russia controls the sky. We are protecting our troops. No one [in Ukraine] wants to just throw our people [into the battle] like Russia does […]
How can we overcome it? With the F-16s, we have to wait for our guys to get trained and for them to come back. When there’s air defence on the front, our soldiers advance, and they deploy the equipment they have.”
What will he say when the F-16s, the fifty year old wunderwaffen, fall out of the sky faster than they go up?
There are sure signs that the divide between the political and military leadership in Ukraine is growing. President Zelenski, on request of his new defense minister, just removed the commander of Ukraine’s special forces and installed a new one:
Major General Viktor Khorenko does not know the reasons for his dismissal from the post of Commander of the Special Operations Forces. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, did not submit a request for his dismissal.
It is very unusual to fire an officer without a request from his superior commander.
There are also shots fired against Zaluzny himself:
Ihor Zhovkva, Deputy Head of the Office of the President, commenting on the article by Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, for The Economist, has said that the military should not bring to the public what is happening at the front. … Zhovkva also stated that “one of the heads of the leaders’ offices” called him after the mentioned article was published.
“And they simply ask me in a panic, ‘What should I report to my leader? Are we really at a stalemate?’. Are we trying to achieve this effect with this article?”, the President’s Office representative said.
The NBC piece even sets a time frame to Ukraine to admit that it is over:
Officials also have privately said Ukraine likely only has until the end of the year or shortly thereafter before more urgent discussions about peace negotiations should begin. U.S. officials have shared their views on such a timeline with European allies, officials said.
Russia will likely agree to peace talks. But it probably will demand more than Ukraine is willing to give. At a minimum that is the full control over the five oblast it has annexed, including Crimea, and no NATO relations with Ukraine. The current Ukrainian parliament will probably reject those requests which will then lead to further Russian demands.
Kiev has yet to acknowledge reality. The Ukrainian state has been bleeding out – financially as well as physically. Its masters have found that their aim at the start of the war – to weaken Russia – has led to the opposite. Russia now has a bigger and better armed military with more real war experience than any of its possible opponents.
Russia has won.
Posted by b on November 4, 2023 at 13:23 UTC | Permalink
Danny-Bob Vanderwal is the smartest man alive. Danny-Bob was so smart back in school that the teacher couldn’t find anything in her text books that Danny-Bob didn’t already know. When he graduated from high school, he got offers to go study just about anywhere he wanted. But instead, he went to work at the family vineyard. Danny-Bob said he owed it to his great grandpa that brought these grapevines from Germany to the Ozarks over a century ago.
image 150
Back in 2013, the county had the worst drought anyone could remember. Grape vines died and family vineyards went out of business everywhere. But Danny-Bob had a plan. He’d studied old geology maps of Vanderwal mountain made back in the 1930’s. He found a fissure in the bedrock down about a hundred feet below the vineyard. Danny-Bob had walked the mountain since he was a little kid, and he had always wondered where the watershed drained to. He came to the conclusion that the stormwater on the surface was draining down to that fissure. And it was probably staying there.
The summer of 2013 was really hot. It was well over 100 degrees in the shade. Danny-Bob had bought an old 1950’s cable-tool well drilling machine and the whole family was out trying to punch a hole through the black granite bedrock beneath the vineyard. Danny-Bob had the old Hercules diesel power unit firing on 5 of the 6 cylinders, but she was turning the drill head. The whole family worked non-stop for 8 days and nights. And finally, on September 7, 2013, Danny-Bob hit water. They all hugged each other and danced in the cool wet mud that flowed up the borehole.
The Vanderwal vineyard was the only one to survive the drought of 2013. Danny-Bob’s great grandpa’s grape vines are still producing today. And everyone in the county knows without doubt, Danny-Bob Vanderwal is the smartest man alive.
I lived in a small country town and my front garden was on the road children took to the little school, and as I was usually out there with my dog, many of them would stop and talk to me, and pet the dog, but being careful considering the paranoia about pedophiles, I never made any ‘advances’ that could be considered inappropriate
I had to collect my mail from the little post office, no deliveries were made, and standing in line one day, a miserable older woman in front of me turned and demanded to know ’Are you a Pervert?’
As you can imagine EVERY head snapped round, and all I could think to say was,
‘ I don’t really know..do you want to visit later and find out?’
Her face was a study..the post office erupted in laughter, and she stormed out in embarrassment, and being a small place, the story went around like wild fire…and several locals congratulated me later for ‘Talking the old biddy down a peg or two!
How about an interview that I did not even know was an interview? Time spent on interview: −2
weeks. Let me explain:
I went to a state university, and was not the ideal student. My undergraduate GPA was pathetic. I could make excuses, but the reality was that my parents made enough money that I could not qualify for any government student support, and they expected me to provide money to them. All of my high-school friends were far more cool than me, and they had jobs, and money. I could have worked a bit harder, maybe. But I worked my way through college, and usually took on too many obligations. My GPA was very bad, but one professor, Dr. Vimes, hired me on a grant to do some work creating custom maps for convention attendees, to get them to the booths that they were interested in. I got to travel to conventions and install the map systems.
When I finished my BS degree, I wanted to go on for a Master’s degree. The department chair, Dr. William M. Marcy, initially rejected my application. However, some of the faculty, and the department administrative assistant, convinced him to give me a chance. Dr. Vimes weighed in on that, and probably made a greater difference in my life than he ever realized.
As a Master’s student, I was paid a meager stipend to teach courses and conduct some research. I had the opportunity to travel and present my research at conferences. Meanwhile, Dr. Marcy had a start-up company that employed some graduate students. They had a fundamental problem that they could not solve. They had worked on the problem for over a month, and one of the graduate students told Dr. Marcy to hire me. He caught me in the hallway and outlined the problem, and asked me if I could solve it. I said “probably.” I showed up at the job site at 9:00 AM. By noon their problem was solved. It took me another 30 minutes to write some code to automate it. Dr. Marcy asked me for a bill, and I said, “Don’t worry about it. I had fun solving the problem. Buy me a good dinner someday.”
Under the tutelage of Dr. William Jennings Briant (Brian) Oldham, I finished the MS degree, with a much better GPA, and went to work in industry. In my two years, there, I earned an award for “Best internal supplier” and filed a patent application. When I told them that I wanted to go back to school and earn a PhD, they were willing to support me. They paid for four years of what turned out to be a six year degree. The patent was awarded, and they licensed the technology to other entities. The patent made them well over $10 million, so I think think that them paying me for four years of graduate school was a win-win. During my time as a PhD student, I traveled the world and presented papers to scientific conferences in several countries.
Now I’m going to answer the question.
As I approached my graduation with the PhD, I wanted an academic position. I wanted to be a professor, even though the pay is less. But there were about 50 academic positions nationwide, and over 600 applicants. There is a fairly standard part of interviewing for an academic position. The applicant must give a “research” lecture, and a “teaching” lecture. I needed to practice my lectures. So in October, I sent an email message to my MS Thesis advisor, Dr. William Jennings Brian Oldham, asking if I could do my lectures for their seminar. at my former university.
About a week later, he responded by asking what dates would work for me. The signature on the email message indicated that he was now the department chair. I congratulated him on his promotion, and gave the dates that I could be there.
Fast-forward. I drove down in early December to spend a few weeks with my family and incidentally give my lectures and get some feedback on them from my former professors. Dr. Oldham asked me to show up early, so that they could give me a tour of the campus and see how it had changed in the decade after I was a student.
I showed up at the appointed time, and a student took me all over campus, which was surprisingly interesting. Being near Christmas, someone was playing the carillon. One of the best carillons in North America. She even took me to the office of the president of the university, where I met with Dr. William M. Marcy. Yes, he had worked his way up from professor, to department chair, to university president. We only met for a few minutes, but he did mention that I had been a really shitty undergraduate, and that he was very happy that other people had pushed him to change his decision on admitting me to the MS program.
Shortly after that, I gave my teaching and research talks, and got some feedback from my former professors. The president of the university was present for both of my talks. He reminded me that he still owed me a dinner, and asked me if I was available that night. That night, we went to the best restaurant in that city.
A week later, I received an email message from my former advisor, Dr. Oldham, asking me to log into a web site and fill out the application. It turns out that they had put me through the standard job interview, and all I had to do was actually apply. I did that, and a week later, Dr. Marcy called me and asked, “What will it take to get you to come here?” I answered, “I want to be the highest-paid associate professor on your campus.” And that is how I ended up spending 14 years at a great university in a place where I really did not want to be.
And the shortest interview of my life. I did not even apply for the job until after the interview, so really, the time between application and landing the job is negative.
Blue Bayou Chicken Florentine
chicken florentine side close
Yield:4 servings; 2 cups sauce
Ingredients
Chicken
4 (7 ounce) chicken breasts (with skin)
1 cup Florentine sauce (see below)
3 ounces chopped fresh or frozen spinach*
3 ounces grated Cheddar cheese
2 ounces cooked and chopped bacon
Seasoned salt to taste
2 tablespoons melted butter
Florentine Sauce
2 teaspoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons unsalted butter (room temp)
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onions
3 sliced medium mushrooms
2/3 cup white wine
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon diced pimentos
1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
Chicken
Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
In mixing, combine spinach, bacon and cheese; set aside.
Open chicken breast and sprinkle with seasoned salt. Stuff with spinach mixture. Fold and place seam side down in baking dish. Brush with melted butter and sprinkle outside with seasoned salt.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
Top with Florentine sauce and serve over rice.
Florentine Sauce
Blend together flour and 2 teaspoons of the butter; set aside.
Sauté onions and mushrooms in 1 teaspoon butter (do not allow onions to brown).
Add white wine and reduce completely.
Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer and slowly add the flour/butter mixture a little at a time until desired thickness is achieved. Continue cooking at a simmer for 8 to 10 minutes.
That was the last job I had in Vietnam before moving to the U.S.
I showed up. My (later would be) boss looked at me. Pointed me to the chair to sit down in front of his desk, then he said:
– I read your resume and recommendation. Do you have any questions?
I didn’t expect the interview went straight to that point, so I asked:
– What do you expect your new hire to be in one year?
I think I surprised him with that question as well. He thought for a few seconds, then listed out his bullet points of his expectations. After listening, I told him, firmly:
– I will be that person in 6 months.
He stood up, held his hand out. I shook his hand, he smiled:
– DEAL!
I got the job. Worked for him 5 years. He’s the best boss that I’ve had the chance to work with and learn a lot from.
Years ago I worked as an overnight stocker for Walmart when a night manager position came open.
I was the team lead in the grocery department and had, previously, been an assistant manager for a local grocery store so after almost 5 years with Walmart and 12 years in the grocery business, I felt that I was qualified for the job.
I went through several interviews and at the end it came down to me and a suckup who worked days.
The suckup ate lunch with management staff on a regular basis so I had a feeling that I was going to get screwed.
I didn’t receive a call on the day that they said they’d announce their decision but when I arrived at the store an assistant manager asked me to come back to the HR office. I knew I’d gotten screwed when he directed me to a chair in front of the desk while he leaned against the desk so I sat back to listen to what he had to say.
He said that choosing between me and the dayshift suckup was an incredibly difficult decision but they’d decided to promote the suckup.
He said that I was doing an outstanding job as team lead in grocery and it would not be in management’s best interest to remove me from that position.
He said that I was doing such a good job that they were bumping my pay up by 50 cents an hour, effective immediately.
He asked if I had any questions and I had just one:
“So, I didn’t get the promotion because I’m doing too good of a job?”
He immediately began backtracking and saying that I misunderstood him but I knew what I’d heard. I handed him my name badge and apron before leaving the store. I have not set foot in a Walmart since.
China can go into War Economy in a matter of weeks
None of the others can
You would be taking them on in their backyard where their supply and production and replacement will be twenty times faster than Quads with only South Korea being capable of production based supply
India
India , if they send one ship will face a Chinese pincer movement across the Eastern and Northern fronts and that’s a war that India with barely $ 20 Billion debt free dollars can’t afford
Russia and Venezuela and Middle East will refuse to supply Oil to India on the spot and Canada is not a friend now.
So India will simply sit this one out
Japan
Japan is a decent Navy but an offensive war?
They would simply be unable to get weapons and equipment beyond the sixth week
They would be begging the US for equipment pretty soon especially Shells
Japan has 140,000 active shells & around 600 Active Missiles
China has 1.7 Million shells and around 12,000 Active Missiles for offensive and defensive
South Korea
South Korea will sit this one out
Uncle Kim would be looking with Glee
No way will SK risk a conflict with China and open up a new salvo with NK
So it would ultimately be US vs China
Quad, the rest of it would simply opt out or play a small role in the deep background
US isn’t the great superpower anymore
They can’t defeat China on their turf
They don’t have the manpower if China decide to go reserve and get a whopping 5 Million men in 6 months
No American will agree to get conscripted to fight China miles away today
This ain’t 1965
So No
NATO, QUAD have no chance against China in the South China Sea
China doesn’t want a conflict because China is primarily a Trader than a Warrior
I don’t generally care what people buy but there is an exception.
I’ll occasionally see someone who is morbidly obese at the grocery store, who had a kid or two under 8 who are very, very overweight already and on track to be 2–3x their healthy weight.
Without fail, their grocery cart almost entirely filled with junk food.
I’m all for people living their own lives and whatnot. I also get that food and being judged is a sensitive issue for overweight people.
But I hate seeing kids being indoctrinated into a pattern of trashing their body.
It’s a really difficult thing to undo later in life if you’ve been conditioned to go straight for candy or chips everytime you are hungry. It borders are being a form of child abuse.
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Admittedly, this is a touchy issue for me because I lost a family member solely to the fact that they’d chosen to trash their body. I probably have some pent up agitation because of that.
Outside of that, I don’t generally judge people’s purchases. When I worked retail many years ago, the only thing I judged people over was their attitude.
As long as they were nice and respectful, we were cool.
Some people look down on you for working such a low octaine position. So I try to pay it forward and be polite with everyone.
British Airways has been in decline for a LOOONG time.
What was it?
Multiple things : They were pretty much a monopoly in the past meaning they had the American problem. DELTA, AA have absolute monopolies on some routes… so it’s like it or lump it. This attitude continued well into de-regulation of airlines.
Later on, they got bought out and as usual corporates sweat the company for more profits. They did this by cutting back on cleaning and employee pay.
Employee pay was a funny one. In that they had unionised staff yet again a legacy of the monopoly age. They could give you crappy attitudes and be protected from losing their jobs. They also had new less well paid staff on different contracts. In essence nobody cared. The seniors were entrenched and were difficult to fire so they didnt care. The new staff were underpaid and on a vastly lower rate and less perks than the regular full time staff so they too didn’t care.
I bought a coat on Marketplace. When I got home, I washed it, and I checked the pockets again before doing so, to make sure there was nothing more – like a tissue – that might make the wash gross. The pockets were really deep and came to a point, and I felt something in one of them and had to fish deep to get it. When I pulled it out, it appeared to be a diamond ring, with three sizable diamonds, white gold. I took a picture and messaged the seller I’d found it. She was surprised – said it had been an anniversary gift and wondered if her little girl had been playing with it and put it there. I didn’t want to make the drive again – it was 20 mins each way. So I offered to ship it, which she accepted. I hoped she would offer to pay shipping, since this was not my fault. She’d didn’t. I shipped it anyway.
I worked several decades at a company that Forrest Gump invested in, he called it “some fruit company in California”. I just turned 60, and got a bit tired of expectation of 14 hour days, so I asked to use my skill set in a reduced capacity. I have a life to live, family, other interests. So I asked for a demotion. “We don’t do demotions”. I said that we would have to do something, as I am not keeping up this pace until I drop. So we agreed to part ways (laid off). This did not go over well with other engineers who respected my work, some of whom I have mentored. Basically, anytime you touch a keyboard on a Mac, and enter something in any language of the world, what you see on the screen is my junk (and the junk of a bunch of other really bright people with whom it was my privilege to work). Well, it seems that the other engineers realized that there is no loyalty, and it was just a matter of time before they would be treated similarly. Next thing I know, the other engineers have moved elsewhere inside the company, or have left. Then it seems the entire project got put in “maintenance” mode, as nobody wants to mess with my work, I believe (it is elegant, but a bit hairy… well, I think I invented something, but whatever). Conclusion: This fruit company is ok at recycling hardware, but does not want to hear about recycling its people. The CEO is reported to have said that this is a company for young people, although he isn’t. My years of experience and skill set are no longer valued, there is no loyalty (as I go through ups and downs of life), so I’m happily pursuing my other interests… and I don’t look 60 anymore !
West Confused As China Rolls Out Red Carpet For Russian President Putin On His Visit!
This is a translated Chinese article pulled off the American platform Quora. Access to the article has since been "suppressed" and is not so easily found. Enjoy this article. -MM
Fact confirmed :
U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet announced Thursday night that the Electronic Attack Squadron 136 (VAQ-136) on the “Carl Vinson” aircraft carrier (CVN-70) currently operating in the South China Sea Commander Lieutenant Colonel William Coulter was relieved of his duties on the grounds that he “lost confidence in his command ability” Paul Ritter(Another military high rank in US navy), who was originally scheduled to serve as the squadron commander in April 2024, immediately Take over.
image 474
William Coulter is temporarily transferred to the Electronic Warfare Wing, Pacific. William Coulter has only served as the commander of VAQ-136 in January 2023, but was suddenly dismissed a few days after the “Carl Vinson” entered the South China Sea.
Speculation :
image 473
The F-18 “Three Brothers” on the US aircraft carrier. In the top is the single-seat F-18E, which is used for air control. The one in the middle is the F-18F multi-purpose type, which is mainly used for anti-ship/anti-ship and close range. the one in the bottom is an EF-18 “Growler” electronic warfare attack aircraft.
The fired electronic warfare commander (William Coultier) of the USS Carl Vinson managed this type of electronic squadron.
The strength of electronic warfare capabilities is extremely important for the US military’s aircraft carrier strike group (different from battle groups). Failure to obtain “electromagnetic control” means that enemy fighters, warships and even land-based anti-ship equipment will have a high chance of successful penetration, The warhead charge of modern heavy anti-ship weapons is no longer RDX, but CL-20 explosive (hexanitrogen), its power is three times that of TNT. The equivalent of about one ton of TNT explodes inside the aircraft carrier (more advanced weapons are equipped with armor-piercing nose cones, which can easily penetrate the aircraft carrier) with more than 6 times Mach impact energy, although the probability of sinking if hit by one is low, severe damage and loss of combat effectiveness are certain!
image 472
It is said last week, the US military’s EP-3E “Aries” electronic warfare aircraft encountered our military’s Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft over the southern Taiwan Strait. The two aircraft conducted a complex electronic offensive and defensive battle. The US aircraft did not gain any advantage, Evacuated the premise.
EP-3E is not under the management of the commander of the VAQ-136 Electronic Warfare Squadron aboard the USS Carl Vinson, which has nothing to do with his dismissal, but it is likely that he was defeated when he commanded the EF-18 to confront our J-16D, which resulted in the “Carl Vinson” being exposed to the firepower of our military.
image 471
Our army’s J-16D may be the most powerful operational/tactical electronic warfare aircraft in the world. It is derived from a heavy fighter, while the E/F-18 is a medium-sized aircraft. With comparable levels of electronic devices and integration technology, The former has a larger fuselage, higher engine power generation and greater power. It has a slight advantage over the “Growler” in interference and burn-through capabilities (anti-jamming), and our military has geographical advantages. “Growler” “It needs to take off from an aircraft carrier, and it is also at a disadvantage in terms of range and fleet size. However, our military can launch more J-16Ds at the same time to implement spectrum suppression (which can interfere with the Aegis radar on the Burke-class destroyer). This is all It was the reason that led to the downfall of the E/F-18.
image 470
The J-16D cooperates with other electronic warfare aircraft to compete for electromagnetic control rights, and then the H-6K carries long-range hypersonic missiles to strike. This is a tactic that US aircraft carriers cannot crack at this stage.
Needless to say, the struggle between our country and the United States is intensifying. In the past three or four years, when American aircraft carriers have entered the South China Sea from the Bashi Channel, our military will organize large fighter formations to conduct simulated offensive and defensive battles against them!
image 469
With the improvement of our military’s technology, the US aircraft carrier battle group can no longer show off its power like it did during the “96 crisis”. It has more symbolic significance than military significance. the US military’s four EA-6D “Prowler” electronic machines were able to interfere with telecommunications signals in most areas of Fujian and Zhejiang.
Conclusion of the speculation :
William Courtier putting the aircraft carrier at risk from our forces, and was dismissed.
Author Note :
US often send their war machine to china’s sea. do you really think US submarine hit mountain in South China Sea?
image 468
if you see the damage in that submarine, you can clearly see it was not caused by a breeding box, why because the upper part was not damaged. it was caused by a Chinese underwater drone, the best speculation due to damage is in the middle of the upper part of your so called sophisticated submarine.
Today is Christmas. We don’t really celebrate it very much here in Southern China, but it still is a reminder of great and grand times that I grew up with as a boy. This included such things as month-long cookie baking, Christmas breads, Christmas meals, Christmas carols, and Pitiza.
Vintage and throwback Mothers Day ideas 300×200 1
Yeah. It goes much further than a Christmas tree and piles of presents and shopping.
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It includes work luncheons. It includes drunk work parties, and long breaks, and card games.
2023 11 21 20 09
The USA has come a long, long way from what it used to be. That saddens me.
My best friend told me once that if I ever moved away from home, she’d stop visiting home and fly to wherever I was.
When I mentioned that I want to move to the UK, her response was “Ooh, that’s not too far from northern Europe! We could take a trip to Norway from there!”
She’s studying abroad right now with a month to go and she told me “I don’t want to leave here, but I can’t wait to hang out with you.”
No matter how far apart we are, she keeps planning herself into my life.
At the same time, though, we can go for days without talking.
She was gone for a month with no internet or phone service and when she finally got back to civilization, she texted me like nothing had ever changed.
We can tell each other anything.
I can say things like “I almost wet the bed last night” and “I think guys with mustaches can be incredibly attractive” and “Want to hear the world’s only placenta joke?”
And I know she won’t judge me… not too harshly, anyway.
We can talk about gossip and neuroscience and our dreams and geology and Hamilton all without pause. There’s nothing we can’t share.
We laugh. We cry. We eat large amounts of Taco Bell.
We stay friends no matter how many time zones apart we are or how many days we go without speaking.
We can be completely honest with one another and there’s no doubt it comes from love.
We keep planning ourselves into each other’s lives.
That, to me, is a true friend. One who isn’t a friend out of convenience but out of devotion.
One who stays your friend even when it’s difficult or when the geography doesn’t line up.
One who wants to be around you, and is willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.
I’d say I got lucky. I’ve had the same best friend for almost twelve years.
For those who do not keep up with what’s going on in Taiwan, the pro US pro independence DPP is now lower in the polls after a coalition by the opposing blue and white camps
This means that it is now more likely that the status quo will be upheld, which is better for the region and future developments. As i have pointed out before in another comment
Nope there is a third scenario, one i think the Chinese government is aiming for
That is to advance China itself, economically and technologically beyond the level that the US has any chance of holding at the island chains, thus forcing the abandonment of the chains and resulting isolation of Taiwan. This is happening even now but requires time to complete hence tactics are aimed at dragging it out
The US economic power is collapsing which is why one should never be provoked when against a increasingly desperate opponent. Simply let them die off
Economic power (specifically industrial power as financial paper pushing does little) is the lynchpin of military power, so when it goes down, the military goes down with it and that is not even taking into account the corruption such as the $1300 cup.
Taiwan’s DPP talks up a big game but that is predicated on US support. The US has pulled back to the 2nd island chain because trying to hold the first chain is untenable, thus the attempt to pull the Philippines, South Korea and Japan to be the sacrificial pawns while the US tries holding at Hawaii (and standing on the soapbox made by the corpses of their “allies”)
Once US support dies off due to a lack of funds, obvious tech disparity and a numerical disadvantage, the Taiwanese will have 2 possible choices
i) Give up (this is the most likely given the current Taiwanese do not support their children going to war)
ii) Try a “heroic” last stand (which gives the mainland under One China, the legitimacy to launch a full scale attack)
Also do keep in mind that there are the possibility of burner accounts. What are burner accounts? They are accounts that are made with the specific idea of portraying themselves as part of whichever side/camp/group and will then suddenly turn around to support the other side at moments they find critical. The most famous recent one is bellingcat
Catfish Muffuletta is a very tasty sandwich made from one round loaf. Depending upon appetites, it can serve from one to four!
catfish muffeletta
Yield: 1 to 4 servings
Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
3 U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish fillets
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 cup giardeniara marinated garden salad, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons pitted olives, sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 (8 to 9 inch) round loaf Italian bread
1 medium tomato, thinly sliced
1 bunch arugula
1 pound sliced provolone cheese (optional)
Instructions
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Season catfish fillets with salt and pepper. Fry fillets in the hot oil, in batches if necessary, for 2 to 3 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Place fillets on a plate to cool and drizzle with lemon juice.
Drain giardeniara and place in a small bowl. Add olives, parsley, garlic and the remaining tablespoon of olive oil and mix until combined.
Slice the bread in half horizontally and pull out most of the soft white part in the middle. Spread half of the giardeniara mixture in the hollow of the bottom piece of bread. Arrange the fillets in a single layer over the vegetables. Top with layers of tomato slices, arugula leaves and provolone slices, if using, and remaining giardeniara mixture. Place the other half of the bread on top, pressing firmly into place.
Using a serrated knife, cut the sandwich into wedges and serve.
Notes
The wedges can be individually wrapped and served at a picnic.
What about apple? They have 95000 patents around the world.
If the US disregards patents so will the rest of the world, so not a single patent is worth the paper it’s written on, that includes ALL US patents around the world.
It looks like the US politicians once again showed us how bright they are, no wonder the country is going down hill fast.
I watched my father care for my mother for six years as she slowly succumbed to the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease.
He gradually took over all the housework and cooking while dealing daily with her hurt, her rage, her confusion and her fear. He protected her from herself. He made sure that she kept the weekly hair and nail appointments that she so loved. He went shopping with her for the pretty clothes she adored.
When he finally acquiesced to his children’s insistence that our mother be placed in a nursing facility (because we were worried that his health was suffering from the strain of her care), he visited her twice every day. He paid aides to apply her makeup and arrange her hair every day. When the facility requested that he take her jewelry from her, including her pins and diamond engagement ring, he had a jeweler make up copies using cubic zirconia so that she never knew that she wasn’t still wearing her own lovely things.
And at her memorial service, the room fragrant with dozens of heavy bouquets of gardenias which were her favorite flower, my stoic father fought to keep his composure as he spoke of his love for the lively, witty, beautiful woman who had spent almost sixty years at his side. He called their time together a privilege, and recounted as though it had happened yesterday the first time he ever spoke with her, on a staircase at their university.
The manifestation of my father’s commitment and devotion to my mother in those unimaginably difficult years is the bravest thing I have ever witnessed.
The best sarcastic response I have ever witnessed was by a colleague. But first, a little background to set it up.
When I worked at a law firm, one of my many functions was to head up the student practicum program. Basically, people studying IT at a local college needed three months of work experience as part of their graduation requirements. So I would interview them and select a few and they’d get an orientation. Once done, I would then take them around and introduce them to the team that they would be working with.
I kept it light and fun, because these students are nervous and I want them to feel comfortable. There was one student I was taking around, and when I got to the network manager’s desk, I said “This is Aaron, the network manager. You have to watch him, because he can be sarcastic.”
The student turned to Aaron and said, “Oh yeah? Say something sarcastic.”
Without missing a beat, Aaron extended his hand and said “Pleased to meet you.”
When I worked for an engineering consulting company as a project engineer, my boss came up to me when I had been there a few months.
He told me that the office rule was that nobody could wear jeans.
As an engineer, I had never been told that jeans were not allowed. Now, if I were management, or met with clients, or worked for a law firm or a finance person, I could see that, but engineering is notorious for being casual to the point of being borderline slovenly because engineers DO go to the field and nobody wears a suit on a construction site. In my position, I didn’t have to meet with clients all that often.
And I wasn’t slovenly—I was wearing a blouse and sweater with the jeans, which weren’t torn and were conservative in appearance (not ripped, not overly tight or had loud design details). The only difference between those jeans and any other pair of pants that would have been acceptable was the fabric.
That same company had a policy of not providing a coffee pot for the employees. Just about every company I’ve worked for at least provided the pot, and sometimes the employees would pitch in for the coffee stuff. The only reason our office got coffee at all was because we shared our office with the construction arm of the company, which DID provide coffee for their people (I dare you not to provide coffee for a field guy). One of our managers, when visiting our office asked why we had a coffee machine, and that’s the answer he got—it wasn’t ours.
The cheapest ass company I ever worked for. The company I work for now, I could probably literally show up in sweats if I wanted to and nobody would say anything. But I’m not going to push that.
Oh, and they provide coffee. And tea and apple cider and hot chocolate, and when we have our monthly office meetings, they kick in for lunch as well.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was when she asked if I was autistic.
“I just wonder if that’s why I’m having a hard time communicating with you.”
She continued that she wasn’t qualified to diagnose me, but I should look into it. No referral to someone who could diagnose me. No recommendations on resources. Just the assertion that I could be autistic because I apparently don’t communicate well.
When I reminded her that I probably have ADHD, which could explain those symptoms, she cut me off.
“They’re totally different.”
But they really aren’t. They have some key differences, but a ton of the symptoms overlap. Trust me. I’ve done my research.
She’s done this a lot—made alarmist statements with basically no course of action. In that same session she also told me I put up a lot of barriers in the therapeutic process.
“Can you give me an example?” I asked.
“I can’t think of any, but I sense it.”
I mentally rolled my eyes.
It’s been several months of frustrations. I told her I wanted to discuss relationships and she said she doesn’t read about relationships so she couldn’t help me. I told her I was struggling to find a place to start with doing inner work and she said “Just pick somewhere.” I told her I didn’t think quitting my job was a good suggestion and she said I was “resistant to getting out of my comfort zone.” (Note that in the last case, I told her I really like my job and didn’t want to do anything else.)
We haven’t clicked since day 1, but I kept going because I was sorely optimistic that maybe it just needed time.
But it didn’t need time. It’s been like six months and I feel as stuck as ever. I dread going to therapy because I feel like I’m going to listen to 50 minutes of her talking about her own life mixed in with advice that doesn’t do anything for me.
I’m stressed about actually pulling the trigger though. I don’t like change. I don’t like potentially hurting others. And I don’t like setting boundaries.
Hence why I’ve let this drag on for 6 months.
Tomorrow’s the day. I’m sending an email to let her know I’m done. I already booked an appointment with a new therapist to motivate me into doing it.
So, y’know. Best of luck to me. Hopefully I can find a therapist who actually helps.
Update: sent the email to end the relationship and booked my appointment with a new therapist!
That is your dream. Not at all a reality. What is really true is that as long as the U.S., Japan and South Korea do this their economy will tanked and they will disintegrate into a bankrupt. China will let you have a long strong rope to hang yourselves.
Also Japan, South Korea and India are polite Asian people who have been living with China 5000 years. And they are still a nation in its own right! The U.S. neighbours Mexico lost half its land to the U.S. in a mere 100 years!
These 3 nations knows that! The saw it with their own eyes. China will do what they always do. Protect Asia for Asians.
Cat learns some Mike Tyson boxing moves…
This is BY FAR the funniest video that I have ever watched!
LOL, when I was 25, I was an experienced herdsman for a pretty large dairy farm in my area.
The boss was too cheap to buy a computer, so I used my own, and often worked at home going through records of the cattle, creating the new lists as needed. Long story short, we had a falling out, and I offered to update the files before I left, which he rejected. A week later, he was at my door demanding I update the files.
I offered for a price, to be paid in advance. he became angry and stormed off.
I’m a very adventurous hiker & sport participant. I flew hang gliders for years, but I also have scuba dived, sky dived, skied double black Diamond runs, winter camped in snow caves, white water canoed, gone on looonng-g-g hiking trips into the back country & spelunked (explored caves). It’s hard to say which sport is the most dangerous BUT for sure no one should do any sport without multiple safeguards & precautions. Dangerous sports are not for risk takers.
I’ve rarely had a close call. I can say when I did, twice, it was because I ignored safety precautions personally because I was with “experts” I put my trust in!
Despite spending a lot of time in the back country, I nearly killed myself when I ignored obvious important basic precautions the first time I went with world class expert spelunkers deep inside (one mile!) a very dangerous cave with steep drops into an unseen abyss or flowing rivers that disappear further into the ground, & cliffs requiring technical climbing expertise. Precaution #1. Don’t split up. We drove up in two cars, my ride wanted to leave early. He led me down a wrong path to the exit & we were lost in a very wrong part of the maze of the cave. We were supposed to lay a string trail from the cave entrance to follow out. My guide was over confident…. He’d been in the cave so often! He left me (!) to try to retrace to where we left the correct route as I lay in a fetal position trying to get warm… Luckily he found the route, luckily he found me, luckily I’m here to write this!!
This incident happened when I was studying in my 10th grade. A male teacher hit my back with a throw ball deliberately. I was quite annoyed with the behavior. I chose to remain quiet. He came near me. I could sense that he was going to do it again. After a certain argument, I gathered my courage to shout at him – “Behave yourself” in front of 50 odd students. Humiliated teacher, stormed out of the place. The next day I was punished in front of my classmates for back-answering my teacher. Note that, none of my teachers knew what had happened behind the scenes and not one student was ready to narrate the incident. I was portrayed as a bad girl.
I did a little secret investigation(Well, I was 16 then, it was a big thing for me) on that teacher. Asked my junior friends, the students who attended his tuition classes. Turns out that, the teacher was lustful and many girls had similar experiences as mine, but no one had dared to speak up. I handed over all the information to the head mistress. The teacher was interrogated and after the certainty of the issue was proved, he was suspended. I felt really proud that I had the guts to stand up for myself.
Franz Kafka wrote, “Most men are not wicked. Men become bad and guilty because they speak and act without foreseeing the results of their words and their deeds. They are sleepwalkers, not evildoers.”
This speaks to an immutable sign of a child masquerading as an adult. Just as a toddler innocently comments about how fat someone is, the immature man litters his remarks with no thought of a world containing feelings besides his own. There callous impulsiveness matches that of a kid snatching candy from a Halloween bowl.
There is profound virtue in choosing restraint in the face of an easy chance to hurt someone’s feelings.
A good and kind person speaks difficult truths with care and love. And they know what should remain unspoken.
They see a world containing many people, all with differing needs and vulnerabilities. This is beauty. This is someone cementing themself as a person who belongs in your life.
Woman EXPOSES The INEVITABLE Problem With Dating Modern Women | TRAINED/GROOMED To Be Masculine
Kara used to earn as much as $20k in a month, but has pulled back on work since becoming a mother—leading to painful identity issues. Her husband Drake has picked up the slack, but gender roles loom large in their at-home dynamic. Modern Dating is confusing for men and women.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Jaber Al-Sabah reiterated on Sunday Kuwait’s refusal to normalize relations with Israel “unless a future Palestinian state is established in line with international resolutions.”
He made the remarks at a press conference held at the headquarters of the foreign ministry.
The minister added that it is his responsibility to maintain Kuwait’s security and interests abroad by maintaining relations with friendly, brotherly and allied countries.
“The Palestinian issue is our first issue, without any ambiguity … Kuwait has never deviated from the path,” he said, adding that the war Israel waged against Gaza is retaliatory, not defensive.
The Kuwaiti top diplomat called for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Gaza, providing assistance to the besieged enclave and ultimately resolving the Palestinian issue through the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.
I needed a car in a hurry and spotted a 5 year old Saab 9-5 turbo for sale online at a great price.
Called the owner, lady answered, husbands old car he was working and had a work vehicle so it was up for sale. It all sounded great so a buddy drove me there and i bought the car after a test drive.
Drove the 50 miles home without an issue until i reached the turnoff for my hometown when the car went into limp mode and the Check Engine light came on….. crap….luckily i was near a small industrial park so i pulled in at the front of a newly opened mechanics shop.
I’d met him once before at a friends unit in the same park but didnt know him. Told him what happened and he said leave it with me.
I started googling this model Saab and read many horror stories about failed turbos and blocked oil traps resulting in engine rebuilds… i was worried…..i had no car, it was going to cost me a fortune….
1 hour later i got a call, car is fixed. Shocked i went back out and sure enough it was running perfectly. I asked what was wrong and he said a pin hole in a breather pipe on the turbo caused a sensor malfunction. He replaced it with a new piece of hose and redirected it so it didnt rub on the exposed metal.
I asked what i owed him, he said 20 cents for the part…. He said don’t worry about it its a lovely car and it only took me 5 mins to fix.
Proof that there are gentlemen in the autotrade.
Beauty in China
GF Abandoned Me At An Absolute Lowpoint, Only For Me To Have The Last Laugh When She Was “PUT AWAY”!
“I’ve heard so many stories like this, and it is unbelievable to me. Women who leave their boyfriends after losing their job or suffering some sort of injury; wives who abandon their husbands when they are diagnosed with terminal cancer. It’s absolutely despicable! I thought they were supposed to be the compassionate ones. Why does it seem like they are, actually, the more diabolical ones?”
“My ex called me about a year after our divorce went through. Of course I let it go to voicemail. She was arrested and in a mental hospital. For the next month, I got 2 calls a day. Each one maxing out the voicemail limit, saying the same strange things over and over. And of course, she “didn’t do anything wrong” and the cops framed her. Then the calls tapered off for a few weeks and one day finally, they stopped. Never answered her. Never heard from her again…”
How brutal was Genghis Khan? The guy was a one-man wrecking crew on a continental scale. He and his Mongol horde were responsible for the annihilation of entire empires, like the Khwarazmian Empire, which was wiped off the map in about two years. We’re talking about cities falling one after another, populations being massacred, and cultural legacies destroyed.
The Mongols employed psychological warfare, making sure their atrocities were well-known to instill fear in their enemies. They had a simple policy: “Surrender or face decimation.” And by decimation, we mean the wholesale slaughter, rape, and enslavement of entire populations.
Who says so! The western media? Did you count the body? The U.S. wanted to break up China into 100 bite size nations and chew on it like candy in 1945. The lost miserably. And had to do shit it Taiwan up till now. 74 years later!
Can you trust anything from western media? 15 million? Why not say 150 million. After all it is just another zero in their typing machine! Stop being a fool. Grow some grey matter, it is good for you. You really want gore details?
How many African slaves were tortured, lynched to death? Raped and killed? How many slaves baby were thrown to feed crocodiles? How many American natives were culled like sheep by white Caucasian cowboys? How many Japanese had to die to avenged Pearl Harbour? How many Vietnamese women and children were Agent Orange or Nepalm burnt alive? How many Muslims died from your cowardly Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya carpet bombings? How many Latin and African lives are lost die to US actions by CIA?
10 million? 100 million? The trouble U.S. Chinese are hell of a lot more intelligent than ignorant and naive Yanks. To Chinese and indeed 5–7 billion others Mao did what is right to save China from U.S. becoming USSR, or Yugoslavia or Middle East. Broken into tiny nations with U.S. puppet!
Stray Cat Paws At The Window Every Day Until Lady Adopts Him | The Dodo
Russia has a lot of natural resources such as oil and gas, coal, gold, manganese, uranium, copper, nickel, iron, chromium, graphite and so on.
The European countries to the West need those resources and are constantly expanding NATO eastwards, threatening Russia’s security.
This is why Russia needs a strong military to defend itself.
But Russia is not a poor country as you are trying to imply. In fact, Russia has the fifth largest GDP PPP in the world behind China, US, India and Japan.
Many years ago, my husband was in a terrible car accident and ended up with a broken neck. At the time our two daughters were 13 and 10 years old. My husband had to be transferred to a larger hospital about an hour away. I and my husband both have great families who live nearby. I depended on them to make sure our daughters were taken care of while I was at the hospital with him, along with many of his family members. I came home, after finally getting word that he was going to survive and had a very life threatening surgery to stabilize his neck, which did save his life. When I got home, I found my lawn mowed, brand new pillows and a new phone line installed where my husband would be spending the first part of his recovery downstairs in our home. All was done courtesy of my brother’s best friend who I had always considered to be a second brother to me. I also found out that he had picked up my girls and bought them dinner and just made sure they were well cared for and feeling secure during such a hard time and while our families were busy supporting us at the hospital. Friends like him are too precious to ever take for granted.
When I was almost 50,i reached what for me, was the top goal professionally – becoming the VP of IT in my division. “I made it”! Woo-hoo! After 20y of hard work and risk, I made it to the top.
Just one thing – I categorically, absolutely HATED the job. Plus I worked for a four star Ahole of a boss.
After 7 months I stepped down and took a 70k a year pay cut to go back to being a senior software engineer, a job where I loved the work and was gifted at it. I never even looked at the ladder again let alone climb it. I retired in 2020 as a senior software engineer with no regrets at all.
Do you know why everyone says the 20s are the best years?
Because most people stop living after they turn 30. And many stop living even while they’re in their mid-20s.
Many people graduate college with degrees they didn’t really want. They just got the degree their parents wanted them to get, or the degree they thought they should get in order to find a stable job, or the degree that was easiest to tolerate for four years.
Many people leave college and settle into a job they don’t really enjoy. They pick up the first “good job” that presents itself, get comfortable, and decide to start working their way up the ladder there.
Many people begin living life beyond their means as soon as the opportunity presents itself. They don’t save money, they spend money. They pick up an expensive car payment. They blow it on bar tabs and once a year trips somewhere so they can forget about the other 51 weeks they spend doing something they don’t really enjoy.
Many people get married because they think they have to. Or they get married because nothing else exciting is going on in their lives and they think, “This is what being in your 20s is all about!” They get married because they would rather be with someone else than be alone. Etc. etc. (And if you’re getting married for the right reasons, by the way, congrats.)
Many people start having kids. They want to buy a home. They want to provide for this family-in-progress—and so now there is absolutely no possible way for them to leave their job or career path because they have too much overhead. It becomes a financial no-no.
The reason everyone says your 20s are the best years is because most people create a safe and comfortable lifestyle before they even turn 30.
And then as soon as they turn 30, they’re done. They don’t have any more “goals.” They don’t work on acquiring new skills. They don’t find ways to go outside their comfort zone. They stop reading. They stop learning. They stop, essentially, looking at life as an opportunity for growth, and instead repeat the phrase, “I am so old.”
That is the opposite of how I ever want to live my life.
I realize the above are sweeping generalizations, but the sad part is they are true. In a lot of cases, the majority of people stop. They just stop. They find what’s comfortable and then they’re done. Life becomes a countdown to dusk, instead of a journey toward the sun.
And the worst part?
They look back and say, “Your 20s are the best years of your life!”
Every year has the ability to be the best year of your life.
It’s up to you what you choose to do with it.
Driving in a sports car
Cajun Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
2023 11 11 20 14
Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter, softened
8 slices crusty Italian bread
6 tablespoons pepper jelly
8 slices pepper jack cheese
8 slices Muenster cheese
2 links andouille sausage, grilled, each link cut into quarters and split lengthwise*
Instructions
Spread 2 tablespoons butter on one side of four slices of bread.
Spread pepper jelly on one side of the remaining slices of bread.
On the slices of bread with pepper jelly, place two slices of pepper jack cheese and two pieces of grilled andouille sausage.
Cover the andouille sausage with two slices of Muenster cheese and top with the remaining slices of bread, butter-side out.
Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat.
Place sandwiches, butter-side down, in the skillet and spread the remaining 2 tablespoons butter over the tops of the sandwiches.
Cook sandwiches, in batches if necessary, for 2 to 3 minutes per side, or until golden and the cheeses are melted.
Serve immediately.
Notes
* May substitute any other smoked sausage for the andouille
I have been to two mortgage parties. At each, the couple spent about as much as one mortgage payment, to supply food and booze, to maybe 50 friends and family. Everyone was ecstatic for them.
I personally have never held one, but I think they are a great idea. Sometimes it feels like the only time old friends get together is at funerals. This brings everyone together, for happy times.
This happened to a friend of mine 10 years back and I was left astonished.
The company decided to focus on large deals and geared up all its sales team for the same. My friend (lets name him A) who was a salesperson of company X took this to heart and went after large deals for an entire year. Having said that, winning a 20m$ deal is different than 2m$ deals. The person had no result to show but lot of effort and background setting to do. After 3 quarters of no result, my friends Boss (lets name him B) calls up a review meeting at 10 pm to tell him that he has been fired.
My friend A had a call with a prospect at 11 pm. He attended the call, signed the biggest deal of the company for that year and left the company (as he was terminated at 10 pm) The Boss (B) took the most hefty sales commission of that year from the company as A was terminated.
I was an employee of the same company.
Its easier for companies to define strategy but lack of belief in people who can carry out that strategy and unwillingness to bear the cost of the strategy. Don’t know who lost more here, company (lost a great employee and believer and doer), A (lost the job and the biggest commission) or B (got the money but lost the respect of entire sales team)
BREAKING NEWS: China SANCTION Rare Earths Processing TECHNOLOGY To U.S
Yes, I did. And if the Angel had not spoken to me, I may not have recovered from what I almost did. I was (and still am) a Christian believing in God as He is personified in Father, Son and Holy Spirit and I believe that there are Angels that perform whatever God wills.
I was a teenager living at home with my parents and wanted to run to K Mart to buy something. My next door neighbor’s two girls (probably 7 and 10) were there also and wanted to go with me. I tried to tell them it was not a “fun trip” as I was going for one thing only so if they went with me, they’d have to stay in the car. Their mother gave them permission so we left.
As I’d told them, they had to stay in the car. I bought my one item and came out. I could easily see my car but there were no children in it. At first, I was angry. Then I thought, they’re hiding so I’ll teach them a lesson. I’ll get into the car, zoom off across the parking lot, then when I stop and look back, they’ll be running after me and I’ll laugh at them!
So, I got in and started the car. As there was no car in front of me, I thought to put the car in drive and push down on the gas. But, just as I put the car in ‘drive,’ a voice from the back seat, a man’s voice, said, ‘Put it in reverse!’ The voice had such authority in it that I responded by immediately putting the car into reverse. As I turned to look behind the car as I backed up, I wondered, “Who was that?”
I was so surprised by the voice that I stopped the car and looked into the back seat. No one was there! When I turned around, I got the shock of my life- where the front of my car had been, were the two girls crouching down on the ground! If I had driven off at high speed as I’d planned, I would have run over – and possibly killed – the two girls! I immediately knew that an Angel had spoken to me in order to save the children and, most likely, me!
I remain to this day profoundly grateful for that voice.
You can already see the streets around the country. Go to 百度地图
As for why not google. It will be related privacy and national security laws.
Things might have been different but at the time google was not working with local governments to censor content (it is now) since it had a single product. Now each country is localised and has censorship but politics prevent google from returning to China.
I don’t see that changing any time soon. Also, China will let Google street view go all over China the same year that the US allows Baidu street view go all over the US.
Any, enjoy Baidu Street View you can see most of China using it.
It is worth being aware that Baidu Street View doesn’t show everything. They avoid going near most military locations and often only go to major towns. That being said you can see lots of locations that are in the news. About half of the detention facilities in Xinjiang can be found but not the ones outside of smaller towns.
Hoisin Spareribs (Cantonese)
Hoisin Spareribs
Ingredients
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons peanut oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 pounds pork ribs, cut crosswise
Instructions
Rub the meat with the sauce to coat well. Cover and allow the ribs to marinate in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Grill over a medium fire, turning once or twice until the ribs are slightly charred and cooked through. Let them cool slightly. At this point, they will be easy to cut. Cut them into bite-size pieces.
He was 12 at the time. I had given him a 6pm curfew. He needed to be home to eat dinner and do his homework. I understood that he biked home after school and hung out at his friend’s house, which is about a half block away. So one day he was late. It’s 6:15 and no son. I’m upset and worried.
He comes home and tells me that their friend, Jenny * had come over to play Mario Kart with them, and he wanted to walk her back to her house because it was getting late. So he walked his bike next to her and walked her to her door before he came home.
I admit, I was a bit skeptical. I let it go with a “be home on time tomorrow”. As excuses go, that was a damn good one, so a little pass was given. I half believed him, but didn’t really think that was the reason. I was wrong.
Her mom called me the next day and thanked me. She was nervous about letting her daughter hang out with BOYS. She thanked me for my son walking her daughter home. That is when I realized that he had become a young man. Who can weigh decisions. Worried mom, or walk a younger, smaller person home safe.
He’s almost 14 now, and has earned my trust. When Jenny hangs out, he makes sure he walks her home. She lives about 3 blocks away. Her mom and I have become friends. Unknown to him, she texts me when he drops her off. She’s his friend. Even when he was “dating” someone else, he would still make sure she got home safe.
I’m not saying it right. She’s one of the guys. A friend. She just lives a few blocks over. As a woman who was once the girl who was one of the guys, I get it. I like her. She’s a good friend to him.
My son, as the one who looks out for her? That’s not a kid’s decision. That’s a young man that I am proud of. I got him a cell phone so it’s not the same now, but I remember that night when he told me that he was just making sure his friend got home safe. Then getting the phone call thanking me. That’s when I knew, I had a young man, not a little boy.
*her name has been changed.
A crying mother cat brought her dying kitten to a man. Just unbelievable!
Let me preface this answer by saying I’m a law-abiding, productive member of society. In particular, I don’t condone shoplifting.
However…
In my youth my social circle was… shall we say… pretty diverse. When I was a freshman in college, a guy named Mark was part of that social circle. He was clean cut, well read, well spoken, impeccably dressed, and homeless. This was pre-9/11, back when sleeping at the airport wouldn’t raise any red flags (especially in Vegas, where I grew up).
He stole stuff for a living. Most anything he needed for personal use (clothes, bikes, personal electronics, books, etc.) was stolen. He would also sell stolen stuff to get money — because unfortunately, not everything can be stolen.
One day he stole a set of tools and got himself a union job. And shortly after that, he got himself an apartment. So he enlisted my help (… as a friend with a car…) to gather all the stuff he had stashed at gym lockers around town and move it to his new apartment. Lockers and lockers and lockers full of stuff.
It didn’t stop there. Now that he had an apartment, he needed home stuff. Sheets, pillows, blankets, pots, pans, etc. Stuff he never had a use for. I asked him how the hell he’s going to steal something as bulky as pillows. He said, “The same way I steal anything. I just walk right out with them.”
I couldn’t believe it, and he invited me to observe.
So we took a trip down to the outlet mall. I wasn’t going to be an accomplice, but I had to see this for myself. I’d loiter around by the front of the store just to see him make his smooth exit.
And sure enough, he went and got himself a giant empty bag, put pillows (or pots and pans, or blankets, or whatever), put the stuff in the bag, and walked right out.
In one case, he put some stuff (I think plates?) right down the front of his pants. Evidently, he was spotted by someone. On his way out, the manager of the store got in his way and said in his best manager voice: “Stop right there sir. Were you planning on paying for those?”
Mark pulled the plates out of his pants, handed them to the manager, and cheerfully said, “I wasn’t planning on it, here you go!” and walked right out. The manager stood there, holding the plates, dumbfounded. Getting back to the exact question, I’m pretty sure my jaw literally dropped.
I once fired a new employee the same day that I hired him.
I advertised an opening that I had for a security guard position and a young guy came in and filled out an application. He was a clean cut kid and had actually dressed like he was going on an interview — sport coat, slacks, tie, white shirt and shined shoes — so once he completed the app, I had him come into my office to chat while my secretary checked his references.
She was able to reach all but his last employer — she got an answering machine — and all of his personal references, and they all gave him a glowing approval. So I decided to roll the dice and offer him a job. He came in on a Tuesday and the positioned opened on Friday, so I gave him a couple of uniforms and directions to the post, and told him to show up on Thursday for training.
I was congratulating myself for filling the position so quickly, and easily, when the business owner from that last employer returned my secretary’s call. The man said that he normally didn’t give out derogatory references because it opened him up to trouble, but he didn’t see anything wrong with telling me that the young man had been fired for stealing copper wiring from his supply yard, and selling it for scrap, because he had filed charges on the kid.
I called the agency that had made the arrest and they confirmed that the kid had been arrested, and that he was charged with a felony. If the kid was found guilty he would not be able to work as a security guard so I decided to nip a potential problem in the bud. I called the kid and asked him to return to the office with his uniform. He knew what had happened and apologized for not telling me about his arrest and impending court date. He seemed, to me, to be a good kid who made a bad choice but I still terminated his employment.
Ten psychological knowledge of love you must know right now!
1.Most women are attracted to men with a strong sense of humor.
Generally speaking, a strong sense of humor is associated with intelligence.
2. When the relationship lasts for three to five months, it is most likely to break up.
According to Fisher, a psychologist, the divorce rate is the highest after four years of marriage. So love needs to be tested by time.
3. Compared with those who regard love as a fairy tale, people who look at love rationally are more likely to obtain love, and love is longer.
4. Men are more likely to be attracted to women with similar bone structure to his mother.
5. What kind of person you are, you can attract what kind of person you are.
If you expect to meet a great person, you have to be equally good first
6. Have you ever had the experience that you suddenly feel like someone in a moment, but then you feel like nothing the next day.
This is known as the “suspension bridge effect.”. When a person is anxious to cross the suspension bridge, his heart will not help but quicken his heart. If you happen to meet another person at this time, he will mistakenly understand the acceleration of heart rate caused by fear as that the other party makes his heart beat, so that he likes this person. Love needs time, but the heartbeats needs reason.
7. A good first impression is more about body language, tone and speed than what you actually say.
8.Love is a natural painkiller.
When you have a disease, the person you love is around, which can significantly relieve the pain. Even looking at a picture of a loved one can relieve pain. Meanwhile, psychologists have found that when couples hug, their brains release oxytocin. Oxytocin helps reduce headaches for up to 4 hours. So if you feel tired, stressed or in pain, hugging your partner is a great alternative to any painkiller.
9. Express gratitude to your lover and feel happiness immediately.
10. Heartbreak is real.
Studies have shown that violent or traumatic events can cause real pain in a person’s heart, which is known as broken heart syndrome. When deep emotions cause excessive anxiety, chest pain or shortness of breath and other symptoms, it is easy to have broken heart syndrome. This is often more likely to occur in women and can easily be misdiagnosed as a heart attack.
This happens in some parts of the US more than others. This photograph was taken in Louisville, Kentucky, where it’s so common a single hospital may do this half a dozen times a week.
Generally the patient is discharged, escorted off hospital property by security, and left at the closest street corner to the hospital. Patients who can’t walk are placed in a wheelchair, wheeled off hospital property, then physically dumped out of the wheelchair into the street.
The year was 1978: I was applying for a job as a dishwasher on the late night shift at a local restaurant. I was told to return at 11PM (when the shift started) for an interview.
What I didn’t know upon my arrival (at 11PM) was that someone else had already been hired.
But that other guy (whose name was “Luke”) didn’t show up.
And everybody thought I was Luke.
It took a few weeks for the paperwork to clear up (because I was punching in as Luke Somebody for two weeks). And it was a good thing that I got paid in cash every week.
And “Yes” I thought it was odd that I would be shown to the locker room upon my arrival (at 11PM) and told to change into a uniform and then go to the dishroom without even being asked my name. But it was a job (and I worked there about 9 months).
The summer before I left for college, Yale hosted a formal reception for the families of the incoming freshmen in my area. It was the kind of gathering where people come in button-down shirts and lacy dresses, and where sliced fruit and fancy cheeses are served on silver platters.
While everyone else was focusing on mingling, Claire Yang – ten years old at the time – immediately zeroed in on the food. I let her make a beeline for the refreshment line, and for a while afterwards, I didn’t notice anything amiss.
Then she returned with an anxious look on her face, pulled me to the side, and said, “Hannah? Can you help me eat this?”
I looked down at her plate and found myself face-to-face with a colossal slice of brie – at least a quarter the size of the enormous wheel it came from. Claire had managed to consume an admirable fraction of her slice, but even so, she was still holding enough brie to spread on a month’s worth of crackers.
“I thought it was cake,” she whispered.
I just stared at her, trying not to laugh.
In an even smaller voice, she said, “It’s not cake.”
We hadn’t really attended events with wheels of brie before, so it was an understandable mistake. Still, though, I wish I could’ve seen the faces of everyone else in line when she cut it.
My dad has bees.
Today, I went to his house and he showed me all the honey he had gotten from the hives. He took the lid off a 5-gallon bucket full of honey and on top of the honey there were 3 little bees, struggling. They were covered in sticky honey and drowning. I asked him if we could help them and he said he was sure they wouldn’t survive. Casualties of honey collection I suppose.
I asked him again if we could at least get them out and kill them quickly, after all he was the one who taught me to put a suffering animal (or bug) out of its misery. He finally conceded and scooped the bees out of the bucket. He put them in an empty Chobani yogurt container and put the plastic container outside.
Because he had disrupted the hive with the earlier honey collection, there were bees flying all over outside.
We put the 3 little bees in the container on a bench and left them to their fate. My dad called me out a little while later to show me what was happening. These three little bees were surrounded by all their sisters (all of the bees are females) and they were cleaning the sticky nearly dead bees, helping them to get all of the honey off of their bodies. We came back a short time later and there was only one little bee left in the container. She was still being tended to by her sisters.
When it was time for me to leave, we checked one last time and all three of the bees had been cleaned off enough to fly away and the container was empty.
Those three little bees lived because they were surrounded by family and friends who would not give up on them, family and friends who refused to let them drown in their own stickiness and resolved to help until the last little bee could be set free.
Bee Sisters. Bee Peers. Bee Teammates.
We could all learn a thing or two from these bees.
During my brief stint as a McDonald’s fry cook in summer 1982, the crew at my store got along pretty well.
Then came the day when a “transfer” worker with a couple of years’ experience came aboard. I met him when he was walked around the store a day or two before his first shift. He was about my age, 20, and seemed really full of himself.
There was talk among the crew that this fellow was going to position himself as some kind of de facto crew chief, and nobody was looking forward to it.
Turned out, that never happened.
I wasn’t working on the day New Guy had his downfall, but I sure heard about it. It was on his first shift.
New Guy had experience running a cash register, so he was put on one, right out of the gate.
This was during the early days of the Chicken McNugget, which came with your choice of dipping sauce. One of these was barbecue sauce, an unremarkable tomato-based variety.
So, a small group of well-dressed older men get into the line at New Guy’s register. One of them says he’d like an order of McNuggets but he’s not sure what dipping sauce to get and could the cashier (New Guy) please recommend one?
New Guy starts into an opinionated description that includes the phrase “the barbecue sauce sucks.”
Those well-dressed older gents? They are McDonald’s executives on their way to or from some important McBusiness and have stopped off for a quick bite and to see how the crew is promoting Chicken McNuggets.
In their minds, telling customers that “the barbecue sauce sucks” is not good McMarketing. It’s more Jeff Spicoli than Mayor McCheese, I think you’d agree.
They did not keep their displeasure a secret.
New Guy was terminated on the spot, more or less, though the store management probably had to do some paperwork to make it official.
He didn’t even finish his first shift.
But just to make sure New Guy isn’t forgotten, I still use the phrase “the barbecue sauce sucks” whenever possible.
I had known and worked with *Ernest* for perhaps ten years.
I had helped him with professional and personal situations, and he often confided in me, so I knew ‘where the bodies were buried’ (nothing illegal).
I never confided in him nor asked him for help because I am a very private person, but that was OK since he was very focused on himself.
I guessed that he sometimes bad-mouthed me to other male teachers because he wanted them to include him. Another reason to not confide in him.
Several times when I couldn’t take on an outside class, I would suggest him for the course. He was someone I could trust to do a good job. He thanked me each time.
We were both teaching at an international company where I had taught before and was respected. He was, to them, the ‘new guy.’
I saw him in the training manager’s office, and he was ‘ernestly’ (pun?) speaking to her; she looked concerned.
Ernest said he had been talking to her about a student.
I asked her later if there was a problem and could I help. That’s when she told me that Ernest had tried to convince her to use only him for future classes by spewing several untruths about my teaching methods. She told him she would consider what he had said.
And she did, and that’s why she would not give him additional courses.
He had hanged himself.
The training manager and I had worked together several times, and she had taken two of my classes.
That incident opened my eyes to his deceit; I wondered if he had done the same at other places where I had helped him find work.
He had.
Some relationships were saved; some were lost.
I did not confront him: it would have accomplished nothing constructive. Ernest never admitted to wrongdoing. He blew up and argued, never hearing anyone else. It would have been a waste of my time.
I stopped suggesting him to clients.
Fast forward about six months.
I was hunched over a stack of students’ papers in the teachers’ work area. I was not interested in conversation, but Ernest asked if I had heard from the international company.
Without looking up, I said I was currently teaching a course there. He asked angrily why he hadn’t been called, as if I had had something to do with it.
Continuing to work on my students’ papers, not looking up, I said, “She and I have worked together several times. She didn’t like what you said about me.”
Ernest began to sputter and deny. Still not looking at him, I just waved him away.
Just think about this close to 1 billion out of China’s 1.4 billion people in China are middle class and are buying stuffs that the U.S. can sell or benefit from. That is more 3 times the U.S. consumer. But it is bigger than the next 10 biggest consumer on earth put together! And what is worst it is still growing and growing fast!
And you want to “decouple” or “de-risk” from this market? If I were you, I will go all out courting the Chinese to be your life long customer!
But that is not all. 2/3 of the rest of earths need is made in China and they may replace your parts and product too while making them? Did it sink into your head that you are being decouple or de-risk from the world?
It has been a full 5 years since Donald Trump declared a trade war with China. Do you want to know the result? China has out grown the U.S. five times! Your deficits and debts actually shot up! You had a crippling inflation and treating it cause you a banking crisis! China is having 0.2% inflation rate!
If you care to open your eyes, it is a mosquito bite for China while it is a cancerous growth for the U.S. economy. This coming election chose wisely, dump every China hawks and China haters! They are destroying your livelihood and putting you in debts. Get a guy in the White House that fly straight to China to patch thing up the first day in office.
China is your only hope to stay away from bankruptcy! Tell Taiwan don’t be another Ukraine. We the U.S. cannot afford Ukraine let alone Taiwan which will cost us a 100 times more! You island is not going to float near Florida coast! Be real. Join China today!
Tell China no need to innovate we will sell everything damn things to you any day any time!
I used to have a friend who treated service workers poorly. At restaurants, he would make a point to complain about the service, the table location, the ambience, and, of course, the food. He sent his orders back to the kitchen more than a few times when we dined together. His manners toward the wait staff were mean and condescending.
The first few times I witnessed the behavior, I let it go. Maybe his tantrum was legitimate. Maybe it was his youth. (He was in his 20s.)Then it became a pattern. The next time it happened, I said to him, “That’s enough,” as he was berating the waitress about the temperature of the food. I apologized to the waitress before we left the restaurant.
I asked him why he had to be so rude to the service staff. He didn’t think his behaviors were out of line at all. He rationalized falsely that if he had paid for the service, it would have to hold up to his liking. I then reminded him that it was I who footed the bill for almost all the meals we had had, and even if he had contributed his share, his treatment of the staff still wouldn’t have been justifiable.
He was working as a receptionist at a community clinic at the time. I asked him how he’d feel if the customers were rude to him for things beyond his control. He said that would never happen because everyone loved him. He then quickly dismissed my teaching moment.
I stopped inviting him to dinners and weaned myself from him socially. He reached out a few times, and I eventually had to tell him the reason we could not be friends – his kindness deficiency.
Kindness to people you care about is easy, but it shines the brightest when you dispense it to strangers and those who are vulnerable to your criticism.
Experience China’s Futuristic Spaceship Train Station: A $10 Billion Masterpiece
I drove my girlfriend’s new Honda Civic and noticed a rough 2-1 downshift and told her it would be good to bring it in and have it checked as it was under warranty.
She called me when the dealership told her that it needed new front pads and rotors at 3000 miles, and the warped rotors were the problem I had felt.
I happened to be a master certified Mercedes-Benz technician at the time, so naturally I had already ruled that out. We went to the dealer and I met with the service advisor, while I was still in my work uniform, and asked him to review the recommendations on the car.
He, rather dismissively, said it needed pads and rotors because my girlfriend had warped them. I asked him for the run-out measurement and threshold for the car, and he looked at me like I was speaking in an alien language. Then he said that they don’t do measurements, just a road test. I replied that if the vehicle was out of the specifications for run-out, (the warpage of the rotor surface) that it must be measured against a manufacturer’s standard to claim that a new car needed $600 in brakes that wasn’t caused by a warrantable defect.
Given that he still gave me a “deer in headlights” look with a hint of “go F yourself”, I asked for him to bring the car out for a road test. When it arrived I took the work order from his hand and read the “mileage in” out loud, then I read off the exact same mileage from the odometer. I asked him how a determination for warped brakes was done in less than a mile, when the brakes should go through their full range of temperature to diagnose system specific issues on a road test. He replied that they can get hot in under a mile. I asked him if that kind of driving was policy for his technicians to be doing in a residential neighborhood, and he just stared blankly.
So we went on the road test and I duplicated the issue. He said that it was warped rotors. So I did it again and let go of the steering wheel, as warped fronts cause the wheel to tip back and forth when slowing to a stop, and when it remained stationary I asked him if it was still warped brakes. He stated he didn’t feel anything. So I did it again, and he stated that that was normal. After another few times demonstrating a 2-1 downshift clunk, with no vibration in the steering wheel, and getting a number of other BS replies from the advisor, it was time to call in someone else. Mind you, my girlfriend was in the back seat watching this whole thing.
At that point I asked for the service manager.
Of course we sat around for another 45 minutes before we were told he had just gone home, and the foreman would see us.
Round 2 with the foreman. I drove the car and duplicated the issue. He said, that’s odd, let me drive it. He drove it and duplicated the issue multiple times. He stated that he would check it out and let me know what he found, and that it definitely wasn’t brakes and a recommendation for brakes should have never been made without a proper road test no matter how common warped rotors were on these cars. The next morning he called up and stated that all the shifts were within specification, he had also driven a number of other vehicles and it appeared to have been a difference in programming between the 06 and 07 models where the 07 had a harsher downshift at low speeds. He said to bring it back if the shift ever got worse and even out of warranty, there was a verified complaint on record and it would be fixed within reason.
Even experienced technicians can get the runaround just like everyone else. The only advantage I had was I understand the vehicle systems, and how to diagnose them, enabling me to call them out as a professional. But when someone shows up after disassembling a $60k engine from a $150k car, while still in their Mercedes-Benz shop uniform, you’d think the jig would be up without needing to shove their face in it. What hope does the average person have?!
BTW, the transmission is still fine at 160k miles. The control unit adapted out the harsh shift eventually.
In my early 30s, a friend invited me over to her house for dinner. She was around my age, and single. When I arrived with my obligatory bottle of wine, there was another single woman that I was slightly acquainted with, and a man I’d never met before. We had the usual conversations: personal news, politics, literature, theatre/film, funny stories, and so on. The man didn’t seem to get our references or know anything about the topics we were discussing, and most of his interjections were a little surprising. But we did our best to be polite and welcoming and include him.
Anyway, he ended up being the first person to leave, which gave us a chance to ask the hostess how she’d met him and so on. Obviously myself and the mutual acquaintance had the same opinion of him, as she asked the hostess “But why did you invite him?”
“Because he’s SOOO good looking!” she replied.
Myself and the other woman looked at each other. Neither of us had found him good looking, and if he had been, that physical attractiveness had vanished early in the evening, given his lack of intellect. He wasn’t entirely unintelligent, he was a teacher, but he had just no interests or curiosity.
Oof. Where to start. I have a couple to choose from. Most involve my mother in some shape or form. Let’s see.
There was the time she went away for a “visit home”, she immigrated at 18 from the UK. And then about 30 years later I got a call from one of my sisters asking me to sit down as she told me about my “other sister”.
Or there is the time my 63yr old sister (I’m 56) told me that someone has contacted her and introduced me to my 40yr old nephew I had no idea I had.
But I think the one that really hurt came out after my fathers death, which was a year after my mother passed.
They divorced when I was about 4–5yrs old. I believed my mothers account from 1973 till 2018 when my father passed that she was an abused wife who left in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on her back.
I didn’t see or hear from her for 2yrs which was explained to me that she had taken that time to get her life together.
She was actually now living with her new husband, David. Ironically in the same town as me for the past year. But I stood by her account.
I fought tooth and nail with my father from the age of 5 to 50. Around 50 my second wife talked me into letting things go for the sake of my daughter. So she could have a relationship with her PopPop.
After he passed away, my brother and I discovered multiple documents, lawyers notes, divorce decree and Private Investigator reports.
She was taking money and cheating on him THE WHOLE TIME.
He NEVER STRUCK HER. And she left ON HER OWN WITH BAGS IN HAND, INCLUDING ALL THE JEWELRY SHE BOUGHT WITH THE STOLEN MONEY.
Both had passed and I couldn’t confront my mother or apologize to my father.
My mother brainwashed me, my brother and my 3 sisters (not the 4th who wasn’t around of course) into believing it was all his doing.
I lived on the streets, spent time in JV, and joined the Army at 17 basically to get away from this man and cause I had nowhere to live etc.
She robbed me of a relationship with my father. And that I can NEVER get back or make up for now.
I was driving to work on the Dulles Toll Road one winter morning when the road was covered in snow and ice. I was in my little Chevy making a steady 40 mph, when an SUV came up riding my bumper and honking at me before pulling into the next lane and roaring past me. 10 minutes later I passed the same SUV on its side in the median.
Another one I didn’t see, but heard about from a friend who did was on another snowy day in northern VA. We had had an unusually strong snowstorm for the area (about 2 feet IIRC), and there was a line-up of traffic trying to get onto the ramp from the Beltway to I-95. A guy in one of those big SUV’s (the kind they show blasting through snowdrifts in the commercials) decided he was going to cut across the triangle of ground between the highway and the ramp – only to get caught up on the guard rail that was buried in the snow! According to my friend, his front end made it over before the weight of the vehicle broke through the snow and stranded him!
By a happy coincidence I recently had lunch in a new and no tipping restaurant. These are currently very rare in this country.
I sat at the bar. There were tent cards everywhere mentioning this and noted that no tipping was the reason for the increased prices. They also mentioned that if you somehow didn’t understand this, any tips you did leave would be donated to a local charity. Finally, when you received the check, there was no tip line available.
So my bartender had been in the business for many years in other tipping restaurants. She was a single Mom with two young children. She was delighted to have employer sponsored health insurance that she could afford and a 401K plan. She was an hourly employee not much different than anywhere else in corporate America.
She mentioned that the non-fluctuating income was a huge advantage for her. If she worked a shift where the bar was dead, she still made a living wage! If she worked a shift that was hugely busy, she did not see the increase in her income but the benefit of a consistent cash flow more than offset this for her.
The restaurant had only been open a few weeks. She mentioned that with the addition of affordable health insurance and a 401K plan, she was easily seeing an increase in her standard of living.
It seems to me it’s clearly a win for her lifestyle but I can easily imagine other situations where the employee might not see the same advantages.
As an infant, I was born with a lump behind my left knee. This was in 1957. I cried and pulled at my leg incessantly, so my mother took me to the small town doctor. By this time the lump was swollen and red. The doctor lanced it and pus and blood went everywhere, according to my mother’s account.
As a result of improper dressing and care, I developed gangrene in the leg. I received so much penicillin that I became allergic to it. I had multiple surgeries to try and remove the infected tissue.
Finally, it was determined that the only option to save my life was to remove my leg.
The bishop of our church called for the church members to join in a special fast and prayer for me. That night before my scheduled surgery, the doctor awoke with an idea to try and save my leg.
He called my parents and explained that he was moving my surgery from the first one to the last one. He put a tube in the thigh and and another in the calf and flushed it with a concoction of medications. He told my mother to watch my toes and if they turned any more purple to have the nurse call him and he would take me into surgery immediately.
The toes did not turn darker and over time, I was able to keep my leg. They did not expect it to be fully functional, however. I actually learned to walk with a cast on my leg. I was, of course, too young to know what this doctor did for me. My parents were not well off and I am pretty sure that the doctor did not receive much if any compensation.
Fast forward 15 years later and I’m a healthy young man, getting good grades and working in a restaurant, with my eye on college and a church mission. I was also racing motorcycles.
I sought out the doctor and made an appointment with him. He was older and nearing retirement. I introduced myself and asked if he remembered my case. He absolutely did. I thanked him for saving my leg and changing the course of my life. He was amazed at how fully functional my leg was.
When I told him that I even raced motorcycles as a hobby, he grinned and said, “Don’t go messing up my good work.”
I have always felt a bit of a responsibility to use my legs to work hard and serve others. I am now in my sixties, raised a good family, (all of whom ride dirt bikes, including some of the grandchildren) lived a wonderful, productive life. To this day, I think of this kind, caring doctor and do my best to not mess up his, and God’s, good work.
“I Just Came To The Realization Why I’m Single” | “That’s WHY Guys Don’t Want To Wife Me Up”
It is very rare when a patient enters an ER with generic complaints such as stomach pain, without ever realizing that something really bad is going on inside. This patient was such a case, in one of the worst peek-and-shriek disasters his surgeons had ever seen.
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He entered the ER with severe abdominal pains, and he could not stop vomiting.
The first thing a doctor thinks in such a case is that this patient might be suffering from an intestinal infection such as gastroenteritis, or food poisoning, but this patient was having so much pain that he needed to be opened up as soon as possible
My girlfriend was still a trainee, and assisted the surgeon who would perform the operation which would not nearly last as long as they had expected.
Because what they found inside was a sentence — a classic “peek-and-shriek.”
The patient’s bowel was black and gangrenous (in other words: dead), and he was having a bowel infarction so severe, that he was beyond saving. So they closed him up again.
He’s softened with age (95) but back then it was bad, really bad.
(And before I launch into this tirade, let me preface by saying he’s an amazing grandfather, who has done a long list of great things for us.)
But here we go:
In the brutal Florida summers, he barely let the air conditioning run, it was cool enough to suffice a desert scorpion.
As a kid, I remember opening my eyes in the middle of the night covered in sweat, sneaking quietly down the hallway, slowly turning the temperature down just a couple of degrees.
And as soon as that house changed temperature so much as a half a degree, it was like an internal alarm went off in grandpas mind, an inner voice that screamed, “Your money is all going away! Hurry!” and within 30 minutes the AC would be right back to 5000 degrees.
We’d take road trips and everyone would have to pile into one hotel room.
He designed a water heater outside that was a long weaving row of pipes that were painted black and heated up in the Florida sun naturally. (Clever, right?)
He kept the ovens outside to cook with to help keep the air conditioning bill down.
He hated it when my mom/grandma ran the hair dryers in the house because it used electricity and heated the house up.
We won’t even talk about what happened if you left the lights on or, god forbid, left a door open.
Go out to eat at a restaurant? Are you crazy?
It was a habit that frustrated family members over the years.
The obvious question was, why is this man so cheap?
It wasn’t like he didn’t have money. He was a PhD, working at NASA. Was it necessary to torture himself (and others)?
The thing that took me a long time to fully appreciate, was that it all stemmed from his childhood.
He grew up in abject poverty in the 1920’s/30’s, as many Americans did following the great depression.
He had 7 brothers and sisters, his father died at a young age, they had one lightbulb that hung from the living room. Luxuries were non-existent. They lived meal-to-meal, paycheck-to-paycheck.
They were known as the poor family. They were dirt, freaking, poor.
Growing up in that world set ‘Survival Mode’ to a permanent on-position. He spent much of his life with a subconscious fear, that a moments lapse in vigilance could bring the onset of poverty again.
But to his credit, he paid for the things in our life that truly mattered, like education.
And he was one of the only siblings in his family who sent money back to his poor mother, from his very first paycheck to the last day of her life.
My grandfather may remind you of someone in your life who frustrates you.
Just remember, changing these behaviors is easier said than done. They often originate from somewhere much deeper in that person’s life.
There is a small family restaurant that I have been going to on and off for 10 years. After I moved I rarely went. Then when I moved back close by I tried to start going more. The owner’s daughter is always working there and I have known her for 10 years. She used to hug me whenever I went there. There have been many complaints about her rudeness including online. I never really had a problem with her because there was always someone else working to keep her balanced. I have seen her have her moments with other people. The last time I went she was rude to me and acted like she didn’t know me. I haven’t and won’t go back because of it. I used to recommend the restaurant to others. Not anymore.
There is a real grease spoon in Orlando, Florida on West Colonial called Mr. Quick. That place has been around since the 1970’s and looks like it hasn’t been updated or cleaned since then. They are like Waffle House except cheaper and not as classy. When me and my husband first got together I took him there because Waffle House was too busy. The waitress approached our table and goes, “Watcha yall want.” like we were bothering her by waiting on us. She never refilled my husband’s coffee. Finally, he asked if he could have a refill. The waitress goes, “I guess” and sighs while getting the coffee. When he wanted another refill he waited and after not wanting to wait and deal with her again he went behind the counter and got his own refill. The waitress tells him you can’t go back there sir! Obviously, we never went back. We still talk about it though.
It wasn’t exactly shoplifting, but very similar. A guy was working for the Canadian mint. His job was to melt down gold from jewelry, coins and ore that the mint bought, and refine it, so it could be used to make gold coins.
When he had purified it to 99.9 percent, or so he used a ladle to scoop a load of gold out, about the size of a golf ball, and assay it , they called it a puck of gold. He was supposed to dump the puck back into the vat.
Instead they found Vaseline and rubber gloves in his locker. There were no cameras in the locker room or the refining room. He never admitted any wrong doing, so it’s all circumstancial evidence.
The scanners at the mint, were notorious for going off, for no reason, and then the guards would do a scan with hand wands, that weren’t powerful enough to detect something in a body cavity.
He sold 17 pucks, and had 4 more in his house when he was investigated. For a total of 21, but he set off the scanner 28 times. Which is why he thought he could get away with it.
He sold each puck to a gold buyer for between $7000–8000 and then took the check to the bank and transferred the money to Jamaica, to build a house. This way he stayed below the $10,000 limit, that would trigger an investigation.
The gold buyer never questioned where he got solid gold pucks from.
For the first 16 times the bank never questioned why he was sending so much money out of the country.
Then to make sure he wasn’t being scammed into sending money to someone fraudulently, the teller asked him about it. He had presented his government picture ID from the mint, as his ID, and then told her he was cashing checks from selling gold, and sending money to his parents to rebuild a house.
The teller wasn’t a dummy, a guy who works for the mint, is selling gold, and transferring the money out of the country.
She called the cops.
So he took molten gold, shaped it into a smooth puck, inserted it with Vaseline up his rectum, and conned his way past security.
Thats a jaw dropping form of sneaking something out of a business.
We went on a long driving trip this summer, starting in Vancouver and then through the US. As we went north, the first possible Alaska entry is Hyder, which is a bit off the normal route to Alcan and Alaska proper. While in this (VERY small) town, we stopped at a little wildlife viewing area and saw some beavers building a dam.
As we got back in the car, a large gray industrial-looking truck pulled up next to us, and a young man and woman got out. It had German license plates and two bikes on the back. I thought it was strange to see a truck with German plates in southern Alaska, especially what looked like a construction truck. I didn’t think much more about it. (Map is for context.)
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About a week later, having driven through Skagway, Yukon, and then south to Wrangell-St Elias, to Denali, and Fairbanks (the point being that we drove a LONG way over about a week), we started driving the Dalton Highway up to Deadhorse. This is a route that rental companies won’t let you drive; you have to have your own car. The drive was 2 days north. After seeing the Arctic Ocean (this requires a tour and 24 hours notice, in case you ever think about going), we started back south through the Atigun Pass in the Brooks Range. Again, this is for context about how far we drove and how remote we were.
Pulling into a parking lot at the top of the pass we see… a large gray industrial-looking truck with German plates and two bikes on the back. Wow, we thought, that’s a coincidence. But it made sense that if you’re really going to make a trip and have the time to do it, the Dalton is a great journey. Still, seeing the truck again after such a distance was pretty cool. *Note: this is a very dangerous road that requires a solid vehicle and 1000 miles round trip of careful attention to the road. Worth the trip, but be warned.
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We went south to Vancouver and stayed there for a week while we went to a wedding. Then we headed south to San Diego through all of the National Parks in California, then back north to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, through Utah, Colorado, back across Utah to Idaho and finally to Wyoming. (This was several thousand miles and several weeks. You might see where this is going.)
Driving through Yellowstone, now at least 5 weeks after leaving Deadhorse, I’m driving (slowly, there was a herd of bison) along the eastern part of the loop in Yellowstone…
…and we passed a large gray industrial-looking truck with German plates and two bikes on the back. What are the odds?
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(I noted the distances not to brag or anything, but to show that we went on a very long drive across thousands of miles over many, many weeks, and saw the same unique truck three different times.)
You never know where life will take you. If you ever have the opportunity to really travel, don’t wait. We slept in the car to save on hotels, ate sandwiches that we made ourselves and did what we could to save money, but it was the trip of a lifetime.
And if you ever see a gray industrial-looking truck with German plates and two bikes on the back, wave hi to them for us!
I was working for a company called Alteon, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Boeing, which provided training on Boeing’s commercial aircraft — flight, maintenance, and cabin crew (a.k.a., flight attendants). One day the ‘device manager’ (the person in charge of the full-flight simulators) offered several of us time in one of the simulators. Of course, we all hopped on it!
During her stint as ‘pilot’, one of our group had a bit of difficulty with the ‘landing’; on the first pass, she came in too hot and fast, so the device manager aborted the landing, and had me (I was sitting in the ‘instructor’s’ seat, and had access to the simulator’s controls) reset the simulation.
On the second attempt, she came in hard; the simulater bounced twice, knocked the phone off its hook, and even threw me out of my seat! (I had neglected to fasten my seatbelt; hey, it was only a simulator, right?)
After the session, as we were heading back to our respective jobs, I asked the device manager, “On that one hard landing, in a real-world scenario, would we have walked away from it?”
He told me, “Oh, yeah. The device has a way of indicating a crash, and no crash was indicated. It may have blown a few tires, but that’s about all.” And then he told me this story:
“There was a pilot, for an airline I would rather not name, who once made just one of those strut-bottoming landings that could jar your tooth-fillings loose.
“He pulled up to the gate, and as per company policy, left the cockpit to bid the passengers goodbye.
“One passenger, a little old lady, walking with the aid of a a cane, shuffled up the aisle to the exit. When she got to the front of the plane, she fixed the pilot with a steely glare and asked him, ‘Young man, did you land this airplane…, or were we shot down?’”
It’s been nearly fifteen years, and I still laugh!
So, back in 2014, there was this crazy incident in Venice, California. Melora Rivera found herself face-to-face with a total intruder trying to break into her house. Talk about terrifying! But she didn’t panic. Nope, she jumped into action and made a daring escape by climbing onto her roof. And that’s when the infamous photo was taken.
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Melora Rivera
Imagine this: the front door gets kicked in, and Rivera’s instincts kick into overdrive. She jumps out of bed, throws on a flannel shirt, and dials the cops on her cell phone. But get this, the intruder follows her onto the roof!
So here she is, on the roof, weighing her options. She quickly realizes that climbing down directly is not the smartest move because, well, it’s a long way down. With her safety at stake, she decides to wait anxiously for the police to come to the rescue.
And boy, did they. The police showed up in just two minutes, but when they arrived, they only saw Rivera on the roof. They were worried about who she really was. And Rivera, she was terrified that the intruder might accidentally end up where she was hiding.
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AP Photo/Venice311.org, Alex Thompson
Thankfully, the Los Angeles Fire Department stepped in and saved the day. They used a ladder to safely get Rivera off the roof. Meanwhile, the police were able to convince the intruder, later identified as Christian Hicks, to surrender. He got slapped with burglary charges real quick.
But the craziest part? Rivera’s neighbors were there witnessing the whole thing go down. They whipped out their cell phones and snapped photos and videos from every angle. You’ve got Rivera huddling under an eave, phone to her ear, while the intruder lurks just above. And then there are the cops with guns drawn, ready to protect Rivera from any harm.
Talk about a wild day in Venice!
Scott Ritter: “Houthi’s have us beat.. We have played ourselves and will FAIL due to INCOMPETENCE!”
Once upon a time, in the quaint little town that could be any town, there lived a woman named Jane and her husband, Tom. Jane was known for her quick wit and a tongue that could be as sharp as a razor blade, especially when her patience was tested.
One day, after a particularly long and stressful week, Jane and Tom found themselves embroiled in one of those arguments that couples often have, about something so trivial neither could later remember what sparked it. The air in their cozy living room was thick with unspoken frustrations and the remnants of past disagreements.
As the argument escalated, Tom, red-faced and exasperated, blurted out, “Why can’t you just let this go?”
In that moment, Jane, with a cool and steady voice that belied the storm of emotions inside her, replied, “Because sometimes, dear, I wonder if I made a mistake marrying you.”
The room fell silent. The weight of those words hung in the air like a thick fog, and Jane immediately regretted them. It was as if time had stopped, and she could see the hurt in Tom’s eyes, a hurt that echoed a fear buried deep in his heart.
Though they made up later, and Jane apologized profusely, those words became like a tiny crack in the vase of their marriage. Invisible most days, but a reminder that some words, once spoken, can never be fully taken back. They both learned that in the tapestry of marriage, woven with threads of love, trust, and respect, it’s often the words left unsaid that hold the most power.
My police officer husband (he’s since retired) and his partner met me, our son and his partner’s wife and children at McDonald’s one night for dinner. Our kids were playing in the playland. My son was about 5 or 6 at the time. We heard my son crying and looked up to see another child had pinned my son in a chokehold as he was coming out of the slide and was punching him in the face.
I stood up and said “Excuse me. We do not play like that.” and sat back down and we continued to eat. Suddenly “BIG MAMA” came storming into the play area and started screaming at me for being a racist bitch. We are white; she and her children black. I simply explained what had happened and that I hadn’t said anything about race.
She continued to scream and cuss at me. My husband stood up and said “Ma’am, your son was belting our kid in the face.”. She started screaming at him then claiming he was a “racist pig” and that she wanted to see his supervisor. He had done nothing as a police officer.
We wound up leaving because she wouldn’t shut up. About 2 weeks later, we tried the play date/dinner again, but, walked in to find them there. She immediately stood up and we just left.
Many years ago we had a couple adult brothers who lived in a house in our town. We’ll call them Donald and Ronald. They liked to drink and they liked to play with guns. They had the combined IQ of a house plant, but Ronald was just a little brighter than Donald.
On TWO occasions (about a year apart) we had to evacuate the adjacent neighborhood because these two decided it would be fun to start shooting in the air from their open windows.
We had to treat these situations as barricaded subject calls. We could not assume they wouldn’t shoot at us.
So we established inner and outer perimeters and tried to make telephone contact with them.
On both occasions (after several hours of negotiations) we were able to get them to surrender without anybody getting hurt, but the second time was a little hairier than the first one. They had friends involved as guests and they added an extra unknown factor we had to deal with. It was also rumored that a child was in the house, but this turned out to be false.
The first time they were charged with various misdemeanors. Since we could not prove they caused any damage to homes or other property we were unable to secure more serious charges. The second time we could. Both times their guns were confiscated.
I was the negotiator who spent several hours on each occasion trying to get them to come outside so we could peacefully resolve the situation. By the second time, they were on a first name basis with me.
The second incident was treated a little less patiently than the first one. About 90 minutes after the shots from inside the house stopped, we did something we chose not to do on the first occasion: we cut off the electricity inside the house. Within a half hour of cutting the electricity they surrendered and were taken into custody.
I was in the station about an hour after they were taken into custody. One of the officers who was working on booking and charging the brothers came into my office and told me they wanted to speak to me in person, so I went back to the holding cell area.
Donald said, “Bruno, what the f***, man. You shut off our electricity?? You didn’t do that last time.”
I said, “You’re right, Donald. We didn’t do it last time. But this time you guys brought it to a new level, and so we brought it to a new level. Don’t do this again.”
“Well, what if we do??”
“Then we will turn off your oxygen.”
“You can do that???”
I just walked away.
Soon after this incident the brothers sold the house and moved out of town.
Don’t worry you will soon know. But by bit China will take down the Wall Street. It has taken down GM and Ford, AIA and Apple, China has the most capital. China in time will have the most investor. China is far more responsible fiscally and monetarily than the U.S. what make you think U.S. start ups and giants don’t want to cash in there?
It is a matter of time. Now China starts the first salvo to answer to Donald Trump. He don’t want Chinese companies to be listed in NYSE, China says don’t worry. We won’t. China wants all Chinese companies to delist within a decade! Let us see who lose more!
It wasn’t me, but a very good friend of mine. Her mother was very abusive to her and her brothers throughout their childhoods. They all left home in their teens as soon as they were able to get their first jobs. After many years of no contact, the mother died and was cremated. Two years later, no one had come to collect the remains. The crematorium contacted all the children. The brothers refused to have any involvement. The crematorium staff made my friend feel so guilty, her and her husband drove 7 hours to the city where her mother had died to collect the ashes. On the drive home my friend started crying and said she didn’t want the ashes. She said they would just be a painful reminder of all the years of abuse. Without a word, the husband pulled the car over, grabbed the urn, walked down an embankment and threw the ashes into a river. My friend laughed and said she had never felt as loved as she did at that moment. The mother couldn’t swim and was terrified of water.
“Please, dear God, don’t let it come down to another Biden/Trump face-off in the next election.”
Some of my liberal friends and family members, and liberal Quorans whom I follow and respect, have expressed how they think Biden is too old and wish that he would just bow out gracefully. I suspect that those who haven’t said as much have been thinking it.
Similarly, while I know that Trump seems to have good polling numbers amongst likely Republican primary voters, I don’t know any Republicans in real life who really like him. I know some who like his policies, particularly on border security, but those same people have expressed disdain for the man himself.
I’m hoping that, once people actually get a chance to vote in the primaries, the polls will be proven wrong about how much support Trump really has. Perhaps people are lying to the pollsters out of spite for the mainstream media. Or, maybe one of Trump’s competitors in the primary will gain momentum in the early primaries, and the “please, not Trump” Republican support will all go towards that one candidate, and it will be enough to make Trump not the nominee.
Most of my liberal friends and relatives didn’t support Biden in the last election, but they voted for him out of hatred for Trump. It doesn’t really matter how they vote, here in Illinois, since the Democrat always wins here, but I wonder if that hatred of Trump will be enough to get Biden elected again in states where there is a real competition.
I predict that, should it come down to Trump/Biden again, most people won’t be voting for either of them, so much as voting against the other person (by voting for the only other person on the ballot who can actually beat them). They will dutifully vote for Trump or Biden, while wishing they didn’t have to, then spend the next four years complaining about the exact things they were warned would happen should that person get elected.
Illinois primaries too late, and is too solidly blue, for my presidential vote to matter, so I’m off the hook as far as stressing over it too much. I’m just along for the ride.
But I think that almost anyone who isn’t Trump or Biden, who ends up as the nominee for the Republicans or Democrats, could easily win the election. Their presence on the ballot would be welcome news to voters from both parties.
I think that Nikki Haley, in particular, would have the easiest pathway to victory, should she end up the Republican nominee, particularly if she were running against Biden. The liberals in my life who go through life with demographic lenses clouding their views on everything would quietly support Haley, just because of her gender and race, and not for any party or policies she supported. That, plus the core Republican support the nominee will get anyway, would win Haley most of the swing states, I suspect.
Chinas policies are CRISP and their origin and implementation route is flawless
Everyone knows who proposed the policies and who implemented them
If a policy succeeds, the persons who implemented them get promotions and responsibility and the persons who proposed them get more traction within the CPC
If a policy fails, the persons who implemented them are if not punished, at least put in a doghouse and forgotten with their careers stagnating until a few of them are lucky enough to get a second chance
The persons who proposed the policies will also remain where they are and silently in the next Congress retire or go into insignificance
It’s a beautiful system running on RESULTS, RESULTS and always RESULTS
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Take the floods of 2023
41 City officials faced the wrath for the City being flooded for 36 hours (Flooded means water reaching above 3 inches on Public Roads and 1 1/2 inches in Airports)
That is Accountability
They will be replaced and their careers will taper off.
Meanwhile this man, who planned ahead and saved at least 6% of Chinas crops from being destroyed and rather was responsible for a bumper crop
He will be rewarded suitably
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Xi Jingping almost never makes policies
Those days for him are done
So are other members of the standing Committee
He now listens to his people, his advisors and asks them to handle things
If things go well, they get promotion and traction
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Wang Yi handled his job beautifully and got rewarded with a Politburo appointment
Now he is the Top dog controlling all foreign policy within the Party
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Zhao Lijian was perceived as not doing his job well enough
He was promoted but his new job has maybe 25% of the power he once held
It’s always results
If China gets over 5% GDP growth this year, that’s good for everyone and they did ok
If China manages more than that, that’s better than expected and there will be promotions
If China does worse, those officials will soon be forgotten and stagnate and deputed to insignificant errands
The Western Countries & other democracies like India don’t have such a flawless system
Here everyone rushes to take credit for success and everyone tries to blame others for failure
As a result a lot of mediocre people occupy exalted positions of power merely because of political maneuvering or influence rather than ability and talent
In China, 11 people in the Politburo & Central Committee are people who supported Li Keiqang over Xi Jingping in 2012
No issues
In US, would Biden hire Joseph D Kernan or Trey Gowdy or Brent Mcintosh?
Nopes
They are highly able Individuals but they will be ignored because of politics and because they were Trump appointments
Thus as usual every decision is laced with more than ability and merit and accountability
It’s essentially ONE PARTY MERITOCRACY VS DEMOCRACY.
China’s MILITARY PLAN To Bring US To Knees With A Click Of Button
So my six-year-olds father and I went to a dance competition that she was competing in. And there was obviously that one “dance mom” who has all the t-shirts and tote bags with the studio’s name on it and thinks their child is the best.
Anyway, my daughter finished her amazing solo and finished the group dance too. Let’s call this “dance mom” figure “Entitled Mom.”
So after all the dances came awards and my daughter won first place for solos in her division (yay!). EM’s daughter won eighth and she was NOT having it. She started screaming in the halls like: “THE JUDGES ARE SO BLIND!”, “MY DAUGHTER SHOULD BE IN FIRST NOT THAT KID (my kid)”, “I DIDNT KNOW THIS WAS A COMPETITION FOR JUDGES TO SHOW OFF HOW IDIOTIC THEY ARE!” etc.
And of course, some staff told her to calm down, blah blah blah.
Then the EM came up to my kid and put her finger in this tiny six-year-old’s face and said “You did not deserve this trophy. Go home and quit because I bet this was your first win only because the judges can’t see real talent.” And this *female dog* had the audacity to grab the trophy out of my kid’s hand and throw it across the room.
I went OFF. I took this lady bag and threw that across the room. Not my proudest moment but yeah I was pissed.
In the end, she literally told my daughter to quit and my kid went home instead of happy and proud of herself, crying her eyes out because of that lady. The studio that EM’s kid was representing sent me an email the next day apologizing and that EM was not allowed to attend any competitions that her kid was going to representing that studio. We also got a new trophy because when EM thew it the top broke into pieces.
This happened to me about 20 years ago when I still lived in Alabama. I needed a little cash so I drove to the my bank to pick some up during business hours. This was quite a few years before any of our local banks had automated tellers.
I used the drive-thru where I wrote a personal check to “cash” for 50 dollars, if I remember correctly. I then gave the check and my identification, my passport as I had lost my drivers license a couple days before, to the teller.
The teller, let’s call her Charlotte, takes my passport looks at it and, over the intercom, says to me, as though very probably dealing with an idiot, “Sir, I’m gonna need a valid photo identification. I don’t even know what this here is.” (Imagine Dolly Parton doing a parody of her own southern accent).
I tried my best not to seem a condescending prick and replied “ That’s my passport issued by the United States Department of State. I can assure you that it is a valid form of photo identification. Just look at it. There’s a U.S. Flag and a picture of an bald eagle and everything.”
“Well, be that as it may I’m gonna need a drivers license or somethin’ otherwise I can’t give you no cash.” she insists.
“What you have there is most definitely SOMETHING. Perhaps you should confer with one of your colleagues or even a manager.” I suggest.
“Betty, can you come over here and look at this?” she asks of one of her colleagues. “This gentleman claims that this is A VALID PHOTO IDENTIFICATION. Do you even know what this is?”.
Betty looks at me and says “Sir, we’re gonna need a valid form of photo identification like a drivers license or somethin’.”
I give the classic 2 handed facepalm and, after a long suffering sigh, I say “It’s a passport. It’s issued by the United States Government to U.S. Citizens who generally use them to travel abroad and it is definitely a valid government issued photo ID.”
By this time a third teller, let’s call him Carl, is involved “I think it’s one of those things you use to go to foreign country or somethin’.” he says to Charlotte and Betty. He looks at me “Sir this is a bank. It ain’t no airport. We’re going to need a valid photo identification like a drivers license or somethin’.”
At this point I’m no longer trying to avoid being a condescending prick when I ask “Can one of you ignorant savages fetch a manager? Preferably one that’s traveled beyond the borders of the great state of Alabama.”
After a round of “Well I never’s!” Betty takes of in a huff to retrieve the bank manager. When he arrives Charlotte looks at me smugly and says “Bill, this gentleman wants withdraw cash but, he doesn’t have valid photo identification, he only has THIS!” and with this she presents Bill, the bank manager, with my passport.
Bill looks at me sheepishly and there is an audible click as the intercom shuts off. Because of this I didn’t here exactly what bill said to Charlotte, Betty, and Carl but judging from their body language and the way their eyes all drifted downward I would guess it was none to kind. Then a click as the intercom springs back to life and Bill says “Please allow me to apologize Mr. Estes I promise you that nothing like this will ever happen again. Would 2 twenty’s and a ten be o.k.?”.
The last things we said were “Love you, man. Goodnight” before he had to go away for a month.
He came back and blocked my number, blocked me on social media, and effectively erased me from his life.
No warning.
No explanation.
No goodbye.
10+ years of friendship thrown in the trash.
It’s been 7 months, and I still don’t know why.
And I feel the loss in my chest and my body and deep in my bones. Every fucking day of my life.
Not giving someone any sense of closure is one of the cruelest things you could do to another person.
I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
Edit to add:
It’s been 2 years now, and it still fucking hurts an unimaginable amount.
Highly irritated at everyone who has ever said “Time heals all wounds.”
No. It fucking. Does not.
Edit to add:
Coming in on 3 years soon, and the pain has dulled into what can best be described as a painful annoyance.
Perfect analogy?
Have you ever burned the ever-living-shit out of your arm or hand? It hurts for so long.
Taking a hot shower is agony. Putting on a shirt is a bitch. Honestly, just touching it is awful.
Then it starts to scab over. It’s very sore still, but less excruciatingly so. If you bump it on something, it’s rough. You’ll probably let out a loud yelp. But it’s healing.
And then the scab begins to flake off. The pain is mild, but the itching is constant. If you poke it hard, it’s certainly not going to feel good, so you try not to poke it.
It’s a different kind of problem, and you really just wish you hadn’t burned yourself in the first place.
This is where I’m at now, three years later.
It’s mild pain, paired with utter annoyance.
And it’s leaving a hell of a scar.
Edit to Add:
It’s been 5 years now.
To my former Self: The wound is healed, my darling! And the scar is so very important. Thank you for honoring our pain with the attention it deserved. To think! We could have become bitter and cold, but instead we are blossoming and warm and eager to learn again.
And to my original edit: No, you are right, time does not heal all wounds. It rebuilds YOU around them.
Closure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Growth, however? Utterly priceless.
Moody is a western and U.S. rating agency. It works for the US government and owned by the neocons. What is says is bird poo. Looking or listening to Moody’s is no different from checking Jews status from a Nazi perspective!
This is the same agency that gives AAA rating to the U.S. economy! The one that could not increase the real standard of living since 1960. That is 60 years ago. Moody’s depend on their mood ! Or when their pay master tell them what to grade!
These are the agencies thss as t has to go in the new world order. One don’t get your cronies to rate you!
It’s a lot of work – I’ve built maybe a dozen, and it always takes 3–4 hours. I’ve built them in Sierra and Cascades snow, and it’s a huge amount of work to tramp down the snow, churning the layers of snowfall so there aren’t weak spots in your bricks…
image 439
Cutting the bricks with an ice saw is neat – but the blocks (2′ x 1.5′ x 1′) are really heavy – that’s about 20 gallons of packed snow/ice, perhaps 30–50 pounds heavy.
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You build up in a spiral – so each block leans in a little more than the previous one, and each is supported by touching the corner of the previous block. You don’t try to build a solid structure – just a skeletal framework of blocks touching each other with triangular holes between.
image 442image 443image 444
The last pieces are hard to place, since you have to lean over a somewhat unstable structure without tipping it in. If you aren’t diligent, it tends to be taller than a half-sphere, and then it’s nearly impossible to place the keystone block.
When the frame is done, you fill the holes with packed snow, which makes the structure really solid and robust enough to climb up and stand atop.
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When the dome is done, then you can dig down and create an entrance tunnel. It’s important that the tunnel is lower than the sleeping platform, because otherwise the warm air trapped in the dome all just blows away.
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The entrance tunnel is going to be tight – the smaller the hole, the warmer the structure, and it’s a lot of work to make the tunnel big anyway. This is not a structure for the claustrophobic!
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From inside, you can really see the structure – the gaps between the blocks that you packed with snow are much less dense than the blocks.
image 451
And at night, a flashlight really shines through the structure.
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You can build a lot of supplementary structures with ice-blocks to make comfortable camp. Be sure to plant skis and packs upright – the night after I took this picture, we had 3–4 feet of new snow, and only the tips of the skis were showing. This time, we didn’t have to go digging…. By the way, you keep your water bottles and boots inside your sleeping bag, otherwise they will likely freeze. Frozen boots are a serious problem if you are in the wilderness.
image 453
Inside, you want to ventilate so the temperature stays a little below freezing – you don’t want it dripping on you. But it’s still much warmer than outside overnight. It’s also utterly silent. I’ve slept through some amazing storms without hearing a thing.
And you need some really good sleeping pads – most of the cold comes up from the sleeping platform, not from the cold air. It’s worth spending some time to make sure the sleeping platform is totally flat and level, because ice is slippery, and if it’s not flat, you’ll spend all night sliding towards the tunnel and trying to scoot back, which isn’t very restful.
My blood type is KFC positive and even I am finding it hard to eat it these days.
On top of the product changing, most likely to make more money, the service has deteriorated terribly, at least the one closest to me.
Every time I would order they would get it wrong. It was so bad it was almost like they did it deliberately.
One day, about three years ago now, after having enough of being given the wrong food, I decided to go in to the store in person and complain.
Surprisingly, but not really given how bad this store is, there was a lady at the counter complaining about exactly the same things I was going to complain about. She even said, like me, she came down especially to make the complaint in person.
I could tell from the body language that the 12 year old store manager couldn’t care less.
Another time I went there at lunch time to buy chicken (Kentucky Fried Chicken – that is apparently what they sell!) but they had none! None! Literally no chicken but I could get a burger if I wanted. I guess you let a store be run by children and this is bound to happen.
As I walked out empty-handed, two police officers were walking in. I said to them, “Good! You’re here to arrest them for running out of chicken!?”
They asked me if the store was indeed out and so they turned around and left too but did say something along the lines of, “Yes we should be able to arrest them. How could KFC run out of chicken at lunchtime?”
My thoughts exactly! The Colonel would be turning in his bucket in disgust!
Ma Po Tofu (Ma Po Dofu)
A famous Szechuan recipe – the name Ma Po Tofu is roughly translated as “pockmarked grandmother bean curd,” named for the old woman who supposedly invented the dish.
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Ingredients
Tofu
3 cakes regular tofu (medium firmness)
1/4 pound ground pork
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon salted black beans
1 tablespoon chili paste
3 tablespoons stock (chicken broth)
1 leek or 3 green onions
Freshly ground Szechuan pepper
Marinade
1 1/2 tablespoons tapioca starch
2 tablespoon soy sauce
Mixture
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
Oil for stir-frying
Instructions
Mix marinade ingredients . Marinate pork for about 20 minutes.
Cut the bean curd into 1/2 inch (1 cm) square cubes, and blanch (drop into boiling water) for 2 – 3 minutes. Remove from boiling water and drain.
Chop leeks or green onions into short lengths.
Heat wok and add oil. When oil is ready, add the marinated pork. Stir-fry pork until the color darkens. Add salt and stir. Add the salted black beans. Mash the beans with a cooking ladle until they blend in well with the meat. Add the chili paste, then the stock, bean curd, and leek or green onions.
Turn down the heat. Cook for 3 – 4 minutes.
While cooking, mix cornstarch, water and soy sauce together. Add to wok and stir gently.
I left my trash can out 5 hours past when I was supposed to bring it in. I hadn’t brought it in because my arms were full of groceries and I had just returned from a full day of working. I was so burned out from work and shopping I didn’t even make it to my bedroom; I fell asleep on the couch. Next morning I get a call from the hoa saying that someone complained about the garbage cans being outside longer than allowed. I had literally brought the can in at 5 am so that it wouldn’t inconvenience people. Apparently that wasn’t good enough, and it had to have been in the night before. Even though it was the first time that I had left it out, they still fined me $200. I asked 1. How did they know the can was mine? 2. When was the complaint filed, since I had brought my can in at the crack of dawn. They refused to answer either of those questions.
Another incident with the SAME HOA really made my blood boil. They claimed my sweet wheaten terrier was terrorizing the neighborhood because he would like to look out of a second story window and occasionally bark at another dog passing by. Please note that this dog is 40 pounds and in no way shape or form, able to get out of the building with out human assistance. The hoa said that he was a threat to the neighborhood and well over 40 pounds, the weight limit that they imposed for dogs. I told them that he was exactly 40 pounds, and showed vet records to prove it, and that even if he barks at a dog passing by, humans can’t hear it from the street because the windows are closed! Hoa didn’t care. Fined me $400 and said for every new complaint they would double it. They’ve doubled it 3 times. No proof of my dog harassing anyone. Just their word versus mine. The hoa literally gave me the choice of debarking my dog or putting a bark collar on him; both of which are cruel. My immediate neighbors have no problem with him barking if they ring a doorbell or knock on the door because that’s what watch dogs do, so I’m honestly not sure who is filing complaints against me. Once I save up enough for a new place, I will never be in a hoa again.
Not a Realtor but a home inspector for mortgage companies. Went to inspect a mobile home that was in process of being repossessed. House was supposed to be empty. my job was to take pics, insure elec and water was off, house was vacant and there was a clear path for the truck to remove the house the following week. When i got here, the home was not vacant. Living in the home was a woman and her 4 hogs. yes, hogs, giant filthy hogs. The walls were literally black about 3 feet up the walls. the floors were inches thick in hog poop. The bathtub was FULL of dog/hog poop. The house was only 2 years old! this woman was sleeping in a recliner chair in the middle of her living room. There was also a multitude of dogs. She started crying and said she had to move to the hog pen in her back yard if we took the house. She dragged her chair outside and called her hogs and dogs and went into the back yard. When i stepped back there to take pics of the back of the house i could see her in a 3 sided shack, in her recliner. I had to take many pics and after every room i would run outside and take breaths of fresh air. The stench was overpowering. When I was done and went back to my car, where my husband was waiting, as he had “rode along” , I took off my shoes and threw them in the trash and then got in the car. We got about 1/4 mile and husband make me pull over and take off my clothes. he gave me his shirt to drive in and we threw away my clothes too. I reported to the company that the house was unrenewable and they should just write it off and let her keep it. I dont know what they actually did.
I got a letter in the post from a private parking company telling me I had overstayed by 10 minutes. They wanted £60, or £100 if I didn’t pay immediately.
Where I live, only the driver is liable for private parking charges, and I was at the dentist elsewhere at the time, so I appealed to the parking company telling them I was not the driver and could not have been because I had an appointment somewhere else at the time.
I heard nothing for a while so thought that was it, but then suddenly I got a demand for £100. I wrote saying that I had appealed already, restating my case. They told me they had no record of my appeal, and that now I was too late to appeal, so I owed £100.
I wrote to them following their complaints procedure, stating they had lost my appeal, and restating my case. They replied, “tough luck”. I wrote asking if that was the end of their complaints procedure. They replied I was out of time to appeal.
Letters now started coming thick and fast from them. The charge somehow escalated to £180, and the letters got quite aggressive, talking about court action, credit ratings and supreme court verdicts about parking. To be honest, they were quite stressful.
I put them on notice that the letters were causing me stress, and that under the data protection act I had the right for my personal data to be stored correctly. The particular item I wished to be stored correctly was that I was not the driver. Additionally, my data could only be used for appropriate purposes, and as I was not the driver, pursuing me for a parking charge was no longer an appropriate purpose now I had appraised them of the facts.
Letters continued.
The statute of limitations for parking charges is six years, and I had no desire to keep getting stressful letters for this time. Only one course of action seemed appropriate, so I filed a claim against them for data protection violations.
My distant cousin was marrying this girl. The girl’s family were investing a huge sum. But days before final confirmation, the girl calls him and reveals what her parents were hiding.
She fearlessly discloses, she was having neurological problems since she met with a car accident as there was a bleeding in her brain at that time.
That really hurt my cousin(Deepak, name changed). But as much as he wanted to get away, her honesty only polarised him in the direction his mind definitely didn’t.
It was a conundrum that the girl, though through arrange-marriage only, but he had started loving, should he leave her because she told the truth. If she wouldn’t have, then he would have surely married her.
He thought what kind of justice it would be. Marry the untrue but ditch the true. He consulted doctors and got a positive reply that her condition could be well tackled.
He calls her and says, whatever happens, we face it together. I’ll marry you and always be by your side. He got the reply which distorted him from within into the fragments he could never reassemble.
The girl said, “Don’t you get it idiot, I have a boyfriend, my parents are irritating me. I don’t want to be a disobedient girl in their world. Just say No and let me marry my lover.”
First China locked down very strictly as China like all nation do not enough is known about Covid -19 yet and no known cure or prevention is yet to be available.I believed the Chinese authorities saves at least 10 million deaths if not for their timely and strong actions.
Next while the U.S. and many western nations were bickering and could not lock down like China after condemning China on the so call “draconian” measures. And as a result the infections extrapolate hundreds of fold compared to China. So while China opened up strategically to use the time to overtook the west in many technological fields while the west were finally forced into lock down due to huge deaths!
So while the Chinese work and progress the western nation were paralyse. Chinese vaccines were more effective than the western ones. And it has less side effect. The rapid and effective vaccination of 1.4 billion probably save a hundred million infections and millions of life.
China being responsible and careful watch, study and understand that the latest strains of Covid had become a weak strain that it is time for China to eased up. That they did after being sure that opening up fully will mean full infections. And indeed that happened but without deaths and long infections.
To me and to the world China handled the Covid pandemic the most effectively and most successfully of all nations. To me the western so call liberal democracy failed phenomenally. And while the west were selfishly profiteering from the vaccine, China spread their goodwill and share its vaccine throughout the world.
Now that the dust has by and large settled, on the Covid-19 pandemic. China passed the severe test admirably and extremely successful proving that Chinese political system of socialism with Chinese characteristics won the day. All in all it lost 0.5% of what the U.S. lost in life due to Covid-19 the U.S. based on per million citizens.
Final result U.S. with only 330 million population lose 1,190,000 life while Chin with 1.4 billion population lose less than 6000 life! During the 3 years of Covid-19 ravage from 2020–2022 China grew close to 4 times the U.S. growth! Meanwhile the U.S. life expectancy felled below China for the first time in 2021 and by end of the 2022 Chinese people on average out live the US by 2 full years!
For me the Chinese did just right. Compared to the U.S. that handled it worst that many 3rd world nation.
Interesting. I had a good friend who had a good sales job. He was a good earner for the company and a stellar employer. He had two children, and of course needed the job to support his family. He worked hard and was a nice guy. He had a company car due to the fact that he drove a lot.
One day he got called into the office and was fired. I can’t remember why, but it was a stupid reason. Somehow the new company CEO just didn’t like him and found some bogus reason to get rid of him. I spoke to a few of his company friends later, and they all agreed, he was a great employer and in no way did he deserve to be fired. They told him to clear out his desk and leave, and turn in the keys for his company car. He cleaned out his desk, and politely told them, his car was parked on the street, so he would bring it directly to the front door for them.
He certainly did. He got the car from the street, drove it into the parking lot, and right through the front doors of the company. Completely destroyed the foyer, front entrance, and the car. Then he calmly got out of the car, and said, “Sorry about that everyone, I must have hit the gas by accident.”
Probably cost $200,000 damage. Police arrived and interviewed him. He was apologetic, and explained his shoe got caught on the brake pedal, holding the gas down.
The police didn’t charge him. He was on private property, so it wasn’t an accident on a public roadway.
Here’s the funny thing. The new CEO had decided to start saving money, and ignored calls from his building insurance company. There was no policy to cover the damage.
My friend got a new job rather quickly and got on with his life. He became a legend.
My name is Clara and I have studied and lived in Ningbo for several months. I was an exchange student of University of Nottingham Ningbo and learned a lot of things about China and its people.
In my opinion, there are many things that we have gotten wrong about China. However, I am speaking in my position of spanish woman. I feel like maybe other countries who have a higher rate of ethnicities inside their country can have other points of view. At least, in my country there were many stereotypes among chinese minorities. This is because the only treatment most of them have with chinese people is getting a spring roll in a Chinese restaurant or buying a toy in a chinese owned store. So the only thing known about China is through media. And often media is full of stereotypes and mockery. While countries like Japan and Korea have been lately in the fancy spot, due to their pop culture in general. Chinese is not as keen on exporting its products, even though it’s getting more recognition lately. So people don’t tend to glamourize China and see it as a “developing country” packed with many people and a place to adopt children
After spending some time in China and learning more about its culture and experiencing things with my own eyes, coming back home and hearing those comments that I found even funny before, make me sick and now with the pandemic going on is even more disgusting. “Chinese people are poor” “Chinese Woman must be very unhappy” “They eat everything that moves” “C’mon pose like a chinese” “How was China? I can’t believe you traveled around it must be very dangerous” “Have you dated any chinese? They have small dick, haha” “I don’t have any problems with dating other races but I just don’t like chinese people” and the list goes on. Specially, they tend to considerate everything that is asian related as chinese. Geishas are chinese, K-pop is chinese singers, Anime is chinese cartoons and the list goes on
I have already given up in correcting people’s racism. I am still dealing with mine and some people are simply not willing to change. I have tried to explain to some people that China is far more advanced than Spain. People use things more smartly in all of the levels, from paying to even designing potatoes packages. I have tried to explain that chinese people are always willing to help and chinese younger generations are open to dialogue. I tried to tell them that even my chinese female friends stand in more or less the same social ideals as I have. I have meet straight people, bisexual people, gay people, religious people, atheist people, and so on in China. Each one has it’s own opinions and perspective on life. Nobody is brainwashed. I have also explained that I have never seen bats on a street market or anything similar and that holding back your eyes to mock asian eyes is very racist. I have also tried to explain that China is a very safe place and people are very peaceful and mind their business. And the other racist things such as “I just don’t like chinese people”, I just replied with “Well, I don’t like you either and here we are”.
Star Trek: The Silent Skies | COLORIZED & EXTENDED
After my mother died, I spent a few months living in her (our) house and taking care of it, and arranging probate issues. It was a difficult time, as my second wife (the wife from Hell, and BTW…the person who worked for MAJ to “retire” me), demanded that she gets the entire estate “or else”.
So, I’m dealing with all these stressers.
Those in the “know” also know about this point in time. My fate forecast; I am entering my “triple black” inauspicious time, and I lost my job, my wife, my mother… and soon (though I didn’t know it yet) everything else.
But at this moment in time, I was in the house, and my brother came over with a close friend of his (ours).
We were all in the kitchen drinking. My mother had collected all sorts of wine that sat in racks in the kitchen / dining area, and they decided to open them up and start drinking.
And I stepped out to go onto the “sun room”.
After the first bottle, my brother said “corked”.
If a wine is “corked”, it means that it has been tainted by the cork, or rather a chemical compound which can be found in natural corks. This contamination gives off a very distinct smell and taste, which can be described as musty, earthy, wet cardboard, wet newspaper, or even wet dog. The term ‘corked wine’ refers to a wine contaminated with cork taint, which can happen if the wine is bottled with a TCA-infected cork.
Which means that the wine had been sitting too long, and somehow the wine went bad. Now, this might be a term used by aficionados, but for us “regular folk” (and I know, I drink one FUCK of a lot of wine) it was just fine.
I tasted the wine.
It was fine.
I was in the other room, and when I went into the kitchen, imagine my horror when I watched my brother and his friend draining out about 35 bottles of (very expensive) wine down the sink. Claiming that it was “corked”.
wine down the drain
They weren’t “corked”. Not in the least.
Sheech!
…
As a wine lover, and as a wine aficionado, I still remember that moment with aghast horror. Such a pity! Such a waste. And what is really horrific, is that he has no idea… none… not one iota what he did.
Everyone… what ever you do, don’t though out wine unnecessarily. Even if corked, it can still be used for cooking! Sheech!
Don’t know about my “best” friend but I remained close with an ex. She didn’t like my partner for (mostly) racist reasons. But they were civil together when we met up.
I didn’t tell her we were expecting. But at 20 weeks my partner experienced severe pain and was hospitalised for 4 days. This came up in conversation. She deduced that we were expecting.
She pushed me to ask for an abortion.
She then posted it on Facebook to around 2000 followers, asking for advice about persuading someone to get an abortion. To a group I was a member of.
I blocked her on all meeja and we haven’t spoken since.
She did send a message apologising. Not for the sentiment, but for taking it public. That really doesn’t address the core issue, which is that she wanted my beautiful daughter – the love of my life – executed because of her hatred of my partner. It’s going to be difficult to remain friends after that.
Copeland’s of New Orleans Crawfish Etouffee
2023 11 13 06 55
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
6 cups water
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon lobster base
1 pound fresh crawfish tail meat
Pinch black pepper
Pinch white pepper
Pinch cayenne
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon peanut oil
1 cup chopped yellow onion
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
Salt to taste
1 cup chopped green onions
1 teaspoon minced garlic
3 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
6 cups cooked white rice
Instructions
Prepare a stock by bringing the water to a boil. Add bay leaves and lobster base. Allow to boil for about 20 minutes or until the water has reduced to 5 cups of stock. Hold aside.
In a mixing bowl, combine the crawfish tails with black, white, and cayenne pepper.
Add the paprika and stir together well.
In a medium-size pot, heat the peanut oil at a near high setting. Oil should be hot but not smoking.
Add the chopped yellow onion and stir until translucent.
Add the crawfish tails and stir until they are heated and cooked through and have attained a good bond with their fat.
Add flour and mix well.
Pour in stock gradually, stirring constantly, until sauce achieves a substantial thickness and consistency.
Season with salt to taste.
Add the green onions, garlic, and parsley. Reduce the heat to a medium setting and simmer for about 10 minutes more.
Serve over a bed of cooked white rice.
Notes
If desired, you may stir in 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter to completed etouffee for added richness.
Attribution
Posted by GayleL at Recipe Goldmine 9:17:49pm 4/19/03.
The New Thai Tax Law that EVERYONE is Talking About
Big news in Thailand. This new tax law has everyone talking, and a bit scared. I will detail the rules and how it might affect you. So if you’re ever considering relocating to Bangkok, Phuket, Chiang Mai, Samui or anywhere else in Thailand, there’s lots of information in this video.
Years ago I bought a USB “dongle” for Internet access, through a company called Orange.
It was a pay monthly arrangement.
The bloody thing never worked, their customer services eventually admitted that the area I was in had very poor access and it wasn’t going to improve soon.
I said let’s just cancel.
They said no, you signed up for a year.
I said fine, and cancelled the regular payment, after sending them a letter explaining why, with my contemporaneous notes from a series of calls.
They kept sending demands. I said jyst take me to small claims court, we’ll see what the judge says. My view was, if the thing doesn’t work I ain’t paying for it. Contractual obligations go both ways.
Eventually they gave up, but clearly sold the debt (iirc around £250) to some agency.
The agency got in touch, but their phone number was a premium rate one. I sent a letter explaining my side, inviting them to small claims.
At around 6 month intervals for 2 years, different debt agencies tried- presumably these guys sell debts on?
Eventually, a reslly aggressive debt agency agreed to try it in small claims. They were based in London, I live 180 miles north.
I turned up, they didn’t. Well, not on time- some flustered legal junior arrived as I was leaving, and got a proper bollocking off the judge.
Judge awarded me, and my expenses/lost day’s pay, were to be covered by DebtTwat ltd.
I wasn’t expecting them to ever pay up, but i certainly wasn’t expecting them to send me a demand for flustered legal bloke’s train fare, taxi, and fee.
Obviously i tore this up and sent it back without a stamp.
We once took my son and his family out for a meal. The bill was £150, and I paid it with a card. I asked the waiter if I could add a tip and he proffered the card machine to let me do so. I added £20 and paid and we left.
As we got to the car park I glanced at the receipt and realised I’d actually given him a tip of 20p, clearly defining me as tight-arse, so I proceeded back into the restaurant, spotted our waiter, in a group of two or three of them at the bar, apologised for my mistake and gave him a £20 note. Smiles all round. I’d clearly done the right thing.
However as I left for the second time, I couldn’t resist adding “By the way, I’ll take my 20p back next time I’m here”
This caused a roar of laughter, and on subsequent visits has made us memorable and very well looked after. As I pay – more carefully with the tip – I am asked “Will you take your 20p now, Sir?”
The Standard Female Delusion Chart – a tool to reduce dating drama
Technology has enabled countless millions of desperate and morally bankrupt men to constantly shower mediocre women (there’s nothing wrong with being mediocre — most of us are) with attention. Naturally, women assume that this attention is higher-quality than it actually is, because “why wouldn’t people like me?” It’s an understandable mistake. We all want to believe we are “worth it.”
Simply put, a huge wave of sleazy, short-term, hookup-level interest from men is being mistaken – by the women who receive it — as akin to marriage proposals, and they are subsequently developing deeply emotionally and ego-rooted beliefs that they are all 9s, which is mathematically impossible. They then proceed to reject men who are far more likely to treat them well and pursue men who see them as nothing but cheap conquests, resulting in avoidable emotional damage, which they then take out on men in an intensifying cycle of resentment.
I must stand against this, and all I have is a voice. The only power that a man has to stop this cycle is to stop playing the game of letting women think he wants to be with them for real, when he knows he doesn’t. Shame on you. Stop that.
The only power that a woman has to stop this cycle is by being realistic about her actual value and finding men who are most likely to give her the maximum return for what she offers. Stop letting yourself believe that users love you.
That’s a delusion.
These diagrams are only roughly based on non-scientific data, but they are heavily rooted in real-life experience that proves itself true again and again.
I am confident that if women use them to identify the correct men and get to know them, they will have better luck starting relationships that last, and that will cause much less drama, heartbreak, confusion, and wasted time.
Also, my content does and always will contain humor to clarify and intensify the points that I’m making. Try to not take my content as being in competition with formal science, but rather as evidence-and-experience-based advice to avoid common dating problems. I tripped over a lot of rocks so you don’t have to. Best luck out there.
I had scheduled a young woman for a very long (easily 12+ hour) surgery on a deep-seated brain tumor right next to her brainstem. Having explained the risks and benefits of the surgery at length like I usually do (including significant risks of death, coma and stroke), she was more concerned about how much of her hair I would remove to do the surgery.
The night before surgery, I got a terrible flu – fever to over 103, malaise, joint and muscle pains, the works. In the end, I had no choice but to cancel her surgery and schedule for another day …
… expecting she would understand … I mean, who would want to undergo such a massive and dangerous surgery if the surgeon were that ill?
Well I was wrong. The patient became furious, hostile, angry, blamed me for inflicting emotional distress … demanded that I immediately find another surgeon to do the surgery that morning (not possible) … later lodged complaints up and down the hospital system … filed complaints with the medical staff … threatened to sue me … it took weeks to calm her – and our hospital – down.
It was the first time I had ever canceled a surgery in >20 years.
It’s what you get in a society that demands more than it understands. A society in which people live their lives in imaginary worlds conjured up by media (including doctor stereotypes) far removed from any sense of real humanity.
ADDENDUM:
A few Comments made me realize that not everyone understood my Answer, and I should perhaps clarify a few things:
the tumor was not near any part of the brain that would affect intellect or emotions
this patient was not “dying of a brain tumor;” while the surgery was going to be long and dangerous, it was far from urgent
I gently passed her care on to another neurosurgeon (it’s never a good idea to operate on someone who lacks faith in you), who operated on her a few weeks later; I heard she did well (though her attitude remained problematic)
there are no “back-up surgeons” waiting in the bullpen in case a surgeon gets sick: nowhere in the U.S., nowhere in Europe and nowhere in the world. Not like TV.
this is especially true of small sub-specialties like Neurosurgery
the all too common 60+ hour neurosurgical work week is packed full of patient responsibilities, and it is unrealistic to expect a colleague to abandon their own patients just to fill a gap like that at the last minute
no patient would want to undergo a huge brain surgery by someone they just met that morning – nor would most surgeons want to do a “surprise surgery” at the last minute. Neurosurgeons must do a lot of preparation before embarking on big, complicated cases. It’s not at all like you see on TV.
of course the hospital and its committees understood my situation completely (any reasonable person would understand that doctors can get sick), but they are obliged to investigate every complaint – hence a whole lot of unnecessary time and effort
To be honest, what I found most disconcerting about some of the negative Comments was how easily some people could make major assumptions about this story instead of simply asking me questions to clarify the situation.
Such Comments are just another example of: “demand more than understand.”
Why I’ll Never Move Back To America…
The American Dream… Is it dead or alive? In this video, I share THREE reasons why I don’t foresee myself ever moving back to America and why moving to the Philippines was potentially the best decision my family has ever made. Enjoy!
At the age of fifteen, thirteen days after my fifteenth birthday to be exact, I went out on my first real date. He came to my door and picked me up and we walked to a party. We had so much fun. He walked me home and he kissed me goodnight and he asked me to be his girlfriend. This felt like the greatest night in the whole world. Nothing could bring me down from my giddy and excited teenage crush!
….except for what happened the next morning.
I was awoken by my mother shaking me gently but urgently saying, “Honey? Erin. You need to get up now sweetie. Daddy’s going to die today…”
Those words ripped me out of any dreams I was having and back into the waking nightmare that had become my life for the last two years. I lived in constant fear that I was going to lose the bravest, strongest, most honourable, incredible man this world had to offer, but never really truly believed in my heart that it could happen. For me, to believe that he was really dying would be a betrayal to my hero. I would be giving up on him, and you never give up on your hero, not ever.
I learned that day that no amount of wishful thinking or prayer can change your circumstances.
The hardest thing I’ve ever had to do is to tell my dad that it was okay for him to die. He was hanging on with everything he had but it was time for him to go. I told him out loud that it was okay to let go, that we would be okay. We all told him that he had permission to die and to stop struggling so hard. And as soon as we said those things to him he passed away.
I held his hand as he took his last breath.
I watched my hero lose a terrible battle with cancer and I didn’t really know if I would be okay. I may have just lied to the person I loved most in this world. But I still believe I did the right thing. Setting my dad’s mind at ease was the most important thing to me that day, not wondering whether I’d be okay.
And to tell the truth I’m not sure I ever have been okay since that day. Something inside of me changed forever and I haven’t been able to get the old me back.
But I let my dad believe we would be okay because that was what he needed to move on. And I’d do it for him again in a heartbeat.
I had an uncle who was mildly retarded. It wasn’t Down Syndrome, it was probably lack of oxygen at birth, but people could tell just by looking at him that he was different.
That may be why 3 18 or 19 year old teens thought that they would jump my uncle and my grandmother while they were walking through their neighborhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut. What could an old lady and a 30 year old “retard” do to them?
I haven’t mentioned it yet, but my uncle was the youngest of 11 children. 9 of those kids were boys. So even though his brothers had taken it a little easier on him because of his mental disability, he was still used to playing rough and fighting. A lot. So when these teens threatened him and his mother he snapped. He hospitalized all 3 kids. He wrapped one of the kid’s arms around a tree backwards, the opposite direction of the kid’s elbow.
When the first officers showed up they put my uncle in cuffs, thinking he had initiated the carnage. My grandmother set things straight. My uncle had just defended his mother and himself.
The American Child vs The Chinese Child || 美国孩子 vs 中国孩子.
A student got sassy with a teacher about a grade and the teacher kicked him out of the room. The student grabbed a pencil and stabbed the assistant teacher in the room. Just in the hand, but still.
So the teacher goes rage mode and physically marches the student down to the deans office. Everyone is initially furious at the student, he’ll be expelled for sure. Assistant teacher is shaken but fine.
Daddy was a big donor to the school and the kid was on the state championship bound Football team. Daddy argued with the school, who reverses the expulsion and instead fires the teacher for “laying hands on a student.”
There were walk outs, several other teachers quit, the local news picked it up, the whole nine yards. Nothing changed. The school kept the little asshole to keep Daddy happy and fired a very, very good teacher.
When I was a cocky, long-haired punk and could get girls just by walking up and talking to them, I saw what I thought was two women getting in a car. I went up to the driver’s side and said something to the girl behind the wheel involving the word “ladies”. The long-haired dude in the passenger seat leaned over and said “Ladies?” he was annoyed I had tried to hit on his GF, but we laughed it off.
Entitled Women Make First Date List, And It BACKFIRES
I’m 61. My husband is 69. We can’t figure out how to use the kiosk. This morning, we added what we wanted to our order, but couldn’t figure out how to check out. The only icon that looked like it was a possibility was “Review Order” and it was greyed out. So, we were stuck. We backed out of it and left the restaurant. Also, when we saw the “login” prompt, we thought we might have to create an account which we don’t want to do. It’s just one more login and password we would have to remember. Nobody was at the counter to provide assistance. I’ll be diplomatic here. McDonald’s doesn’t sell weed. They sell shitty fake food. There’s nothing in their stores that I can’t live without…for the rest of my life. So, if they’re not willing to assist an old couple by taking their order, we won’t go into their restaurant(s) anymore. We went home and made a veggie omelet, hash browns, and cantaloupe. It was superior to anything on the McDonald’s menu and cooking it was less stressful than trying to figure out that fucking kiosk. Fast service that’s easy is basically all McDonald’s has going for it these days. And, they won’t even do that anymore. Plus, they’re using these non user friendly machines to phase out workers. Fuck ‘em.
I was going to download my banks, banking app, I always read the fine print. They want control of my camera, and they want permission to edit my contacts list.
I said “No” they said that the app wont work without access. I access my bank over the Internet, through their website directly, without going through the app. It works fine. Yet they don’t have access to my camera or contacts, funny about that.
I was on a subway train in DC. I had my five year old son with me, plus a few bags. I’m sitting on one end of the car, paying attention to the stops because I really don’t want to miss ours. A young black man grabs a seat on the other end of the car. I’m thinking gang member. Bandana. Gold jewelry. Baggy pants. Mind you, there were enough people on the train I certainly wasn’t concerned… that was just the impression I had. Anyway, we’re approaching our stop. My son has fallen asleep. The car isn’t jam-packed but it is kind of full. I’m wondering how I’m going to pick up my son and our stuff and make it to the door before the doors close.
As I struggle to get to my feet and head for the door, I see a foot casually hooked around the door, so it can’t close.
Yep. The black kid with the bandana and jewelry. As I look over, he flashes a smile.
We got off the train with no problem. A few people moved out of our way, but I didn’t see anyone else attempting to actually help.
Was he a gang member? Who knows. Who cares. At that moment, he was kind and helpful to a stranger. That’s all that mattered.
I went to apply for a job one time, and when I got there, the lead hand introduced himself to me while shaking my hand.
I had never been to this place before.
As he was shaking my hand this other guy jumped out from behind a machine, and in a gleeful, boisterous tone yells out to the lead hand, as he’s pointing to me, “There’s the guy! There’s the guy right there, that’s going to show you how to work that machine!”
It was a guy that I worked with at a previous job. He was a helper that was assigned to me whenever necessary.
I couldn’t believe it.
The lead hand looks at me, and that second I knew I was in.
I was in an elevator on a cruise ship. Some wiseacre saw my polka-dot suspenders.
He smirked, “Nice suspenders. You from Wisconsin?”
I replied, “No. Ever since my cancer surgery, I can’t wear a belt.”
His smirk instantly evaporated. The elevator doors opened on my floor, and I got out.
Soft tissue sarcoma caused by Agent Orange in Vietnam, They took out 1–3/4 pounds of me from my groin to my beltline. It left a notch where a belt would sit, so I can’t wear a belt comfortably.
The Legendary Mao in 1954 felt that any party member whose kids studied in Missionary Schools run by Western ideology , could not be trusted
In 1964, he felt such party members were Collaborators and Enemies
Thus every CPC member wisely decided to ensure his kids studied in Local Chinese schools and so the Party built more and more and more and more Schools all across China
Since their own members kids would study in these schools, the quality of these schools were higher and the subjects better
In 1996, Jiang Zemin after 42 years decided to repeal this old rule from Maos time and allow CPC members to send their kids to private schools
Then they discovered something
They discovered that Private School Quality was LOWER than Government School
Nobody wanted to send their kids to Private School.
Math, Science, Physics was of a tougher standard and teachers were the best
Thus even if it was due to fear of being branded a Collaborator, the fact is due to Mao – Chinas Education System became one of the best and it’s Government run schools became top notch
Indias misfortune was India never had a visionary like Mao or Deng
We did have Kamaraj but he was too localized
In India, Children of Politicians studied in the finest schools and later typically in UK Or US or Canada and foreign Universities
As a result there was NO REASON for Politicians to focus on quality education
India is a cesspit democracy
Long term vision was replaced by Short term election strategies
As a result, India focused on the BARE MINIMUM for State Or Centre sponsored Education
China and India were both equally pauper nations in the 1970s , in fact India was a tad bit richer
Yet China spent more on Education due to it’s long term vision , spent more on training teachers, spent more on sending teachers to foreign countries for enhancing their knowledge
India?
Politicians lined up their pockets
They duped the public
They openly stole public money and lined their coffers
Still even in 1992, there was some hope
Reservations destroyed it
The principle that a Moron Dullard was entitled become a Neurosurgeon or Doctor merely because Great Grand Daddy was oppressed a few decades ago
Plus the fact that this system was exploited even further when the genuinely oppressed weren’t at all given the chance
Instead a handful of wealthy persons took advantage of loopholes and drove quality into the Ground
China meanwhile had Crisp, Lovely, Meritocracy
A Son of a Sweeper could become an Engineer if he had merit, or a sweeper if he didn’t. Only Ability mattered.
By 2014, China was at a place India couldn’t reach with a hundred ladders
Then under Modiji, we all hoped things would improve
That at last we would have an AFFORDABLE EDUCATION ACT
That at last Modi would set a National Education Program and do what Mao did in 1954
Didn’t happen
Private Education raping the average Indian family with absurd tuition fees
Modiji focusing on Language policies, Sanskrit, Vedas and changing India to Bharat and removing Chapters on Mughals
The Average Chinese focusing on Python and Technology. The Average Indian on Ram, Laxman and some made up lies about how Modi is a superhero
It’s why, the Top 5% or 10% Chinese and Indians are similar
Yet the Average Chinese can swallow the Average Indian for breakfast, lunch and dinner
The Below Average Chinese os more than a match for the Average Indian
The Below Average ‘Educated’ Indian is on the lowest rung
Plus Indias biggest problem is the AVERAGE INDIAN
He doesn’t realize there is a problem at all
Realizing there is a problem means needing to work on a Solution and needing to recognize failure
Sorry. We are India. We are the best. We have no weaknesses.
Our Education system is flawed
Most refuse to agree. Some who agree make excuses including blaming Manmohan Singh. Some talk ‘Practically’ and say India needs to do nothing but everything will magically happen
Like I said, India is heading to a point where it would end up as a hotch potch, mish mash of uneven growth, a kind of Tumor rather than a crisp engine of growth with a Vision like China or even Vietnam
The $ 10 Trillion India would be a Huge Tumor rather than a nice neat rocket
Unless India buckles up and begins basic structural reform of Education, Healthcare and Liberal Laws
1. Everyone is insecure about something. It’s not just you.
2. You will never be 100% sure about decisions you made. But always make a decision because it’s better to go back and fix it than to never make it at all.
3. There is always someone better than you. So there’s no point to compare.
4. There’s nothing in life you can really control except your own thoughts and actions. So always hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
5. Nothing lasts forever. Things change, people change. And YOU can change anytime too.
6. Life is not a fairy tale. That’s why it’s always exciting and you’ll never be bored.
7. Hard work doesn’t guarantee success. But that’s what makes it challenging.
Going anonymous on this one, sorry about it, I just don’t think I can face being associated with the story I am about to tell. It will be a bit long-winded but one of the weirdest encouters ever happened in my life. And as it happened in a date, so…
Here it goes:
I signed up for a free dating site and started chatting to several guys. One of them, seemed like a nice and decent person.
When we started talking, it was about usual topics, interests. The conversation was flowing, as they say. I gave him my mobile number and he sent me texts every day, just some niceties. One of them was “I think we are on the same wavelength” “I hope so” I responded. I haven’t the slightest known yet, how wrong I was on assuming so…
After a week of talks, we set up a real life date.
He lived around an hour train ride from me and came to the station to pick me up. When I entered his car, he looked up to the sky and said: “do you find those clouds a bit weird?” There were no clouds, only condensation trails from airplanes. I said: “these are not clouds”
To which, he responded: “exactly” and had an expression on his face as if he just had said something really meaningful. Bit of an odd exchange, but I shrugged a shoulder and we did not mention the “not-clouds” again.
To my surprise, the date he set up was not the usual movie or restaurant combo with drinking, instead he took me to the riverside on a boat ride. I was enjoying it a lot, we both did a bit of rowing, it was sunny, we chatted nonchalantly.
We were talking about building styles in the UK (I am a foreigner) and I told him my impressions about buildings and differences to my home country. I also added that my dad is a bricklayer, so I have seen many houses being built.
To this, he said: “I have built something too” I asked: “What did you build?” “It is very unique. You will see it once, I hope.” – he said mysteriously. “What is it, a bunker?” – I joked and we laughed out loud.
The first date was over. I thanked him for the pleasant time and laughs. There was not much chemistry between us but I thought, what the hell, I will give another chance. So, when the next day he asked me for a second date, a dinner in his house, I said yes.
We drove to his house, where he lived alone. A nice and big family home. He had a wine chilled and invited me to look around. Everything was tidy, clean and stylish. I was impressed. We settled and he poured me some wine.
Out of the blue, at one point, he told me to go outside and check his car.
The following conversation happened:
“Do you see the scratches on the side?” – he pointed on the side, where large, faint scratches were running. “Of course I can see them” “What do you think caused them?” – he asked again. “I suppose branches or grass, or other cars, maybe some metal objects, a key maybe?” – I said hesitantly unsure where this conversation is going. “Let me tell you: Satan did these scratches…” – sounded his response. “Pardon?” “Satan scratched my car.” – again that sort of meaningful expression. “You mean figuratively I think, mean people maybe with evil motivation?” – I tried to deter the distrubing turn. “No, literally, the Satan itself.”- he said dead serious.
Uh.ooo….
Do you know the feeling, when suddenly the world seem like upside down and the fear hits you momentarily to make you nausetic and words froze inside you? I had that, combined with one of the biggest WTF moment.
“Is this guy crazy or what?”
We went back inside, my alarm bells were set off after this, I tell you. I was like a hawk, watching for little signs of anything unexpected. Little did I know that the real fun starts later….
He suggested we go to the kitchen and eat dinner. At least something normal, right? Right. You would think that someone inviting you over would prepare something. This was not the case. He suggested we eat soft boiled eggs. I happen to like boiled eggs very much, so ate 4 of them with bread. No problem, I am not fussy. So far so good.
After dinner, we went back to the living room and I relaxed a bit as Satan and scratches, the weird clouds and non of this crap was mentioned again. However, around a half hour later, again without any transition he says:
“Let me blindfold you, so I can show you what I built”
My mind went screaming: NO.F**.WAY! Adrenaline rushed through my blood I could sense it. Right then, I became concerned that this guy wants to kill me. In the same time I decided he won’t have an easy task to do so as I will fight like hell. I am not timid and rather strong and quick, so I was sizing up my options to run to the kitchen, grab a knife and defend myself if it comes to that. At this point, I’m wondering who was crazier, me or him?
Amazingly this is what I responded to him without even thinking:
“You know what? You are not going to blindfold me. Reason is, I think you are plotting to kill me. I know. And I also want you to know that you are not going to succeed. I will fight until my last breath.” – I sounded very calm, which amazed me even further.
His eyes opened wide and seemed genuinely surprised.
“Ok, ok, I can see you are nervous. Calm down, I am not planning anything. Just wanted to surprise you. I can see it backfired, so let’s just go as we are. No blindfold, I promise!” – he said.
Even though I was scared, I was also curious, so I responded:
“Right. I will take a look, under two conditions. First: You go in front of me and Second: I will take a knife from the kitchen and walk behind you. One bad move and you are dead. Did I mention I do martial arts?”
He agreed to my conditions. So, here we are, walking out the backdoor into the dark garden. The wind is blowing, trees and bushes rustle ominously as we walk the path. Him in the front with a light, me behind him, armed with the biggest kitchen knife I have ever seen. Just a perfect picture of two batshit crazy lunatics. As a matter of fact I have never fought in my life, I’m absolutely terrified, I lied about the martial art thing as well, I don’t know what I’m doing here, who is this insane person with me, not a single soul knows I am even here – I think about my life, my family far away, my stupidity.
We reach the shed in the back, well away from the house. There is only me and him, the bushes, and complete silence. Around us and as in front of us, as much as I can tell, just some woody areas and meadows and… a garden shed.
“This is it” – he says standing in front of the shed. Just a normal wooden shed, with 6 locks on the door. “This is what you built? Well, good one, now we can go back” – I am almost relieved. “No, the one I built is inside. Do you allow me to open it?” – I realise he must be scared of me a bit too. I nod.
He removes the locks and opens the door. The first thing I saw is a big ass axe on the floor! I jump away and pull the knife in front of me defensively.
“I knew it! Is this your murder weapon?!” – I shout. I can feel my heart beating so fast.
“Sorry, sorry! This is not meant to be here, I will put it away, ok? There.”-he says quickly.
“Give me that axe. Handle first.” – I order. He did.
“Now, look inside” – he asks and steps aside.
Very slowly, keeping an eye on him, I look inside the shed. Nothing. No rotting corpses, no torture chamber, just a few gym equipment, gardening tools, completely normal. I sigh… maybe I imagine too much into this…until.. from the corner of my eyes I notice something on the floor.
This!!!!!!!!!!!!:
A submarine hatch door. Holy crap, like a bloody rollercoaster! My gut is churning again.
“You really built a bunker…” – this is all I can say. What? How? Why? Words would fail to describe my thinking processes. “Yes” – he says bluntly and asks me to allow him to open the hatch door.
Next thing I know is we are looking down into a hole with concrete stairs, thick concrete walls, going down few meters. A nuclear bunker.
I am thinking, “if he kills me now and closes the door, nobody will ever find me”
Let me tell you the end quickly.
I did went down and looked around in the nuclear bunker of his design. He wanted to know what I think of it. I pointed out that no air filtration, pollution measurement equipment and surveillance system was installed so I was not sure if it is of any use (apart from hiding dead bodies). He agreed it needs improvement.
After the tour, we went back to the house. As you can guess, I was exhausted and weary from the whole evening but a bit calmer as I was still alive.
I thanked him for everything and requested to leave. He cried and told me he never met such a cool person as I am…
I was happy I only met a lunatic and not a serial killer.
TL:DR
A guy took me for a second date and showed me the nuclear bunker he built driven by his ideas on an upcoming doomsday fight between evil and good.
Is refusing to be submissive and subservient to the U.S. threatening the U.S.? To you it may be, but to the rest of the world it is call standing up to their right!
Lets defined threat. If Iran say it will bomb Washington, LA, New York, Miami or Hawaii, that will be considered a threat. Did Iran do that? So far it is the U.S. that funded and supported Saddam Hussein to fight a war with Iran in the 1980’s and murder General Solameini an Iranian scientist by a drone in Iraq! That is threatening. But it is the U.S. threatening Iran!
Seriously unless you are blind, deaf or dumb could you asked such a ludicrous question! Come on man be real. The U.S. ought to know that, Americans must surely know that. And you by asking this question is seen by 7.5 billion out of 8 billion or world inhabitants as a fool to even ask this question.
The U.S. threaten Iran and half the world to be bomb into smitten daily. And anyone that refused to be submissive and subservient to them is their enemy. Such behaviour belongs to Ghengis Khan or Atilla the Hun, or the Vikings not a 21st century nation! Call a spade a spade! Make the world a better place.
In my opinion yes, but not now. I looked at the numbers about this. As I suspected, the main reason why China extracts and processes this much rare earth metals is its industry demands it. It is not because of low labor costs or lax environmental regulations.
Few relevant numbers:
Chinese mine production was 210,000 tonnes in 2022, limited by Chinese law for environmental reasons.
Global mine production was ~300,000 tonnes. Which means the Chinese share of global production was 70%.
China’s share in the processing of rare earth ores was 85%. This means around half of the non-Chinese production was imported to China for processing. We can conclude from here that China processed around 255,000 tonnes of rare earths in 2022.
China’s export volume was 48,000 tonnes in 2022. For the value of this trade, the last data is from 2021. And it is 653 million USD. Completely insignificant for China, especially when you consider that it is coming at an environmental cost. When you look at the volume, you see that China’s exports are barely higher than its imports (in terms of weight after the processing of the imported ores). China’s own industry uses almost as much as China extracts from its own soil. Really, it looks like this monopoly only emerged because the scale caused by domestic demand resulted in much lower prices compared to the rest of the planet.
If this monetarily insignificant trade is this important for countries who are trying to kill entire sectors of the Chinese industry, then China should stop this trade. Let them deal with years of shortages. But it is not a good time to do this now. Export controls should be timed so that non-Chinese shortages should coincide with the emergence of Chinese products that compete with the products of Western companies (primarily US, SK and Japan) suffering from the shortages. This is important because commodities are rarely irreplaceable.
When I moved into my first apartment, it was one of those fancy newer buildings that offered incentives on move-in. In my case, it was a low deposit and a free month of rent! Because I was signing for a mid-month move-in, they pro-rated their amounts. At this stage was when I started eating the big bucks working crypto-forensic analysis and scam tracking jobs for Coinbase.
I wrote my check, moved in, and all was well for about 2 years.
A few weeks after I got tossed a notice about the building’s management being changed, I received a new notice taped to my front door. It told me I owed the front office <insert blank> amount within 3 days or they would begin eviction proceedings.
I’ve paid rent on time my entire life so I couldn’t imagine what on earth I would owe. Then I read the amount typed into the <insert blank>.
$0.01.
Yes. One cent. One one-hundredth of one dollar. One penny, and they wanted it NOW or they were going to evict me. What the hell?!
I went down and talked to the nice people in front of the computers in the leasing office. They looked through the files and told me that the new management was going through the books and making the final debt collections in order to start the new term on solid bookkeeping. They were rounding up all the outstanding fees and demanding payment. My fee, it appears, had been hanging around for two years. Yep: a rounding decision on that pro-rated rent amount.
asked them why they didn’t waive it. They said they couldn’t. I wasn’t about to lose my home over a rounding error, no matter the principle. I dug into my pocket to get the damn coin and hand it over. They held up their hands.
“I’m sorry, we don’t take cash.” I am sure the look on my face was comical but inside I was boiling with baffled rage.
They made me write a check. In order to keep my apartment, I used a $0.10 sheet of specially coded paper to hand over to salaried employees to collect in a deposit bag to go into a bank to cover a rounded calculation that had been irrelevant for 2 years but was now suddenly the difference between shelter and the streets.
Once upon a time, I was a stay at home mother. My home was spotless, my daughter taken care of, dinner was ready when her father walked in the door. I was happy and felt fulfilled. I truly loved giving of myself to my family.
Until I found myself alone and I had to find work. I did what I had to. I work long hours. Some say I work too many hours. But they aren’t responsible for me or my daughter, so their opinion is irrelevant. That responsibility falls on me, and even if I ever did remarry, I would never expect anyone else to be responsible for her, other than myself.
I prefer to do all of the “domestic arts” myself. I enjoy them. But the hours I work and the responsibilities I carry outside of work necessitate that I delegate some things to others. I don’t mind paying someone to clean if it means it’s one less thing for me to worry about.
Well, for this, we have to go back to the closing years of World War II. Although Germany and Japan were still fighting, it was clear they were going to lose, but that meant cleaning up the economic mess that had been created by the war.
Now, historically, the British Pound Sterling had been the most common reserve currency due to its stability and the ability to convert paper money into gold. However, the British government had to go heavily into debt for the war and suspended conversion of paper money into precious metal. However, it hardly mattered as British gold reserves were under pressure as it borrowed more and more money.
Now, the United States was in debt too, but back in 1933 they had already suspended the ability to convert paper currency into gold (you could convert it to silver until 1964) and had made the ownership of gold illegal. They then consolidated all the gold held by the various regional Federal Reserve banks and all the private gold they confiscated (and gave paper money for) into a single depository next to Fort Knox in Kentucky. Moreover, most countries had finance their debt int he United States as their own markets collapsed. In other words, the United States was swimming in gold.
So in July 1944 all 44 allied nations met at a hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire and worked out the new world monetary order. At the top of the agenda was avoiding expensive and potentially destabilizing transfers of large amounts of gold which would allow nations devastated by war to have capital to rebuild.
The scheme essentially took gold entirely out of the market and fixed it to the U.S. dollar, with $35 U.S. being the equivalent of 1 ounce of gold. Nations in the compact, called “Bretton Woods”, would agree to buy all the gold they had at that rate. Each nation would be able to fix the value of their currency against the U.S. dollar (for example, 5 francs to the dollar) but would have to guaranteed that exchange rate for intercountry transfers (i.e. the U.S. could buy all the francs it wanted for dollars at that rate). Countries could change that rate (Canada did in the 1960s when it dropped the rate from $1.00 U.S. for $1.00 Cdn. to $0.975 U.S. to $1.00 Cdn.) but had to stand by it. In other words, gold would not routinely change hands, U.S. dollars would.
There was a catch. Even though people couldn’t exchange dollars for gold, countries could. Most countries held U.S. dollar reserves, which were largely from surplus exports to the U.S. If they wanted to, they could “take delivery” of gold, assuming they wanted to securely transport it from Fort Knox themselves.
As such, the U.S. dollar standard replaced the gold standard, as the U.S. dollar became the common currency for all the countries in the compact.
Of course, this only lasted until 1973 when Richard Nixon pulled the United States out of the agreement. From that point forward, there was no fixed rate between currencies and they traded on the open market. The U.S. also ended the prohibition against owning gold and started selling some or theirs on the open market.
A Golden Eagle, a roughly 1 ounce gold coin that the U.S. government sells at the current market price of gold, plus a small premium.
Most countries still use the U.S. dollar as their “reserve” or “exchange” currency, but that’s changing. For example, Argentina just moved from the dollar to the Chinese yuan, which is also quite stable because the Chinese government manipulates its value
I am 21 years old. When I was in 10th grade there was a girl A in school. Just like typical teenagers she had many rumours surrounding her. I ignored those and went ahead and made friends with her.
In some months we started dating. We were head over heels for each other. We had everything going great so shown in movies. One day when we were on a date, after coming out from washroom she gave me her phone. There she had written something which changed all my views on her. She wrote that she was raped at the age of 14 by a guy who forced her to be his girlfriend so that other people won’t suspect a thing.
Fearing society and her parents, she didn’t tell it to anyone. But had to undergo therapy. Her parents were totally unaware to real reason behind her behaviour. She lost a ton of weight and was living on medicines. This was really shocking for me. Then I had flashback of all the times when she had certain insecurities and why she required so much time to trust a person. She also had intimacy issues because of this. And that person had told her to shut her mouth or he’ll leak the tape which he had recorded. This rumour was spread in our school by her friends isolating her.
But now she’s a healthy person pursuing her career in engineering and I am a proud boyfriend.
America Warns China To Obey As US Debt Auction GOES BAD
I didn’t think I was a poor student until I arrived at USC for my MBA program. I had worked hard and saved up $150K, which was to last me exactly through the $100K in tuition for two years and $50K for basic living expenses. I had a 9 year old Lincoln and thought I was set. My naïveté lasted for about 10 minutes.
As soon as I pulled into the student parking lot, I could see all the late model cars, many of them luxury marks. This was the undergrad parking area. One blond undergrad roared her shiny white Cadillac Escalade down the ramp as I looked for a spot.
During our casual meeting time with fellow students, productively labeled as networking, I heard about the kind of massive homes in exclusive neighborhoods that were the norm. Many of my classmates had gotten new luxury cars just for school and had fancy upscale condos for partying during school. But, that was just stuff. What really blew my mind was their attitude about money on a daily basis.
Many would invariably go to night time parties two or even three times a week, all during some very intense course work. While I looked for ways to stick to my $25 daily food budget, they had no problem splurging a few hundred dollars a night each time they were out. At the same time, I knew they were taking out massive student loans to fund their gratuitous consumption, along with tuition and basic living expenses.
Their lack of concern about repaying an extra $50K just surprised the heck out of me. I wasn’t dead broke and could tag along, but I just didn’t see the benefit of such free spending. Eventually, I settled into a more middle-class normative life-style and was comfortable.
Then I saw how naive I truly was.
One of my classmates had gotten to attend the MBA program on a merit and needs-based scholarship. He didn’t have any money. While his tuition was waived, he still needed to pay for daily expenses.
Instead of a fancy high floor condo or even a modest downtown condo, he lived in one of the roughest neighborhoods just off campus. I lived nearby and can hear the police patrols and random gun fire where he lived. My place wasn’t much but at least it was secure. He lived on a couch in a shared room right in the middle of regular gang and drug activity. Running water wasn’t always available, but it was cheap, just a few hundred bucks a month.
Obviously, he didn’t have a car and relied on brisk walks to get anywhere. He didn’t have many friends as he couldn’t afford to go hang out with anyone. When we hung out, I made sure we didn’t need to spend any money.
He couldn’t even afford food, so he worked part time at university food service to make a few dollars and grab leftovers for meals. While others dined in fancy Beverly Hills and Hollywood hot spots, he was scraping pots for a bite. But, he never complained about the squandered money of our fellow students. He knew his values and was content on focusing on his goals.
He certainly kept me grounded as I felt like a spoiled brat using money so freely and buying myself a burrito whenever I felt hungry.
So, here I was moping ridiculously about my relative paucity; he showed what real determination and pride in the midst of deprivation looked like.
And, even at the MBA level, there’s a bias to spend money. My freespending classmates all got six-figure jobs right out of school from their “networking” efforts and were able to quickly pay off their huge student loans. Meanwhile, my poor friend is still struggling financially.
Cheating Wife Stories, Husband’s Cruel Revenge For Cheating
“It doesn’t matter if she ” started to fall back in love with you “…SHE’S HAD ANOTHER MAN’S BABY !!! …that’s it…its over , no if and or buts it’s over…any man who’d accept that is NOT a man , he’d be a lil bitch , I don’t think I could have been with her the 9 months and not starting IMMEDIATE divorce proceedings could cost him child support…remember some sick states automatically declare a husband the ” father ” …even if you have medical proof and D.N.A proof…you must also have written statements by the mother and possible father…if mother can’t find other guy or he refuses to get involved you owe that affair baby 18 yrs of child support.. ( disgusting they’d punish a innocent man just to save a few percentages of tax rates for business and the rich…yet they have the harshest anti- abortion laws…total scum…but then again any man stupid enough to still marry in those states is criminally ignorant and brings it on himself…so no sympathy for those or this idiot..no one or no law forced him to marry…he put himself into his predicament….so keep lining up to sign up for marriage…I get a kick out of your pain and suffering”
According to CIIE organizers, this year’s expo has attracted a record 289 Global Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders, with over 3,400 exhibitors and 394,000 professional visitors registered for the event.
Now read carefully the name for the expo – it’s an IMPORT EXPO meaning the exhibitors are EXPORTERS from all over the world traveling to China to meet Chinese IMPORTERS to buy from them.
This is not about these people investing in China. This is about exhibitors interested to sell to the world’s largest consumer market.
I received a text addressed to him and asking him to call back the very next day after I activated it.
“Who’s this?”
“Mom.”
“I think you have the wrong number,” I answered. “My mom’s half way across the planet.”
“Sorry.”
“Hope everything is okay with your son/daughter!”
“Thanks! All the best!”
The messages didn’t stop there.
Reminders to pick up his car from the mechanic’s, friends wanting to get beers over the weekend, or talking sports and venting about frustrating relationships.
A woman he used to see asking if they can reconnect.
And I diligently replied saying that it’s no longer his number.
Except the more I replied, the more I felt some inexplicable connection with Michael. As if every message I received made me understand him a bit better. Identify with him. Even root for him as he navigates through the challenges of life.
Then things went quiet and I thought he must have let everyone know about changing his number and I almost forgot about the whole thing.
Until I started getting a different kind of messages.
And then it was spelled out in one message: “I heard your mom got diagnosed with cancer.”
The same mom who sent me my very first message on that phone.
I wrote back to one person saying that even though it’s not his number, I’m deeply sorry about the news and that I’m sending healing prayers.
He/she was so touched they said the kindness of a stranger brightened their day and restored a little bit of faith.
And I felt even closer to Michael.
Like we have something greater in common than just having shared a number. I’ve *been* through shit with him. I’ve thought about his problems and commitments.
And now his mom has cancer.
Michael, I don’t know you and we’ve never spoken, but I want you to know that I *am* there for you. That you *are* in my thoughts. That I *do* care.
That I love you and your mother and I hope you all get through this.
China can do manufacturing and the U.S. cannot. China is the global supply chain hub. China is the one with the perrenial trade surplus with the U.S. Militarily, China has the world’s largest naval fleet while we can’t construct any new naval assets while those “active” assets spent more time in repair than out on duty.
Yesterday in the Charlotte, NC airport I decided to spend my last few dollars on a beer before my flight to Munich.
Before me in line stood a man well into his seventies. He ordered two red wines.
The server asked him for his ID and that of his equally aged wife who was sitting at a table with a cane propped between her knees.
He thought it was a joke. So did I.
It wasn’t. He had to walk back to the table and fetch his wife’s ID.
This was not only strange, it was the stupidest rule I’ve ever seen.
Sixty-year old me was next. And yes, I needed to prove I was twenty one.
Edit: I keep getting comments about how this is normal and the server is just doing their job. I understand and don’t hold it against the server, their management or even the legal system that makes them so careful.
All that said, the rest of the world finds it very strange (and a bit sad perhaps) when 80-year old people must be carded to prove they are 21.
If you are 100% sure you know who did it, and the peaches were all inside the boundaries of your yard, you have several options – none passive.
Coming from compassion – Offer to share some – not all – if they “need” some.
Let “all” neighbors know you have plans for the fruit this year. Request everyone stay out of your yard unless invited.
Put up a Beware of dog sign – even if you don’t have one.
Put up No Tresspassing signs. Warn that anyone caught tresspassing is subject to being arrested.
Get security cameras on your place – yard and front and side areas.
And if they get caught trying to do it again have an estimate for value of the crop and press charges for theft. If it’s over $500 it’s a felony in many or most states. Tresspassing and theft could mean jail time. Those peaches better be worth it to them.
Growing up we had grapes along our back fence. Three different neighbors over 25 years all asked first before taking the grapes poking through to their side. Every year my family told them to take any on their side of the fence.
Point is good neighbors “ask.”
Something is weird with your neighbors.
China’s Growing NAVAL POWER Can Destroy the USA in 30 Seconds
Technological advancement is a cornerstone of China’s naval dominance. From the development of cutting-edge submarines, such as the Type 095 and Type 096, to the deployment of advanced naval aviation capabilities, China has demonstrated an unyielding dedication to innovation. Its naval prowess is complemented by a formidable array of anti-ship missiles, naval defense systems, and electronic warfare capabilities, placing it at the forefront of maritime technology.
I was enjoying a meal of spaghetti with marinara sauce in a pleasant Italian restaurant. I noticed two women, around 40, eating at the other side of the small restaurant, conversing and eating heartily. When they had finished, the waitress came to take their plates, and asked if they wanted anything else. They said no, and she asked “If you are ready, I will bring your bill.” The ladies said, no, they would not pay because the food was very bad. They claimed the spaghetti was undercooked, the sauce was thin and salty, and the rolls were not fit to eat. Their coffee was much too strong, too. They were not rude or really loud, but were adamant they did not think they should pay for such bad food. The waitress said, “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have taken the food and gotten you a better meal. And besides, why did you eat it all and then tell me it was so bad?” The ladies realized the sense of the waitress’ words, accepted the bill, and paid.
Early during my intern year in San Francisco in 1973, I took over care of a comatose alcoholic patient. I discovered her electrolytes and metabolic tests were all out of wack.
I corrected them and she woke up.
The first thing she asked upon awakening was “Who’s taking care of my cats?”.
She was in a panic.
I called her contacts and got a neighbor to get her cats and care for them.
I then told my patient that if she kept drinking, the next time she ended up in the hospital she would surely die and there would be no one to look after her cats. They would die a terrible death of thirst and starvation.
I remember her looking at me with grave concern.
About a week later she was discharged and I didn’t see her again until very near the end of my internship. I saw her walking in the corridor of the hospital going for a clinic visit. She looked like a different person, well dressed and made up.
She told me that she hadn’t had another drink in almost a year because her cats depended on her.
It was one of the most rewarding moments in my long career and one of the rare times I succeeded in getting a hard core alcoholic to get and stay on the wagon.
Cheesecake Factory Cajun Jambalaya Pasta
pasta jambalaya 4 1 of 1 1463×2048 1
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
4 ounces butter
2 teaspoons Cajun spice mix
1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into small pieces
1 pound fresh linguini pasta
1/2 cup clam juice
2 ounces green bell peppers, cut into thin strips
2 ounces red bell peppers, cut into thin strips
2 ounces yellow bell peppers, cut into thin strips
4 ounces red onions, cut into thin strips
1/2 pound fresh medium shrimp, peeled, deveined, tails removed
1/2 cup diced tomatoes
Instructions
Place the butter into a sauté pan. Allow the butter to melt slightly. Add the seasoning into the pan and stir together with the melted butter. Add the chicken into the pan and continue to cook until the chicken is about half done.
While the chicken is cooking, carefully place the pasta into boiling water and cook until al dente.
Pour the clam juice into the pan. Add the peppers and onions. Cook for another minute, making sure the vegetables are heated through and the chicken is almost done.
Add the shrimp into the pan. Toss the ingredients together and continue to cook until the shrimp are almost done.
Add the tomatoes into then pan. Continue to cook mixture until both the shrimp and chicken are thoroughly cook through.
Place some pasta into each bowl. Spoon equal portions of the jambalaya mixture into each bowl over the pasta.
My dad was 22 years older than my mom and in his mid-fifties when I was born. He retired while I was in elementary school which meant I essentially had two stay at home parents as my mom didn’t work. My dad never showed his age and was as active and involved as any of my friends dads but more so because he didn’t have work. When I was younger my dad would come to elementary school and eat lunch with me. He helped with boy scouts and came camping with me. He attended all sporting events and school activities. In the summer we would spend full days at museums or going on trips; he was a regular chaperone on school field trips. When my bus stop was far away he’d come pick me up every day.
I was always sadly hyper aware that he was older and losing him was a regular fear; I lucked out and had him with me until he almost hit 97 and I was 42; my mom passed 15 months before him. I just had my first child at 43 and have no idea how my dad managed 4 kids, with my brother and I just two years apart, and not complain or show any signs of age at all. I wouldn’t say I ever wished for younger parents as it is all I ever knew.
My dad was 57 when I was born and my mom 43. My mom passed away 2 days after I was born. My dad was my world. He learned to cook to make me my favorite meals. I was a picky eater as a kid.
He woke me up each morning with fresh squeezed orange juice which I love until this day. As I got older, he would play tennis with me and taught me to play softball. He had played baseball in Cuba and he was a great hitter even in his sixties. I did everything with him.
When I was 5, he was on his way to pick me up at day care when he got into a terrible car accident where an ambulance was called to treat him. He was less than a a tenth of a mile from the day care, he told the ambulance workers he had to pick up his daughter before he could be taken to the hospital. He walked and picked me up with a head injury and took me to a neighbors house before being transported to the hospital. I will always remember this day.
When I was 10 he retired from work and started picking me up from the bus stop every day after school. He always had a snack ready for me and we sat and talked about our day.
At 15 he taught me to drive. He was patient and made sure I knew the rules of the road. For my 16th birthday, he took me to get my drivers license. A few days later he bought me a car. We were poor and I had no expectation of a car. He had put aside money to buy me a 3 year old Toyota Camry. He drove a 13 year old car.
A few months after my 16th birthday he was not feeling well and I thought it was a cold. He passed away 20 days later of a double pneumonia and acute leukemia. My world was shattered. I didn’t know how to pick up the pieces and keep going. To this day, I think about him every day.
Did I wish he was younger? No, I wouldn’t change him but I do wish I had more time with him.
He’s never run any commercials promoting his podcast. Never bought any billboards, any print ads. He never went on any late-night shows to promote his podcast.
I’ve always known about him from watching UFC’s, so I knew he had a podcast.
But eventually – he began popping up more and more on my YouTube suggestions. I figured – can this podcast really be any good? I know he’s a decent comedian and a great fight commentator.
Steadily – over years, he continued plugging away at his podcast, getting more and more guests.
Finally, I gave in – and I’m hooked – along with millions of other people.
The podcast is a blend of funny/smart and is just people having conversations. No acting, no-nonsense.
Just humble, intelligent conversations with a wide variety of people from all walks of life.
Joe now has one of the most popular podcasts in the world and he just did it by being his authentic self and enjoying conversations with people.
He was a Navy SEAL serving in Afghanistan. During a mission in 2007, he went into a room first, leading his team. Unfortunately, it had insurgents in it, waiting with automatic weapons.
He was shot 27 times. While 11 rounds were blocked by his body armor, 16 rounds managed to hit him in the torso, arms and legs. He was also hit by a grenade which exploded and sent shrapnel through his body.
And then, he managed to kill three enemy fighters near him with a pistol and without killing any of the women and children in the room.
His recovery took two long years.
And he later became an advocate for wounded warriors and those living with PTSD—because he had it bad.
Sadly, he was haunted by the things he went through in war. This past March, he couldn’t bear it anymore and was found hanging in his room.
He cheated death narrowly for 16 years, but the demons were the ones Mike couldn’t escape. Rest in Peace warrior.
The Admiral Kuznetsov was and actually still is the flagship of the Russian Navy.
Yes, she’s not seaworthy, but it doesn’t matter. This is really a matter of national pride. If the Russian Navy can’t keep their flagship in service, that does not look great.
As a side-note, the Kuznetsov was built at the Black Sea Shipyard in what is now Ukraine. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last few years, you’ll know why docking it in Ukraine is not exactly an option. Russia lacks any shipyards large and capable enough to properly service or build something this big, which is why they’re having so much trouble refitting the ship.
It may happen now and then but I have never heard of of a big box company buying out the little guy. They usually just open up a store and drive the little guy out of business – maybe. Read on. Sometimes a smaller chain will be bought out but seldom a single store.
Mom and pop hardware stores tended to do better than, say, grocery stores because of the expertise offered.
In 1976 I got a position in Rochester NH as a bank trust officer and we bought a beautiful cape cod with a center chimney built in 1853.
A neighbor chatted to me and asked me if I had experience with working on houses. Our previous home we had bought brand new so I had to confess that I had not. He told me I should expect this home to require endless work. He suggested to me that I should patronize Warburton’s Hardware just down the road from me. He said I would go in for a dollars worth of nails and come out with ten dollars worth of advice.
He was right on both counts and I took his advice.
Brownie Warburton retired and it was bought by the Boucher family and they are still there. It was a happy day for me when he invited me to call him Brownie. The locals were not usually that accepting of blow ins.
So the mom and pop hardware stores can compete.
Now just about anyone will be familiar with this logo
ACE Hardware
You might think that Ace is a chain but you would be wrong. Ace stores are individually owned or parts of small chains – a bit liked McDonald’s. The big difference is that Ace Corporation is owned by the store owners – it is a cooperative. Ace started up in 1924, long before big box hardware stores and they seem to be thriving. They do so in the same way that Brownie Warburton did: by providing service and expertise. Edit. I did not intend this to be an ad for Ace but it sure resonated with readers. Read the comments.
This is not to say that big box stores have no place; they clearly do but so do smaller, locally owned stores.
I’m a Christian and would change it to God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform “ as an old hymn says.
When I was younger, I was asked at the last minute to delay my holiday as someone else wanted to go to the Henley Regatta and we couldn’t both be away from work at the same time. I was furious!
When I arrived finally on holiday, this vision in a blue dress appeared. She also not only shouldn’t have been there that week, but shouldn’t have been there at all. She had been going to Switzerland earlier but developed appendicitis and couldn’t go and some weeks later was invited to join her sister and some friends and so we met.
We married a year later and remained together for 63 years until her death.
I used to work for a large rehab company. I was a licensed occupational therapist. One year, we had a new girl start there, who was from Europe. She was also also a licensed therapist, but had two years of additional training. She was also on a work visa. At first she was friendly and agreeable, but soon began to show her true colors. She started making snide comments about people behind their backs, and then proceeded to say them to their faces. She told me that where she came from, I wouldn’t be considered a real therapist, because I had only studied for two years.
We had a few Rehab assistants that she proceeded to lord over, because she had a college degree and they did not. But they worked hard and did their jobs. One day she sat with us at lunch; myself, and two rehab assistants. She proceeded to make rude comments about certain ethnic groups in the company, claiming that they had chips on their shoulders. I told her that her remarks could be construed as racism, and that she had better knock it off. She scoffed, and went on making rude comments. When she left the room with a big smirk on her face, one of the aides told me that she had been making unflattering comments behind my back, too. I decided that she needed to be taught a lesson. I contacted our clinical director and reported her behavior, especially the racist comments.
An hour later, she came walking down the hall, smirk replaced by copious tears. She had been warned that if she continued with her behavior, she would be shipped right back to Europe.
When I was five I walked by a toy store with my mother.
I looked in the window, and I saw a plastic model of a car. It was a yellow convertible.
And I well remember myself looking up to my mother, and telling her that she should buy it for me so that I could gift it to my father. I thought, and was absolutely convinced that my father would love the car.
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I’m sure that both my mother and father thought that it was so cute. And today, I look back at that moment with fond memories. And to this day, whenever I see a model of a convertible, I think of this particular moment.
I graduated college with this misguided idea that a good degree and hard work would make me invincible. Everyone would hire me and I’d get a raise every year.
All it takes is a company downsizing or a manager that doesn’t like you. Our pay and job security are directly tied to how many other people are willing to do our job. This isn’t an opinion. It’s economics.
You either make yourself indispensable to a company. Or pick up skills and qualifications that make other companies want you more. Otherwise, plan on getting yanked around and low-balled.
As an extreme example, my friend skipped college and worked his way up to senior-level tech support with a camera company.
He spent the best years of his life there. Now, he’s older, his company has gone bankrupt, and he’s out of the job with minimally transferrable skills.
Remember that a business cannot feel emotion or empathy. It is a system, designed to learn, evolve, and make money. Don’t drink the Kool-aid and corporate ra-ra.
You are paid by how expensive you are to replace.
Cajun Shrimp Burgers
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Ingredients
1 pound steamed or boiled shrimp
1/4 cup finely diced onions
1/4 cup finely diced green bell pepper
2 tablespoons chopped celery
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
1/4 cup mayonnaise
2/3 cup dry bread crumbs
1 beaten egg
Flour
Extra-virgin olive oil
Instructions
Peel and devein shrimp and remove tails. Chop shrimp.
Cook onions, bell pepper and celery in microwave until soft. Drain well.
Yes they can and they should. It makes sense that if the three strongest and most powerful nations find a way to accommodate each others interest and red line. When and if they do the rest of the world are free to move on with their lives and grow their respective economy. I really believed that these 3 powerful nations simply cannot make each other submissive and subservient to the other.
The U.S. tried hard and desperately over the past decade or so without any success at all. Take the U.S. and China trade war. After 5 years straight of tariffs, sanctions and demonisation, if anything China gets stronger and more independent. And the Chinese counter actions. Is hurting the US. And to be fair China prefers to not have this dispute as it slows down Chinese growth too.
The U.S. tried to pinned down Russia militarily and geopolitically too since Biden take office culminating with the Ukraine war. A good 18 months has gone by and Russia is as strong as ever and at best the war is a stalemate with both the U.S. and Russia becomes slightly less strong. But the only thing the U.S. who goaded Russia into this war achieved is to bring world GDP down a notch. What good is it?
China do not mind if the U.S. grow healthily at 3% due to its mature economy and as a result China grow 6% healthily and both nations and the rest of the world pay attention of improving competitiveness and development. I am hopeful that a new U.S. president will see the benefits of collaborating with China and Russia.
The U.S. threw their kitchen sink at China and Russia for the last 2 full years! Has China and Russia been destroyed? Be honest! Nothing substantial happened. And what ever little Russia and China got hurt and harm so does the U.S. at least in the same proportion if not a little more. So what good is it? All the huff, puff and rant for nothing.
Now imagine. All three nations go positive. The world will be healthier, more stable, more peaceful and prosper. That cannot be bad for the world. The U.S. needs a new approach and a new leader that don’t think in hubris but in finding collaboration for mutual good.
Story time. My ex was an irreplaceable worker who needed to leave work 10 minutes early to catch a train that would get her home a good 45 minutes earlier compared to the train she’d get if she left exactly on time. her manager insisted she stay until exactly 17:30. Note that she didn’t do anything worthwhile in that last 10 minutes. Her type of work meant that everything took longer. She also hated crowds, so she got the train to work an hour earlier than strictly necessary, meaning that most days she was 45 minutes early for work (she’d stop somewhere to buy a hot breakfast). Because of the type of conscientious worker she was, and also she was the head of a team of around 10–12 people, and she took pride in her work; she would start working more or less straight away. The boss knew all this, because she was always at work when he came in. He also knew that she was already working because of the dozen or so emails that she had already sent out (to clients, to coworkers with him CCdd, to him directly, etc). When she pointed all of this out to him, he said that “nobody is asking you to do that” and something about any colleague could walk up to her at 17:25 and ask a question or for a task to be done. If you ask me, it was all baloney and the dude was simply on a power trip! (Or maybe someone above him had archaic views and was being unreasonable)
so she gave in her notice and quit to start up on her own (basically to be a freelancer). they couldn’t find anyone else to do the work, and for the first two years of her freelancing career she basically did her old job from home (no commute, working from home, and back in 2015, this was a massive perk, which was unheard of). Hell, the lack of commute alone saved her £3000 per year.
She got paid about 40% more to do the same work she always did, in about 1/2, maybe 2/3 of the time. It took them two years to train someone up to replace her (and stop needing her services as a freelancer).
My Brother was in a car crash and went through the windscreen of the car he was a passenger in.. he managed to get his arms up to protect his face but didn’t manage to completely cover his eyes.. he was cut out of the car and flown by ambulance to Ninewells hospital in Dundee (Scotland) where he spent two years going through in total 35 operations on his eyes. Ninewells had the best Eye Specialists and Dept. in the Country.. After his final operation his Doctor sat down with us his family, and explained that they had tried everything to save his sight but that he would be 100% blind for the rest of his life and that he would need all our help to come to terms with it and to help him adjust to life as a blind man.. after 2 years they released him from Hospital into our care..
I had not prayed for many years. Had stopped going to Mass years before.. but that night I got on my knees and I prayed to God.. I begged him to restore my brothers eyesight and offered to lose mine in his place..
3 days later.. it was a beautiful sunny day and I took him for a walk.. guiding him with my arm.. someone he knew shouted hello from a distance and waved to us. My brother asked who it was and I said the guys name and said that he had waved. My Brother said “I know, I could make out the shadow of his arm in the grass”
I was gobsmacked but didn’t say anything to him about it.. When we got home I told Mum what had happened and She phoned his Doctor who brought my brother in for tests.. the Doctor confirmed his last prognosis.. that he was blind and there was no difference from the last time he was tested.. He sat Mum down and explained that it was his brain playing tricks on him and went into great detail on the damage that had been done and how it was impossible that it could be repaired either naturally or medically..
My brother now has 98% of his vision restored and wears contact lenses.. he actually has better sight than me..
This happened to my best friend. She had left her abusive husband and was living in her own apartment, when he learned where she was, and went ballistic on her. He assaulted her and threatened their one year old. Her new neighbors heard the disturbance and called the police. When the police got there, they asked for his information and he gave a false name. Unfortunately, they believed him. because when they called that name in, they found no record on him. They were about to leave when my friend overheard and gave the police officers her husband’s correct name. Turns out there was an outstanding warrant that she hadn’t known about, and they hauled his ass off to jail.
It gets better. During that time, she got a lawyer and pressed charges, and her neighbors testified in court. His mother and father, who were quite elderly and in poor health died within weeks of each other. Then, when he got out of prison, the city decided to put in a new road and offered his landlord money for the house that my friend’s husband was living in, so he got evicted. He spent the rest of that year couch surfing because nobody would let him stay with them, due to his bad temper.
I was flying out of LA bound for Newark. My flight was leaving at 6am on a Wednesday. My work was finished on Tuesday, around 8pm. I went to a restaurant, had a great meal, dropped off the car and went to check in at around 11pm that Tuesday evening. My plan was to find a comfortable seat, take a short nap, and be ready for my early Wednesday flight.
At the security check point the person checking told me I could not go through because I was a day early for my flight and I’d have to come back the next day to check in. I tried to explain to him that the next day was in one hour and my flight was leaving in six hours. He did not get it and was adamant that I could not enter until the next day.
At that point I asked to see his supervisor. He eventually got the supervisor. When the supervisor listened to me and checked my ticket he told his guy, “Let him in. You need to learn how to tell time. See me later.”
I use to fix street lamps for a living. Once I was about to pull up to a lamp that needed to be fixed when someone pulled into the spot ahead of me. I got out of the truck and explained I was about to pull up to the lamp to fix it and would he please move his car. His response was, “I’m only going to be a few minutes, you can wait “ He then walked onto a store that was right there.
So I pulled up the truck along side his car, and was up in the bucket and started to fix the light. I was still up in the bucket fixing the lamp when he came out of the store and was angry to find my truck was blocking his being able to pull out. He called up to me demanding I move my truck so he could pull out. I shouted down to him, “I’m only going to be a few minutes, you can wait “ and then went back to fixing the light.
Bert was a part of the furniture for many years. He slid silently into his cubicle before most people arrived. The sound of flipping pages and keypad strokes were the only signs of life from his corner.
He evaded unnecessary contact with his colleagues. In meetings and during unavoidable greetings he mumbled and focused his eyes anywhere but on the person talking to him.
Bert drank no coffee and ate a packed lunch at his desk. He evaporated promptly at 4.55 every evening, leaving only an immaculately ordered workspace devoid of any clues as to who he was as a person.
It was impossible to like Bert. His own discomfort with everyone else was awkward and off putting.
At the same time, the only thing to dislike about him was that he didn’t fit in with the rest. Bert’s unseen presence was a low-level annoyance, like a squeaky chair or the smell of an overheated copy machine.
Only two people understood how valuable Bert was. Bert’s boss had known it for years. I learned about his talents when we worked as a team to create technical catalogues. I handled text copy and Bert handled tables, graphs and technical drawings.
We mostly collaborated by e-mail. His PDF markups were always detailed and clear.
When we met in person, I honored his unspoken preference to avoid eye contact. This seemed to comfort him.
For three years we redesigned dozens of catalogs with only rare and minor errors discovered after printing.
I learned to truly appreciate Bert’s talent for finding the needles (errors) in the haystack (multi-hundred-page catalogs). He was quiet, unassuming and provided the company excellent value for his salary.
I eventually moved on, but Bert and others kept producing error-free work. Bert’s methodical proofreading approach guides me still.
When Bert’s boss retired, a new boss found him uncomfortable (like everyone else). He was let go and his job was outsourced to an agency.
One of the agency’s first jobs was updating an existing 800-page catalog. 50,000 copies were printed and some were shipped to customers.
It was only then that the typo was discovered. A technical term had been typed as a sexual one. It was an expensive mistake (mostly covered by the insurance company).
I still have no idea who Bert is as a person. But I know his work reeked of integrity, his written communications were more honest than most people can swallow, and that working together with him was an honor.
Being able to depend on a colleague is more important than liking them. Thanks for the life lesson Bert!
The U.S. used democracy in 2 ways. To elevate the U.S. as the beacon of democracy in the free world, a self declared superlative about themselves by themselves. That no one believes but themselves. Even that is only some white Caucasian, Anglo Saxon, conservative and less travelled and less educated ones.
And to tag countries that refused to be submissive and subservient to them to be “not” democratic. So authoritarian and dictatorial or a host of slurs such as. Communism, Socialism, Regime, Rogue States etc. Simple pea brain people buys that slur over the years to feel good about themselves while looking down and demonising others they did not like after being indoctrinated against for close to a century.
But these are optics or cosmetics. Forcing “U.S. liberal Democracy” is much more sinister. If you are having a political system like the U.S. they can easily manipulate that nation’s political process and place their puppet to do the U.S. bidding for them. Such as align with them and against China or Russia or selling resources to the Yanks at dirt cheap prices! That is what happened to many decades in the Philippines.
US political system is all about popularity and no meritocracy at all. All you need in a poorer developing nation is money to bribed voters. And the U.S. has plenty of printed Green back to throw about. That is the reason they forced nations to failure through the unworkable and inefficient political processes. For the U.S. sake. Not the nation in question sake.
After spending billions it almost always don’t work after a while. Hence Vietnam U.S. still a proud successful socialist nation, Iraq is still a Muslim fundamentalist nation and Taliban Afghanistan became Taliban Afghanistan after tens of trillions spent. Sure Zalensky the U.S. puppet did poke Russia in the eye and see what the U.S. and Ukrainians get for their effort!
Magic Music for Cats – UNBELIEVABLE Results (Tested 2022)
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First of all, many guys do go for an “innocent girl.” I’m not one of them, but there are countless guys who totally look for “innocence,” however variously that may be defined, in women.
Why don’t some guys go for an “innocent” girl?
Speaking only for myself, not for any other man: I don’t go for “innocent” women because I like women who know exactly what they like and how to get it. I strongly prefer women who aren’t meek and aren’t the least bit frightened, women who live their lives out loud, uninhibited and unashamed.
Why?
They’re better partners.
They’re more fun. They’re less timid and more adventurous. They understand themselves better. They sample life with gusto. They embrace life in its joy, unworried about what other people have to say. They live on their own terms, which means they are more likely to explore and embrace new things. They are, not to put too fine a point on it, more courageous and more enjoyable to spend time, or life, with.
Ages ago I used to work at a place that had formerly been a large outlet mall. The company I worked for owned one quadrant of the building but there was plenty of parking available. One guy, Crumb E. Parker, had a very nice car and did not want it damaged but rather than park it far away from the building he parked it close by and took up three spots, almost like so but even more perpendicular to the spot.
Now had he done this in the East Jesus end of the lot where nobody else parked nobody would have cared but he had an early shift and parked as close to the building as he could This happened every day for a month and people were sick of seeing it. A couple of us got together and decided this aggression could not stand, man!
Since he did this right by the handicapped spots we made friends with the person that would park in the handicapped spot closest to his car and got them to swap spots with someone who worked a shift until midnight. Then we did the same with an early bird who would park on the other side of him. We had both cars parked so close to him he’d have needed to make an 87,423-point turn to be able to get out. We waited.
Shortly after Mr. Parker’s shift ended there are announcements and emails going out. Mr. Parker is wandering the halls of the office looking for whomever owned the cars that had him blocked in to move them. Nobody is owning up to it. A threat comes out to have towed the cars blocking him which was followed by a near-immediate retraction when someone pointed out that doing so but not towing the guy who parked like crap all the time could be seen as retaliation against a disabled person which would open up lawsuits. The guy ended up having to take a taxi home and back to work the next day and after that he would still park like crap but way out in the furthest parking spots where nobody cared and all was right with the world again.
Worked at Ford Dealership many years ago. I had 45 techs in seven different departments. Of all the people I had, only two were certified to work on the FORD GT’s.
I don’t recall the reason why the vehicle was in for service, but it was minor and didn’t require a test drive afterwards to verify that it was repaired.
I received the repair order and assigned the ticket/vehicle to one of my GT techs. As mentioned, it was simple repair and after the parts arrived, it only took him an hour so.
My GT tech finished the repair, closed out the ticket, sent me the paperwork (hard copy) then carefully backed the car out and drove it outside towards a special area that we kept all high dollar/high profile customer vehicles at.
I was inside my office at the time and watched the big garage doors open as he drove this wonderful-sounding, sexy vehicle outside.
I go to lunch and get back to my office an hour later.
I checked my email – “Come see me ASAP” it read. It was from my Boss.
This was highly unusual. I mean we sent emails back and forth all the time, but never with the subject matter “Come see me ASAP”.
Nonetheless I marched into my Boss’s office and he shut the door.
He looked at me and was pale as a ghost.
“Mike crashed the GT,” he said.
“He TOTALED it.”
…
I couldn’t believe it. Instead of parking this $250,000+ car like he was required to, Mike decided to take it for a spin around the block. Real quick.
He went around a corner too fast, lost control and took out a tree.
#dumbass
He was unhurt for the most part and walked away from it with just a bruise or two (he said).
:[
“GET INTO THE SYSTEM AND MAKE SURE HE DOESN’T DRAW ANOTHER VEHICLE!” my Boss told me. (he wasn’t much of a systems admin guy and needed me to do it). So I did.
To make a long story short, Mike the GT tech finished out another vehicle (a big truck) that he’d been doing an engine on. It took him a couple of days, but when he finished the ticket, he was fired. I’m sure he saw it coming.
The Dealership paid back the GT Owner what he’d paid for it. He wasn’t happy, of course, but what else ya gonna do?
Judging from the economic events that will occur in 2023, I think one of China’s most successful economic policies is “foreign exchange control.”
…
China’s foreign exchange controls include the following measures:
1. Restrict foreign exchange circulation in China
Any enterprise or retailer in China is not allowed to accept foreign currency and must convert it into RMB before trading. I can’t buy anything in any store in China with US dollars or Singapore dollars.
2. Restrict foreign exchange from being freely convertible into RMB
Any foreigner who visits China needs to convert foreign currency into RMB. There are limits on the amount. For example, foreigners entering China can only exchange US$50,000 in cash each year. The foreign exchange received by Chinese companies operating abroad will also be subject to amount restrictions when they need to convert it into RMB.
Foreign companies also need approval to remit foreign currency into China for investment.
3. Restrict the conversion of RMB into foreign currencies
Any Chinese or foreigner leaving China must exchange RMB cash into foreign currency. Or if you want to remit RMB and convert it into foreign currency, you are also subject to the amount limit.
Not only that, if Chinese companies want to invest in other countries and want to convert RMB into foreign currencies, they also need approval.
Simply put, the conversion of RMB and foreign currencies is subject to limits and controls. This makes large sums of money not freely convertible at all.
China is the world’s largest trading country, and it is the largest trading partner of almost all countries in the world. Therefore, the foreign exchange control policy actually has many negative impacts on the Chinese economy, which brings troubles to cross-border transactions, troubles to Chinese companies operating abroad, and a lot of troubles to foreign companies investing in China.
Even so, China still insists on implementing foreign exchange control strategies.
As an employee of a Singapore investment company, perhaps because of my lack of knowledge, I have not been able to understand China’s approach in the past many years. Because this policy often gives me a headache at work and adds a lot of extra workload to our company. The Chinese want to expand trade so much, why do they impose artificial restrictions on currency flows?
I once believed that if China relaxed its foreign exchange controls, China’s imports and exports would see huge growth.
It wasn’t until 2023, after the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hike, that I realized the reason why China did this: they took financial sovereignty into their own hands.
As we all know, in order to solve the country’s economic problems and curb inflation. In 2023, the Federal Reserve carried out continuous and substantial interest rate increases on the US dollar.
This operation has greatly increased the yield on U.S. dollar deposits, and funds all over the world want to transfer to the United States to obtain high interest rates. Many people even apply for loans in their own country and then transfer the loaned funds to the United States to enjoy the interest rate difference between the two places.
This caused funds from all over the world to begin to gather in the United States. Investors and wealthy people frantically converted their currencies into U.S. dollars and remitted them to the United States.
This resulted in a series of dire consequences for all other countries:
1. Due to the loss of large amounts of funds, investment in various fields in the country has been stopped.
2. The domestic currency was sold off in large quantities (converted into US dollars), causing the domestic currency to depreciate sharply, while the US dollar appreciated sharply.
3. Lack of investment and consumption (all the money is remitted to the United States) has caused the economy to decline, business is sluggish, and companies are gradually closing down.
4. As the U.S. dollar appreciates, American investors can purchase companies and minerals that are about to go bankrupt in their own countries at very low prices.
5. National wealth shrinks (the national currency depreciates), and people no longer trust the national currency and turn to buying U.S. dollars, causing the collapse of the national currency to intensify.
This consequence is like a domino, which is catastrophic for any country, meaning that the wealth created by this country for decades may be completely harvested by the United States.
In order to avoid this disastrous chain reaction, governments can only take one approach: follow the United States in raising interest rates. This can reduce the interest difference between the two countries and reduce capital outflows. You can take a look at the situation in your country in the past six months. Are banks already raising interest rates?
However, raising interest rates is not a panacea. It also has a serious negative impact, which reduces domestic investment willingness. After all, who wants to invest in business when you can earn a high income by depositing your money in the bank? At the same time, some companies that rely on loans, especially the financial industry and large-scale manufacturing industries, will see their capital costs continue to increase. When the chain breaks, businesses go bankrupt. For individuals, the interest pressure on student loans, credit cards, and mortgages will increase, and people’s lives will inevitably be affected.
Therefore, for most countries, not raising interest rates means allowing the United States to harvest their own wealth; raising interest rates means immediately harming the domestic economy and people;
No matter what you choose, you will get hurt. The rate hike is just the one that hurts less.
But in China, the situation is different.
Not only did the Chinese not follow the U.S. in raising interest rates like other countries, they actually kept cutting interest rates in the past few months.
Aren’t they afraid of massive capital outflows and sharp depreciation of the RMB, which will trigger an economic crisis?
Of course not, that’s why they implemented exchange controls.
Since the RMB and the U.S. dollar are not freely convertible, large-scale conversions are simply impossible.
Bank of China: What, you want to convert 50 million yuan into US dollars? what is your purpose? Transfer money to a U.S. bank? Sorry, this is not allowed.
Oh, you changed your story again and said you were going to the United States to do business. Well, please provide your business contract, investment agreement, and lawyer’s certificate!
Therefore, they are not worried about these problems at all, and the outflow of funds is limited to a controllable range. The United States simply cannot harvest China.
In the past few months, the yuan has indeed depreciated against the US dollar, but has appreciated against other major currencies around the world, which shows the effectiveness of China’s foreign exchange control capabilities.
With low interest rates, Chinese companies can obtain very cheap financial support from their banks, which makes them invincible in the global market. Taking the shipbuilding industry with the largest demand for funds as an example, the Chinese have taken 90% of the world’s shipbuilding orders in the third quarter. In the same period last year, their share was only 50%.
In the face of US dollar interest rate hikes and global currency depreciation, inflation has occurred in various countries, but China’s domestic inflation does not exist at all. They have even begun to worry about “deflation.” Many Chinese friends told me that domestic prices in China are actually lower than last year, and people can buy more goods with the same money.
I was assigned to Police Motorcycles for ten years. I was on a traffic stop one winter day writing a citation to a young man. While writing, the young man asked me if I knew Officer Stone. My heavy leather jacket covered my name plate, and as the only Officer Stone on the force, I found this an interesting question, since I had never seen him before. I responded, “Why yes, yes, I do.” I threw in “He’s really a great guy.” The young man agreed, telling me how they were good friends, and that Officer Stone was close with his family. “Officer Stone comes over to my house on most Sundays for dinner and my mama cooks for him”, the young man added. I said “Why that’s real nice of her.” As I handed the kid his citation to sign, I pulled back my jacket to reveal my name plate, and said “Tell your mama I’ll be over for dinner Sunday at 1:00”. The kid’s face froze, and after a few seconds, he simply responded “Yes Sir!”
My career was spent as the Founder and CEO of a very large company. When a woman disrespected my marriage, politeness went out of the window. Ladies, trust me I’m not God’s gift to women, but I have been hit on! I was once told by a 22 year old (I was 40 something) that she could steal me away from my wife. My response was, “you’re fired”!
I’ve now been married to the most incredible woman in the world for 56 years. I still find reasons to fall in love with her each day.
When I was 17 years old, I dropped out of high school to work full time. I never went in to get my GED (which is the equivalent of a high school diploma).
Since then, my parents (especially my mom) have been begging me to get my diploma.
I’ve put it off for years and years, much to their disappointment.
This fall, my friend finally coaxed me into taking the exams. He assured me that I could do it, he encouraged me, and he was a huge support. I wouldn’t have done it if it weren’t for him.
November 30th, I passed my final exam and got my GED!
I printed it out, framed it, and wrapped it up for my parents for Christmas.
Unfortunately, I have no chill, so I went to my parents’ house last night to give them their Christmas present early. My mom unwrapped it, read the diploma and…
Oh. My. God.
That reaction was worth every single minute of studying and exam taking.
I have never seen someone cry out of happiness at a present, but my mom did. My dad got teary eyed! Shit, the boyfriend said he even got blurred vision watching my parents’ reaction!
It was amazing.
My dad was smiling and clapping and my mom hugged me so hard I thought she was going to break a rib.
The dogs started barking because they were freaked out at the sudden mayhem.
At one point my dad yelled, “A ROUND OF WHISKEY IS IN ORDER!” and ran off to the kitchen to pour a round of shots.
It was hilarious.
Hands down, being able to make my parents that excited has been one of my happiest moments.
There’s nothing like making your parents proud.
(Oh, and P.S.: I passed with flying colors. I made those exams my bitch.)
Iran Gets Access To Chinese Satellite To Use For Missile Attack on Israel!
“The US must be isolated or sidelined for the benefits of all free nations of the world.”
What pushed me —a United States Astronaut— into retirement? I’ll tell you exactly what pushed me.
I was summoned into the “corner office.” This is a hallowed place, reserved for the Chief of all astronauts. Seated in a chair in front of the boss’ desk, the discussion would eventually turn to me asking, “What are my chances of flying again?” The boss pulled out a long sheet of paper. A sheet known to wannabe fliers as the A/B line chart. It typically shows potential flight assignments well into the future and is used for NASA JSC management planning purposes. After fidgeting and mumbling for a few moments, I heard the words that would eventually push me into retirement. I heard the head of the astronaut office say —in part— “… I have better choices to fly in space than you,” and then, after a brief pause, the boss followed up by saying that I didn’t “… have the temperament for long-duration spaceflight.”
I was crushed beyond words. The career that I had worked so hard for, and had —after 15 application cycles— been selected to do, was being summarily ended. I left the office of the Chief Astronaut and cried … but not before I wrote down everything that was said.
I did not retire immediately. I hung on … performing as a lowly “management astronaut.” Stripped of most of the “fun” stuff (like flying in the T-38), I was expected to go to meetings. The only saving grace I had was that I was made an IA (instructor astronaut) for spacewalking. Something I was very good at, I apparently did have the temperament for teaching neophyte space walkers. Of course, I took that assignment very seriously.
In all honesty, I was hoping for a change. I tried to wait the boss out, hoping they would step down for a more promising assignment. They did exactly that, hoping —but failing— to be named as the first astronaut to spend a year in space. I would then enter the hallowed corner office once again, only this time I was sitting across from the new Chief… and the new deputy.
When I respectfully asked them for a chance to get back into the “active astronaut” and flight-eligible line, the boss gave me an emphatic “no.” Expecting exactly that response, I asked for a more responsible position in the office hierarchy, one that could challenge me more than meeting attendance and effectively utilize my 30 years of NASA experience (15 as an engineer, 15 as an astronaut). Again, the boss said “no.” The Deputy said nothing. I was being dressed down, by two people who would go on to fly again … just like the previous boss.
I was angry … very angry. So much so, that I was bringing that anger home and inflicting it upon my family. Obviously an unpalatable situation, it took the courage of my then 18-year old son to say, “… Dad, this has to stop.”
And stop it did … sort of. My family will tell you that I am still angry … and it’s something I must deal with every single day. I am working hard to lessen the anger, but it’s going to take some time.
I have now been retired for nearly 6 years. During that 6-year hiatus from government service, I have been writing. I write to share my stories with you and, more importantly, because it’s therapeutic. And it’s really a whole lot of fun! I also enjoy teaching part-time at Iowa State University, entertaining as a motivational speaker, and I consult with various organizations in a number of different capacities (listen for my voice sometime or take a Royal Caribbean cruise!).
My wife and I spent a month in Spain and were scheduled to fly home from Paris, France.
The day before we were to leave my wife tested positive for Covid.
I had to to make arrangements to stay longer at the Airbnb, the host was very kind and helpful.
I had to reschedule a number of appointments that were to take place after we were to return home.
All of this went smoothly but when I tried to get ahold of Air France, it took over six hours of trying before I was able to talk to a human. I was informed that they would not change our tickets because we had booked through America Express. It took about two minutes to get a human at American Express who was able to change our tickets for a flight four days later. We were issued new tickets, but when we were at the airport, Air France informed me that there was a $175 charge for the changed flight. I asked why as we already had new tickets and Air France did not do anything for the changed tickets. It was like I was talking to a brick wall. The Air France person could not (or would not) explain what the charge was for. He was rude and acted like I was being unreasonable, but all I wanted was an explanation as what the extra charge was for.
Rwanda
I finally paid the the fee but I will never fly on Air France again
Rwanda, a tiny country in the eastern central part of Africa Rwanda
When visiting Rwanda, don’t bring any plastic bags as they are prohibited in the country. When you try to bring them, they will be confiscated right at the airport. Same goes with throwing waste in the environment, our country is very clean, and throwing any waste would be a shame for you, and the authorities can punish you for that.
Don’t openly discuss ethnic issues. 22 years ago our country had seen one of the most atrocious tragedies in human history 1994 Genocide Rwandan genocide
you shouldn’t go around asking everyone what? where? how? who are you? The good way to learn this history is to try and visit some memorials which are rich in that history and it’s near the main city, Kigali and almost in every other city across the country.
Don’t try to take pictures of everything you see especially people even young kids in the street without first asking. Yes, our country is still under development, you might see poor neighborhood, young street kids or some funny things you can make out of those pictures – taking photos of those vulnerable people without their permission is a sensitive issue in our culture.
You shouldn’t be annoyed or irritated if someone didn’t make it on time. For many people being late “is just okay” one hour or 4 hours would still be okay 😉 so if you are meeting someone either for business or personal affairs just bear this in mind and be patient.
Restaurant and other service businesses. You will be treated really well, in fact a special treatment will be given to you if you are a foreigner (Rwandans are very welcoming and we are naturally good to our neighbours), but don’t take advantage of it or think that they want something from you (i.e. don’t shout or raise your voice when you are not satisfied with the service, there is a good manner to bring the issue at hand).
Rwanda is very safe and secure. Contrary to the popular belief or some perception of a country which has been in Genocide 22 years ago, you can move around anytime you want; even midnight. Don’t expect anyone to understand what you are talking about, even if you speak English or French, the majority of people only know one language; Kinyarwanda. Taxis, local traders, waiters, service providers, etc. they try hard to understand you but make sure when you are traveling to have a local guide with you (this will also help you pay less for everything, because you will not be overcharged cause you are a foreigner)
Don’t bring cats or dogs to public places or smoke in public. This doesn’t mean Rwandans hate animals, it means they respect other people’s views almost on anything. There are also special places reserved for smokers.
When you are a guest to someone’s home, don’t pay (or contribute) for the food or drinks offered unless asked to, this is rude or in some cases disrespectful.
Don’t get annoyed if you are being called ‘muzungu’ everywhere. Literally muzungu means ‘a traveler’ but it is widely known as ‘white people’, even Asians are called ‘muzungu’ 😉 😉 Don’t think they are being racists or are they trying to insult you.
Welcome to Rwanda! The land of thousand hills.
Man Expose His Girlfriend After DNA Test Proves He’s Not The Father Of Their Son.
Probably not the strangest, but the only one I could prove.
An elderly gentleman came into the shop complaining of a brake squeak. I wrote up the work order and my guys pulled it into the shop. After several minutes passed, I heard an explosion of laughter coming from the break room.
It was kind of obnoxious, so I went to see what was up. A mouse had gotten stuck between the brake pad and the caliper. Sadly the mouse had passed away.
I then approached the customer to come see what was causing the squeak. The customer began to hysterically laugh. To the point where he dropped to one knee. I thought I was going to have to call an ambulance.
A tech released the mouse and the squeak was gone. Rest in peace Mr. Mouse. Thanks for the laugh.
Back in day 70s when I got married, I registered for a lovely ironstone place setting from Mikasa. I got 10 and a half place setting for wedding gifts. I went to Macy’s in Indianapolis to buy the rest to make 12 place settings. About 18 months later, I got a box from Macy’s that contained another place setting plus some serving dishes. Upon speaking to the manager of the department, it turned out they were discontinuing the pattern and as I was the last person to buy any pieces, they sent the display pieces to me. I thought that was very nice of them. 50 years later I still have all the pieces and use them when I have company.
I think it’s a great idea. Singaporeans are very intelligent, and have excellent educational backgrounds. They also have the distinction of being Asian in ethnic identity but having the Western influence that Singapore is known for. They have the best of both worlds, and a unique ability to unite Eastern and Western worldviews in brokering investments for the tech industry.
Singapore is also known to be a haven for those with considerable wealth. They may be willing to invest in tech startups that have potential. Especially if that company is close to home and able to benefit Singapore’s economy.
Singapore is also a major trade hub. Second to Shanghai, they are the largest port for transporting in the world. It’s a prime location for new ventures. It’s proximity to other Southeast Asian countries, India, and China make it a good hub with access to millions of people. All in all, I have a favorable opinion.
This is why men needs to have more sex than women…
Yes. And when they arrived for the “noise complaint” I answered the door in my boxers with my 3 year old slung over my shoulder on one side and a long handled fish net containing a bat (as in a nocturnal flying mammal) on the other.
“Can I help you officer?”
“Is that a bat?!”
“Yes, excuse me for a moment.”
Handed off my kid to the rather confused officer, went about the necessaries of releasing the terrified bat from the net, set it down, and retrieved my kid.
“What can I do for you sir?”
“We had a noise complaint (it was two or three in the morning) but I’m guessing I understand. Have a good night sir.”
And then he left. Chuckling all the way back to his car.
Someone on Quora pointed out that Ireland is good at micro-efficiency. If you need to fill out a form, there will be a pen beside it. The security guy at the door can tell you which desk you need to go to, stuff like that.
So I apply this to my life. My bicycle is in the hall, with the lock, lights and reflectors all attached to it. I can grab it and go out the door, knowing I have everything I need. My bike bag contains a can of instant puncture repair and rain gear.
My keyring has only the keys I actually use, plus a small mirror for problems with contact lenses.
I only buy trousers with pockets with zips that will actually hold my phone and keys.
Every coat has a pair of reading glasses in the pocket.
Beside my passport, I keep a small plastic bag with a toothbrush, contact lens case and mini deodorant. If I have to, I can hit the airport with just those and I’ll manage.
I wash the muddy dog in the road outside the house, not the bathroom. She likes it better, the local kids help, and I don’t have massive cleaning up to do.
There is no one hack that does it all, it’s more about finding the most efficient way to get things done.
I worked for a company in Texas for a number of years. After my immediate supervisor retired, a new person from outside the company was hired to take his position. This guy was a complete sleeze bucket, he was really shady. I was given instructions that I was morally unwilling to do. I was given the choice to do it or pack up and leave.
I typed up a letter of resignation effective the Friday of that week and immediately left to visit my job sites in Louisiana and East Texas. On Friday as I was headed back home I stopped at one of my last job sites. The superintendent of the site informed me the President of my company was trying to get in touch with me and the owner of his company told him that if I showed up and did not contact my President, he would be fired.
I called him and he said when my resignation was delivered to the Senior VP in charge of my division two of my coworkers also turned in their resignations. Between the three of us, it represented 20+ years with his company. He and the SVP went to talk to my former supervisor. He was terminated on the spot and the three of us were asked to reconsider our resignations.
Well, this wasn’t actually a person. But it was the best case of ‘you just picked a fight with the wrong one’ I’ve ever seen.
I was at the park walking my dog with a friend and her dog.
Her dog was a rescue but from her brains, looks and behavior she was an Australian Shepherd. That particular day she was off in the distance chasing birds while my dog (also a rescue and at that point still quite timid) was hanging back with us.
Suddenly a pair of huge Great Danes appeared out of nowhere and decided to make a meal out of the Aussie. They started off far behind her but they were 5 times her size, so they closed on her quickly in a vee formation, with the Aussie at the point of the vee.
As my friend and I watched in horror, they gained on her until they were just inches from her, still closing in at an angle. We were sure she was a goner.
And then, just as they were about to grab her, she reversed on a dime and shot back through the narrow gap still left between them. The train wreck she left in her wake as the two clumsy oafs slammed into each other head first was awesome to behold.
We were still laughing when she reached us, trotting back with a grin just like the one in the picture on her face and her tail waving high.
Today feels heavy. I got up when it was still dark, way before sunrise because I wanted to do some work before my main job. I’m super tired. Coffee is like the juice that keeps me going.
In a few more minutes, I’ll go to work. I’ll be there for a long time. It’s supposed to be from 9 to 5, but I always need to stay longer. My boss says that’s what I should do to be a good employee. But even though I work a lot, my piggy bank isn’t getting any fatter, and everything else, like food and rent, keeps costing more.
Did you have a similar experience when you were my age? To me, this makes no sense!
Very frequently, I feel scared because I don’t think I’ll ever be able to stop working. It bothers me when people suggest we should save for retirement. They make me feel like I can’t manage my finances wisely. This is ridiculous. Savings? Lol, when will it happen?
Meanwhile, everyone seems to be so happy on the Internet. They post pictures with big smiles and seem to be having fun, but I think most are just pretending. Most of my friends are also running this “race” to success. Yet, most of them are also super tired, although nobody wants to say it out loud.
When I get home, I work my side hustle. Why? Because I went to a good college, and now I owe money, a lot of it. So, I work all day long, even when I should be taking a break or hanging out with friends. It feels like I’m on a bike pedaling super hard, but I’m not moving.
I need your help, Hector. How can I make this stop? How can I escape this miserable lifestyle and start making real progress?
Sorry if this was a long email. I hope you have some words of wisdom to open my eyes. I’m hungry for progress. To the best of my knowledge, I’ve done everything I was supposed to do, yet I don’t have the results I expected.
This is a tough one… but this is what I answered:
My friend, reading your email hit me right in the gut. I’ve been there, and let me tell you, it’s a tough spot. But you’re not alone, and you’re not the first to feel this way.
The first thing to understand is that this non-stop hustle culture we live in isn’t sustainable. It’s not healthy. Sure, working hard is important, but there’s a point where you’ve got to step back and look at the bigger picture. Are you working smart? Or just hard?
Here’s my answer thinking as an entrepreneur. I’m not saying this is right, so take this with a grain of salt. This is how I would focus my attention:
Health is the first step to wealth: Drop the caffeine and find a healthier way to stay sharp. If you burn out, you can’t make money. Period.
Forget the 9 to 5 myth: If your current job demands long hours with little reward, it’s time to rethink your career strategy. Maybe your skills are more valuable elsewhere. Ever thought about that?
Your net worth is not your self-worth: Stop comparing yourself to the fake TikTok life. Delete it! Focus on you.
Make time for what matters: You’ve got friends you don’t see because everybody’s “too busy”? Cut the BS. Schedule it as a meeting that you have to attend. Work will always be there. Relationships won’t.
Your side hustle: You’re working a lot and not moving forward? Maybe you’ve got a passion or skill you can monetize on the side. It could be anything. To me, your answer is found there.
Learn to say “NO”: This one’s tough but necessary. Set boundaries. Your time’s the most valuable asset you’ve got.
Get a game plan: Sit down and figure out where you want to be in 5, 10, 15 years. Then, work backward to make a roadmap on how to get there.
Take a break: Burnout is real. Sometimes, you’ve got to take a step back to leap forward.
Keep learning: You say you went to a nice college. Great. But learning never stops. There are a ton of free resources out there. Use them. Learn how to increase your expertise and generate extra income.
You don’t have it all figured out yet, and that’s okay. Most of us struggle with this.
Here’s the good news: It’s great that you’re asking questions. Stay open to change and find new opportunities. Keep searching for answers!
Most importantly, make sure you’re hustling in the right direction. The world has changed. It’s all about working smarter, not harder.
What am I missing?
Xi Jinping’s Global South Red Carpet: China’s WARNING to the Neocons
China has been rolling out the red carpet for Global South leaders maligned by the United States. This video explains why this is a stark warning to the neocons that they’re global order is FINISHED.
It’s the story of a mugger named Bob, who had a lot of money, but wasn’t incredibly happy.
Getting drunk and hiring prostitutes just wasn’t really hitting the spot anymore, he felt a little bit empty, he was having trouble sleeping at night, wondering if he was really doing the right thing, questioning the meaning of life itself.
When he spoke to people about it, many suggested changing his ways, no longer mugging people, and doing something else more productive instead.
Bob didn’t like that idea one bit! It sounded like a lot of work, for one. And it implied he had been doing something wrong?!? How dare they suggest that he was anything less than perfect!? Hearing that kind of stuff made him angry, not happy.
But then one day, Bob talked to one of the PR people working for the thieves’ guild, and it changed his life.
He sat there for hours, listening avidly. For the first time, he was hearing ideas that made sense to him, it was like music to his ears.
Bob the mugger learned that wealth is not a zero sum game. His latent feelings of guilt evaporated as he learned that getting money from someone, was actually the same thing as providing that person with a service. Wealth creation! Of course! That made sense!
He felt a bit like a courageous hero when all the risks he was taking were mentioned.
He had always suspected that if there were any issues caused by muggings, it was just because of over-regulation, and that it would all go much smoother if city guards would just stay out of it.
When he was told that he was an amazing person, superior to everyone else, and that people were just jealous of him, and that was why they didn’t like him… Oh boy! It stroked his ego in just the right way! It was exactly what he wanted to hear.
Bob the mugger walked away feeling GREAT! No more doubts, no more guilt, and no need to change anything either! He could go on mugging people, filled with confidence that he was making the world a better place, by caring only about himself.
And he went on to do great things!
He decided that it was time that he give back to the community, by providing some jobs for other muggers. And he didn’t stop there, he had a growth mindset, and built a huge mugging empire!
Bob the mugger became Bob the risk-taker, Bob the job provider, Bob the creator of wealth!
This unsung hero almost died asking himself that very same question:
Why does nobody understand me and my greatness? Why do they not understand that I’m creating jobs and wealth?!? Why do they keep talking about a zero sum game?!?
But then he remembered: They were probably all just jealous. And he died at peace with himself, soothed by his comforting ideology.
There’s a thing called the gambler’s fallacy that many of us fall for in so many situations.
The most simple example is if you are flipping a coin. You’ve landed on heads 10 times in a row. At that point, you might think that you have higher odds of landing on tails. Obviously, that’s not true — as it is always a 50/50 chance.
It happens during card games, sports betting, and all manner of games that we play. If you are playing cards and get five good hands in a row. It’s easy to start thinking, “You know, I’m actually kind of a good card player.”
Your ego gets involved and that’s when things get dangerous for your wallet.
Cajun Salmon Burgers with Lime Mayonnaise
On the table tonight: Cajun Salmon Burgers seasoned with McCormick® Perfect Pinch® Cajun Seasoning, panko, red bell pepper and onion. Top with Lime Mayonnaise for an extra-delicious Lenten (or any season) dinner.
Quora Prompt Generator, who is the “we” you’re referring to?
Are you referring to the U.S. government? Why be concerned? Biden’s been bitching that Apple should do their manufacturing in the U.S. China is now telling Apple’s producers to stay home in Taiwan. This is a good time to remind Apple to come home.
Or are you referring to Apple stakeholders? You should be very worried. Foxconn and Wistron had to abandon India because they couldn’t transplant and replicate their China production to India and are trying to work their way back to China. Apple has no other country that can produce its premiun models and would be in deep kimchi if Foxconn can’t recoup to build back their capacity in China.
Or are you referring to Apple, the company? Yeah, they should be running scared because Tim Cook knows Apple has no Plan B to fall back on. Why do you think he’s been practically camping in in China these past months?
Or is this the “royal we”, the general public so to speak? This should be taken as a good sign. China is doing their due diligence – not allowing any “sacred cows”. Entities like Foxconn should be audited to ensure that they’re complying with all rules and regulations in order that there is a level playing field and market competition for all.
I once had a dog, a Siberian Husky. It was my sisters dog, but she never took care of it. Instead, I inherited that role. His name was “Frisky”, and was a “good boy”. But the rest of the family thought of him as a burden. Which was bad. He was a good dog.
One day, my father came to the back yard, and asked me to get him.
So I did.
He told me that he was going to take Frisky to a farm “where he could run about freely”. I believed him.
But, you know, what did I know? I was only 16 at the time.
Frisky looked up at me. Very skiddish.
I comforted him. And he seemed to be ok. He believed me. It’s gonna be fine, I told him.
My dad got him. Loaded him into the car.
And that was the last time I saw him.
…
Unwilling participant.
Yet my brothers and sisters, many decades later, berated me. Arguing how I couldn’t possibly realize what was going on. They knew. Why didn’t I?
My business was failing and I couldn’t understand why.
Things were NOT looking good since day one.
My mind was spinning out of control day and night trying to understand what was wrong.
In 2014 I found what seemed a great opportunity. I managed to negotiate an unusual deal with one of the best “warehouse” retailers in the USA. I had a signed agreement to purchase their overstocks… at unbelievable prices.
This was my math:
Regular price of the item: $100 Warehouse discounted price of the retailer: $90 I could get their items at 10% to 20% of their price. My price would be between $9 to $18!
Yes, that’s over 90% OFF the retail price!
Reselling these items, even at huge discounts to my customers could easily double or triple my money. It seemed like a priceless opportunity.
So I rented this HUGE warehouse:
I called it the Red Barn Outlet.
Located in a very busy street, with huge traffic count, we opened the doors to our customers.
We had great products and unbeatable prices, yet, we didn’t had the expected volume of sales.
I did marketing — and found little to no improvement.
I even hired amazing helpers:
Nothing helped…
To answer your question: What is one mistake you made that you would like to warn others not to make?
The laws of work have changed!
I learned this lesson in a very painful way.
Retail has changed.
Our Economy has changed.
The world has changed.
We have changed.
Today we have retail on our fingertips!
“There’s an app for that!”
I was competing with a disruptedbusiness model and as a small business owner, there’s NO way to win.
I was playing on the OLD Economy and as a consequence suffered a slow painful death because of disruption.
Today I teach people and businesses how to anticipate disruptive trends because I understand how painful it is.
This is my warning:
“Hard work is not good enough anymore.”
Tactics win battles; strategy wins wars.
Texas Roasted Potatoes
Serve this side dish at your next cookout.
2023 11 04 10 29
Yield: 8
Ingredients
3 pounds red potatoes, quartered
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Toss together all the ingredients in a large bowl.
Place on a baking sheet.
Bake for one hour (turning frequently) or until lightly browned.
Time-Slip Artifacts: Modern Objects in the Ancient World – Volume 1
Until you grow balls! Until you tell the U.S. if you blow Nord Stream pipeline Germany will blow away Alaskan pipeline!
Until you tell off the U.S. when it becomes a jerk. Ask them to fxxk off and say over your dead body will you listen to them. Get rid of your current leaders ASAP. They behaves shamefully.
China don’t hear words. China sees action. And the see a wimp and a weak government push around by Uncle Sam. So why talk to EU?
Absent of government policy, is the American seller willing and motivated to sell to the Chinese?
Why yes. Absolutely.
The Chinese are one of their biggest and best customers, and have helped prop up the stock price for decades, because the Chinese are not only volume shoppers of value, but also the high-margin cutting edge. That’s a significant STREAM of revenue on the table.
The American seller will try every trick in the book to preserve their bottomline, from lobbying the Congress and the White House, to tailoring specific products for the Chinese to circumvent sanctions. The quick and dirty will be to ship product to a subsidiary market, for example Korea, Japan or Taiwan, and re-export the chips through a third party. As a country, China isn’t being sanctioned like Iran or Cuba, so this will appear like normal trade flow.
That’s the seller. But what about the buyer? China has plenty of friends. Is Nvidia going to say no to a million-piece GPU order from Qatar, just because it’s destined for data server/AI farms within a Chinese-run business park? What if the Saudis make another million-chip order and ships it along to Shenzhen because they have a stake in a Chinese subsidiary’s AI project? The possibilities are endless. Nvidia can’t very well demand geolocation tracking of their sold product, can they? Chips can’t be repaired anyway and can be easily transported by air, so warranty claims can be easily dealt with.
The fundamental issue is this.
Does America want to continue doing business with the Chinese, the world’s biggest single market?
If the answer is a firm no, we can talk ironclad rules.
But the half-hearted “this is national security dual use tech” approach manned by a tiny office within the Department of Commerce won’t work, not when they are trying to fix corporations with more money than God, able to buy the services of legal teams that run rings around legislation and policy.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday warned of dangerous consequences in framing the one-China question through the narrative of “democracy versus autocracy.”
Lee gave the warning at the closing dialogue of the Asia Future Summit in Singapore.
Recognized by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758 of 1971, there is but one China in the world, Taiwan is an inalienable part of China’s territory, and the Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is the sole legal government representing the whole of China.
Speaking during a Q&A session at the closing dialogue of the summit, Lee called for countries to make clear that they will not change this “very fundamental basis of the international understanding.”
“One China is the basis on which nearly every country in the world recognizes the PRC, and has informal, unofficial relations with Taiwan,” he said. “And I think that has to remain the fundamental basis on which the relationships are maintained and the status quo is justified.”
Lee continued by saying that to describe the question of one China as “a question of democracy versus autocracy” is “dangerous.”
The Asia Future Summit was jointly held by Singapore’s flagship media, The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao and The Business Times, on Wednesday and Thursday.
Speakers across the world shared their views on geopolitical hot spots, economic issues, and social governance during the event.
Millions Of Men Finally Get The Cheat Code To The Dating Game
“I personally want to thank every modern girl that hopped online to tell us how much they want to be railed by Chad and Tyrone and after they hit the wall, look for guys they ignored for a decade to suddenly want him only for his money and free validation, because now us guys who have red pilled know exactly what play they wanna try the moment we see them and tell them” not interested”. All is becoming right in the world.”
This claim or accusation about China subsidizing EV cars is just a loser’s speech.
We Chinese are already surprised about Chinese EV cars being sold in EU with twice of the prices than in China.
Meanwhile, Europeans (mostly Germans) are also surprised about VW EV cars being sold in China with half of the prices than in Germany.
Tesla cars made in China are also cheaper than anywhere else, because of China subsidizing Tesla?
If anything, China’s subsidy about EV cars is “after” the cars got purchased.
There is something in China called “car purchasing tax”, and it’s about 9% of what you pay to the dealer. EV and PHEV cars can enjoy deduction on purchasing tax.
Also, about 45% of gasoline price in China is all kinds of tax and fee. However, the government doesn’t charge car electricity for the same amount. The 45% includes road maintenance fee, which means that it’s now entirely afforded by gasoline and diesel vehicle owners.
Mercedes is still doing good in China, but not the EV part.
In August alone, Mercedes sold 70.8 thousand cars in China, and accumulated sale of over half million cars (527.7 thousand) from January to August in 2023.
However, for EV cars, like EQE, the sales numbers from Jan to Aug are: 289, 421, 730, 48, 1254, 613, 591, and 941.
Only 1 EQC was sold in August.
The 19th highest EV/PHEV sales brand in August is Arcfox, and it sold 1868.
Europeans were too arrogant to develop their EV technologies.
They spent very little in this field, and was convinced that their petrol and diesel cars would keep dominating the world.
It’s why they are left behind.
Plus, this time’s farce is proposed by France, rather than Germany.
Von der Leyen is being supportive to this because she’s an US dog, and would do anything to screw China.
Some Germans have waken up, put down their pride and chose to cooperate with Chinese.
Meanwhile in France, car manufacturers are dying. They need to find a way to stop Germans from getting stronger.
Just like many other topics in EU, this, according to my personal opinion, will not go anywhere.
They would not have a result within 2023, and they will keep arguing in 2024.
If not because of their low efficiency, they would not be in such an embarrassing situation at the first place.
Multiple Incursions, Hostages, Point attacks – coordinated to precision after distracting them by rocket strikes
The vaunted Israeli intelligence was caught off guard completely.
That means a lot of Planning
So it isn’t SUDDEN at all
Why?
Many possibilities
First, the US possibly knew about the attack and turned a blind eye and didn’t warn the Israelis to divert attention from Ukraine and the disaster unfolding out there
It worked. Yesterday the whole coverage was on Palestine and Israel and not on Ukraine or even Chaiyina (China)
Second, Hamas backed by someone powerful, possibly Iran with Hezbollah waiting, decided to take advantage of a West that was completely swamped with Ukraine and an Israel that was desperately short of munitions (Israel gave 360,000 Shells to Ukraine, forced by USA) and decided to launch a strike and escalate things
An Escalation would allow the Russians, Chinese and the Global South to raise hypocrisy slogans against the West comparing Palestinians to Ukranians
If Israel does march into Gaza, the UN would become a battleground of anger and rage
Third, the US plans major war in the Middle East. They plan to launch Israel against Syria & Iran. It could be why China invited Assad and maybe tipped him off
It’s a delicate place today for the world
Especially India
If India support Israel as our friend Achal Gautam says in invading and destroying Gaza, that’s a billion Muslims who will hate India
Many Oil and Gas Producers and the biggest and richest vendors for key projects like Ports or Bridges
Plus most Muslims including the Azeris & Kazakhs and Turkmens and Kyrgyz people will flock to Russia, China and the CSTO
Hell even Turkey will rage against NATO
It would be the worst thing for Israel to blindly attack Gaza in an act of war
It would be fantastic news for Russia and China if Israel invades Gaza
Huawei releases a disruptive quantum chip, disrupting the global semiconductor industry!
This shouldn’t be a surprise as Huawei has been continuously innovating, researching and improving its technology. It has thousands of researchers and scientists continuously doing their best. This undoubtedly will make US/EU to try to surpress and annihilate it.
In the past 1900 years, in my impression, the Arabs have not failed the Jews. The destruction of ancient Israel was not caused by the Arabs, but by the Romans. It would be unfair for Israelis to blame the Arabs for the destruction of ancient Israel. The persecution of Jews before and after WWII came from the Nazis in Europe, not the Arabs.
However, the Jews have really done things that are sorry to the Arabs in half a century.
Palestinian Arabs are human beings and should enjoy equal human rights … You can’t go bullying them like that…
As for whether it will become the sixth Middle East war…it is too early to tell. The scale of armed conflict is not that large. This was just a raid, not a full-scale attack. China and Russia will be diplomatically concerned, but will not intervene by force.
And a military raid was not the outcome the Arabs wanted.
All this proves only one thing:
As long as Israel does not abandon its own national exclusionary ideology based on Zionism, and as long as it continues to defend its current policies throughout the Palestinian areas, Israel will always be a country that lives in the shadow of fear, betrayal and repentance.
Iran, from West Asia, and Saudi Arabia, from the Arabian Peninsula, are both large among Muslim countries.
After Iran and Saudi Arabia reconcile, and the Muslim countries put aside their previous infighting, there will be a strong and unified Middle East.
We can understand that the Muslims in the Arab world are most eager for China to raise the anti-American flag due to the continuous aggression and plunder of the Western world, but the demise of the United States will not happen overnight, nor will it happen only militarily, but also economically, culturally, politically, etc., and there will be a slow process.
Maya Angelou always advise the African-American elite to read The prince of Machiavelli, because, she said, without a proper understanding of this book, you won’t understand the western elite. The Prince is their bedside book. it contains the main principle all imperialist applies: “If you want to control the people, separate the people and you can rule them. Divide them and you can conquer them.” Simply put, “divide and conquer.”
If 1.3 billion Muslims were united, it would be a huge force in the world.
Gone are the days when Israel relied on the US to dominate the Middle East. A declining Uncle Sam will not be able to bless Israel for long.
Therefore, the Israelis, if they are smart enough, must be mentally prepared to negotiate peace with the Palestinians and return to the 1967 Palestinian-Israeli borders, otherwise they will not be able to survive in the Arab state crevasse.
Sad Looking Cat Gets Adopted And Purrs For The First Time Ever | The Dodo
Watch this really sad shelter cat become a purring kitten with his new mom after finally getting adopted.
Huawei has just unveiled its Mate 60 chip, a stunning feat of technological innovation that shows how the US has failed to stifle China’s rise in the global arena. The US has been waging a relentless campaign of sanctions and restrictions against Huawei and other Chinese firms, hoping to cut them off from the vital resources, software, and markets they need to thrive. But instead of crippling China’s technological ambitions, the US has only spurred them to become more self-reliant and creative.
The Mate 60 chip is the crown jewel of Huawei’s HiSilicon division, which makes chips for smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other gadgets. The chip is based on the most advanced process technology in the industry, the 5-nanometer node. It boasts a powerful octa-core CPU, a Mali-G78 GPU, a dual-core neural processing unit (NPU), and a 5G modem. The chip also supports features that enhance the user experience, such as multi-screen collaboration, smart charging, and more.
The Mate 60 chip is a remarkable achievement for Huawei, especially considering the US technology blockade. Since 2019, the US has put Huawei on its Entity List, which bans US companies from supplying it with software and hardware without a license. The US has also pressured its allies to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks, citing security concerns. As a result, Huawei has lost access to Google’s Android operating system, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, and other essential components and services.
But Huawei has not given up. It has poured resources into its own research and development to overcome the challenges. It has developed its own operating system, HarmonyOS, which can run on various devices and platforms. It has also increased its self-sufficiency in chip design and production, relying on its HiSilicon division and other partners. Moreover, it has expanded its global presence and cooperation, especially with countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
The Mate 60 chip is not only a breakthrough for Huawei, but also for China’s overall technological development. The chip represents China’s progress in mastering the core technologies of the semiconductor industry, which is crucial for its economic growth and national security. The chip also demonstrates China’s ability to innovate and compete in the global market, despite the US attempts to contain and isolate it. Furthermore, the chip reflects China’s vision of building a community with a shared future for mankind, as it seeks to provide high-quality products and services to consumers around the world.
The Mate 60 chip developed by Huawei proves that the US technology blockade against China is doomed to fail. The US cannot stop China’s technological upgrade by imposing unilateral sanctions and restrictions. On the contrary, these actions have only motivated China to enhance its self-reliance and innovation capabilities. The US should realize that cooperation is better than confrontation in the field of science and technology, and that both countries can benefit from mutual learning and exchange.
One afternoon in 1985 on a nice sunny day when I was working outside about half an hour North of Toronto I felt a sudden hot gust of wind, a very strong gust.
I turned around and looked at where the wind came from and I saw the sky, it was swirling all around, kind of like waves hitting a beach.
But that’s not what surprised me, it was the colour of the sky that I’ll never forget. It was green! The clouds were literally forest green, swirling around with dark gray clouds, in a fluid way that I had never seen before.
The clouds were also very close to the ground and were coming towards me fast.
I called out to my coworkers who hadn’t noticed yet and said we had better take shelter. They turned around and the colour drained from their faces, we looked at each other and ran across the field to the main building which was made of brick.
Not two minutes later day turned to night and it started pouring rain. All we did was look out the window at the raw violence of the storm until it passed less than half an hour later.
Little did we know at the time that just a few miles North of us a category F4 tornado had just devastated the city of Barrie.
It was totally unprecedented at the time, none of us believed our ears when we heard it on the radio.
Canada doesn’t have tornadoes, and certainly not category F4 tornadoes!
We were all in disbelief, that is until we got home and saw the destruction with our own eyes on television.
It was the only thing everyone talked about for over a month.
Foxconn has repeatedly requested to OEM for Huawei Mate60, but Huawei has sternly rejected it.
Huawei is now no.1 mobile phone manufacturer and it doesn’t need Qualcomm anymore to supply the chips. Qualcomm has betrayed Huawei by giving up Its relationship with Huawei and Huawei doesn’t need Qualcomm as an OEM anymore as its quality is below Huawei’s standard. Now that Huawei can mass produce the Kirin 9000s chips it certainly doesn’t need Qualcomm but domestic China’s OEM instead.
US Deploys at least nine B-2 Stealth Bombers to Europe
The United States on Friday allegedly deployed at least nine (9) — and reportedly “dozens”– of B-2, nuclear-capable, Stealth Bombers to Europe on Friday. Those aircraft are specifically designed for a nuclear first-strike.
Video posted publicly, reportedly shows the deployment as it took place:
<video not available>
This deployment came just one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin said publicly that if an enemy launches a nuclear attack upon Russia, “hundreds of our missiles will be in the air against ALL our enemies, in ALL directions — and there will be no survivors”
Surprise Attack Stuns Israel; WaPo: Ukraine Despair War Unwinnable; EU Granada Summit Shambles
Surprise Attack Stuns Israel; WaPo: Ukraine Despair War ‘Unwinnable’; EU Granada Summit ‘Shambles’; Huge Rus Missile Drone Strikes Topic 987
More than 800 Israeli settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday morning under the protection of Israeli forces.
Rabbis, heads of settlement associations, and far-right university lecturers were among 832 people who forced their way into the religious site compound, a source in the Islamic Endowments Department in Jerusalem told The New Arab’s Arabic sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
Israeli forces imposed severe restrictions on Muslim worshippers entering Al-Aqsa and those under 60 were prevented from accessing the site.
It comes during the Jewish religious holiday of Sukkot, which started on 29 September and ends on Friday. The holiday has seen thousands of Israeli extremists storm the Al-Aqsa compound, with almost 1,500 entering the site on Monday.
Israeli extremists also continued on Thursday to hold provocative marches both inside Jerusalem’s Old City and outside its walls, attacking Palestinians and their property.
They also beat and spat at journalists in a market area near Al-Aqsa, where shops were forced to close for the sixth day in a row.
The Old City is home to Al-Aqsa as well as the Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The Al-Aqsa compound is the third holiest site in Islam and the most important Muslim place in Palestine.
This morning, the Islamic Jihad group announced the start of the Al-Aqsa Flood operation, igniting another local war against Israel. They formally cited regular oppression and attempts on Al-Aqsa as reasons, where local Arab worshippers have been repressed repeatedly (in addition, there have been raids against the Islamic Jihad in Jenin over the past few weeks).
The operation began quite dramatically: a naval landing was carried out in the north of the Gaza Strip, and there are also reports of airborne landings – someone parachuted into rear cities. … After three hours of fighting, the group successfully captured a military base in the town of Kerem Shalom: there are enough images on social media of killed IDF servicemen and captured equipment (there are also photos of a burnt “Merkava” tank). This is a huge base on the border with Egypt. To put it mildly, the trophy is very valuable.
▪️As of now, fighting is still ongoing in Netiv HaAsara, Berri, and Sderot. Panic has gripped the population of bordering villages, with footage of people fleeing on foot. The Israel Defense Forces began retaliatory strikes only after 10 in the morning. The Israeli Ministry of Defense has stated outright that Hamas has gone to war with them, and at 10:30, the official start of the Iron Swords counter-terrorism operation was announced.
This is likely to escalate. It is impossible to predict when or how this will end.
Posted by b on October 7, 2023 at 9:05 UTC | Permalink
Israel-Hamas War Update. Israeli General captured by Hamas. 200 Israelis and 232 Palestinians killed
Hamas coming in on hang-glider parachutes was pretty awesome not going to lie.
A lot lot lot safer under the Chinese than the west.
What did the west did with technology for the last 400 years?
They use the technology to loot and plunder the entire world. Many of the loot are in the western museums today! Or worn on the crowns of western monarchs till today.
They use the technology to enslave Africans and coloured people to do menial task for the west. They snagged islands like collecting sea shells and corals. Hawaii, Guan, Falklands, Gibraltar and another hundreds of islands are still under the west.
They carry out genocides to steal continents such as the Americas and Australia. They abused, steal, raped and murder throughout the entire world. They colonised and destroyed the people living there and stole everything of value!
They continue virtual colonialism after physical colonisation is not possible through what they termed international rules based international order. They took control the entire worlds economy, and wealth. They continue to use the technology to threaten every nation and non Caucasian societies including Slavs and non European citizens.
And you question if China can be trusted with the technology? What kind of logic apart from racist rhetoric do you have?
For years, the Arab states have been moving towards normalizing relations with Israel. Hamas counts upon the support of Arab states, both material and financial, to exist, since it has very limited means of its own.
Normalized Arab-Israeli relations would be the coup de grace for Hamas and the “Palestinian liberation” movement. Because a precondition of normalized relations with Israel would be ceasing support to Hamas.
Part of the reason why Arab states were warming up to Israel was that Arab leaders have been losing faith in the Palestinian forces for decades now and an improvement for the Palestinians was nowhere in sight.
Regardless of where you stand on this conflict, it’s hard to argue that Palestinian forces have had much in the way of success recently (or ever, for that matter), having lost land to Israel almost continously since Israel’s inception. The reasons for this are not surprising. Palestine isn’t really even a nation, at this point, it’s two paltry strips of impoverished land run by a corrupt elite and barely educated militants with no resources of their own. They are facing a prosperous, well-organized nation state with a highly competent military and the direct support of the world’s premier powers. It was never going to turn out well for them.
And I suppose the Arabs were tired of tying their money up in so clearly a lost cause. Oh sure, they still outwardly broadcast support for Palestine for religious reasons and internal appeasement (most Arab Muslims are extremely against any reproachment with Israel), but I suspect they have been planning a move away from being active stakeholders in the Israel-Palestine conflict for a while.
So why the attack from Hamas now? Well it’s an obvious attempt to sabotage the normalization of relations across the ME, which would have sounded the death knell for them. I cannot imagine the Hamas leadership were going to stand idle and let the war coffers they plunder empty out. So they attacked Israel, performing the attack in a way that would cause the most severe reaction from the Israelis. Massacring Jews, abducting Jews, the whole shabang. They were trying to force Israel into the largest possible retaliation against them (they might have succeeded), and thereby force the Arab powers into taking a stance against said Israeli retaliation. That’s my only explanation for this attack. Otherwise, the immediate tactical value of killing a few hundred Israeli civilians eludes me.
And it seems to have worked…for now.
Many of the Arab nations previously moving towards normalized relations with Israel have now performed a sudden U-turn, mostly for reasons of posturing (and possibly gaining leverage out of the situation). But I don’t think this will last long. Some of the Gulf states didn’t even openly side with Palestine this time, the UAE came out with this statement;
“The UAE calls for the exercise of maximum restraint and an immediate ceasefire to avoid serious repercussions,”
I imagine most of the Arab powers see that the writing is on the wall for Hamas. There is no possible way that having poked the Israeli bear, Hamas is going to be able to effectively resist any Israeli-counter operation. Afterall, the Israeli army is a world-class professional fighting force, and Hamas is a glorified militia at best, fighting on very little land, completely trapped and encircled. Or to be brief, they’re f*cked.
I suppose once the Arab countries can extract some personal benefit/concession out of the situation, they will perform another U-turn and go back to ditching Palestine. I can see Saudi Arabia’s shallow declaration of support for Hamas disappearing once the Saudi’s can get some sort of security deal with the US in exchange for re-normalizing relations with Israel.
Regardless, the long-term outlook for Hamas is poor. This was a desperate, flailing attempt to gain some short-term ground in “reuniting the Ummah” and gain an [im]moral victory against Israel.
But in time, I think, they will come to regret it.
HE’S BASED !! Oliver Anthony – Rich Mans Gold | REACTION
Thanks for a great video and reaction! I love the message, and you wound it up wonderfully! God bless you, and yours!
World should be prepared for sustained high inflation in US — Global Times
The outbreak of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has driven up oil prices again, while a potential oil crisis could risk putting the Fed’s inflation fight in jeopardy, adding uncertainties to the global economic recovery.
The US and Venezuela have progressed in talks that could provide sanctions relief to Caracas by allowing at least one additional foreign oil firm to take Venezuelan crude oil for debt repayment, Reuters reported on Monday, citing five anonymous sources.
The timing of the news seems delicate, as it comes at a time when oil prices keep rising on market fears of the Middle East conflict exacerbating supply tightness. On Monday, global benchmark Brent Crude rose 4.2 percent to $88.15 a barrel, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) rose 4.3 percent to $86.38 per barrel.
Both Brent Crude and WTI remained around their Monday closing levels during Tuesday’s trading. The regained upward momentum contrasted with a drop of more than 8 percent in global oil prices over the previous week.
Apparently, the US releasing information through media outlets over potential sanctions relief on oil-exporting country Venezuela serves as a reminder to the market that even if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict brings uncertainty to crude oil supply in the Middle East, the US may be able to affect oil prices in other ways.
If the US does ease sanctions on Venezuelan crude oil, then an immediate effect would be an increase in supply to the world oil market and a fall in oil prices.
However, even though it is not clear how oil prices will unfold, US anxiety about high oil prices triggering high inflation is almost certain. At a time when the Fed’s monetary tightening policy has approached its limit, if the Israeli-Palestinian conflict leads to a sustained rebound in global crude prices, then it will certainly disrupt the interest rate hiking cycle of the Fed.
If the Fed continues to hike interest rates to curb inflation, the US economy will likely slip into a recession. A worse scenario for the Fed could be that the economy falls into a recession with the inflation rate still high.
While some may argue that since neither Palestine nor Israel is a major oil-producing country, the impact on the oil market is limited, and the conflict may not last long. Yet, market fears about the Middle East situation are not unfounded. There are no reliable indications of whether the conflict will end soon or lead to wider regional instability. If it escalates to involve more Middle East nations, it could threaten crude supply by the surrounding major oil-producing countries. The Middle East is home to some of the world’s biggest oil producers, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as key transit routes such as the Strait of Hormuz, which is known as the world’s most important “oil chokepoint.”
The US will try its best to avoid the worst-case scenario. Diplomatic efforts may convince Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela to increase their oil production to relieve its inflation pressure. But it needs to be reminded that given the past oil crises in the Middle East that caused great volatility in the global crude market, the psychological impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on the crude market shouldn’t be underestimated. As long as the conflict remains unresolved, the impact will remain.
Also, since the Biden administration has already released several batches of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the purpose of reining in high inflation, the remaining stocks may not be as sufficient as they were during previous oil crises. It is disturbing to think how few tools the US has left to affect inflation.
Can the Fed’s monetary policy withstand the test of this round of oil market volatility? If the Fed changes the pace of rate hikes because of the Middle East situation, then the risk of a US recession will increase significantly.
At that point, even the world economic recovery will face greater difficulties. That will also create more challenges for the Chinese economy, especially in terms of the spillover effect of US rate hikes and China’s cooperation with the Middle East. In this sense, essential preparations are needed for the potential shocks.
King Abdullah II of Jordan Orders Humanitarian Aid to Gaza; IDF Says “no”
King Abdullah II of Jordan, in coordination with the Egyptian Government, has reportedly ordered the Delivery of Humanitarian Aid to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border Crossing.
However the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) is continuing to state that any Supply Trucks that attempt to enter the Gaza Strip through Egypt will be Destroyed.
The government of Israel needs to remind it IDF that THEY do not make policy; the civilian government makes policy. The government of Israel also needs to remind the IDF that THEY do not get to starve people to death, which, now that Israel has formally declared “War” would be a war crime. A crime against Humanity.
Hal Turner Editorial Opinion: We all see and know the ferocious and horrifying situation that now exists in Israel with the ongoing war. Israel absolutely, positively, has a right to defend itself and its people. On this, there is no disagreement. None. At all.
Israel does NOT, however, get to throw out all the rules of war — or humanity — and starve 2.3 Million people to death in Gaza. That’s not a tactic, that’s Genocide – and it is not allowed. Period. Full stop.
It was late one night after a summer rain. I came upon a light truck that had slid off the road and flipped.
I stopped and ran to the truck and found a 16 year old kid impaled on a fence post and bleeding out. He was dying and he knew it. He was crying, calling for his mother and saying I don’t want to die over and over.
I told him I was going for help and he said please don’t let me die alone. I stayed with that kid, held him as he died.
It really messed me up. The cops thought I was a victim too because I had his blood all over me.
The paramedics gave me a shot and took me to hospital. They told me that’s the only way I’d let him go. Maybe I thought if I’d hung onto him he’d be all right.
I’d never met the kid but I would have given my life if he could have lived.
They kept me in the hospital a few days. Cops and paramedics came to see me. We talked a lot. The first time you come across a scene like that is a horror. If you aren’t ready for it, it’ll mess you up. I went down the drain in a haze of booze and drugs.
I had a bad case of PTSD. Every time I closed my eyes, that kid was there. In his eyes was the plea don’t let me die and there was nothing I could do.
Six months later I was in rehab.
I worked with a shrink. For another six months. I haven’t had a drink or drug since.
The nightmares are rare now. I learned how fragile and precious life is and, how quickly that can change in a matter of seconds.
Answer: The Chinese market and regulations were vastly different. Amazon’s business operations worldwide were essentially stripped downed clones of their American operations. In the early days (early 2000s), Amazon China either didn’t have the authority, or simply arrogance prevented them to adapt-and-improve to the local reality. By the time Amazon China wanted to adapt-and-improve in the early 2010s, it was already too late. AWS is a different case, thou.
Just give an example:
Amazon and eBay arrived on China’s e-commerce scene in its formative years in the early 2000s. Amazon and eBay started off with absolute dominance. However, in the early 2000s, e-commerce in China was tiny, especially outside B2B. One common obstacle was the lack of credit cards. Buyers had to submit payments via wire transfers from their nearest post offices. In case of a fraud, it was nearly impossible to recover the losses.
Then, Alibaba/Taobao, a minor player at the time, launched Alipay, an online payment escrow service. Very soon, Taobao wiped eBay out who also happened to be in online auction business.
Why did eBay or Amazon not preempt AliPal? After all, eBay owned PayPal.
There were a whole bunch of missed opportunities for Amazon China in the following years.
China is Decoupling From the US
Damn! This is great.
If there is one video that you MUST watch from start to finish, this is it!
Carl Zha talks to @TheRedPillDiariesOfficial about how the US attempt to decouple from China has actually led to China decoupling from the US which only results in more isolation of the West from the rest of the World. US money printing and financial sanctions also led to acceleration of de-dollarization in the rest of the world.
I was the editor for a small daily newspaper in texas. I had four reporters and a photographer on my team.
Newspapers are notorious for not paying overtime, even though it is the law in most cases.
They forced the employees to work 50–60 hours a week and to turn in a 40-hour time card, so they got paid no overtime. The bad thing was, I was the one who had to tell them to work. The only option was to work without pay or get fired, and people needed a job so they stayed.
I secretly kept meticulous records. I had each employee fill out their real hours on a time card and give it to me. I took notes of every conversation.
I eventually got fired because a story that I didn’t know about didn’t get in the paper. Should not have been that big of a deal, but I was relieved.
My first order of business was to contact the labor board in the state. I gave them all the actual hours, and copies of the time cards the employees were forced to sign. Along with notes about conversations I had.
A few weeks later the paper was fined several thousand dollars, had to pay every employee, including me, backpay with overtime. The company fired my boss as well. That was a good piece of revenge
Today, I took my dog to the dog park. It’s his favorite place in the world. I sat there and was watching him run around with the other dogs.
A young girl, maybe six years old, walked up to me. She said hi and asked if I wanted to see something.
I said “sure.” There were maybe six other adults there, so I knew I was somewhat protected by witnesses. She said she could “run as fast as a velociraptor.” It was really cute. She took off about 20 yards and ran back.
I said that was really cool and asked where she learned about velociraptors. She said “school.” I thought it was nice to hear a kid talk about something they learned in school.
I asked which school she goes to. But before she could answer, I stopped her. I interrupted “never mind. Don’t answer that.” I immediately got up and walked to another bench.
I don’t think most women could understand how nervous I was for that minute. I was terrified of being labeled, had she told her adult supervisor that I asked her that question.
I think any woman would feel perfectly comfortable having a conversation like that with a six year old boy. But no man is completely safe in a situation like that.
I got caught once at a dinner out with people from work. I heard one check and thought we’ll we can do the math, and I ordered according to my means. I don’t drink alcohol, and watched evryone else had a pre-dinner cocktail, then several bottles of wine with dinner, plus they each ordered dessert. So I knew what I owed plus 20% of my own tab. But the lead of tne event, a little tipsy announces “let’s divide the check 11 ways”. I took a deep breath, and said but Mary Kate, I didn’t have any cocktails or wine, or dessert. I was surprised when a waiter stepped forward and supported that he kept jote that I had NOT had any of those extras. So therexwas silence and eye rolling, but I gave my amount including tip. Then they equally divided the rest. I saved myself 65.00. Tvwas awkward but I offered some folks rides home for free. I was never invited to another girls night out, but others did approach me at work quietly saying they didn’t drink more than one cocktail and felt stuck paying the big excess. So for the rest of my life I Che k before going out, how are we splitting the bill tonight? Then I can decline in advance. I’m not cheap, but careful with my money I work hard for, and when the money is to cover everyone else’s booze, no thanks.
UK Rail Thoughts
Expensive high speed railway farce of UK shows it isn’t a competitor to China
In the 19th century, Britain was the nation which invented the railway. The landmark invention of the steam engine, known as “Stephenson’s Rocket,” was a creation which revolutionized the world and became a pinnacle of building the modern, industrialized world, connecting nations and enabling trade like never before. It was through the genius of this innovation that Britain excelled against its competitors and established itself as a global empire, a scientific, technological and military giant which allowed it to dominate and subjugate countless countries, including China.
Yet, Britain today pales in comparison to its historical achievements, as it struggles to even muster the organization, funding and political will to build a second high speed railway. This project, known as High Speed 2 (HS2), has proven to be one of the most controversial, politically contested and expensive infrastructure projects in British history, with a report from Channel 4 stating its costs could spiral upward to 108 billion pounds ($131.6 billion). The railway was designed to connect Britain’s largest two cities, London and Birmingham, cutting transportation time to just an hour, but it was also envisioned to extend to other major cities including Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh, connecting all the economic centres of the country.
That isn’t happening. As the costs of construction continue to grow, and as the date of completion continues to get pushed back, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has lost the political will to pursue it and decided to effectively scrap the northern link, instead proposing to shoehorn the trains onto existing lines.
There are several factors which have contributed to this scaling back, but all are the government’s fault. This includes disastrous policy choices including full-throttle escalation of the war in Ukraine, which the government has devoted billions to, and the subsequent onslaught of inflation and economic stagnation, mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also more subtly, the government’s decision to, at the behest of the US, pursue an antagonistic foreign policy toward China against its national interests.
How are China and HS2 linked? First of all, at the end of 2019, the Boris Johnson government proposed to the press that China Railway Corp be used as the contractor for HS2. This was the most effective, reliable and cheapest option available. Not only would the project have been completed far earlier, but it would have also been far less expensive. The following year, Britain reset its foreign policy on China at the influence of the US, and the whole thing went out the window. With that policy shift, Britain began effectively sabotaging its own infrastructure development to suit US preferences. The costs of Britain banning Huawei from its 5G network, to take just one example, have been astronomical.
China’s high speed railway record speaks for itself. Meanwhile, Britain is struggling to connect just two major cities just 117 miles (188 kilometres) apart, China has built a comprehensive high speed railway network within the scope of just 15 years, which as of 2022, spans 42,000 kilometres and is still growing. It is possible to travel across the entire country in just seven hours from Shenzhen to Beijing. In 25 years, Britain has only managed to complete one high speed network (HS1), which is in fact a transnational route which goes to France, the Netherlands and Belgium, making it a joint collaboration rather than a distinctly “British” achievement.
The fundamental reason behind Britain’s failure to move ahead with high speed railway is that its infrastructure is a series of privately owned, for-profit franchises, without any subsidies, which substantially drives up the costs and also limits investment in the infrastructure simultaneously. Even without considering the High Speed Rail, the quality of British railways is astonishingly poor and behind most of its European counterparts. This model has also been bad for the workers, which has led to routine industrial action and strikes throughout the year of 2022-23, making services unreliable. This contrasts sharply to China’s state-led model of development which is superior to the British railway system in every single way.
This makes the comparison ironic given that Britain sees China as a “competitor” and a “threat to its economic security.” Britain is a stagnating, declining country while China is the world’s second largest economy, and rather than learning from China’s development successes and courting Chinese investment, the UK has made the bizarre choice to “cut its nose off to spite its face” and antagonise Beijing to suit US interests.
But what have they got to show for it? The answer is a single high speed rail route spanning into the cost of more than 100 billion pounds which has taken decades to build and has to be scaled back from its original plans. This is the country which invented the railway, but now finds itself falling behind at an alarming rate. This means shunning Chinese companies was one of the most expensive and short-sighted decisions taken by politicians in recent years, among many other things.
Saudi Arabia Rejects US, Gives $70 Billion Order To China!
“I like watching the US suffer it’s like seeing a bully get punished, it’s amazing.”
My wife and I were walking with our youngest over the old bridge between Lichfield Cathedral and the market place. A lovely spring day. I’m British, my wife isn’t.
A young man came dashing past the end of the bridge, a police officer in hot pursuit. They both vanished from view rapidly.
We stopped to read the information board about the historic bridge. A few minutes later, the suspect and the copper came walking back, a little out of breath. We overheard their conversation.
Copper: “Sorry for running after you like that, mate. But you were running away.”
Suspect: “Yeah, sorry about that, mate. I shouldn’t have run, but I didn’t want to get caught.”
My wife stood open-jawed. I didn’t quite see why it was so unusual. I mean, just because they’re trying to arrest you doesn’t mean police officers should be rude or unsympathetic. Just because they may have done something the law may forbid doesn’t mean someone has to be abusive.
We continued to eavesdrop.
Copper, leading suspect to a park bench, where they both sat down, “Are you ready to give me your name and address, or do you want a bit of a breather first?”
Suspect, “You don’t have a cigarette, do you?”
Copper, pulling a packet of fags from his breast pocket and handing it to the suspect, “Here you go.”
As he lit the man’s cigarette, the police van arrived. Copper: “Just finish your smoke and we’ll finish the details at the station.”
I told my wife there was a good chance the cop didnt smoke, but kept a handy packet to help put people at ease.
She’s told friends and family in several countries about that. It is, she says, absolutely the most British thing she’s witnessed: a cop apologising for arresting someone who apologised for trying to run away.
If this story has failed to entertain or amuse, all I can say is sorry. And what could be more British than that?
Going Anonymous, because most of my colleagues are my followers and vice-versa.
I’m a male professional. I have had only 2+ years of experience in one of the fortune 500 companies.
Sharing my top 6 learning so far, being honest:)
1. To ensure that your peers, immediate supervisor, or your manager don’t take your effort and time for granted.
2. I have learnt to document, I mean, putting everything on emails, which is a must!! Trust, team work, and other fancy words come next. This is one of the most important lessons I have learnt, after many betrayals from my peers.
3. Don’t expect your supervisor or lead to talk for you, say for example: nominating you for awards or acknowledging your efforts in front of the team. Instead, if you really expect awards,remember you have tongue!
4. I have good relationship with many female co-workers. But, if something goes wrong, say for example an argument regarding work or something. If they want to take it further and make your life miserable, you’ll be the victim for sure, trust me.
5. Whenever I have had discussions with my manager, I have gotten very angry because of her bad review comments. FYI, I have not received any negating feedback from the stakeholders (Also, not any appreciation) . But, after each discussion, I have worked on my skills and added them to my resume. Remember, at last, only that matters is what is in it for you and am hoping to get a new job with a good hike.
6. Don’t show that you badly want to be in the job, although you have debts to pay, pretend to be confident. Otherwise, you’ll end up doing loads of work, which you are not supposed to do.
During the intense fighting which broke out yesterday between HAMAS and Israel, astonishing things took place. Despite the most advanced intelligence and surveillance systems in the world, Palestinians allegedly broke through into Israel — somehow un-noticed by all the surveillance gear.
One Israeli Border Guard told me “Our systems could see if a Bird was flying-in; yet authorities would have us believe they couldn’t see dozens of Palestinians on motorized para-gliders in the air? It’s simply not possible. They let this happen on purpose.”
Another Israeli told me “MOSSAD knows when these people, HAMAS, take a dump in the bathroom, yet we’re supposed to believe MOSSAD had no idea this gigantic operation was being planned?”
Israel has the best intelligence on its neighbors of any nation on earth. Israel has lots of “assets” embedded in these various “terrorist” organizations, as well as SIGINT (including U.S. satellite data) which allows Israel to always have a finger on the pulse of these organizations.
There is no way in hell that a coordinated, major attack involving about 1,000 Hamas fighters, sea-based/ land-based/ aerial attacks could have been planned, coordinated, and executed without Israeli intelligence getting wind of it. 0% chance.
Others had similar statements of anger and disbelief. One IDF soldier who saw Palestinians use a Drone to destroy an Israeli Merkava Tank said “Where did the Palestinians get drones with armor-piercing explosives? That technology is being used in the Ukraine-Russia conflict. How did it suddenly appear here, in Israel?”
Other IDF soldiers pointed to Anti-Tank Guided Missiles (ATGM) being used against Israeli Security Forces. He said “These are weapons being seen on the Ukraine battlefields, how did they get into the Gaza Strip?”
Then, in the midst of the fighting, this video came out: HAMAS thanking Ukraine for selling them weapons to be used against Israel:
The most raging questions had to do with alleged “electronic jamming” that was said to have taken place as the Palestinians with para-gliders flew across the border into Israel. According to numerous sources on both sides, “electronic warfare” technology was allegedly used to jam Israeli radar and other surveillance gear. Said one Israeli “Only the Russians have gear to carry out such effective jamming – how did the Palestinians get it?”
That seems to be the most burning question right now since videos are also out showing armed Palestinian fighters para-glding into a massive “RAVE” party inside Israel:
The answers all see to point to yesterday’s outbreak of violence as “payback” to Israel, from Russia, over Israel’s support of Ukraine, and over Israel’s supplying of weapons and technology to Azerbaijan, which used it against Armenia again over the past two weeks, to seize Nagorno-Karaback and send 100,000 Armenians fleeing for their lives.
If this conclusion about Russia is correct, then one might ask, how much farther all this fighting in Israel may go? Will Israel still exist when this is over? Maybe. Maybe not.
One official with whom I spoke overnight told me “Israel is suffering from Desertification of its land; the ground water table is receding 25 meters a year and soon, there won’t be enough arable land to support the continued existence of Israel. But . . . quite coincidentally . . . there is now rich, arable land, in the center of Europe, where half its population has either fled or been killed, that would suit a relocation of Israel: Ukraine. Maybe they’ll all move there.”
Gee. What a coincidence.
As for those asking “Why are the Palestinians so violent towards Israel?” the answer has been on maps for years, right in front of everyone’s eyes. Below is the reality from the time “Israel” was created in 1949, until today. The White areas are “Israel” and the Green are “Palestinian.” Look at what has happened to the Palestinians in their own land, since 1949:
The Palestinians have been systematically purged from their land, their homes, and their freedom. THAT is the root of this hatred. It’s not going away.
They never show you this map on the news. That’s because it provides the crucial context necessary to anyone wanting to understand the Israel/Palestine situation.
A young man with mental health problems just walked into the coffee shop while I was writing on Quora.
He’s strong and looks normal, but he can’t stop talking to himself.
He’s talking continuously to himself, and every few steps he takes, he does a quick ‘Michael-Jackson-turn’ and then continues walking forward.
Witnessing this individual with no self control helped me not only to feel grateful but also helped give me the answer to this question.
I have written several times about my own mind-battles. I’ve always struggled with ADD and possibly dyslexia. The consequences of this “lack of braincontrol” made me a terrible student academically.
Failing classes at school killed my self-confidence. These struggles shaped my childhood.
So, where am I going with all of this?
There’s a hidden secret to success, but it demands an open mind to understand it and humility to implement it.
So, to answer your question, how can you become very successful in your early twenties?
I could answer this with a huge list of “best practices,” but as I’ve learned NONE of those work if you don’t first master yourself.
What do I mean?
Some examples:
Are YOU in control of yourself, or are your fears controlling you?
Are YOU in control of your life, or is your need to please other people controlling you?
Do you know your strengths and your weaknesses, or are you hiding and ignoring your weaknesses with distractions or numbing addictions?
Do you struggle with depression, anxieties or other emotional issues?
But hold on!
Remember what I said before?
“There’s a hidden secret to success which demands an OPEN mind to understand, and HUMILITY to implement it.”
Open: Learn to listen!
Humility: Stop hiding and being defensive!
That’s the fastest road to success!
It wasn’t until I stopped running and hiding who I really was that change started to happen in my life. Over the years, I had developed the strength to fit into this competitive world, but I was fooling myself, not everyone else.
Maturing and accepting who I was, and starting to work on those strengths and weaknesses is when I started to grow to my fullest potential!
There’s still a long journey ahead…
Whether we recognize it or not, we’re all imperfect human beings. There’s NO person on earth who doesn’t struggle with some kind of mental/emotional issue.
Well, excuse me… except you!
If you are or feel “perfect,” go on and keep doing what you’re doing… good luck!
For those of us who have been humbled by the battlefield of life, this is your way to success:
Self-Awareness is your best friend!
Like a wild horse — you may be the fastest “horse” in the world, but if you are not ‘tamed’ you will NEVER win the race!
The Uncomfortable Study That Ended Affirmative Action | 𝘋𝘳. 𝘗𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘦𝘸
Interesting stuff. I remember reading a few years ago about some other work this professor was involved in. It had to do with the etymological implications of contemporary media figures and their pseudonyms, and ended up concluding that Destiny was a woman’s name.
My Father, Grandfather and Uncle were partners in a restaurant business in the 1950–70’s. This was before fast food existed. My grandfather had started teaching me how to cook when I was 4-5 years old. This is around 1960. When I was 10, I started going there on Sunday and did some bits of work. A year or two later I was working there evenings and weekends, peeling potatoes and making fries, food prep, waiting tables, washing dishes and floors.
I learned how to make milkshakes and all the desserts. Milkshakes were one scoop of ice cream, fill to the line in the metal cup with homogenized milk (no 2% in those days) and two squirts of syrup. The ice cream flavor and the syrup matched the flavor the customer ordered. We had Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla and that was typical of the selection in those days. The contents of the metal cup was usually larger than the glass that we served it in, so after we filled the glass, we took both the glass and the remaining in the metal cup to the customer’s table.
I also cooked and ate hamburgers regularly. My father ground the meat and he put some seasoning and egg into the mixture. When he was done, we manually made balls of meat, flattened them into hamburger size and put them in a stack, first a burger, then a small sheet of wax paper. I think the size was about 7 inches diameter and 1/4 inch thick. These would shrink when cooked to about 5 inches diameter and 1/2 inch thick. We put these stacks of burgers in the freezer. Each time someone ordered a burger, we would take one out and fry it up. The buns were simple buns like hamburger buns you’d buy at the grocers. I think the meat tasted much better than any fast food we have today. It tasted like a hamburger you’d buy in a good restaurant, you could taste the meat. The cheese was also real cheese, not the processed stuff you have today. It came with a slice of onion and tomato, 2 slices of real bacon was extra. Condiments were mustard, relish and ketchup.
I think this has got to be the story of the Dutch minesweeper HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen. It was 1941, when the Japanese suddenly attacked Dutch East Indies, as well as other colonies in southeast Asia. The minesweeper found itself suddenly in danger of the sophisticated Japanese aircraft and patrolling ships.
The remaining Dutch Navy was ordered to link up with the Australian navy, but Abraham Crijnssen was stuck all alone in Indonesia, armed with a single 76mm gun turret and two 20mm auto cannons. It had no chance to fight off really anything. So the crew decided to camouflage the entire ship, as an island. They cut down a bunch of jungle foliage, and painted what they couldn’t cover as sand or rock.
They only sailed at night, because during the day, the water ripples would have been visible from the air. During the day they simply anchored close to shore appearing as a small island – one of many along the Indonesian shore.
She arrived in Australia in March 1942, without being detected by the Japanese.
TEHRAN – Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Israeli regime against making warmongering steps, saying that equations in the region have changed.
President Raisi also spoke over the phone with Esmail Haniyeh, the chief of Hamas political bureau, and Ziyad Nakhala, the secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad Movement.
The Iranian president also issued a message on the situation in Palestine. He welcomed the Palestinian operation against the Zionist regime of Israel, saying that the operation frightened and startled the world of oppression.
He said the Palestinians took the initiative and showed that the steely determination prevails over all kinds of weaponry.
The Iranian president underlined that the Islamic Republic of Iran invites all the world to observe the truth that the accumulation of oppression and injustice against the Palestinian people, the continuation of insults to the women and prisoners, and sacrilege to Al-Aqsa Mosque cannot last forever and will be met with resistance by nations.
“Undoubtedly, the Zionist regime and its supporters are responsible for endangering the security of the nations of the region and must be held accountable. The Islamic Republic defends the legitimate defense of the Palestinian nation,” he said, according to IRNA.
Raisi asserted, “The honor of the nations is not obtained in reconciliation with oppression; And it is impossible to normalize the captivity of the free nation of Palestine.”
President Raisi also asked the Muslim governments to join the Islamic Ummah in supporting the Palestinian nation honestly.
Underlining that belligerence is detrimental to the Zionists, Raisi warned, “The Zionist enemy should also know that the equation has changed; Warmongering is detrimental to the Zionists. The Palestinian nation is the winner of this field.”
Palestinian attack turned the collapse nightmare into certainty: General
A senior Iranian general has said that the Saturday attack by Palestinian resistance groups against Israel turned the nightmare of collapse of Israel into a reality for the leaders of the Israeli regime.
In a message about the Palestinian attack, General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of joint staff of Iran’s armed forces, said, “Al-Aqsa Storm turned the nightmare of collapse of the Zionist regime into a certainty for the leaders of this regime, and proved that some desperate efforts like the normalization charade will not be able to slow down or postpone the process of the decline and collapse of the spider web.”
General Bagheri was referring the Palestinian attack, code-named Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, which caught the Israeli regime off guard.
The Iranian general described the operation as “hybrid and proud” that took down the false redoubtable image and power of the occupying regime of Israel.
“The Palestinian resistance fighters, in this surprise operation that they prepared from the air, sea and land against the positions of the Zionist army, brought to the fore brilliant scenes of the resistance and standing of a suffering and oppressed nation,” General Bagheri said in the message.
He added, “A nation that, after several decades of imposed oppression, now with the support of the young motivated generation relying on Islam and under the shadow of trust in the divine promise, has achieved such a power that it has astonished the analysts and military strategists of the world.”
He pointed out that at some point, the defenseless nation of Palestine used to defend themselves with stones, but today they reached a point where they are able to pull off complex hybrid operations using thousands of rockets and missiles to denigrate the Israeli missile defense system Iron Dome.
“These defense weapons, when combined with the spirit of martyrdom of motivated Palestinian youth, produce such a power that it brings the Zionist regime to a collapse like a devastating deluge,” the Iranian general said. He said, “The stormy movement of the Al-Aqsa Storm is the product of the holy anger that the Zionist enemy has planted in the oppressed Palestinian nation and must now reap.”
General Bagheri congratulated the Palestinian resistance fighters on their “proud victory,” expressing hope that the Al-Aqsa Mosque will soon be liberated from Israeli captivity.
“It is a divine promise that oppression won’t last long and the will of the oppressed people of Palestine will defeat the oppressors,” he concluded.
“Spontaneous” move.
Iran has said that the Palestinian operation against Israel is a “spontaneous” move.
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanaani reacted to the current developments in occupied Palestine and the attack by the Palestinian resistance groups against the Zionist occupiers, saying Operation Al-Aqsa Flood was a spontaneous move by the resistance groups and the oppressed Palestinian people in defense of their inalienable and undeniable rights.
He added that the operation was the Palestinians’ natural reaction to the war-mongering, provocative and incendiary policies of the Zionists, especially the usurping regime’s extremist and adventurous prime minister, according to a statement by the Iranian foreign ministry.
Kanaani said the oppressed Palestinian people’s inalienable right to defend themselves, their land and their sanctities against occupation, aggression, daily violations and organized terror on part of the Zionist regime is a natural and legitimate right in line with all recognized international standards and the fundamental principles of international law.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman added that on the one hand, the continuation of the desecration of Islam’s holy sites and the first Qibla of Muslims by extremist and racist Zionists in recent months and weeks, and the persistence of the Zionist regime’s policy of killing, committing crimes and doing acts of aggression against the oppressed Palestinian people, especially women, children and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails amid the silence and inaction of the international community and the fake human rights defenders have left the Palestinian nation and resistance no way but to resist and rely on their inherent strength in the face of the Zionists.
Kanani noted that the Islamic Republic of Iran reaffirms the inherent and legal right of Palestinians to defend themselves vis-à-vis the crimes of the usurpers of Palestine that have been going on for 75 years. He said Iran also holds the Zionist occupiers and its supporters responsible for the continuation and escalation of violence and atrocities against the Palestinians. He underlined that Iran calls on Muslim countries to support al-Aqsa Mosque and the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people.
Small portion of Resistance Power
Ali Akbar Velayati, the secretary general of the global assembly of Islamic awakening, has reacted to the Palestinian operation against Israel, saying that the operation showed only small portion of the power accumulated by the Resistance Axis.
In a message to Esmail Haniyeh, the chief of Hamas political bureau, and Ziyad Nakhala, the secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad Movement, Velayati hailed the Palestinian operation against the military positions of the Israeli regime.
He said that the photos coming out of the operation showed a great conquest that startled and astonished the enemies and stratified Muslims all over the world, especially in the West Asia region.
“The era of domination and tyranny of the Zionist terrorist regime is over and what is happening today in the occupied territories is a small manifestation of the accumulated power and authority of the Islamic Resistance Front in Palestine,” Velayati said.
He added, “Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, which is a response to the ongoing crimes of the Zionist regime in the occupied territories, will definitely fundamentally change the balance of power in the occupied Palestine and will put the Zionist regime in a more vulnerable position.”
He noted, “This victorious operation, which will definitely facilitate and accelerate the collapse of the Zionist regime, promises the impending destruction of the Zionist regime.”
Velayati also said that “this great and strategic victory is a serious warning” to all those who seek to normalize relations with Israel.
Iran FM speaks with Turkish counterpart
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, about the situation in Palestine.
The reviewed the situation in Palestine and underlined the importance of respecting the rights of the Palestinian people.
In this call, Amir Abdollahian called the resistance movement spontaneous and the result of the continuous crimes of the Zionist regime against Palestine, according to a separate statement by the Iranian foreign ministry.
The Iranian foreign ministry emphasized the necessity of solidarity and cohesion of Islamic countries in supporting the Holy Quds and supporting the oppressed and resistant Palestinian nation.
New rules for war
A member of the Political Council of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement hailed the Palestinian forces’ recent military operation against Israel as a monumental milestone that has defined new regulations on the struggle with the Israeli enemy.
In an interview with Tasnim, Mahmoud Qamati paid tribute to the Hamas fighters for their bravery after launching the Al-Aqsa Storm operation against the Zionist regime outside the Gaza Strip.
“Today, we are witnessing a new chapter, a qualitative leap, a military upheaval, and a change in the war patterns and in the rules of military battle against the Zionist enemy,” he said.
Hailing the Palestinian resistance forces for “stabilizing their military power” by infiltrating into the Zionist settlements and the areas occupied by the Israeli regime, Qamati said the major development has marked a new, monumental and historical model in the history of confrontation with the Zionist enemy.
The Zionist regime’s army is neither capable of defense nor offense, is absent in the battlefield, and has practically fallen into a state of passiveness, the Hezbollah official stated, noting that the Zionist settlers are in panic because there is no army to take care of them.
Qamati also said the unprecedented surprise operation by the Palestinian forces has dealt a crushing blow not only to Israel, but also to the United States and the West, the staunch supporters of the Zionist regime.
The Union made a number of unforced errors that drastically prolonged the war and still won anyway. The Confederacy did surprisingly well and still lost anyway. That should tell you everything you need to know.
Seriously, no bullshit, the South had no path to victory from the start. An impoverished, agrarian nation with poor logistics declaring war on a far more industrialized, cohesive nation just starting to come into its own as an industrial power? Here’s your sign.
From the South’s perspective, the only winning move was not to play. The moment they commenced hostilities (and boy, the way they commenced hostilities was a barrel full of stupid), the end was preordained. They had this weird idea that Europe, who they believe could not survive without their textiles, would intervene on their behalf, and that’s a miscalculation you could write entire books about.
Turns out the English hated slavery more than they loved cheap cotton, much to the surprise of folks who basically made white supremacy into their equivalent of a state religion, and without a patron it wasn’t whether the South would lose, but when.
All of this should have been obvious. But like one of my high school teachers said, though he didn’t put it quite this succinctly: Slavery makes you lazy, and racism makes you stupid. (He contended that laziness and stupidity, directly traceable to the institution of chattel slavery, still persist in the South to this day.)
US families are undergoing a third-straight year of falling income, but politicians think taxpayer money is better spent elsewhere
As Uncle Sam continues to pump billions of dollars into Kiev’s flagging fight against Russia and provide tempting handouts to illegal migrants, why is the average American worker forced to live paycheck to paycheck?
Here’s a question that most people have considered at least once in their lives, and probably a lot recently: How much annual income would you need to feel financially secure? For the average American, the magic number comes out to be $233,000 a year, according to a survey by Bankrate.
To bring the ’99 percent’ back down to Earth, the US Census Bureau released some sobering data that dashed those elusive six-digit dreams. Inflation-adjusted median household income fell to $74,580 in 2022 – a 2.3% decline from the 2021 average of $76,330. This marks the third-straight annual decrease since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, taking a wrecking ball to the heart of the economy.
The bad news doesn’t end there for US consumers, who are now struggling with the consequences of a foreign conflict in a distant land and a wide-open border. Those factors have prompted the cost of living to surge higher than it has in over four decades amid runaway inflation. In June 2022, the year-over-year inflation rate, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, hit a jaw-dropping 9.1%, the highest it’s been since the administration of former President Ronald Reagan.
A significant reason for the increase in inflation happened on March 3, 2022, when President Joe Biden signed an executive order to ban the import of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas, and coal to the US. This decision has had disastrous results for the local economy. Since Biden’s inauguration, the cost of gasoline alone had jumped at one point by 100% (as of September 27, the average price of regular gas was $3.832 per gallon, according to the AAA , while gas prices were an average of $2.3 per gallon when Biden entered office), forcing just about everything else to skyrocket, including the number of poor people.
The poverty rate in the US exploded last year, the first increase in 13 years, according to the Census Bureau. In 2022, the rate was 12.4%, up 4.6 percentage points from 2021, according to the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), a method for tallying government welfare programs and tax credits designed to assist low-income families.
Meanwhile, the Expectations Index, determined by consumers’ short-term outlook for income, business, and labor market conditions, sunk to 73.7 in September. That follows a drop to 83.3 in August. The worrisome part is that an Expectations Index below 80 generally indicates an impending recession.
An economic tragedy is already quietly happening for millions of American consumers who are now living paycheck to paycheck precariously and who have been forced to use the payment method of last resort to make ends meet: the almighty credit card, with its exorbitant interest fees. On this score, the US economy has broken yet another record, although not in a way that could be considered something to cheer about.
“US credit card debt rose by $45 billion to $1.03 trillion in the second quarter from the first quarter, a 4.6% quarterly increase,” The Street reported . “It’s the first time in US history that household credit card balances topped the $1 trillion mark as the number of credit card accounts expanded by 5.48 million to 578.35 million in the quarter.” When consumer debt suddenly equals the amount the US spends on its military-industrial complex, you know there’s a problem.
Clearly, the US has some serious domestic issues that need to be resolved, but instead, it would rather fund a totally senseless proxy war against a nuclear power halfway around the world.
Washington has given Ukraine close to $100 billion in aid, with more in the pipeline, since Moscow launched its military operation in February 2022. The cash, however, has not only been used to fund Ukraine’s military. Billions of dollars have subsidized participants of the Ukrainian economy, like farmers and small business owners, market players whose counterparts in the US desperately need help, too. A recent study conducted by the Council on Foreign Relations shows that more than $30 billion – around 40% of total US aid to Ukraine as of July 31 – has been financial or humanitarian assistance that is not directly connected to military support. Military funding comes out to around $50 billion.
As if that were not enough, the Biden administration continues to welcome illegal migrants at a price that is more than what is being spent fighting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine. Yes, you read that right; the annual cost of providing care for the millions of illegal migrants entering the US is $150.7 billion, according to the Fiscal Burden of Illegal Immigration on United States Taxpayers (FAIR).
In August, US Border Patrol recorded 232,972 migrant encounters along the southwestern border, a jump from 183,494 in July. The number of crossings for September is predicted to be higher than the previous month.
So here we have two concurrent events – a disastrous military conflict in Ukraine and a leaky US border – that are sucking away precious funds from the American taxpayer. It’s important to note that the king’s ransom that is being handed over to support these deranged Democratic agendas will never be returned, not in our lifetime. Instead, it will just be added to the unsustainable US national debt load, which is currently at $33 trillion, according to the US Debt Clock . That is an astronomical sum of money that we or future generations will someday be forced to deal with, and probably sooner rather than later.
What American citizen could possibly believe that any of this government funding has been a good investment for the American people? Well, they’re representatives in Washington, DC, for one. In May, ‘conservative’ US Senator Lindsey Graham, during a meeting with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev, pronounced joyfully that “the Russians are dying” and aid to Ukraine is “the best money we’ve ever spent.” Aside from discounting the chances that such an “investment” could have towards unleashing World War III, Graham never thought for a second that such funds could have gone far at rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure, like that non-existent wall on the US-Mexico border. It would have been a wonderful work program for the US economy.
In short, it’s just another day in the discombobulated American empire, which, much like its ancient Roman precursor, could learn the lesson of overexpansion and overspending in the most brutal way imaginable – with its total and complete dissolution.
Israel long war. Saudi-US deal in jeopardy. Breaking BRICS+. $100B to Ukraine, one-and-done. U/1
I have (as of late) been drawn to the horrible stories about infidelity between married couples. Just terrible stuff really. And then one of my followers asked for help on this matter and I responded in a post.
When I get these urges, there are always deeper meanings underlying their intrusion into my consciousness. And it just occurred to me what is going on.
The “marriage” is the United States and China.
The United States is “having sex and fooling round”, and China knows all about it, but wants to keep the relationship stable.
So the United States denies, and denies, and then denies…
What are you talking about?
Nothing is going on?
You worry too much?
You are reading too much into the picture of me and a coworker…
…but the texting behind the back keeps on occurring, and the sex orgies still occur in (apparent) secret.
But China has a PI investigating everything and knows everything. China has transcripts of all the text message. China has videos of the sexual events taken from the phones, and the sexy pictures sent back and forth between them. China knows when, where, how and how often these events occurred.
But hasn’t shown its hand yet.
What will China do?
The normal thing (the most common event) is confrontation; a “lot of fireworks” and screaming and yelling, and then a hostile divorce.
But I really don’t think that China wants, or has any plans, to do that.
China does not want a divorce (a war; in any shape or form.)
However, if push comes to shove, China (as a partner) will make life a living Hell for the United States….
…if push comes to shove.
If all these non-stop provocations keep on occurring while the USA puts on the face that “all is just fine, nothing is going on. You are the one with the issue.“
And were a hard and harsh divorce were to manifest, it would be China who would hold all the cards. It won’t go in any way that the USA thinks.
…
All these are ugly thoughts.
The USA and China are (at least on the surface) making amends. Dating again, things are getting back to normal. Plane Flights are opening up. Businessmen are cutting deals and all the rest.
But the USA is still up to it’s old bag of tricks.
A “color revolution” in Burma by the CIA was just squelched. Lots of dead (CIA trained) insurgents.
“President” Biden got up and made a public warning to China to stop provoking The Philippines…
My gut feeling is that the Chinese know everything, and are just “waiting out” the United States. It will run out of money, resources, banking, finance, and cred sooner than later.
Ai! Hopefully the hidden texts, the late-night “meetings”, and all the rest will come to a quick and decisive end.
Hopefully.
One more year of Joe Biden. Sheech!
I don’t know if I can handle that. Oh Lordy!
I swear that he has his foot on the gas petal towards war and is FLOORING IT.
Well China gave the west a 2 century head start and caught it up in less than 50 years! Go figure. The west don’t have civilisation it has a war mongering barbaric mind set that thinks they are ordained by god to loot and plunder. Colonialism U.S. not civilised it is a cruel, despicable act of stealing land and carrying out genocides to slaughter most of the natives.
Civilisation is like the Chinese and Confucianism edicts on discipline, respect, compassion, hard work, eagerness to learn, winning without fighting. Murder, slaughter, genocide done by the west to steal land and resources is barbaric not civilised.
Star Trek: The Silent Skies | 1920 Universe
This is AMAZING!
Zero-sum mentality in US won’t halt China’s tech rise — Global Times
American automaker Ford said on Monday it’s pausing construction of a $3.5 billion electric vehicle (EV) battery plant in the US state of Michigan until it is confident it can run the factory competitively, the Associated Press (AP) reported. Although the US government is flexing all of its policy muscles available to suppress China’s high-tech industry, US competitiveness in cutting-edge technologies has continued to decline as a result of multiple factors.
Ford’s decision comes as the company is in the midst of national contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, which wants to represent workers at battery factories and win them top wages, according to the AP report. Intense competition among global EV manufacturers has unsettled the US automotive industry, which had been a pillar of the US economy, as US automakers are under pressure both at home and abroad.
On the one hand, competition from international competitors, including Chinese EV makers, poses a challenge to American firms, especially as Chinese companies have accumulated technological and price advantages against the backdrop of fierce competition in the Chinese domestic market.
On the other hand, deep-seated problems in the US economy, including insufficient labor protection and the widening wealth gap, have erupted in a concentrated manner. The car industry, like other manufacturing industries in the US, is facing increased pressure due to rising production costs.
As reported by the AP in March, Ford’s EV business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years. If the US automaker wants to catch up with rivals amid intense international competition, one option for Ford is to collaborate with top Chinese companies.
Ford in February announced plans to build the plant in Michigan, betting that making the batteries in the US would help it and Chinese partner CATL attract US customers to embrace a lower-cost technology pioneered in China, according to Reuters. Honestly speaking, Ford’s cooperation with CATL benefits the development of the US EV industry. However, the sector’s survival opportunities are being stifled by politicians in Washington. Republicans in Congress have been probing Ford’s battery plant plan over concerns it could leave Ford dependent on Chinese technology.
As reported by Reuters, Rep. Mike Gallagher said lawmakers were “encouraged to see Ford take a crucial first step to reevaluate its deal” with CATL. “Now, Ford needs to call off this deal for good,” he added.
Not only in the EV industry, but also in most high-tech and cutting-edge industries, some people in the US possess an extremely unhealthy and unfair zero-sum competition mentality toward China. However, it is evident that this thinking is counterproductive in promoting the development of domestic US industries.
Apart from Tesla, other American vehicle companies still have a relatively low share in the domestic and international EV markets. Although the US government has devised protectionist measures such as the Inflation Reduction Act, it is still moving slowly in terms of addressing domestic supply chain issues, particularly in the production of batteries.
Washington is working toward a zero-sum competition with China, with American firms serving as victims. What Chinese enterprises need to do is to confront external challenges, continuously enhance their competitiveness, strengthen technological innovation, seize the opportunities created by Washington’s zero-sum competition mentality – which has caused difficulties for American enterprises – and continuously strengthen themselves.
China is becoming increasingly competitive in EV manufacturing capacity and technology innovation. Chinese EV brands, such as BYD and NIO, have made significant strides in developing advanced EV technologies, including battery technology and autonomous driving features.
China holds a superior position in the EV supply chain, with about three-quarters of the world’s battery production capacity. Moreover, China houses more than half of the world’s processing and refining capacity for lithium, cobalt and graphite, which are essential materials for making EV batteries.
The West’s narrow-minded, zero-sum game mentality has indeed put some pressure on China in the short term, but it cannot fundamentally hinder technological progress. If the US always opts for dirty tricks against China instead of learning how to conduct healthy competition with Chinese enterprises and develop its own economic competitiveness, this will just lead to a larger gap between China and the US.
If you don’t understand why I use the word “monster” to describe Huawei, please look at this picture. Here is a summary of the business Huawei is doing.
It is different from traditional foreign technology companies, such as Samsung, SONY, Nokia, and Alibaba, which only challenge advanced American companies in a certain field.
It has launched a comprehensive challenge to its American counterparts in almost the entire information technology industry.
It not only challenges, but has already achieved success in many areas, and this trend is getting faster and faster.
If the US doesn’t stop it, it will slap American companies on the butt in global markets. Just like Toyota and Honda slapped Ford’s ass back in the day.
Currently, high-tech companies are a key means for the United States to gain wealth from around the world. Once these high-tech companies are stepped on by Huawei, how can the United States maintain its status as a developed country and maintain Americans’ living standards?
Therefore, when American companies have no choice but to rely on the U.S. government to take action. Kill the monster before it grows up. As for the reason: threatening national security
Senior shelter cat desperately hugs woman for adoption
“I adopted the oldest cat my shelter had. She was owner surrendered at the age 15 which I just thought was wrong. I named her Hope and she gave me 4 of the best years of my life. Thank you so much for adopting a senior cat. I wish you many years of happiness and love with her.”
REPORTS: Thousands of Ukraine Soldiers SURRENDERING To Russian Army
A special radio frequency being used so that Ukrainian soldiers can safely surrender to Russian forces is now chattering like never before. Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers are opting to surrender to the Russian Army.
These surrenders were seen even by Clayton Morris, an American journalist, who expressed his astonishment and said, “this is a story the western media does not want you to see.”
Ukrainian forces are laying down their Western-supplied arms and surrendering en masse! Using emergency radio frequencies, they’re receiving food & medical care and even sharing critical intel with Russian forces.
Is this the final chapter?
As Zelensky hears of mass surrendering of Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines he will likely be very concerned. Not about the soldiers; about what happens to him
The question now is who gets to him first. The Russians will want him but the west may want him too. Dead.
They will not wish to have him expose the money laundering, child sex slavery and child organ harvesting that has been going on in Ukraine; the Globalist Parasites cant allow that.
Either way its not looking good for the man in Green.
By most credible accounts, the recent Ukronazi+NATO attack in the Kharkov area was even more costly in KIA/MIA, wounded and lost hardware than the attack towards Kherson. The combined losses from these attacks are staggering.
Yet there are all the signs that the Ukronazi+NATO forces are preparing for even more such attacks.
The Ukronazi+NATO seem happy to trade human lives for territorial gains, no matter how small or how irrelevant that territory is.
The Russians seem happy to trade space and time to protect the lives of their soldiers and equipment.
We could say that the Ukronazi+NATO are trading bodies for shells.
Let’s remember the two goals set by Putin for the SMO: denazify and demilitarize. Both of these goals are human-focused, not terrain-focused. In other words, if a tactical-level withdrawal allows the Russian to kill scores of Ukronazi+NATO personnel and destroy their equipment, they will gladly accept the trade.
The other goal was to protect the LDNR. Kherson is not part of the LDNR.
Territory can be reconquered, equipment is hard to replace, especially complex weapon-systems.
Soldiers cannot be resurrected.
It is absolutely clear that Ukronazi+NATO are “betting the farm” into these offensives. Not only is the coming winter a major threat for them, but the political chaos in the EU and the US this fall and winter means that now is the time to try has hard as possible to conceal the magnitude of the disaster for the Ukronazi+NATO.
So, most of what is taking place now can be summed up in this simple question: who will run out of resources first: the Ukronazi+NATO in terms of manpower and equipment or the Russians in terms of firepower (mostly artillery, missiles and airpower)?
I think that the answer is obvious: Russia wins.
U.S. Plans To Ethnically Cleanse Gaza
This is, presumably, the U.S.-Israeli plan for the Palestinian people in Gaza:
Amazing: President Biden is working on a plan with other countries that would allow civilians to safely leave Gaza and cross the border into Egypt. This is great news. President Biden is making sure that innocent people don’t die due to the actions of Hamas. That’s leadership.
No, it is not leadership. It is ethnic cleansing, a war crime disguised as humanitarian gesture. It is ethnic cleansing of people who’s land has been stolen by Zionist settlers. These people would have no right of return to the homes and land they once owned. People who have been put into an open air prison, who have no access to electricity, water and food and are currently under intense attacks.
Egypt, the only country where they potentially could be moved to, is already bankrupt. It can not even provide for its own people. Two million new people from Gaza, all poor and some of them radicalized, would undoubtedly unbalance the Egyptian state.
Should such a plan be put into action it would guarantee that the resistance axis, Hizbullah and various other Sunni and Shia groups in the Middle East, would step in. The would attack Israel to prevent such a move.
The U.S. thinks it can deter resistance action by threatening to move in with its own forces. That’s why the USS Herald Ford, its newest carrier, was moved into the Eastern Mediterranean. Rumors have it that a second carrier will come in too.
But the resistance can not be deterred by that. The last time the U.S. tried to intervene in Lebanon it ended up with 241 dead Marines and had to retreat in shame. Hizbullah at that time was only a handful of men. Today Hizbullah has tens of thousands of very well trained men. Then there are also Iran and Russia:
As I said in my analysis today of the NATO intervention in the Israeli northern front, it’s inconceivable that Russia should stay silent in the face of such brazen NATO overreach. This seat-of-the-pants, unmandated NATO panic move will speed up Russia’s pivot from pro-Israel to pro-Arab that started with the deaths of Russian airmen caused by an IAF aggression against Syria and was locked in with Netanyahu’s support for the nazi regime in Kiev.
The Russian military has long identified Israel as an enemy state and Putin is now conceding to them, acknowledging the failure of yet another one of his strategies, namely the political use of the Russian Jewish community in Israel via his “friend” Avigdor Lieberman. Russian Jews in Israel are virulently anti-Arab, so Putin tried not to upset them.
Today, however, with Bibi bringing in the full might of NATO to the Eastern Mediterranean to threaten not only Lebanon but Russian bases in Syria, it’s no more Mr. Nice Guy. With Patrushin and Shoygu holding the reins of state and a clear and present NATO threat on Syria’s doorstep, expect a strong and unexpected Russian intervention in the multifront Israel-Hamas-Hezbollah war.
The U.S. Embassy in Beirut has not evacuated and is open and operating normally. Reports saying otherwise are false. For more information and travel advisories, visit our embassy website: lb.usembassy.gov
Posted by b on October 11, 2023 at 15:43 UTC | Permalink
When I was young I was pretty much left to my own devices as far as personal hygiene and was always had dirty clothes. My parents were drunks and as the youngest of 7 it was total chaos for me. For some reason though this girl in my class who was smart, funny and popular became my friend. She was just the best friend a girl could ask for. Her father was a prominent doctor and she came from a big loving family. Whenever she could she would include me in whatever she was doing.
We were freshman in high-school and were sitting having lunch and a girl who was just as popular invited my BFF to a party but told her not to bring me because her mother wouldn’t appreciate it if I brought vermin or disease into her house. My friend just stood up and told me that we had to get to our next class and didnt engage with her. The next Saturday was the party and I was home sitting in my room and my BFF showed up at the door and said she thought the party was boring and we ended up going to the movies and then to her house for a sleepover.
Fast forward about a week and the girl who had the party was talking about how her mother was upset because their house apparently smelled like something died in it. They couldnt figure out what the smell was. It was awful. My friend said to the girl that “maybe you have some type of vermin in your house.” She then said she didnt think she could hang with someone like her because there could be vermin in her house. This immediately caught my attention. I asked her about it later. She came clean and told me that when she went to the party – she brought with her some canned shrimp and discreetly placed the raw shrimp in places throughout the house. Under area rugs, on top of a grandfather clock even in the hem of the drapes in various rooms. She said that nobody fucks with me – and she would always have my back.
THAT IS A FRIEND
The Average Age Of Ukraine’s Army
Ben Wallace, the former Secretary of State for Defence of the UK, writes in the Telegraph:
Putin is desperately grasping at the final two things that can save him – time and the splitting of the international community. Britain can do something about both. We must help Ukraine maintain its momentum – and that will require more munitions, ATACMSs and Storm Shadows. And the best way to keep the international community together is the demonstration of success.
Ukraine can also play its part. The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40. I understand President Zelensky’s desire to preserve the young for the future, but the fact is that Russia is mobilising the whole country by stealth. Putin knows a pause will hand him time to build a new army. So just as Britain did in 1939 and 1941, perhaps it is time to reassess the scale of Ukraine’s mobilisation.
Let us not pause for one day. Let us see this through. The world is watching to see if the West has the resolve to stand up for our values and the rules-based system. What we do now for Ukraine will set the direction for all of our security for years to come.
Think for a moment what the aside insert “The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40” really means. Can Storm Shadows change that fact?
Sollte stimmen, was Wallace da über das Durchschnittsalter an der ukrainischen Front sagt, 40 Jahre, dann sind die schlimmsten Mutmaßungen über Verluste weit übertroffen worden. Paraguay 1870.
Translated from German by Google If what Wallace says about the average age on the Ukrainian front is true, 40 years, then the worst assumptions about losses have been far exceeded. Paraguay 1870.
Paraguay suffered massive casualties, and the war’s disruption and disease also cost civilian lives. Some historians estimate that the nation lost the majority of its population.
Ukraine ain’t there yet. But looking at pictures of Ukrainian soldiers at the front Wallace seems to be right. If you are forty or above are you really still able to run, react and fight like when you were twenty? I am not.
The young Ukrainians are gone. They either have fled from Ukraine or are wounded, disabled or died. You can not mobilize what is no longer there.
Have your chili 3, 4 or 5 ways, Cincinnati style. This is also great on hot dogs, smothered with shredded cheese.
cincinnati chili
Yield: 5 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Chili
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 medium onions, chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mild chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
2 (14 1/2 ounce) cans diced tomatoes
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
Have It 5 Ways
1 pound spaghetti, cooked
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup finely grated Cheddar cheese
1 (15 1/2 ounce) can kidney beans, rinsed, drained and heated
Hot sauce (your favorite)
Instructions
Brown ground beef, onions and celery in a large skillet, drain off all fat.
Place slow cooker ingredients into a slow cooker and stir well. Cover slow cooker and cook for 7 to 9 hours on LOW, or for 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 hours on HIGH, stirring during last part of cooking if using HIGH setting.
Cook spaghetti 1/2 hour before chili is done.
To have chili 3-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili and cheese.
To have chili 4-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, onion and cheese.
To have spaghetti 5-ways, serve it with spaghetti, chili, beans, onion and cheese.
Douse chili liberally with hot sauce, if desired.
US Shutdown CANCELLED, No Money For Ukraine, Economy In Ruins
At the last minute, the US Congress passed a Stopgap Bill to keep money flowing for government spending. However, funding was cut to Ukraine in a shocking move. This is most likely political theatre as American support will likely continue. Here’s why the US government is trapped and borrowing money will never end!
I was a store manager at family dollar and I inherited the store and like 6 employees. I was a new manager and didn’t have much experience in such a leadership role. Fast forward I am learning as the days go by. One of my employees come to me and ask me for a ride from work. I typically don’t mingle with coworkers or employees just to keep the possibility of drama down. Well long story short I ended up befriending this middle aged lady I worked with. She frequently got rides from everyone because she didn’t have a car. I ended up hiring another middle aged lady because she had to get a job to get her kids back from the state(I know I know not a good reason to hire someone but I was young soft hearted and above all a mother) so I gave her a chance. I worked around her visitation and allowed her to work a sporadic schedule. This went on for about two years. Well one day I came in on my day off which I frequently did just to make sure everything was up and running and things didn’t feel right. Everyday at a certain time the cameras cut off and reset to save memory or storage(one do them) well I see those two employees pushing carts full of merchandise to their cars along with other people. So I stop them and the people who were with them and ask them for receipts. They produced receipts for like 5 items but the amount of items In their carts greatly exceeded the receipt description. I fired them on the spot and they took two of four carts back into the store. Their family refused and I called loss prevention and police at this time. I was stressed out because she lost her job which means she was going to lose her children and I know it wasn’t my concern I just didn’t understand why she put her children in that position. They both had been stealing expired and new merchandise for the last 6–9 months. I was shocked at how they behaved so normally around me. I learned a lesson here though, I am more strict and don’t allow my heart to lead my professional decisions! I am an exceptional leader today because of my family dollar experiences!!
Not fight but they were hard to get back. As the younger brother, two years younger, of two older sisters, twins Lori and Tracy, I often had to go into their bedrooms and retrieve my stuff.
Yes it’s odd girls would be taking their brother’s clothes but mine did. Tracy would take my ball cap. She had a lot of blonde hair but that didn’t stop her from wearing my cap. She wore ball caps before girls wore ball caps and she got a lot of looks. She would also borrow a military style belt I had.
Tracy wore jeans ripped on the knees, purposely, to school one day before that came into fashion. The teacher sent her home. He told her that her knees were showing. She went home and changed into a short skirt and came back to school. The teacher stared at her shaking his head.
“Oh my God. My knees are showing. Should I go back home and change?” she said coyly. That was my sister. She was ahead of her time.
Lori would often take my school football jacket and wear it going to games with her friends. She often came to my games wearing it and cheered me on.
It was hard getting these things back sometimes and I’d have to sneak into their rooms that looked like cyclones hit them. Mom called them ‘Cyclonic Rest Areas.’ Fashion models since age 15, the girls had a lot of clothes and they were all over the rooms. You wouldn’t think they’d borrow their brother’s clothes having all those clothes in their rooms. Of course as soon as I got them back Lori would ask, “RJ, can I borrow your school jacket?”
I remember once I had to run out into the backyard to get the dogs out of the rain. Mom’s orders. The dogs never wanted to come in, even out of the rain. I had no shoes but there was a shiny pair of white boots by the back door. I was thirteen then. I put on the boots. I then ran outside and herded in the three dogs. Tracy, 15, was at the door with her friends. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING WEARING MY BOOTS? THEY ARE ALL MUDDY NOW!” She scolded. “Do you have any idea how much they cost?”
“Oh, but it’s fine for you and Lori to wear my ball cap, belt and jacket having them smell like perfume later!” I said to her as I took off her boots. She looked at her friends and laughed. She sighed. “Touché!” she said smiling at me.
I remember the girls were at a school football game I was playing in. One of the guys asked, “Is that Tracy wearing your cap RJ?” In those days, girls were not often seen wearing ball caps.
“Yep, that’s her,” I said.
“Wow! She sure looks a hell of a lot better wearing that cap than you do,” he said..
As Apple found out, limited amount of skilled labor and poor quality output. Apple tried to assemble in India and found they had a 50% yield rate and about a fifth of its required manpower needs. Further, as word got around, Europeans are not buying ‘made in India Apple iPhones. Almost all developing countries are similar in condition and experience. Simple things like garments work fairly well, but assembly of high end mobile phones are a bit harder.
While India offered what appeared to be the greatest possibility, Vietnam is always cited. Vietnam has limited skilled labor, lack of electricity, and lack of infrastructure. Again, garments, toys, and simple assembly are possible, but complex items get poor results.
Further, the supply chain is non-existent, so parts have to come from the supply chain developed in China. For Apple, lesson learned. It has lost $70 billion in this exercise to move to India, only to return to China and expand its operation there. The labor costs may be higher, but still cheaper than the US and the skilled labor is in quantity that Apple needs plus the yield rate is almost 100% and the supply chain is well developed.
I would also mention TSMC’s attempt to build a 4nm fab in Arizona, only to find lack of skilled labor, and work culture below that of Taiwan. It appears TSMC has closed the fab, laid off the workforce, and for all intents and purpose, shut down its US operations.
This break-up is epic. And classic. It was the ultimate f*ck you and the horse you rode in on.
A former co-worker had this “boyfriend” for four years. Didn’t want to marry her. “Marriage is just a piece of paper” and all that guff. So this woman was diagnosed at a fairly young age with cancer. Boyfriend still didn’t want to marry her; really, he didn’t want to have to deal with making her medical decisions, caring for her, etc. It became obvious during chemotherapy when she needed tending to.
Luckily, she had adult children and friends who stepped in and did all of the heavy lifting he was unwilling to do—and unable, by law, to do.
The cancer turns terminal. So, of course there’s the issue of inheritance to sort out and other financial and legal matters. This woman wasn’t rich by any stretch of the imagination, but she did okay. She had a house that was paid for, and some investments. A nice pension and Social Security benefits, and of course, health insurance.
The ne’er-do-well boyfriend has a lightbulb moment: he could get the house, basically double his monthly living income, and get really good health coverage, if he just married her. So he proposed when she was at her very weakest.
Not being a foolish woman, she told him to take a long walk off a short pier. He scuttled away in disgrace and let her spend her final days in the company of those who loved her.
When she did die, it was very sad. She was too young and still had a lot of living to do. But at least Mr. “marriage is just a piece of paper” didn’t profit out of the deal. Her adult kids got everything instead. To this day, I hold her in very high regard for not letting him bamboozle her.
He got nothing, nada, niente, as it should always be for people like that.
Oliver Anthony Rich Men North of Richmond”REACTION” It Just Got Real
China’s 18 main trunk lines of high-speed railways, only 6 lines are profitable, and the remaining 13 are loss-making.
In 2022, China’s high-speed rail suffered a total loss of US$15 billion.
Therefore, if all high-speed rail in China is regarded as a company, it is a company with huge losses.
image 82
But in the eyes of the Chinese, high-speed rail is not a business. They believe that high-speed railway is a kind of social infrastructure. The purpose of its existence is to provide basic services for the entire social and economic development without maintaining profitability itself.
Therefore, as a state-owned enterprise, China Railway Corporation must bear losses. The funds lost are subsidized by the government every year.
The question is, how can the Chinese government have so much money to subsidize high-speed rail?
The reason is simple. After the Chinese built the first key high-speed railway, the Beijing-Shanghai High-speed Railway, they were surprised to find that for every US$1 they lost on the high-speed railway, the economic growth generated along the high-speed railway would increase by US$1.8. Three years after the high-speed rail was completed, tax revenue from governments along the line increased by 68%. The economic growth is 1.5 times faster than that of other regions. This increased wealth is enough to build ten more high-speed railways of the same type.
At the same time, there are 140 core enterprises and 500 general enterprises producing high-speed rail parts in China, distributed in more than 20 provinces. A 200 billion yuan industrial chain has been formed, providing a large number of jobs. Just look at the construction process of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway, which involved more than 700 construction companies and provided jobs for 110,000 people.
Ultimately, high-speed rail became an engine of economic development in the eyes of the Chinese.
Wherever high-speed rail is built, wealth will be greatly increased. As for the funds invested in high-speed rail construction and operating expenses at a loss, they seem insignificant in the face of these increased wealth.
I worked in a small rural hospital in the central part of Texas. This hospital happened to be in between two high-security prisons. It was not a rare occurrence that while being transferred, they would stop at our hospital for blood work, x-rays, cat scans, etc. One time they brought two prisoners to the lab for blood work. (they remained chained and the officers kept weapons at ready.) I drew blood from the first guy. He was charistically covered with prison tattoos; tears, a clock with no hands, and several gang tattoos. He had one I never saw before. On his cheek were the numbers 5150.
I asked the other guy what 5150 meant. He said that guy is completely nuts! Nobody messes with that guy! What does 5150 mean? He said it is Part of the California penal code. It means criminally insane. I don’t who he is or what he did but he sure was creepy.
P.S. I got to know the transfer crews pretty well. we developed a practical joke with the prisoners. For all of their toughness, many of them were afraid of blood draw needles. When I was done with the blood draw I put a pink Barbie band-aid on the site. Then I told them they had to keep it on until they were admitted to their new home. The guards would back me up and say that they had to have proof that the blood was drawn. So the possibly badest, craziest, most evil, person I will ever meet wore a pink Barbie band-aid in prison because of me.
After a countless string of falsehood dangled by American leaders, government agencies, the mainstream media, thinktanks and intellectuals, why are we still debating if a particular American interpretation of China is credible?
Odds are it is false or embellished/exaggerated.
Remember this guy?
image 173
He made history becoming the first Cabinet-level official to be sanctioned by China, after passing a genocide determination on China’s treatment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang during his final weeks in office.
Surprisingly, few have spoken up for him, neither blue, nor red.
The State Department has quietly shelved his statement, with its lawyers concluding there was insufficient evidence to make the genocide designation. Antony certainly hasn’t acted on his predecessor’s words, even though the designation remains.
There was also balloon-gate, which was recently absolved by the Joint Chiefs.
“It was a weather balloon we shot down.”
It doesn’t matter how many warheads China has, because Zhou Enlai’s words remain relevant today.
“China has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the world once over”.
Stopped a motorcyclist who blew through a 4-way stop intersection. The guy pulled over and after I got out of my car, took off.
I chased him down and again, he stopped. He continued to straddle his bike while I approached him. I asked him to shut down his ride and swing off of it. No compliance. I reached down and turned the ignition off and removed the key. He went ballistic and decided to fight. Guy was huge and clearly under some form of influence. Inhumanly strong.
Tried to mace him, only to have the wind push it back at me. I had left my baton in the car and all he wanted to do was grab my holstered service weapon. We had no portable radios. Frankly, he was besting me and all I could do was keep him from ripping my revolver away from me.
Very, very fortunately, a county traffic officer approached from the other direction and he called it in before diving into the wrestling match. A few minutes later, LOTS of needed manpower arrived and we got the guy down and cuffed. We got him to his feet and watched while he “stiff-legged” it back to my car. Went to put him in the back seat and he wouldn’t fold. Tucked his knees with my stick; nothing. We knocked him back down and shoveled him into the car for the trip to the jail.
Upon booking, he ripped his (artificial) leg off, hopping around and swinging it at the jailers and everyone else……again, subdued and hauled off…aggressive, foul-mouthed, non-cooperative. Next day at his arraignment, a totally different guy! Disabled Vietnam vet…..double amputee….off of his meds. Contrite and apologetic.
Even as the arresting officer, the magistrate gave me no opportunity to comment or o’wise condition the arrest. The vet pleaded guilty and drew a 60-day sentence for battery to police officer(s). To this day, not certain that justice was served, but rolling around in the street fearing for my life was an eye-opener!
Many years ago, I was walking down a road in Bristol (England) and suddenly, a figure burst out of a door knocking me over, He stopped dead, and apologised profusely, helped me to my feet and noting my accent said ’You’re Welsh,- me too.’
He took me inside and got me a coffee, and we chatted awhile, and he said, ‘You don’t know who I am, do you? I had to admit I didn’t, So He said ‘I’m Tom Jones’ You know, the singer?
‘Bloody hell, I thought you were in America’, I said He replied ‘I had a date to appear in the Colston Hall and didn’t want to let them down’, ‘What can I do to be sorry?’ he said. ‘You said you were looking for a short-term job, weren’t you?’ ‘Yes’, I replied, ‘Let me help’, said he, and got on the phone and arranged a job for me there and them with a famous wine importer, saying he’d vouch for me ‘cos I’m Welsh.
I was well received and took up the job for the remainder of the time I spent in Bristol, and it opened a new horizon for me to explore in work which changed my life. So, I’ve often looked back to that chance encounter with a bloke renowned for being brutal – but who changed my life.
China is more ADVANCED than we realised!
Since returning to China, our minds have been blown by the rapid technological progress we’ve witnessed! In this video, @Huawei invited us to explore some of China’s most cutting-edge technologies, including robotic arms, futuristic robots, 5G factories, and mind-blowing augmented reality experiences.
LOL. The rest of youse guys are just NOW figuring all this out?
If the PLA liberates Taiwan by force, 99% of Chinese want Japan to send troops to intervene in the China’s internal affairs or China’s civil war.
As for why the Chinese think differently than you think, I think Asians understand.
Even the dispatch of 1 soldier from Japan is something the Chinese would be happy to see.
In 1937, the Japanese launched the Marco Polo Bridge Incident under the pretext of the disappearance of 1 soldier, and began a full-scale invasion of China.
So, 1 soldier is enough excuse. New grudges and old grudges can be returned together.
One evening in the London casino I worked at, I was having dinner in the restaurant with another client.
Then at a nearby table very old Greek man had a catastrophic failure of his bowels. This is a very exclusive Michelin equivalent restaurant. The restaurant unsurprisingly cleared, leaving me alone with the incontinent gentleman and his wife. I shamelessly pulled rank and had one of the wait staff wrap a table cloth around the unfortunate soul and then informed our reception that we would take the member home in one of our cars.
The car took the old couple home. The restaurant cleaned up the mess. And we were down one Bruges lace tablecloth. I thought the matter dealt with.
I received a phone call the next afternoon from the irate wife of the unfortunate guest. She took great pains to inform me that the quick thinking car jockey had covered the £100,000 Bentley’s back seat with something like clear plastic wrap. Obviously this was deeply humiliating to the couple. Especially to her faeces covered husband. The fact that he was wrapped in tablecloth after soiling himself in a packed restaurant was apparently not even comparatively humiliating.
The wife demanded I discipline the very rude driver. I agreed* and promised I would, and that the next time anyone fouled themselves in my presence at work I would not try to protect the interior of a hugely expensive car.
*Obviously I did not discipline the driver. He saved us an obscenely large valeting bill!
America is one of the biggest criminals in this modern world. They fights for their economic interest. Media defames nations and leaders from the intelligentsia.
Today there will be talk of a leader whom most of the world considers as a dictator.
Who should have got the Nobel Prize. But got death. Unfortunately, people think them as a criminal.
Libya is an African country bordering the Sahara Desert. There 80% of the land is desert. Only 10% of the land is such that people can live. Most of the parts of the country are such where not a drop of water has fallen for 20 years.
When oil was discovered in the world, oil was discovered in every country. What was found instead of oil in Libya was astonishing.
500 meters down in the desert, a thick layer of water was found, its thickness was somewhere around 700 meters thick.
According to experts, this is so much water that it can give water to Libya for 2-3 thousand years.
Its importance can be understood for a country where 90% of the land is desert.
But extracting this water, sending it to other parts was nothing less than Bhagirath’s penance. The money needed for this work in 1960 was $25 billion. From today’s point of view, it will be above 100 billion dollars.
Consideration on this project was abandoned. But when Colonel Gaddafi became president, they started this work.
The West was opposed to Gaddafi. IMF, World Bank no one gave loan to Libya for this work.
Gaddafi took this impossible project forward by making arrangements with their own nation.
Engineers from South Korea helped in this. Later, UNESCO also trained engineers.
Large pipes were built. So wide that the metro train passes.
The project was inaugurated by Colonel Gaddafi on 28 August 1984.
500 meters deep, 1300 wells were constructed. Which used to carry water through a 4000 km long pipeline. So many dams were built that 12 Egyptian pyramids could be built. Astronauts can also see the well built in it.
$33 billion was spent by Gaddafi. The whole of Africa was expected to be green.
In 2008, the Guinness Book of Books included the project as the largest project ever.
People went crazy with joy when water reached the major Libyan cities of Tripoli, Bayanji. Irrigation started in 13 thousand hectares of land.
But in 2011, America attacked NATO by spreading propaganda against Gaddafi.
The surprising thing is that he dropped the maximum number of bombs on this project. Due to which more than 25% collapsed.
How Western countries have turned the boon to Africa can be seen in ruins.
Now urgently we will sell bottled water to Africa, some Mother Teresa will come and get her converted. The Nobel Prize will take the title of a saint.
Gaddafi was bad, so the people of his country would have understood, who are you people who dropped bombs and missiles.
Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar, this is all he is saying. Your intention is not right. He says Britain robbed India 45 trillion dollars in 100 years. This is the research of UK universities only. India could not become a 5 trillion dollar economy in 75 years. So how much it will be looted can be estimated.
This project was made in collaboration with engineers from all over the world! What makes Gaddafi a great leader.
Burden X Steven James – Rich Men North Of Richmond Remix
My parents needed a new housekeeper because our old housekeeper was retiring, so with a very heavy heart — Hermione had become part of the family after all these years — they hired a new one.
And what a different person she was.
Vera was in her late twenties, good-looking, was energetic and quick, and had a smart mouth. We needed some time to adjust, but we immediately liked her.
Still, some things were really different. Sometimes she was caught red-handed leaving early, but she aways had some original excuse —
“My mom’s really sick. My husband needed urgent help. My boy needed an unforeseen ride. I started earlier than planned.”
It also happened a couple of times when my mom came home earlier than expected, that Vera was on the phone. (A classical rotary phone in the conversation pit in my parents’ living room.)
(Yes, dear reader. A rotary phone. With a cable.)
The excuse was always the same — urgent matters for sick people and needy children.
Till the day when my parents got the phone bill.
It was humongous, and an absurd number of very long calls had been made to an unknown number, each and every time during Vera’s working hours. When she alone was home.
It turned out that Very had a lover, and had used my parent’s house as a call center all along, so that her husband wouldn’t find out.
She was fired on the spot.
Not much later she left her husband for the lover, and that’s the last thing we ever heard of Vera. When Hermione heard the news some time later, she proposed to come back and spend one or two extra years in our family.
Purchase a marine air horn that works with a canister of aerosol gas. I keep two in my truck, one in each door panel. You may know them from hearing them at soccer matches in big stadiums. They are extremely loud and piercing. If you point one in a person’s face and discharge it with a long blast, the person would become discombobulated instantly. It is actually painful and can hurt eardrums. It would render them unable to hear for a minute or more and affect their equilibrium, causing trouble moving, walking, running, or aiming. The surprise effect is stunning; they do not expect anything like that. You then have the option of running and getting the hell away or physically counter-attacking. It is hard to defend yourself when your faculties are compromised. It is also hard to chase someone. Keep the horn in your hand and be ready to give them a second dose if needed. If you do the wise thing and run, you can keep doing short blasts as you are leaving. The beauty of this is that anyone who is within 100 yards of you will be alerted to that sound and will turn to look and see what is happening. The perp is put on full display and probably will abandon his assault attempt. This can be a lifesaver in a gas station scenario where you are pumping gas and getting approached by someone walking up to your car. I tried a test on a friend who was 3 feet away and his back was turned. A one-second blast, aimed at the ground, made him jump three feet and run about twenty feet away. He didn’t know what happened, he just wanted out of there. Think what a 10-second blast directly in the face would do!
Twenty years ago my wife and I saw an ad in the New York Times travel section. Round trip from JFK to Barbados on the Concorde, plus a week at the hotel of your choice (there were 5 hotels to choose from).
The Concorde? Let’s do it.
We called British Airways Holidays. (It was still the early day of Internet commerce. Back in 2000 you picked up the landline.)
“We’re flexible on dates,” I told the agent. “But the hotel has to be the Fairmont Royal Pavilion.”
No problem. The agent found a date that worked and took our money (about $13,000 all in). Pricey, but hey — the Concorde.
Two nights before our departure date there was a message on our home answering machine. “This is British Airways Holidays. We’ve had to make some adjustments to your itinerary. You will now be staying at the Royal Pavilion’s sister property, Glitter Bay.”
Sister property. It sounds like kind of the same thing. Except it’s not. Royal Pavilion is for adults only. Glitter Bay is for families with kids. Lots and lots of kids. We love kids. We raised two. But the reason we picked the Royal Pavilion was because we wanted to spend a week without kids.
I called British Airways Holidays. No answer. They’re not an airline. They’re just the travel planners for the airline and work from 9 to 5. We left a voicemail.
The next morning we called the Royal Pavilion and spoke to the General Manager of both properties. He said, “British Airways does this all the time. They take your money, and then they switch your hotel. Here’s what I can do. For the same price I can put you up in a large one-bedroom private villa at Glitter Bay. It’s off the beaten path, far from the kids, an easy walk to the Royal Pavilion, and you’ll have complete access to all our facilities and amenities. I’ll send my wife over to take photos of the villa.”
An hour later I got the pictures. It was incredible. We decided to take it.
British Airways never called back. The guest relations guy who met us at the airport in Barbados never told us we’d been switched to another hotel. He drove us to Glitter Bay. Or as we called it all week, Glitter Bait and Switch.
Let me sum up that week-long vacation: The Concorde was a once in a lifetime experience. Our villa was spectacular. But still, it wasn’t what we’d signed on for.
The General Manager was a total sweetheart. He suggested that I write to British Airways, but warned me not to get my hopes up for a refund.
We’ll just see about that decided the man who writes for a living. I spent days crafting the letter. A week after I sent it I got a call from a British Airways rep in London. She apologized for the “misunderstanding,” and asked how she could make it right.
I told her I wanted a public apology. An ad in the New York Times travel section telling the world what they had done and promising not to sucker in any more people. She said, “Sir, we can’t do that.”
I told her if she didn’t I would go public on this Internet thing that was still just taking hold and tell the whole world wide web what a bunch of crooks they were.
She said, “I’ll get back to you.”
A week later she called back. “We’d like to offer you and your wife an all-expense paid trip from New York to London,” she said. “We’ll fly you there on the Concorde, put you up in a five-star hotel, and fly you back first class on a 747.”
If she had seen the look on my face, she’d have known she had me. But she couldn’t see me. So I doubled down.
“Absolutely not,” I said. “You already flew me to a hotel I didn’t want to go to. Why would I want you to fly me to another place I don’t want to go to? I want a public apology. An ad in the New York Times.”
“Let me talk to my management,” she said.
Another week passed. She called back. “Sir, we absolutely can’t print a public apology. The best we can offer you is a full refund. Airfare and your entire hotel bill including meals and other amenities and services you may have charged. If you say yes, we will credit your American Express card with the entire amount.”
I grumbled, and told her that it wasn’t what I wanted, but she’d won. I begrudgingly accepted the more than $13,000 refund.
Then I hung up, did a happy dance, and told my wife the news.
The next day I called the General Manager of the Royal Pavilion and booked their best villa for a week the following spring. Three bedrooms. Perfect for me, my wife, my son, my daughter and their significant others. The cost of the villa, along with airfare (non-supersonic) for six people — a little over $13,000.
Best all-expenses-paid vacation ever.
—————————————————————
EDIT — Sometimes I post and hear crickets. But this one — over 100k views and 9k upvotes in less than 24 hours. That’s like Mach 2 in Quora terms. Thank you. Several people asked if they could see the letter I sent.
I’d have thought that after 20 years it would be lost to the ages, but I was amazed to see that it was still buried in my archives. It’s 1700 words, and I’d be embarrassed to reprint it. My recounting of the event on Quora was written with a smile on my face. The complaint letter is me at my pissiest.
But I can give you the highlights. Basically, the letter stated the facts. Re-reading it after 20 years, it’s clear that British Airways was even more underhanded than I remembered, so those facts were pretty damning. The manager of the Royal Pavilion taught me some of the tricks of the trade, and he explained why they waited till I was 48 hours away from departure, even though they knew they had overbooked weeks before. He also assured me that BA overbooked, not the hotel. I made sure they knew I was a very knowledgeable consumer.
My closing was this: “I feel violated and am angry enough to take my complaint to the FAA, the appropriate consumer fraud departments in New York, the travel press and travel newsgroups on the Internet. I also feel justified in pursuing legal action where I would seek compensation for both the cost of a lost vacation and for being the victim of dishonest business practices.”
But my best line was this: “Under no condition would I have considered a vacation at Glitter Bay, much less pay $13,186.90 for the privilege of living in the middle of a high rent day care center.”
It’s hard to go up against a corporate Goliath and win. But every now and then… I hope this is the kind of encouragement you need to never quit trying.
Russian Spetsnaz Captured German Army Officers in Ukraine! NATO Armies Suffer Heavy Losses!
The Kursk was an Oscar II class submarine, one of the largest and most powerful subs ever built. It was armed with 24 cruise missiles and 24 torpedoes, some of them tipped with nuclear warheads.
It was supposed to be a show of force and a demonstration of Russia’s military capabilities.
But something went horribly wrong on August 12th, 2000 around 11:30 a.m. local time.
According to the official investigation, one of the practice torpedoes that the Kursk was loading had a faulty weld in its casing, which leaked high-test peroxide (HTP) inside the torpedo tube.
HTP is a highly reactive substance that can explode when it comes into contact with metal or organic matter.
The leak triggered a catalytic explosion that blew off both the inner and outer tube doors, started a fire, and killed or injured most of the crew in the first two compartments.
Two minutes and fifteen seconds later, another explosion occurred, much bigger than the first one.
This one was caused by the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, which ripped a huge hole in the hull, collapsed several bulkheads and decks, destroyed the fourth compartment, and killed everyone who was still alive in the front half of the sub.
The second explosion was so powerful that it registered as a 3.5 magnitude earthquake on seismographs around the world.
The Kursk sank to the bottom of the sea, at a depth of about 350 feet. The rear half of the sub was still intact, and some of the survivors managed to seal off the ninth compartment and activate an emergency beacon.
But they were trapped, with no way to escape or communicate with the surface.
Meanwhile, the Russian Navy had no clue what had happened. They did not realise that an accident had occurred until six hours later, when they noticed that the Kursk had missed a scheduled communication check.
They did not initiate a search and rescue operation until 16 hours later, when they finally located the sub on sonar.
But their rescue efforts were hampered by bad weather, poor equipment, and bureaucratic delays.
They tried to attach four different diving bells and submersibles to the escape hatch of the Kursk, but failed every time due to technical problems or human errors.
They also refused to accept help from other countries’ ships nearby, claiming that they had everything under control.
It took them five days to admit that they needed outside assistance, and by then it was too late.
On August 21st, British and Norwegian divers managed to open a hatch to the ninth compartment of the Kursk, but found no signs of life. All 118 sailors on board had perished.
….
Now, there are those who believe that the U.S. Navy had something to do with the disaster, either by sabotaging or attacking the Kursk. Why would they do that?
– To prevent Russia from testing or deploying new weapons systems
– To send a message or a warning to Russia about its military ambitions
– To cover up an accidental collision or confrontation between U.S. and Russian subs
– To distract attention from other issues or scandals in U.S. politics
These claims lack substantial evidence.
Some people claim that there were two U.S. subs near the Kursk at the time of the accident: USS Memphis and USS Toledo.
Memphis
They say that these subs were spying on or harassing the Kursk, and that they either collided with it or fired a torpedo at it.
But there is no proof that these subs were actually there. The U.S. Navy denies any involvement in the incident, and says that its closest sub was hundreds of miles away from the Kursk.
Even if these subs were there, they would have no reason to attack or sabotage the Kursk. The U.S. and Russia were not at war, and the Kursk was not a threat to them. It was only carrying practice torpedoes, not live ones.
And if there was a collision or a confrontation, why would the U.S. subs not report it or try to help the Kursk? Why would they risk an international incident or a nuclear war by hiding their actions?
Some people claim that the second explosion on the Kursk was not caused by its own torpedoes, but by an external source, such as a U.S. torpedo or a mine. They say that the explosion was too big and too loud to be from the Kursk’s weapons, and that it left traces of uranium or plutonium on the seabed.
Again, there is no evidence to back up these claims. The official investigation concluded that the second explosion was consistent with the detonation of five to seven torpedo warheads, each containing about 500 pounds of high explosives. The explosion was big and loud because it happened in a confined space, and because the Kursk’s hull acted as a resonator.
And there is no proof that there was any radioactive material on the seabed. The Kursk’s reactors shut down safely after the first explosion, and did not leak any radiation. The traces of uranium or plutonium that some people claim to have found were either natural or from other sources, such as sunken ships or waste dumps.
Verdict:
There is no credible evidence to suggest that the U.S. was behind the Kursk submarine disaster. It was a tragic accident, caused by a faulty torpedo and compounded by a series of failures and mistakes by the Russian Navy. It was not a conspiracy, but a catastrophe.
The Chinese people are such a nation that when you give them comfort and enjoyment, they will self collapse, just like every dynasty change in China and the late Qing Dynasty.
But when external pressure is exerted to suppress the development of the Chinese people and limit their pursuit of happiness, the Chinese people will erupt in strong resilience, use their talents to break through the blockade, and ultimately achieve rise.
From resisting Japanese aggression during World War II to becoming the world’s second largest economy, the Chinese people have come step by step due to external concerns.
The characteristics of this ethnic group can be summarized by a famous quote from the Chinese Confucian philosopher Mencius two thousand years ago:Born in distress and died in peace and contentment
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Coincidentally, the United States is such an ultimate concern from outside, and its extreme pressure and sanctions unite all Chinese people. Regardless of whether they support the government or not, they have found that only by overcoming American oppression can they have a happy life and a bright future.
China has a population of 1.4 billion, and the number of university graduates in China far exceeds the total population of Japan. China has over 70 million science and engineering talents, which is a huge treasure trove of human resources.
For example, the Huawei Mate60 series, which was just released in September, under four years of extreme sanctions and pressure, more than 100 companies listed by the US Department of Commerce worked together to break the world’s strictest blockade and create 7nm chips with independent intellectual property rights and production capabilities. This is the first time in the history of a company or industry’s battle against the world’s only superpower.
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In the chip disassembly video, the encoding is all 2035CN.
CN is easy to understand, it implies China. 2035 needs to be explained as it represents China’s national research plan. If completed according to the plan, China will become the center of the world’s manufacturing industry and advanced technology by 2035.
image 175
It goes without saying where the sword points
The local manufacturing of high-end chips means that the bargaining power of Chinese local chip consumers will be epic strengthened – the space for manufacturers to rely on exclusive technology to obtain excess profits will be compressed, and domestic companies that need chips to drive their own products will welcome a round of “technology driven cost reduction and efficiency increase” – industries such as AI, new energy vehicles, autonomous driving, etc. will benefit from this.
If this is just a celebration of the country and the company, it’s not a big deal. But Chinese consumers joined the frenzy, using their own income to support this domestically produced phone with fully autonomous and controllable technology, and even sparked a wave of frenzy.
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This high-end phone with an average price of over $800 sold over 1.6 million units in just 6 weeks, according to Counterpoint data. It is expected that the remaining few units will be sold over 5 million units in 2023, with a full life cycle sales of over 20 million units. Such sales have boosted Huawei’s sales forecast for 2024- reaching 60 to 70 million units. You know, this is the single market of Chinese Mainland, and $800 is not a small amount for a country with an annual per capita GDP of $10000.
Due to the release time of this phone, which coincides with the visit of US Commerce Secretary Raymond to China, Chinese netizens have divided and joked about Raymond and the US government, and even spliced the phone’s advertising image with Raymond’s photo, using the phrase “Raymond is a Huawei certified spokesperson” to mock the US blockade for not being able to stop China’s technological progress.
image 178image 84
In the capital market, after the release of mobile phones, there was a wave of enthusiasm in the stock market – various semiconductor related stocks have been strengthening all the way, and SMIC International has ushered in five limit up boards in the stock market.
China’s capital market has always been cautious, but now it is full of confidence. How did you say this confidence came about? I have not yet achieved satisfactory results in the journey of technology with my strength.
The wave of new products from Huawei shows this trend: consumers use money to support the products of consumer electronics manufacturers, and manufacturers can collaborate with upstream chip factories to strengthen production processes after withdrawing funds, gradually increasing yield rates, reducing costs, and polishing production processes to maturity.
Then the chip factory uses the money earned to encourage upstream equipment and material suppliers to upgrade and iterate. This is a virtuous cycle, driven by a large amount of capital and technological capital intensity, and an upward spiral towards development and progress.
In addition to continuously developing on the path of EUV，DUV, China is also exploring other surpassing and disruptive technologies, such as chip lithography factories.
image 174image 83
To understand the great significance of this scientific device, it is necessary to first briefly understand some basic knowledge of lithography machines.
As the most core equipment in the chip production process, the lithography machine mainly works by passing light through a specific mask, shrinking it through the lens, and projecting it onto the wafer – the wafer is coated with photosensitive photoresist, and after the development program, a specific pattern can be left behind.
This is the basic process of building integrated circuits on chips by a lithography machine. But with the development of technology, chips have become increasingly complex – in a limited space only the size of a fingernail, people need to put billions of transistors inside.
Therefore, the requirements for lithography machines are becoming increasingly high, specifically for the light source of lithography machines. Because if we want to achieve more advanced process technology, we must have shorter wavelengths.
main qimg 5cd8775c5fcc7cb9197c3b7b1f0741c0
Early lithography machines used ultraviolet radiation emitted by mercury lamps, also known as g-line light sources, with a wavelength of 436nm.
The most advanced process capable of processing was 250nm. Later, with the development of technology, it was replaced with an excimer laser light source, which can emit deep ultraviolet light at 193nm wavelength, also known as an ArF light source – under the ArF light source, the most advanced manufacturing process is only 22nm.
But the problem is that technological development has no end. The 22nm process cannot keep up with the booming development of the consumer electronics industry, and people need more advanced chips. 7nm/5nm/3nm…
Although these data are common now, industry scientists have long anticipated this trend, and in fact, they have been launching impacts on these process nodes since the 1980s. The result of the impact is that there must be a new light source – the 193nm wavelength of the ArF light source is still too long to meet the requirements.
The final solution to this problem is the Cymer company in the United States, which provides an extremely complex light source – extreme ultraviolet light with a wavelength of only 13.5nm. The working principle of this light source is extremely complex: a high-energy carbon dioxide laser is irradiated on a dripping target of tin droplets with a diameter of only 20 microns.
This bombardment causes the tin material to instantly produce plasma, which emits extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm – ultimately, these scattered extreme ultraviolet rays are gathered together through a complex lens group and projected onto the mask. This is the effort made by European and American companies and scientists to obtain an extreme ultraviolet light source with a wavelength of 13.5nm.
However, this type of light source actually has significant drawbacks. Firstly, it is too complex. In order to hit a tin target with a diameter of only 20 microns, a carbon dioxide laser needs to “shoot” 50000 times per second, and the evaporated tin target can also pollute the precision optical equipment inside the equipment – most importantly, the power of this light source is too low.
Under a 20kW laser bombardment, the radiation power generated by the plasma is less than 500W – not as powerful as a household refrigerator. Low power ultimately leads to impressive output; And the impressive output means that there is no scale effect and the cost remains high. But even so, this is currently the most advanced thing.
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Now, it’s time to talk about our so-called “lithography factories”. Huairou HEPS and Xiong’an SSMB actually belong to the same category, as both study “synchrotron radiation”.
And synchrotron radiation is a type of light source. The history of synchrotron radiation light sources is very long: in 1947, scientists first discovered a phenomenon on electron synchrotron: when charged particles with speeds close to the speed of light deflect in an electromagnetic field, they emit electromagnetic radiation along the tangent direction of the motion trajectory – this is called “synchrotron radiation”.
This type of synchrotron radiation has many excellent characteristics, such as high brightness, wide energy spectrum, high collimation and polarization. Therefore, since the 1970s, scientists around the world have been studying light sources based on this synchrotron radiation. In Chinese Mainland, we have four generations of synchrotron radiation light sources: the first generation stands in Beijing (BSRF), the second generation stands in Hefei (HLS), the third generation stands in Shanghai (SSRF), and the fourth generation stands in Beijing Huairou (HEPS).
And Xiongan’s SSMB is actually within this category, but SSMB has taken a step further – Steady state micro bunching, a new light source solution developed by Professor Tang Chuanxiang’s team from Tsinghua University in collaboration with German and American scientists.
The specific technical details are too complex, so we won’t go into more detail. What we need to know is that the most attractive aspect of SSMB light source is that it can provide a variety of wavelengths of radiation, not to mention extreme ultraviolet rays with a wavelength of 13.5nm. Soft X-rays with a wavelength of 5nm are also effortless, and the maximum power can reach 4kW, far surpassing Cymer’s “tin droplet bombardment method”.
Therefore, the implementation of SSMB-EUV light sources is expected to help China achieve leapfrog development in EUV lithography.
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At the same time, the SSMB accelerator light source can provide coherent radiation from terahertz to soft X-ray bands with high average power and narrow linewidth, and its time structure can be adjusted in a large range.
It can provide unprecedented tools and means for cutting-edge basic research and applied basic research in physics, chemistry, energy, environment, and other disciplines.
The SSMB accelerator light source has attracted widespread attention from the scientific and industrial communities With the deepening of physical research on SSMB storage rings and the mastery of their key technologies, SSMB accelerator light sources can be expected as light sources for the lithography industry and scientific research.
Their performance will also continue to improve, and the cost will gradually decrease. At the same time, the application of SSMB accelerator light sources will also be more widely expanded.
In summary, we can see that China’s scientific research team is not blindly following and catching up with the West, but is also developing the next generation of technology in a new way while following – this is not a “curve overtaking”, but a dignified linear acceleration overtaking.
I even think that the domestic lithography machine industry is highly likely to replicate the success of China’s new energy vehicle industry in the future: comparing the traditional “tin droplet bombardment” lithography machine is like comparing the engine and gearbox of traditional fuel vehicles.
Time is not waiting for us, and it is difficult for us to reach the most advanced level in Europe and America in a short period of time. But competing for the brand new SSMB light source is like competing for new energy vehicles, where everyone is on the same starting line, and we are even the leading one.
Therefore, I would like to end with Mao Zedong’s famous statement: “Imperialism blockades us, then blockade it. After ten to eight years of blockade, all China’s problems have been solved
‘Steve’, a new person at work (it was about his second or third week) called in one morning to say that his grandma had died. He was told he could take some time off, and get back to us in a few days and let us know how he was doing.
Soon afterwards, co-workers noticed that Steve had unfriended them on Facebook. All except for his line manager who, we can only presume, he forgot to unfriend.
A few days later, Steve posted on Facebook, saying that he’d been robbed.
By a prostitute.
In Ibiza.
When he returned to work, Steve was called into a meeting with the line manager, who opened with: “Sorry to hear about you getting mugged.” By all accounts, it was a short meeting.
Credit where credit’s due, Steve didn’t waste anyone’s time trying to claim that the Ibiza trip had been an attempt to deal with his grief – apparently, he owned up straight away that a friend of his had got cheap last minute flights to Ibiza, and he’d made the dead granny up to get time off at short notice. He was still fired though.
US Suspiciously Activates Global Fragility Act To Intervene In West African States
How does the US have the right to interfere in the internal affairs of sovereign nations? How would the dominant society feel if Russia and China intervened openly in American affairs?
For refusing to help a coworker and making them miss a deadline.
That was the story the guy gave to his boss, who confronted my boss about it, who brought the other boss into my office to get to the root of the problem.
My boss: Did you get X for John Doe?
His boss: He said you refused to help him, and I don’t appreciate people preventing my team from getting their work done.
Me: I haven’t talked to John Doe in ages, but let me check my records.
~pulls up database of work requests which I’d built myself for just such occasions~
Me: Oh it looks like he caught me after a meeting 6 months ago and mentioned it, and I asked him to follow up with details so I would know what to get him… but he didn’t contact me again.
His boss: Oh. Okay, well, that clarifies things.
Me: I’m here whenever he he has free time, or, if he doesn’t want to call or come over, he can just submit a request, telling me what he actually needs, on our intranet page.
My boss was cool, he was used to me being blamed and fully approved of my tracking every interaction I had with everyone I worked with (internal and external)… I was the only female technical staff and was young enough to be the daughter of most of the folks I worked with.
His boss was cool with me after that point… he knew anyone smack talking me wasn’t doing their job and was trying to blame-shift and he’d whip them into shape. He ALWAYS stood up for his guys, so I had mad respect for that.
I set up a worm composter inside my home and ended up with a fruit fly infestation.
It was over a decade ago and I was really into gardening and soil biology.
I had a regular compost bin in my backyard, but it was taking almost a year for my kitchen scraps to turn into finished compost.
I wanted a way to make compost faster and worm composting seemed like the best solution.
From my research, it was supposed to be really easy. You set up a tray with moist bedding and kitchen scraps, and you let the worms go to town. What could go wrong?
Apparently, a lot.
Take one:
When my worm composter and red wrigglers arrived, it was fairly easy to set up.
I placed the worm bin in my back patio, and I checked on them every day for the next few days. The worms seemed really happy.
On the fifth or sixth night, we had a heavy rain. When I went to check on my worms the next morning, I discovered a bunch of worms outside the bin.
When I looked inside, the tray was waterlogged and the few worms left inside had drowned.
Apparently, the heavy rain had caused a bunch of rain to leak into the composter, causing the mass worm exodus of 2008.
Take two:
I ordered more earthworms, and my husband fashioned a rain cover for the composter from a trash can lid.
After I set up the worms, things were going really well for several weeks.
One morning, when I went to add food to the trays, there was a bunch of dried worms outside the bin and a horrible stench coming from the composter.
When I looked inside, all the worms were dead and had already started to decompose.
I had started the worm bin in early spring when the weather was still mild. But as the weather warmed up, the bin apparently heated up too much and literally cooked all my worms, causing the great worm extinction of 2008.
Take three:
There wasn’t any part of my patio that was completely shaded, and even though I had placed the bin in the shadiest part of my patio, it still got too hot.
So I came up with the bright idea that I would set up the composter in my basement. It was climate controlled, and I would never have to worry about rain.
I ordered more red wrigglers and after I set them up, things were great for several months. The worms were munching through the trays, and I was getting rich, finished compost that I added to my garden.
One day, we noticed we were getting a lot of fruit flies in the house. The next week, they grew into a few dozen. Before we knew it, they turned into a full blown infestation.
As I walked through the house, the little pests would fly into my face and get lodged in my hair.
We had fruit flies peppering all the windows, trying to get outside.
At night, we itched and scratched as fruit flies wandered around in the air and crawled on our bodies.
There were so many swarming around our ceilings, that they would trigger our fire alarms, setting them off at odd times of the day and wee hours of the morning.
We tried everything to get rid of them.
We set up vinegar fruit fly traps.
We strung sticky fly strips from the ceilings and pinned fly paper everywhere.
We withheld water from our plants, letting them dry out completely between waterings to kill off eggs.
But still, the population kept growing.
For the life of us, we didn’t know where they were coming from, or why they were multiplying so quickly. That is, until one day, when I went down to add food to the worm trays.
I was pulling a finished compost tray out when it suddenly clicked. I knew that fruit flies laid eggs in moist soil. But it wasn’t until that moment when it occurred to me that I had been making moist soil right in my basement.
Trays and trays of dark, rich soil, teeming with nutrients. What fruit fly mama wouldn’t want to lay eggs in that?
At that moment, I knew that I had to give up my worms.
I took the trays of worms out back, to the grassy community area behind my house. And I said goodbye to my earthworms, as I carried out the great worm liberation of 2008.
Wisconsin Chicken Booyah is famous in the Fox River Valley region — Green Bay, Wisconsin. Booyah and beer go great together. Booyah King, Bob Baye, of Green Bay, Wisconsin, has been making Booyah since about 1946 in 100-gallon cookers.
chicken booyah
Ingredients
1 roasting or stewing chicken (about 4 pounds)
1 pound beef stew meat, with bones
1 pound pork stew meat, with bones
1/2 cup minced parsley
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon rosemary
1 tablespoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sage
4 cups quartered potatoes
2 cups chopped onions
2 cups chopped celery
1 cup carrots, cut up
1 cup green beans, cut up
1 cup fresh peas
1 cup skinned, seeded, chopped tomatoes
2 lemons
Instructions
Put chicken into a deep kettle with the beef and pork. Cover with boiling water. Bring slowly to a simmer, remove scum from the top, and add herbs and seasonings. Simmer very gently, covered, about 1 hour.
Remove chicken and, when cooled, take meat form the bones and cut into pieces. Let beef and pork continue to cook until tender, 45 minutes to an hour more.
Remove and let cool enough to remove meat from bones. Add vegetables to the broth and simmer 5 to 10 minutes.
Grate lemon rind and set aside; remove white pith and seeds from the lemons, chop the pulp, and add to the broth. Taste for seasoning.
While vegetables are still crisp, return the meat pieces to the broth to heat through. Serve in large soup bowls and sprinkle with the lemon rind.
This particular company had a major office building with hundreds of employees. All the offices were decorated in shades of burgundy and green. It was quite pretty actually.
Anyhoo… due to changing departments, I was moved from 3d floor NE to 3rd floor SW. As I’m settling into my new space (which was identical to the old space except I looked south instead of north out the window), the head of the Committee On Office Ambiance appears.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “You aren’t allowed to have original artwork in your office because you are not a manager.”
I glance at the generic painting on the wall, one like every office had. It was ugly as sin. But apparently it was an original rather than a print. Miss Committee snatches that piece of original art and returns with a print, which I liked better anyway.
But it gets better.
So years go by and eventually the hydraulics on my chair gave out. The chair would periodically drop me to the floor without warning. Rather annoying as you can imagine.
I ask my boss for a new chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for it. I ask to fix the chair but he says he doesn’t have the budget for that either.
This is ridiculous, I think.
So one night I stay late. In the dark of night, I hasten my broken chair down to another office and steal one from an empty. But I get caught! Manager sees me switching chairs. Yells at me because he doesn’t have the budget to fix a chair either, even if that chair is in an empty office. Foiled!
I wait. I plot.
Another night comes and again I wait until not a soul is in the building. I make my switch and I’m not caught! Victory!
Next morning, I’m all happy in my new chair until Miss Committee stops by.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a burgundy chair! You must have a green chair to match your office.”
Out goes my nice chair and back comes my broken one. Foiled again.!
Once again, I wait. I plot.
Darkness of night. I steal through the building with my broken chair seeking one of identical color. Find it. Make the switch. Life is good.
Until Miss Committee stops by again.
“Oh no no no!” says she. “That’s a manager’s chair. You are only allowed a peon’s chair.” Back comes my broken chair. Foiled yet again!
I’m bemoaning my fate to sit on the floor for the rest of eternity when the maintenance dude happens by. He tells me he has a fix for chairs like mine. He takes it away and comes back in a few with a fixed chair. He’d put a pipe in the stem. The chair can never be lowered again, but what do I care?
I’m finally happy. Miss Committee is finally happy.
I tell this to some folks in the plant. One day, mysteriously, a Dilbert cartoon appears on my desk. Poor Dilbert’s chair is broken and he tries to steal one, only the accounting troll catches him and sentences him to prison at the bottom of the elevator shaft.
I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my (fixed) chair.
I dare anyone to come up with something stupider than this tale.
I had this experience. My boss had already let me know they were eliminating my position due to budget constraints. I wasn’t upset; I had seen the writing on the wall, and I had included a 90 day severance notice in my contract, since the company was known for poor budgeting and finances. In addition to my being let go, I was going to have to let go of several members of the office staff as well. That was fine, but I asked for some time to put everything in order for doing so, at least a week. We didn’t have an HR dept, and being in California, there are certain steps that need to be taken when letting someone go.
The owners didn’t want to wait and insisted I inform people immediately, giving them a two week notice of their termination. Obviously, there were a lot of questions from the employees being let go about benefits and unemployment, which the owners were unprepared to answer. One of the employees complained to me in an email about how vague the owners were being in their answers.
Well, a couple of hours later, I received an angry phone call from the owner’s wife, because this employee had spoken ill of her, and I hadn’t defended her. She and her husband were reading everyone’s emails and were unhappy to learn the people they were firing had little good to say about them. The next call I got was from the owner, demanding I resign immediately in writing for not defending his wife. Of course, I laughed and refused.
His next tactic was to demand I leave home for an unspecified amount of time to work with him on the east coast on new projects. This was the week of Thanksgiving. I had one more card to play: the owner of the company thought it was hilarious to send explicit photos to upper management. I had asked him in front of witnesses to stop; it was a whole other level of weird. I refused to go to the East Coast or resign on advice of attorney based on the hostile sexua environment at the company.
The moment I mentioned sexual harassment and attorneys, the owners went on radio silence. They wouldn’t fire me, and I received zero emails from them for the rest of my 90 day term. I still had to come in to work, but I just sat in my office. I did start taking my private laptop and a hotspot, though, and completed my masters thesis on their dime. I think they thought they were punishing me by making me come in to work for the remainder of my time, but in reality, they gave me an air conditioned, private office to complete a major project. So, thank you?
US Forever War vs Russia and China
In 2014 there was a coup. Soon after, there was a massacre in Odessa (dozens of people were burned alive). Ethnic Russians living in Ukraine were treated as subhuman. Their language and culture was being oppressed. A civil war broke out due to the rise in ethnic tensions.
For 8 years the Ukrainian military was indiscriminately shelling civilians living in Donbas.
If Zelensky honored the Minsk agreement and pledged neutrality, none of this would have happened. The 8 year civil war would have ended and Donbas would have remained part of Ukraine. War is the ultimate failure of diplomacy.
Oh, sure, it might still happen, but it is increasingly unlikely with each month. The risk and threat level has passed.
The owners of the American “leadership” realize that alternatives to a global conflict with Russia, China and their buddy nations is not going to happen, as the USA would be smashed by catastrophic blows.
We are now is the LONG-SLIDE towards reconstruction surgery of the world’s governance system. The rest of the world are puking out the Western ideals, and governance. This pooling mess of hot blood stained vomit which going to get obvious and very unsightly as time progresses.
Most of the MM readership will be spared for horrific consequences that many of the West will need to endure.
The “news” will present a real mess. But, do not fall for that.
Everything is starting to settle out. It will appear that the world is in one giant blender, but that is not the full story. There is a sorting going on. There will be winners and losers. But it will not be like many fear.
The world War 3, started in 2007 (with the breakdown of American society) and the global war that started in 2014, peaked in 2022. A bit early. Welcome to the reconstruction phase.
…
I would now like to compare what we experienced with what John Titor has to say…
American civil war and breakdown
Titor said 2004, and fought in 2011
I observe / claim it began around 2007
“There is a civil war in the United States that starts in 2005. That conflict flares up and down for 10 years.“
World War 3
Titor said nuclear strikes occurred in 2015
I claim that it began in 2014. No nuclear strikes but a biological assault on china in 2019. NATO hot war with Russia in 2022.
“In 2015, Russia launches a nuclear strike against the major cities in the United States (which is the “other side” of the civil war from my perspective), China and Europe. The United States counter attacks. The US cities are destroyed along with the AFE (American Federal Empire)…thus we (in the country) won. The European Union and China were also destroyed. Russia is now our largest trading partner and the Capitol of the US was moved to Omaha Nebraska.“
I went to Europe early this year. Paris, Rome and Barcelona. I asked my wife “Where do they hide the fat people?” Things I noticed:
I did not see anyplace that was “all you can eat”.
The food I bought in the street was fresh and delicious. The strawberries were the size of grapes but so delicious and were meant to be eaten right away meaning no steroids or preservatives. I had some Brie cheese and I could taste the cow.
Food portions were small but I never left a table hungry.
My Fitbit said I met my goals as far as number of steps taken: at least 10,000 per day. In Positano, Italy it said I climbed the equivalent of 60 floors. In the US, I barely make 3,000.
Refrigerators are small. You don’t buy two weeks worth of food full of preservatives so they still look good after two weeks. We bought everything we needed to eat each day.
You walk everywhere. Burn those calories.
Netanyahoo’s Strategic Dilemma
Israel is a colonial settler state in permanent conflict with the suppressed natives.
It thought it could survive in that state, or even extend its settlements, by deterring opposing forces with its superior military.
Hamas has breached that deterrence myth by inflicting, in one day, more casualties in Israel than it had experienced in any previous wars.
Natanyahoo is under pressure to restore the deterrence, to again provide the Zionists with a feeling of superiority.
He can not do that.
Any land attack in Gaza means urban warfare in an already destroyed city with large underground facilities. During the taking of Bakhmut the Wagener forces had in total some 40,000 casualties (dead and wounded). The other side had more than 70,000. What price would the IDF have to pay to ‘destroy Hamas’?
The other factor is of course Hizbullah and other resistance groups, which may well attack Israel from the north and various other directions. Hizbullah has loudly said it would do so should the IDF enter Gaza. It has some 100,000 missiles – more than enough to exhaust Israel’s air defenses. Its longest reach missiles can attack any major city within Israel. There have already been daily fire exchanges at the norther border.
The 2006 war in Lebanon has shown that Hizbullah is dug in and very able to defend itself. It has since gained more experience by fighting ISIS in Syria. Neither U.S. air force attacks nor a land force invasion can hinder Hizbullah from firing its missiles.
(Syria, as well as Iran, will not intervene in the war unless they are directly attacked.)
Netanyahoo must attack Gaza to restore deterrence. He can not attack Gaza because the urban warfare would cause large Israeli casualties. He can not attack Gaza because Hizbullah would then destroy the myth of the superior settler state even more than Hamas has done so far.
Israel, with the help of the U.S., has tried to push the population of Gaza into Egypt. From Egypt’s standpoint that would be a humanitarian solution, at least as long as others pay for it. But it would cause a serious strategic problem. Resistance by Hamas and others against Israel would continue indefinitely, but Egypt would be held responsible for it. It can not and will not take on that burden.
Netanyahoo’s next idea was to starve Gaza. But the world will not let him do that. At least not beyond a certain point. Even the UN Secretary General has visited the Rafah crossing. Other global organizations, like the WHO and ASEAN, have spoken up. Pictures of starving people will make it impossible for the west to support that ‘solution’.
Meanwhile Hamas fighters will continue to sit in their tunnels, ready to defend their land, and likely with enough provisions to hold out for months.
Israeli settlers, with the support of the IDF, are rampaging through the West Bank. They are killing more Palestinians and further enrage the global public against their deeds. This will escalate.
Israel’s decision making is paralyzed. It will for now continue to talk of a ground invasion but will not launch one. It will also continue to starve Gaza.
But something will soon break. At any minute there might be a new large atrocity in Gaza or a pogrom in the West Bank. Any miscalculation in the north could launch that front into a hot war. Hizbullah could start to ‘preemptively’ invade Israeli proper.
But Israel’s Jewish public is still demanding a war of revenge. It still needs the restoration of its deterrence and superiority.
But what if that turns out to be impossible to achieve?
Well. Then something else must change.
As Adam Shatz summarizes in the London Review of Books:
The inescapable truth is that Israel cannot extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence, any more than the Palestinians can win an Algerian-style liberation war: Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs are stuck with each other, unless Israel, the far stronger party, drives the Palestinians into exile for good. The only thing that can save the people of Israel and Palestine, and prevent another Nakba – a real possibility, while another Holocaust remains a traumatic hallucination – is a political solution that recognises both as equal citizens, and allows them to live in peace and freedom, whether in a single democratic state, two states, or a federation. So long as this solution is avoided, a continuing degradation, and an even greater catastrophe, are all but guaranteed.
The Steel Casings used in 60% of the Missiles on earth comes from China
It’s either Grade 7 Or Grade 8 Customized Light Steel Alloy Plate (LSAP)
It can be used for reinforcing I beams or making missile casings
Likewise the Electronics for basic primitive rockets almost entirely come from China
They can all be purchased retail across the market and can be used for do it yourself drones to basic rockets capable of 40–50 km range depending on the fuel thrust
I know because that’s the justification China gave when the West said Russia was being provided with Chinese weapons
China said – we give the steel, the basic raw materials and chips. How the Russians use them isn’t our business
They can be used to make Deep Freezers or can be used in basic rocketry
The Hamas likely buy their raw materials from China on the open market by playing secondary orders from Saudi or Turkey
Delivery comes through Jordan or Egypt
It’s just basic steel plate and basic electronics, so nobody cares what it’s being used for
Chemicals also flood through Egypt into Gaza from China.
Chemicals that can be used to make explosives but also ball point pen ink
So China never sells Weaponry to Hamas
The Hamas uses Chinese Raw Materials and makes their own primitive, crude but effective weaponry
Advanced guidance electronics come from Iran
Chinese won’t go that far to sell more advanced electronics to Hamas. These have END USER CERTIFICATES and if Jordan or Egypt sell such electronics to Hamas , they will get into a lot of trouble.
You may convince the world Hamas is making ball point pens and cheap electronic stuff
Can’t convince the world, Hamas is building EVs or High Altitude Drones right?
Plus plenty of Drones come from Iran who have a near independent supply chain and some of the finest reverse engineering on earth
Iran also supplies a lot of Missiles but that’s mostly to Hezbollah
Plus a third source is from Ukraine via the BLACK MARKET through the Balkans
A $ 55,000 box of 10,000 Rounds of 9 Ammunition sells for upto $ 400,000 on the black market without an end user certificate
Hence a Ukrainian Unit could remove 50 Boxes and sell them for $ 20 Million and pocket the entire sum
Who will audit or count the rounds every day?
$ 20 Million is CHUMP CHANGE for Saudi Billionaires or Emiratis or Qataris
That’s 500,000 Rounds of 9 mm Ammunition
That can sustain gunfire for 50 days at 10,000 rounds and day and kill at least 400–500 Israelis
A $ 1250 tagged M14 Rifle goes for upto $ 5000 In the black market , so a corrupt Ukrainian unit happily sells 1000 Rifles for $ 5 Million and claims the rifles were damaged
So
A. They buy raw materials from China and build their own rockets and other stuff like chemical explosives
B. They get Drones and Better Chips from Iran
C. They get other stuff from black markets and other war surplus from Europe
Real Texas Chili
This classic Texas chili (no beans, no onion, no tomatoes) was created by native Houstonian Carter Rochelle, a professional fund-raiser. Former New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne once pronounced this chili his favorite and published the recipe in two of his cookbooks.
2023 10 18 17 04
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Serve with pinto beans and chopped onion on the side to mix in as desired. Serve with crackers, tortilla chips, warmed flour tortillas or corn bread.
Ingredients
3 pounds boneless beef stew meat (chuck or round)
6 ounces beef suet (hard white fat), cut into pieces (see note)
3 or 4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 to 6 tablespoons chili powder, or to taste
8 tablespoons Masa Harina (Mexican corn flour)
6 cups hot water
2 tablespoons vinegar
2 teaspoons instant beef bouillon or beef bouillon cubes
Red chiles, crushed or dried and chopped, to taste (optional)
Instructions
Remove gristle and most of fat from meat; cut into 1/2 inch or smaller cubes (some of the beef should be chipped or flaked).
Place suet in large skillet or heavy kettle and render it (cook until fat melts).
Skim residue off rendered suet; discard residue.
Add meat to hot fat and sauté until lightly browned.
Add garlic, salt, black pepper and chili powder. Mix well and let seasonings permeate meat a few minutes.
Sprinkle in Masa Harina and mix, stirring rapidly until smooth.
Add water, vinegar, bouillon and chilies. Reduce heat and simmer until meat is very tender; some of the meat should virtually dissolve into the chili.
If chili becomes too dry while cooking, add a little water from time to time.
Correct seasonings.
When done, skim fat from surface. (You can refrigerate overnight and scrape hardened fat off before reheating.)
Notes
Because of health concerns, many chili cooks substitute 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup vegetable oil or shortening for rendered beef suet, which is a highly saturated fat.
Originally Answered: If a startup has a great product why don’t people buy it still?
Startup mistake:
“I have a great product. Come and buy it!”
“I have the best business idea. You should invest in it!”
“My product is the best in the market. I deserve your money!”
—
I’ve made this mistake so many times, it’s painful!
It’s probably one of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make when starting their business.
The challenge is to make decisions RATIONALLY, not emotionally.
Entrepreneurship is complex because we act on our emotions, but we should make all decisions with data. Without the proper guidance and discipline, it’s very easy to make mistakes.
Now, there’s no negative judgment of failures, just lessons and growth. You’d be surprised, though, how history repeats itself over and over again down through the ages. The most successful companies and entrepreneurs have learned this the hard way.
Examples:
1957 — Ford Edsel
Ford invested $400 million into the car, but Americans wanted smaller, more economic vehicles. FAILED.
1975 — Sony Betamax
Sony kept Betamax proprietary, meaning that the market for VHS products quickly outpaced Betamax. FAILED.
1985 — New Coke
The “Pepsi Challenge” ads were responsible for Coca-Cola trying to create a product that would taste more like Pepsi. FAILED.
1993 — Apple Newton
Apple’s great idea was ahead of its time. The technology wasn’t there yet. FAILED.
2006 — Microsoft Zune
The Zune was targeted to take over Apple’s iPod. It didn’t. FAILED.
2006 — HD-DVD
HD-DVD was the hi-def replacement to DVD, but Sony led with Blu-ray built into their Playstation console. FAILED.
2009 — The Nook
Amazon’s Kindle is cheaper and syncs up easily with Amazon’s account. FAILED.
2014 — Amazon’s Fire Phone
Amazon’s Fire Phone released in 2014 looked competitive. Amazon discontinued the phone 13 months after its launch. FAILED.
2019 — Google+
“Google+ was one of the most ambitious bets in the company’s history,” Eric Schmidt wrote in his book, How Google Works. It was believed that it would be a Facebook killer. FAILED.
To answer your question, if a startup has a great product, why aren’t people still buying it?
People don’t buy products or services — they buy results, benefits and solutions.
PUSHING your products and services to the consumer is a recipe for failure.
Startups commonly fail because they waste their most scarce resource (cash) on advertising and promotions. The ‘in’ reality is that marketing goes in one ear and right out the other.
Solution?
Figure out your niche in the market; DON’T try to sell to everyone.
Understand their hurts and their frustrations. Why is it that they will buy your product? Example: people don’t buy eyeglasses, they buy vision, the benefit!
Learn to feel like them to a point to deeply understand them.
Communicate their problem in their language. Listen to them, don’t guess what they want — talk to them. What you think they need is very commonly notwhat they want.
He was irritated to come out to a secretary’s desk and find she wasn’t yet seated. She was in the lounge putting away her coat and then fixed herself a cup of coffee, and she sat down at 8:36 — instead of 8:30.
It happened to be a morning of extreme stress and he really needed all hands on deck that morning. Got it, but he was very short-sighted. The 6 minutes didn’t change the course of the day, but his Memo to Staff certainly did.
He circulated a memo to all staff which said something to the effect of:
“The day begins at 8:30. Not 8:36, or 8:40, or when you found a parking space, or when the coffee was ready. If you need more time, plan your day accordingly and make your cup of coffee, and find your spot, and hang up your coat, earlier than normal. 8:30 means in your seat, at your desk, ready for the day’s work to begin. Not coming through the door.”
Okay — we got it. Well, I was a paralegal at the time, and I put in SO many more hours than the 40 hours I was paid for. I arrived early, left late, frequently delayed lunch, often didn’t take breaks on busy days preparing for trial.
His memo so back-fired, that every single employee was grumbling, not just the secretary. As it happened, I was the most affected (in a positive way, actually) by this policy memo because I was the staff member who had the MOST lost-time from working beyond my schedule. I was never late, so he didn’t have a problem with me, but he also abused my time more than anyone else. There were months where I never took so much as a coffee break. Often ate lunch at my desk while working. Seldom left at closing time. Often came in on Saturdays or Sundays to help get ready for Mondays. I just always shrugged it away and took it as “part of the industry.” A trial litigation practice is stressful and schedules need to be fluid.
He didn’t appreciate that, so we responded as a group of 16 employees with total solidarity.
We were AT our desks at 8:30 a.m. We LEFT our desks promptly at 5:30. We took our breaks and our lunch hours exactly on time.
It was a disaster.
I was the first to respond. “Sorry, I can’t help right now. My lunch is 12 to 1, and I have to stand up at 12, and sit back down at 1, so this copy project would make my lunch “12 ish to 1 ish.” I’ll start on this at exactly 1:01 p.m., when I’m back at my desk.”
I also left at exactly 5:30 p.m. I stood up, put the cover on my typewriter, and cleared my desk. He said “Can you just—-” and some paperwork in his hands.
“No, I’m sorry. My day begins promptly at 8:30 and ends exactly at 5:30. I’ll help with that tomorrow.”
I left.
Everyone did the same. All week.
“No I’m sorry, I’m required to take a 10 minute break in this hour.”
“No, I’m sorry, my lunch begins in 15 minutes at 12:00, and that’s 30 minutes of dictation you want transcribed. I’ll begin exactly at 1:00 when I’m IN MY SEAT and AT MY DESK.”
He realized the petty nature of his Memo to Staff within 2 business days, and sent around an apology memo within a week of disastrous results.
He then sent us all out for an extended lunch of 2 hours — on the house. He didn’t come.
His memo said “Go complain about your boss over a 2 hour lunch — on me.”
Oliver Anthony – I’ve Got To Get Sober | REACTION!
I had a friend who I knew smoked Marijuana among other things. I chose not to partake of any of this so he would walk away do his thing then come back. No big deal… well it had a few months since we had been able to hang out and decided to meet up at a local festival. I was having gall bladder issues at that time. The day we were to meet I was in the middle of a very severe “attack” but chose to go anyway because I missed him so much. I told him this when I arrived. After about 2 or so hours he said he wanted to go “smoke” so I sat listening to a band while I waited. And waited… and waited. Over an hour waiting on him while I was very sick and in pain. I finally left. I later found out that he decided to go drop acid instead. He forgot I was there because he was so messed up. That was the last time I saw him. If drugs are more important than our friendship then I don’t need you in my life.
David Cross: Why America Sucks at Everything – US American Reacts
I LOVE YOUR TINY LITTLE VOICE, WHY DON’T YOU SAY IT LOUDER FOR MY FRIEND TO HEAR TOO?
Drill Instructor Sergeant Ferry was the most merciless individual ever known to man. He would punish you for something as simple as not sitting properly and play mind games with recruits just to kill time. Sergeant Ferry had little tolerance for any sort of discretion and was the most hated man out of all the Drill Instructors in our platoon since he was the designated disciplinarian or otherwise known as the Kill Hat.
During Recruit Training, there was one particular class where we were educated on the benefits of knowing a foreign language then told to sign up to take the Defense Language Proficiency Test, if we claimed to be bilingual. I signed up to take the DLPT for Vietnamese and was promptly removed for one entire morning along with a few other recruits from other platoons to take the exam. The Drill Instructor escorting us to the Receiving Building where testing was held, was none other than Drill Instructor Sergeant Ferry.
While we were waiting for the proctors to set up the computer lab, Sergeant Ferry had a few remarks for us.
“If you pass this test, you will earn the chance to get paid extra money every month, and probably go on missions requiring speakers of your language.” he growled.
“Be the one to fail and I will make sure your life is absolutely miserable when you return to your platoons.”
Luckily for me, I passed the DLPT and could not have been happier as I walked back to my platoon’s squad bay alone after a well deserved lunch.
Later on that evening in a rare moment of sanity, Sergeant Ferry was loudly lecturing the platoon on the importance of being a well-rounded Marine. At some point in his speech he said, “IF YOU KNOW A SECOND LANGUAGE LIKE VIETNAMESE, YOU CAN GET PAID FOR IT IF YOU PASS A QUALIFICATION TEST AND GET EXTRA MONEY IN YOUR PAYCHECK EVERY MONTH!!”
While he did not mention my name at all, I felt that was his way of saying “Good job Vu for passing the exam!” without stating the obvious.
After completing the Crucible a month later at Camp Pendleton, the contract Private First Class Marines in the platoon were asked on which Drill Instructor they would like to pin them in the promotion ceremony that was held before our Warrior’s Breakfast. I chose Sergeant Ferry to pin me as a PFC.
As he was pinning on the chevrons onto my collar, Sergeant Ferry said in a hoarse voice, “Getting promoted to Private First Class and getting paid extra for speaking Vietnamese? I’m damn proud of you Vu”.
He shook my hand with an iron grip and I felt humbled as he walked to the next Marine.
Is China’s WhitePaper a global rescue plan or a global threat?
It’s a great question, there is a new White Paper and China is “threatening” to lead the world into a different place – who benefits and how?
I’m a nurse. When I was a mere student (many years ago now), I was doing my stint in A&E (ER for my American friends). It was a Saturday night. I had requested it specifically, as I wanted to see some “exciting” cases. I was put onto triage with a qualified nurse, to see how the system worked.
The department I worked in was in the city center, so a lot of “walk in” patients. About 8pm, in walked 2 young lads in their late teens, early 20’s. One with a broken nose, the other with a possible fractured jaw. They had been “set upon by a group of guys in the city”. They were seated, awaiting X-ray. We also informed the special constable on duty attached to the department (auxiliary police) about a possible assault case.
About an hour or so later, an old guy in his late 70’s to early 80’s walked in. He had what we call a “boxers fracture”.. basically, a fracture of the hand that is normally sustained by punching something. What we found interesting, is that the old guy was not medically trained, but came to us saying “I’ve got a bloody brawlers fracture, haven’t I?”. How did he know? He said he had been “set upon” by two young lads who had tried to mug him.
Well, I finished my shift, went home and on Monday morning heard the rest of the story.
The old man and the two young men had seen each other in the X-ray dept. The old man had started shouting, saying “those are the ones that attacked me”. The police had been called, the two men questioned and arrested.
A week later, I came in for one of my last shifts in the department and, in the staff room, there was a newspaper cutting from the local press saying something along the lines of “Hurricane Harry wins his final bout”.
The old man, at about 84, had only just stopped training local boxers. He was an ex prizefighter, had been an army middleweight champion during the war and devoted his life to boxing. Set upon by two young lads, he decided to teach them a lesson in respecting your elders haha.
China’s First 28nm Lithography Tool to Be Delivered This Year
Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE), China’s most successful lithography scanner manufacturer, reiterated plans this week to deliver its first scanner capable of producing chips on a 28nm-class fabrication process by the end of the year, reports TechWire Asia, citing newspaper Securities Daily, which in turn cites an unnamed source.
For SMEE, its SSA/800-10W scanner is a breakthrough since the most advanced scanner that the company has today is only capable of 90nm and thicker fabrication processes. A 28nm-capable lithography tool will over time enable Chinese chipmakers to rely on domestic lithography equipment for a range of mature technologies.
The move is part of China’s broader goal to achieve semiconductor self-sufficiency and reduce its dependence on foreign technology. But the question remains as to whether SMEE can produce this scanner in mass quantities, and when it can make such scanners available to substitute for machines from ASML, Canon, and Nikon.
The latest export regulations from the U.S. government prevent Chinese chipmakers from accessing tools and technologies essential for creating non-planar transistor logic chips under 14nm/16nm dimensions, 3D NAND chips with over 127 active layers, and DRAM ICs with a half-pitch smaller than 18nm. Restrictions from the Netherlands, Japan, and Taiwan that went into effect earlier this fall further isolated Chinese firms like SMIC and YMTC from advanced tools. These limitations impede their ability to produce chips using their newest manufacturing processes, notably SMIC’s 14nm/12nm and 2nd generation 7nm as well as YMTC’s 128-layer and 232-layer 3D NAND.
As a result, China needs advanced domestic lithography tools to ensure that its chipmakers can produce chips on even fairly advanced process technologies, such as 14nm. For now, it looks like Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment is on track to reveal its 28nm-capable SSA/800-10W scanner, which it will ship either to SMIC or a chip research intitute.
After it does this, it will still take some time for the chipmaker to integrate the new scanner into its production flow. However, it will only do this only if SMEE can produce a sufficient number of such tools.
There is a myth that is way popular. It’s not a myth, actually, it is a myth within a myth.
Myth-ception.
You must have heard this statement before: “NASA invested $1,000,000 to develop a pen that works in space, while Russia used a pencil.”
Why did I say this is a “Myth within a Myth” (Myth-ception)?
Here, I’ll explain:
Facts that show that the statement is a myth:
Before a proper Space-Pen was developed, astronauts from both the USA and Russia used pencil in space.
NASA never spent the $1,000,000 to develop a pen that works in zero-gravity of outer space by themselves.
Russia itself, along with the USA, uses a space-pen today.
The fact that busts the myth present within the myth:
A normal pen can work in space!
Who told you that a normal ballpoint pen won’t work in space?
Let me explain it to you properly.
In the initial days of space flight, scientists were unsure about whether or not normal pens would work in the hostile conditions of outer space. And the capsule in which astronauts were sent into space had very little space to send only the essential stuff. So, they couldn’t send some normal pens along with pencils just to try.
They couldn’t risk the situation by sending only pens instead of pencils. What if an astronaut inside the ISS (International Space Station) takes a pen but it doesn’t work? There is no stationery shop floating outside the station to buy another pen or a pencil. If the pen they took wouldn’t have worked, no instruments would be available to write.
Hence, all of the astronauts had to take pencils with them. No pen was given a chance.
In 1967, during the launch rehearsal test of the 1st Apollo mission, a cabin fire took place. This fire killed all of the three astronauts present in that crew.
After this incident, engineers tried eliminating all of the flammable items in any space mission. The pencil was one of them.
But what do you use if a pencil is eliminated?
Then NASA turned towards the man named Paul C. Fisher. This man had patented an “Anti-Gravity” ballpoint pen in 1966.
Fisher was the person, who invested his own $1,000,000 to make a space-pen, independent of any organization. NASA approached his company after the pen was launched.
Now, some people think that the pen itself costs a lot. But the thing is, the cost of a million dollars was spent to make the pen. NASA actually bought the pens for a cheaper price (around $6 per pen).
Now I will come to why we don’t use normal pens in space (even if we can).
What I think is, after reading all of this history, people just assumed that normal pens don’t work in space. But the situation is a bit different.
I did an analysis of the mechanism of all types of pens and came to an amazing conclusion.
For you to understand that, you will have to know how a space pen works. And for you to know how a space pen works, I will have to explain how a normal pen works.
Basically, pens are divided into 5 main categories:
Fountain pen
Rollerball pen
Felt tip pen
Ballpoint pen
Gel pen
Now, I will tell you the mechanism of each type of pen.
Fountain pens
To understand its mechanism, it can be divided into three parts:
The Nib
The Feed
The Reservoir
Structure of a regular Fountain pen
To know how things look in real, I broke my own ink pen:
I’ll explain the function of these three parts, starting with the reservoir.
The reservoir contains a cartridge which holds ink. This part is broad and the ink can move independently under the action of gravity. The job of this section is to hold ink and supply it to the feed.
A pipe starts from the reservoir and it sends ink to the feed.
This pipe has 4 thin channels — 3 for ink and 1 for air.
Now you would ask, “Why a channel for air?”
Well, let me make it clear with an example.
Take a plastic bottle and fill it with water. Make a tiny hole on the cap. Invert the bottle so that the cap is facing down.
Does water start flowing? NO.
That is because of the atmospheric pressure (air stops the flow from below). It is just like pressing the hole with a finger. Water won’t flow out of the hole (even if gravity is supporting you in this case).
You will have to squeeze the bottle to get water out of it.
The reason for the water not flowing out is the absence of air above. If water gets out of the hole, a vacuum will be created above (since the water level has to go down). We know that this is impossible. There must be some way, by which air will be filled in the upper section as the water level keeps moving down.
You can do this by making a hole above (on the base of bottle). Now, water will keep flowing from the hole made on the cap (without squeezing the bottle).
As water moves out from the hole, the water level keeps decreasing from above – this leads to the formation of vacuum – which, in turn, sucks air from the opposite hole.
A similar mechanism is used in the Fountain pen.
The only difference is that – the hole for air is made near the same point, where the three holes for ink flow are made (instead of making one on the opposite).
When you glide the nib on the paper, ink flows out from the three channels and air keeps getting from one channel. This air goes through the feed and reaches the reservoir. (This way, the air is filled in the space emptied by the loss of ink.)
Hence, constant flow is maintained.
Here is the structure of the feed:
Structure of the feed
The feed consists of three parts:
Wings
Fins
Post
I have mentioned the function of each in the image.
Here is the structure of the nib:
Structure of the Nib
I have mentioned the main components, with their functions, in the image.
Now, coming to the main point.
Why did I mention that there are 3 thin channels for ink in the feed?
That is because these channels introduce Capillary Action in the fountain pen. The movement of ink through these channels happen due to capillary action, and not gravity.
See, the two components that drive ink downwards, inside a fountain pen, are:
Gravity — inside the reservoir (Because it is broad, hence, no capillary action can take place).
Capillary action — inside the thin channels of the feed (Because they are way thinner).
When the ink exits the feed, it enters the slit of the nib. The slit is also very thin. Hence, the ink flows from the breather hole to the tip of the nib, by Capillary action, again.
My point here is to explain that if we use this pen in a zero-gravity spaceship, it is bound to work for some time (thanks to the capillary action). But… once the feed is emptied, the pen will stop to work. The ink in the reservoir (cartridge) will keep floating and won’t come down.
Also, there is another big disadvantage of taking a fountain pen to space.
You must remember the role of air in the functioning of an ink pen (as I have mentioned above). We know that a spaceship has an oxygen supply. But, if an astronaut takes a fountain pen outside the spaceship, the absence of the atmosphere will make the pen function-less.
Coming to the Rollerball pens:
This type is said to be invented in 1888.
The most common example of this kind of pen is Trimax.
To understand the internal structure of this pen, I had to break my own pen.
This answer required a high budget. LOL.
The upper section of my Trimax (a rollerball pen). The Feed and The Nib
You can see that this pen has a lot of similarity with the fountain pen.
To show you how all of the parts of this pen look, in detail, I used my simple microscope to zoom at each part of the Feed and Nib:
A detailed structure of a Rollerball pen. The visible parts were zoomed and pictured using my simple microscope.
You can see that the Fins part of the feed is similar to a fountain pen.
The main difference is created by the Post and the Nib.
Instead of having a pipe with four channels, the post of this pen is a porous substance, which transfers ink by suction.
This porous material was inserted in these pens, during their invention period, for easy writing on rough surfaces.
The Nib is the same as the ballpoint pen. I will explain the structure of the ballpoint Nib in the section of how ballpoint pens work.
I removed the ballpoint nib of this pen and this is what I was inside:
Inside the Nib of a rollerball pen. (Imaged under my simple microscope). It is the same extended porous material (that caries ink). Just a metal nib is added over it.
We don’t need a separate channel for air since the refill of the pen is open from above.
Talking about this pen to be used in space:
We can say that the flow of ink can happen in the absence of gravity, through a suction-based cloth type material. But the main issue is the Water-based ink used in this type of pens.
Water-based ink has a very low cohesive force. That is, the molecules in that ink aren’t attracted to each other at a large scale. So, we can’t assure a constant flow of ink. The pen may stop writing at a point.
Coming to the Felt-tip pen:
Common examples are Regular sketch-pens.
The mechanism is way similar to that of rollerball pens. The flow of water-based ink is maintained through suction, using a similar porous material.
The only major difference that I could notice was — they don’t have a ballpoint nib.
I showed you how the nib of a rollerball pen looks when you remove the metal nib. That is exactly how a nib of Felt-tip pen looks. The nib is nothing but the same continued section of porous material.
Why can’t we use these pens in space: Same reason as with the Rollerball pen → the damn water-based non-viscous ink.
Coming to the main contestant — Ballpoint pens.
These pens have a simple structure. There won’t be a need to discuss the mechanism of a refill.
The only complicated part is — the ballpoint metal nib.
The mechanism of the Ballpoint metal Nib. I have labelled all of the parts, with their functions.
In the image, I have also explained the working of the ballpoint pen.
I won’t be discussing the gel pens because they have the same mechanism as that of ballpoint pens. The only difference is in the ink. Gel pens use Water-based ink.
Coming to the main issue:
Why can’t we use a ballpoint pen in space?
Who said that we can’t? We can!
In 2003, an astronaut named Pedro Duque took a normal ballpoint pen with him, to confirm the fact. He found that the ballpoint pen worked pretty fine. He wrote 4–6 paragraphs in his diary and the pen didn’t stop!
According to my analysis, this happened because of the Oil-based ink present in the refill of a ballpoint pen. This ink is highly viscous and sticks itself pretty well. Cohesive forces (among the molecules of this ink) is very high.
So, for the pen to work, we need a small driving force that could maintain the flow of ink. The Capillary action inside the thin nib is enough for it.
See, the refill of a ballpoint pen is thick and it can’t build a capillary action. On earth, this part relies on gravity.
But… when you take this pen to outer space (zero-gravity), the small section near the nib will suck the ink under capillary action. This will drive entire ink because of the “stickiness” of that ink. It will have a continuous flow.
Now you would ask, “Then why don’t we use normal ballpoint pens in space?”
The thing is, zero-gravity is not the only issue. There are other problems like extreme temperatures (cold and hot), UV radiation, lack of atmosphere outside the spaceship.
The issue is the same: If astronauts take normal ballpoint pens with them and they stop working somehow, there is no stationary shop floating outside the spaceship. We can’t risk. Hence, the space-pen was bound to be made.
The Space-Pen:
Paul C. Fisher spent his $1,000,000 to make a pen that overcomes all of the limitations of other pens.
Every pen has some drawbacks, which pose a risk to be dependent upon. I have tried to mention all of these drawbacks from my analysis.
This pen uses refills which contain pressurized nitrogen gas inside them. The pressure forces the ink out of the nib even in the absence of Gravity and Atmosphere.
The ink used in this pen is extremely viscous (like jelly). So, continuous flow is maintained even in zero-gravity.
Also, the materials used while manufacturing is chosen such that the pen can write even in extremely hot and cold temperatures. The shocking part is that this pen can also be used to write underwater.
So, here we are. At the end of the Myth-ception.
I hope that I was able to clear all of the myths, along with the myths present within the myths.
I’ll keep it simple. The US earns 1 trillion a year and spends 2 trillion right, they make up the shortfall by printing a trillion every year – they issue T bills. In the normal course of events printing the equivlent of your yearly GDP would create massive inflation and your economy would collapse.
However. The USD is used for most of the trade on the planet so all of that money gets to share the inflationary pressure – all countries suffer the inflation and so (given that all countries are ‘inflating’) there is no inflation. All of the currencies are inflating at the same rate.
When other countries (BRICS countries and more) move away from the USD that not only takes USD out of circulation (incresing inflationary pressure on what is left) but makes those (BRICS) countries more immune to the inflationary presssure.
So the problem that the US has with it is that it’ll totally fuck the US. Which is as it should be.
My ex-fiance’s mom and I were incredibly close. We used to spend all our time together when she visited, even when her son was at work.
Then, the heart-wrenching day came when I had to break the news about his infidelity. She was nearly as devastated as I was. We had planned our wedding for six months down the road, discussing every tiny detail with excitement. She often expressed how proud she was that I would officially become her daughter-in-law.
However, her son didn’t share her sentiments.
When we split, I never got to say goodbye in person because they lived far away. Within a week, I packed up and moved back to Spain to heal with my family. We exchanged messages, and she confessed that part of her was relieved we hadn’t met to say goodbye because she didn’t know how she would handle it.
Fast forward a year, we still keep in touch on WhatsApp (her son and I definitely do not!). I’m solo traveling in Australia, and she checks on me. She remembered my birthday and even shared what would have been my wedding day with me. She continues to be my mother-in-law in spirit.
This past Christmas, she sent me a message that brought tears to my eyes. In their family, everyone had a special bauble on her Christmas tree. She told me to add one because she considered me family. I bought a simple, beautiful one.
Christmas 2018, I thought about that bauble and how life changes. Two days later, she messaged me, asking about my trip to Bali for Christmas and New Years. She sent a photo of her beautifully decorated tree, saying, “Your bauble is still on my tree, and it will be every year xx.”
I was truly fortunate to have her as my mother-in-law.
Oliver Anthony is Single-Handedly Destroying the Recording Industry
Oliver Antony chose an unconventional path to fame and fortune. In the process, he showed other artists how to break the backs of the recording industry. All you need is strong vocals, a good message, and a Youtube channel to rake in millions of dollars without any censorship of your message.
My last name is not exactly common. Especially in northeast Ohio where I grew up. In the Cleveland area, if you know someone with the last name of Breaux, they are most definitely closely related to me.
So, there I was working for Geek Squad. I arrived at a client’s house to perform some kind of repair on an older guy’s computer. I introduced myself and we made a little small talk on the way back to his office. He pointed me to the office chair and told me a little about the problem. When I booted up the computer, it needed a password so I asked him to type it in.
“I’ll just tell it to you. You look trustworthy. You might want to write it down, though.”
I grabbed my notepad and a pen and nodded to him.
“B”
“R”
“E”
“A”
“U”
“X”
I just stared at him, confused and a little freaked out. Why was this guy’s password my last name?
I must have just looked confused because he chuckled and said “It’s my middle name. Strange, I know, but I was named after a close family friend growing up in Detroit.”
My jaw almost hit the ground. My dad and grandfather were born in Detroit, my Great Grandfather had moved there in the early 1920s. I was pretty sure he was the only Breaux that moved up from Louisiana at that time.
After I collected myself, I showed him my ID badge and his eyes lit up and he got a huge smile on his face. It turns out, it was my great grandfather that he was named after. He remembers my grandfather as a child and used to play with him when their dads would visit each other. After my he and my grandfather joined the military to fight in WWII, they lost contact and never spoke again.
I may have spent much more than my allotted time at that client’s house, but I got to hear stories of my grandfather as a child growing up in Detroit. I wouldn’t have traded those stories for any number of extra clients that day.
My pops was an active duty SEAL for the first 30 years of my life. Many (most?) of his closest friends are former SEALs. Many of my friends and acquaintances were also raised by frogmen.
Note: I’m going to speak in broad strokes here, but I’ll do so with care.
*Understood Incorrectly*
Strictness Speaking generally, yes, they are tough dads. But probably less strict than most Marine fathers or the expectation many of you have. Perhaps family life is a welcome break from a day job that involves being hard.
You learn respect early. Talking back isn’t tolerated. But it isn’t extreme. Most SEAL communities are teamwork oriented, there are levels of compassion and understanding that underlie their tough outer core.
Put simply, they teach their children a lot of lessons that don’t involve kicking the shit out of kids on the playground.
Lineage Most team guys don’t pressure their kids to become SEALs.
In fact, I can’t name a single son who followed in his father’s footsteps.
Why? Well, for one, it is an extreme career path. You need to be near-born with a desire, a calling, a primal urge to pursue it. Anything less isn’t enough.
I’ll further speculate, many fathers may feel the same trepidation that a pro athlete feels when they see their son also pursuing a pro-sports career.
They know that their kid may be setting themselves up for failure. With SEALs as with a pro sports career: most are not cut out out for the task in front of them.
Also, serving screws a lot of guys up. Physically and mentally, SEALs see a lot of bad things and have a lot of bad things happen to them.
Quick tip: when you find out someone’s dad is a SEAL, don’t let your first question be, “Why didn’t you join like him?” The question is beat to death.
*Understood Correctly*
Quiet Warriors They don’t talk about what they do. Never heard anything. And believe me, I’ve asked.
Philosophy Someone who joins the SEALs has an underlying belief that evil exists in this world. And that becoming a SEAL will give them the best opportunity to help rid the world of darkness, help protect the weak from those who would do them harm.
Tangent to that, being allowed to operate with (arguably) the most elite group on Earth, is a privilege. You’re given access to high-level equipment, training, and above all, the most talented peers available. Service is, again, seen as privilege.
Consequently, humility is a strong value among team members. I’ve seen that humility frequently passed down to their children.
Values Driven They tend to pass along a strong sense of values and orientation towards right and wrong (again good vs evil). Most are conservative. Many are also religious (Christian).
Physical Fitness Most SEAL families are indeed athletic. Staying physically fit was always held in high regard, a sign of work ethic and self-discipline.
Overall, it is a great experience. I’ve only lived one life (that I know of) and given the choice, I think I’d repeat.
The Chinese government treated its people way better that the U.S. treated its own people.
Let’s put things in perspective not be foolish to repeat US narratives on CCP, China and the Chinese people.
Freedom. The U.S. has 9 times more per million in jail than China! For a nation calling itself the land of the free, this is simply shameful. US has a law that disallow its people to drink a beer on the streets but allowed lethal military weapons and today the U.S. has more mass random shooting incidents in a week than China has in a decade! Freedom to shoot and kill but not free to drink a beer on the go! China allows you to drink alcohol and beer as long as you don’t disturb the peace but one is not allowed even a 4” blade in your pocket.
Living Standard. The U.S. has stopped growing in real living standards since 1960. Today it is fast deteriorating. Your inflation is 5 times higher than your income growth since 2020! The poor is getting poorer and up to a million live in tents on the streets. And 50 million has joined the poor from the middle class. China grew real standard of living 30 times in 40 years from 1980–2020 alone! China’s inflation is a shade below 2% and its growth is way past 6%! China’s middle class is today close to 700 million or more than twice the entire U.S. population!
Disparity of income. The Rich in the US is filthy rich and the poor is dirt poor. The U.S. has many companies which is too big to fail! Not China, even the richest man will be hold accountable and even the biggest company need to be held responsible. The U.S. 1% owns almost 90% of the wealth and the 99% share the 10%. The rich influence the government and dare I say owns the government! Not in China. People comes first.
Safety. In China one can roam the streets at 3 am in the morning alone! In U.S. chances of you being robbed or rape is very high. Even shot to death is likely. Cops in the U.S. can necked you to death and shoot you all due to the colour of your skin. If the cops don’t get you the racist or the mass random shooter can kill you anytime! If you lose your mobile phone. Chinese cops get it back to you within hours!
So grow up the U.S. government don’t care about you. They take care of big pharmaceutical companies and military industrial complex and National Rifles Association and weapons manufacturers! The U.S. government are put in place by these companies. They owned the government.
Travel and tourism. Chinas has more high speed railway than the entire world put together. US failed to complete 100 kilometres line from LA to San Francisco after 20 years. During this time China put up 120K miles of high speed railway! It is cheaper and more convenient to travel for everyone in China.
Free Medicine. China offers universal health coverage for everyone rich or poor. No one dies because the don’t have health insurance. The Rich pays more and the poor lays little or none. In the U.S. 35% of Americans. Cannot get treatment because they could not afford health insurance.
Free Education. In China if you kids qualify for college. Chinese government provide it free. In the U.S. your kids get into debts just for attending college!
Chinese government is so much better than the U.S. government in China. Admittedly one cannot attack their own capital like Trumps supporters did in Washington in China. But we don’t mind.
The Best Near-Death Experience I’ve Ever Heard
“The best NDE I’ve ever heard.” Rosemary Thornton had a near-death experience (NDE) while undergoing cancer treatment. She instantly found herself on the other side in a white room where she conversed with God and Angels before going to Heaven. Rosemary’s near-death experience (NDE) showed her what happens after death, what angels look like, and that there is life after death. Her near-death experience (NDE) provides more evidence/proof of an afterlife.
It is unconstitutional for the U.S. government not to recognize its debt and pay interest on it. After the Civil War, the Supremacy Clause and the 14th Amendment established an obligation for the federal government to recognize and pay its debts, even those incurred during times of insurrection or rebellion, such as the Civil War. This constitutional principle serves as a foundational element of the nation’s financial stability and credibility. Therefore, the US government must follow its own laws to pay the bonds owned by China.
The United States has not defaulted on the principal or interest payments of its government bonds. The U.S. government has a long-standing reputation for honoring its debt obligations, both to domestic and foreign bondholders. This commitment to debt repayment is a key factor in maintaining the country’s financial stability and credibility in the global financial markets.
To default on the interest payments for bonds held by China, the United States would need to amend the constitution, a process that has not occurred since 1992, and identify which bond is held by China, a task that is impossible to carry out. In addition, these actions carry severe repercussions for the United States, including the potential for substantial economic and financial upheaval, harm to its global standing, and interruptions in government services. China could respond by liquidating its entire bond holdings, causing a crash in the bond market. Given these considerations, it would be less painful for the U.S. to meet its obligations by relying on future inflation and higher interest rates while printing more money.
A new mom boards a city bus, holding her baby in her arms. She deposits her fare, and greets the bus driver.
The bus driver asks her how old her baby is. She turns the baby around so he can see it and says proudly, “Just a week old, sir”.
The bus driver takes a look at the baby and exclaims “Wow, that’s literally the ugliest baby I’ve ever seen!”
Crushed and angry, the woman walks down the aisle of the bus and finds a seat next to a man.
The man notices she’s fuming, and asks her “Ma’am, you seem upset. What’s the matter?”
“The bus driver just insulted me saying really mean things. He was not a very nice person at all.”
The man quickly replies, “Wow, I’m so sorry to hear that! Tell you what, you should go right back up there and give the bus driving jerk a piece of your mind and demand an apology. And while you do that, I’ll hold your monkey for you.”
First Time You Realized America Really Messed You Up – Part 1 – US American Reaction
The old man was walking with his wife at the local shopping mall.
He analyzed the latest Amazon’s Pop-Up Shop and searched for music products and couldn’t find any.
He continued to walk around and has a déjà-vu, “WOW! There’s a huge opportunity here!”
“What do you see, my love?” The old lady asked with eyes of admiration.
“Imagine how many people walk here everyday… everyone loves music, and there’s NO music store in all the shopping mall! I’m going to pushour son Luigi to open a music store here!”
Oh dear, you’re old but still a visionary genius! I’m sure Luigi will love the idea!”
They excitedly hurry home.
“Son! Sit down right now and listen to me! You won’t believe the amazing opportunity I just found. Your future is guaranteed if you follow my wise advice.”
“What are you talking about, Dad? Tell me about it,” Luigi asked, taking a seat.
“I WANT you to open a music store at our local mall!” Old Mario said with authority.
“But Dad… that doesn’t sound like a good business anymore,” Luigi refuted fearfully.
“Don’t you be disrespectful to your father’s wisdom, Luigi! He’s offering you an opportunity of a lifetime!” Mom interrupted.
“But people don’t buy music at a shopping mall any more, Mom. It doesn’t make sense!”
“You listen to and obey the wisdom of your father. All those grey hairs are there for a reason! Your dad has already got a line of credit for you.”
Luigi had a bad feeling about this, but with no other choice he had to trust his parents.
He goes to the bank and takes a 100,000 dollar loan under his name and opens the music shop.
Four years of hard work and no results. Luigi is devastated. The market has changed. People don’t buy music CDs or cassette tapes anymore.
Moral of the story?
Luigi invested 4 years of his life into this venture, lost everything and now has to start all over again, but now with a financial burden of $100,000 that he must repay over time.
Mom and Dad feel deeply disappointed about Luigi’s incompetence.
Devastated and confused about his inability to make a living, Luigi must continue living with his parents while he reinvents himself to find a decent job.
How will Luigi get out of this financial mess?
Now, to answer your question, which famous career advice will be abandoned 10 years from now?
“Go to college and pay with a student loan!”
The story above is obviously a sarcastic story of what’s happening to a whole generation of young adults.
Careers are changing, and parents are still forcing youngsters to study outdated degrees.
Jobs are changing, and parents don’t understand it.
Once graduated, many find themselves jobless and parents blame their child for incompetence.
Young adults need to start all over again to find a real path into the future, but now with a financial load that won’t go away.
At nearly $1.5 trillion, the student debt problem is out of control and will soon become a problem of historic proportions.
Elites ‘are in the grip of a pseudo-ideology of control’: Former CIA analyst
Former CIA analyst and Author Martin Gurri says the world is incrementally moving towards authoritarianism as elites embrace a fragmented “pseudo ideology of control”. Mr Gurri described protests as being “hollow ideologically”. “In the end, it’s the rule of experts, the rule of science, the rule of justice, as defined by the people in charge,” Mr Gurri told Sky News host James Morrow. “You need something to be that something; you can’t be something with nothing. “You’re not going to beat a pseudo ideology of control, until you work out an ideology of freedom.”
Many years ago I drove into NYC to visit a friend for the weekend. Sunday evening I started up my car to drive home and smoke came out of the front end, which is never a good thing. I called AAA and some thingamabob was busted (I don’t remember which part) and needed fixing in order to drive the car. Being a Sunday, not much was open, but I found a car repair place that could do the work, so I had my car towed there. They said yes they could fix the car, but mysteriously all the credit card machines were broken, so I’d have to pay cash. They wouldn’t even take a check. Of course ATMs had a limit to the amount of cash you could take out per day, and the daily amount was less than what was needed, so they said I had to stay in NYC until I had enough cash before they would do the repair. I felt like they were holding my car for ransom, but there was nothing I could do. Fortunately I could stay at my friend’s place, but this meant I had to take Monday off from work. There was something about this place which didn’t seem right, but I don’t know a lot about cars and I didn’t know what else I could do.
By Monday afternoon I had amassed enough cash for the expensive repair, which didn’t take long, and got on the road to drive home. I wasn’t too far from home when the new part stopped working and smoke came out of the car again. Once again AAA towed me, this time to my mechanic. He took one look at the part and told me they had installed an old broken down part instead of the new one I had paid for. He had to pull it out and now install the actual part I had paid for. I was furious. Fortunately he knew what agencies to report this to in the State of NY and said he’d prepare whatever statement was needed to support that I was ripped off.
The next day I started calling and filing reports and claims against this shoddy repair facility in NYC. So the agency that handles such things went there to get their records and while there noticed so many things that were in violation of standards that they ended up revoking their license and shutting them down! Also turns out they had had their eye on this place and my reports were the evidence they needed to put them out of business for good.
For good measure, they also got a certified check from the place not only returning all funds that I had paid, but also including all the costs I paid to my mechanic to actually do the correct repair as punitive damages.
So for ripping off an out-of-state woman, they ended up paying for my repair and getting their business shut down. Sometimes crime doesn’t pay. Revenge is sweet.
How much longer can a group of Nations keep threatening the world and sanctioning them unilaterally?
Of course everyone will take precautions
Russia started from 2014 itself. They bore the worst brunt of the sanctions from 2014 and it cost them almost $ 1 Trillion of GDP growth
That was a much tougher sanction package because Russia was completely unprepared
By Contrast in 2022, Russia was already slowly and surely capable of withstanding fundamental sanctions, had many alternate payment systems and had a very strong trade pact with China
image 167
They had 8 years to ensure their Dollar Assets and Euro Assets were buried cleverly and untraceable. They had 8 years to ensure that every dollar of western assets in Russia was monitored strongly
The present Sanctions package was a Joke without China. If China had stood apart, Russia would be in big trouble because it had no alternate currency buttress or payment system or all those wonderful industrial supplies and components
Luckily China realized that they were next in line and decided this was the time to stand strong with Russia
image 168
Once that happened, the Sanctions became near worthless to Russia but devastating to EU, UK and USA
Simple Example :- Russia refused to export Fertilisers to UK and US and shipped their entire stock to India and China. US immediately Comandeered all of the Canadian surplus and had no issues but UK suffered a 43% shortage and it’s translated in the shelves of supermarkets
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Plus Obama, Merkel, Cameron were intelligent leaders who knew restraint
image 166
Biden, Blinken, Ursula, Scholz and Sunak don’t know their face from their arse.
image 165
Putin and Xi can cook them for breakfast and run rings and rings around them
This is probably the least known fact of World War 2, that you never have heard of, which is a shame because it’s quite interesting.
During WW2 millions of Poles became refugees after Germany’s invasion of Poland in 1939. The Soviet Union deported almost a million Poles and sent to freezing Siberia, where many died.
As a result, hundreds of thousands of Poles decided to flee, and they did this by crossing the Caspian Sea from Russia to no other country than Iran!
Over 116,000 Poles sailed across the Caspian Sea. The majority docked in the port city of Pahlevi, where they were fed and quarantined because many were carrying lethal diseases such as malaria and typhus.
When Polish refugees were loaded on to trucks to relocate from Pahlevi to Tehran, some Iranians threw objects at them. The frightened refugees thought they were being stoned — but they soon noticed that the objects were not rocks, but rather cookies, candies, and food.
They were warmly welcomed by both the Iranian people and government. Hundreds of buildings were built to house them, and Polish schools, businesses, and cultural organizations were established.
These refugees now had clean beds and plenty of food, after they had spent years in freezing and disease-ridden conditions.
Despite Iran being a country under occupation by the British and Soviets, and even though starvation and poverty were widespread, the refugees were warmly welcomed and witnessed the famous Persian hospitality and kindness first-hand.
The Polish refugees were nourished more by the smiles and generosity of the Iranian people than by the food dished out by British and Russian soldiers
– Polish scholar, Ryszard Antolak
After the war, many Poles decided to stay in Iran and build a life for themselves here in Iran.
Tehran also has a Polish cemetery (called Dulab) which houses the graves of more than 2,000 Poles.
I had worked with Frank for many years. we did application support for an IMS based system and Frank knew that system inside and out. when the word came that there was going to be downsizing, Frank was the least likely one to be displaced. He got along with everyone and did the job better than anyone. The manager that had to decide the person to leave picked Frank because he challenged her on some topics and he was not very subtle. So on Friday Frank was let go and got a severance package. then it was announced that they would fill the open slot via a contractor. Frank knew the head of the consulting firm and called him up. the consulting firm hired Frank Friday afternoon and on Monday Frank was back doing his old job, getting paid 30% more, was hourly instead of salaried and worked from home instead of coming to the office. That manager lasted a few more years, but eventually she was let go as well. Frank was legend and everyone loved telling that story of how he was able to turn getting let go into a huge positive.
Taqueria Guacamole
2023 10 18 17 06
Ingredients
2 ripe avocados
1 lemon, juiced
1 plum tomato, seeded and chopped
1 small white onion, finely chopped
1 medium fresh jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
Coarse salt
Instructions
Halve avocados lengthwise around pit. Remove pit with a large spoon, then scoop out flesh into a bowl.
Squeeze the lemon juice into bowl.
Add tomato, onion, and jalapeno.
Mash guacamole with a fork to desired consistency.
Militarily? I would say on par, I know yanks will always say they are, but I don’t think so, a few years ago? Yes, definitely, but theses days,? Not any more, if they went to war? Neither could win, they will both be destroyed, actually in my view, the whole planet would be. Because it would definitely evolve into WW3, and the nukes will start flying.
industrially? Definitely China there is no doubt about that, simply because of numbers, and work ethics, they can build rings around the USA,
in technology? Also close on par, the USA might have a slight edge, but again it comes down to numbers, China just has so many more graduates.
so over all? I guess China gets the gold medal,
that’s the main reason why the USA is so toxic against China to try and keep them down, instead of improving themselves? They prefer to squash any competition, but this time it’s not working, their boot isn’t heavy enough, and the meddlesome bug is to tough.
AMERICAN COUPLE React To Americans Living Abroad: First Time U Realized America Really Messed You Up
In my early days of work whilst on a summer internship. I didn’t actually see anything… I learned about/lived it. A guy in my office was having personality difficulties with our boss. Basically, the guy was older, smarter, more approachable and more helpful to his co-workers and the boss resented it. The writing was clearly on the wall that the boss had it out for him so when the guy was fired it was hardly a surprise to anyone, particularly not a surprise to the guy that was fired. He packed up and left quietly.
Fast forward a week… the office was starting to smell pretty rank. Everyone was checking their desks for a ‘forgotten lunch’ and orders came down from the top that the fridge and break room needed to be cleared out and cleaned or you’d lose whatever it was that you had stored there. Being the summer intern that somehow became my responsibility. Nothing overly offensive was found that could be the cause.
Fast forward two weeks… the office was uninhabitable. Everybody was sent home. I think they were about ready to bring in corpse search dogs to see if they could locate the offensive smell.
At the end of the third week (since the firing… the week after we were told to leave the office) were were notified that we would be returning to the office the following Monday (I’m not sure if it was paid or unpaid… I was an unpaid intern so I just had to do the work I was given from the local university library. Other actual employees did maintenance work from home during this time, but I don’t think a lot of work got done.)
Long story short, the cause of the smell trickled down to everyone — somebody pushed one of the false ceiling panels up and deposited a bag of fresh prawns into the ceiling cavity to sit during that hot summer. Nobody claimed credit for it and no names were given, but the fired employee’s ex-clerk received a card from the fired employee telling the clerk that he’d moved on to another job and would be happy to serve as a reference should the need arise (I think the fired employee was trying to bring his clerk with him). The kicker was the card was one of those nostalgic 1950s cards with a giant photo of a shrimp cocktail on the front of it.
Think about this simple maths. The U.S. is indebted up to 34 trillion dollars now! Within 5 years chances it’s that it’s debt level will exceed 50 trillion dollars! That is almost a certainty.
5% of 50 trillion dollars is 2.5 trillion dollars just to service you loan! That means the entire U.S. government budget by that time goes to paying interest alone!
No more money left for welfare services, infrastructure spending, healthcare services and every war it get into it will need to print and create money without basis. Americans must bear this in mind before you vote in your next president. And before you think the U.S. and fight another perpetual war!
China SHOCKED US! New LW-30 Laser Defense Tech Introduced
As China continues to invest heavily in research and development, its laser defense systems have become increasingly sophisticated, capable of detecting and intercepting a wide array of targets, including drones, missiles, and even low-orbit satellites. Today’s episode will cover China’s laser defense technology.
When my wife and I were homeless and living in a van. We were in Corpus Christi, Texas. And on Christmas day, we left the van and went for a walk. And we walked a few blocks in and out of the various storefronts and nearby suburbs.
Then, out of the blue, this old gentleman was leaving one house with his small dog in his arms. He had obviously just finished visiting family. It was Christmas day, after all.
That little dog, for some God-damn reason, jumped out of the old man’s arms, and made a “bee line” straight for my wife, and then went CHOMP on her leg. And that little bastard just hung there. Clenched on her calve. Son of a bitch!
Anyways, my wife is crying, the old man came out and started yelling at us. Blood was everywhere, and he wanted to call the police.
I told him, “go ahead”. The police will impound his dog, and maybe put him to sleep, and we will need to get rabies shots (the dog did not have a rabies tag).
He left and grumbled the entire time, cursing us the whole time.
And that is how I spend my first Christmas day with my first wife. Now you know.
I have multiple stories from this most impressionable time in my life, but I just wanted to share this one with youse guys.
…
Lessons? Oh, I don’t know.
Perhaps, “random acts of violence can occur when you are least prepared for them.”
Today…
This just in
The IDF is in trouble. They’re just kids doing their national service. They refuse to move. The bad ones use Palestinians for target practice but there are some good ones, including officers, who want nothing to do with genocide. The high command says they would need two years of training and re-equipping before even considering a Stalingrad attack on well-prepared Hamas fighters in bombed-out Gaza.
Bibi hoped this war would distract people, but it just made them mad. Last night Jerusalem saw its biggest demonstration ever (amazing drone shots) demanding his resignation.
Hezbollah opened a new front last night by taking out a couple of IDF tanks. Considering that Hezbollah wiped them out in the last war, that’s got to be a morale-crusher.
And since those thousands of $600 Hamas missiles have exhausted Israel’s supply of $20,000 Iron Dome antimissiles, Iran is preparing a barrage of real missiles.
And the US is sending two carrier battle groups to the coast. But Iran needs only two Kinzhal missiles to destroy those carriers, which are defenseless against them, and which could force the carriers to stay outside the Kinzhal’s 1000km range. Which is outside their air wings’ range.
This is a heartbreaking, beautiful true story
Nicole and Brent Keryluke of Red Deer, in the Province of Alberta, decided to go for a motorcycle drive.
They had to be back within two hours, because both of their two young children had medical appointments, as they both suffer from hearing impairments and one needs speech therapy.
As they were turning a curve, a truck coming from the other direction veered into their lane and hit them head on.
They were killed immediately.
The driver of the car behind them said that Nicole had her arms wrapped around her husband, with her face in his back…and never saw it coming. And that Brent, before the moment of impact, instinctively put his arm behind him to hold his wife.
Brent’s parents, Ben and Marilyn, now had guardianship of three-year-old Liam and six-year-old Arielle, and especially because of the additional costs of the medical bills, they had to sell Brent’s classic 1973 Pontiac Parisienne, which he restored himself and hoped would one day be Liam’s on his eighteenth birthday.
“They basically stopped the auction, let everybody know what was happening, where the money was going to go, and then we were shocked what happened after that,” said Ben.
First, Rod McWilliams from Red Deer Motors bought the car for $29,000…and immediately gave the car back to be auctioned again!
Then Danny Fayad, who had driven up from Edmonton, bought the car for $30,000….and immediately gave the car back to be auctioned again!
All the while, members of the community yelled out pledges to go over and beyond whatever it finally sold for.
One man yelled out, “2,000 over the price!”, another yelled out “$4,000 over”, and it happened again and again and again.
One woman, who wanted to remain anonymous, told a reporter that she came with $2,500 to see if she could “score a deal” on an older unrestored car that was coming up later in the auction, but pledged her money for the Keryluke family. “ I have two kids myself. I thought of them. What if? I have one car already.”
It was finally purchased for $20,000 to Bob Bevins from Bulldog Metals in the third and final round.
The reason he didn’t also give the car back to be sold again, was because after the auction was over, he went to the Keryluke family…and gave the car to them.
“Maybe someday that young man will drive his father’s car,” he said.
Said Lyndsay, “People were overwhelmed with just the generosity of people of central Alberta and the support that this family has. It was incredible. People were cheering, I was crying. Our auctioneer Rod had a hard time getting through it because he was crying. He was emotional.
When the last buyer stepped forward and said ‘I want your family to have that car, so I’m giving it back to you,’ the audience erupted.
When our auctioneer Rod announced that, the place just went wild. There was a standing ovation, people were cheering, whistling. It was wonderful.”
Yes my step daughter’s birth mother (or birth giver as she called her). My (now ex) husband had custody of his daughter. And I spent years trying to be civil to this lousy person.
She was always petty and nasty to me and to her daughter.
Daughter got cancer and asked if she could come live with me and my fella for treatment. She said she knew she would get the best care from us and that I could handle dealing with the doctors (because I had always worked in the medical field).
I just didn’t feel like dealing with her “Mama” and told her if she wanted to see her we would either drive her to see her (the next state over) or they could come up to our area and we would bring her to a restaurant to meet up.
My daughter (as that is really how I referred to her) was fine with that because she had little patience with her too. I really did not want to deal with this woman at all but I knew trying relay the medical information through my ex husband would be difficult as he did not really understand everything I was telling him so he could not really explain it to her.
So I agreed to talk to her and explain what was happening with daughter.
She had surgery and it turned out what they thought was an ovarian tumor turned out to be a tumor in her liver that could not be removed. I explained this to Mama and she went off on me about how I picked sh*tty doctors and how little I really cared..
I got pissed and hung up.
Later on I went on Facebook and posted a picture of my dogs and she commented b*tch. Every single thing I said or did got a similar response. When she wrote c*nt I had enough and blocked her completely.
“Mama” called daughter screaming that I blocked her (you see I wasn’t telling daughter what was happening as I felt she had enough to deal with).
So daughter asked me what was going on. I gave her a brief rundown on what was said.
Daughter called Mama back and said you deserved that and since you are choosing to be a jerk I am blocking you too.
The wonderful part of this is darling Mama wrote to daughter’s boyfriend to tell daughter that she would never speak to her again as long as she lives and she hoped she died soon.
This apparently was at about midnight and daughter passed at 1am.
Boyfriend furiously wrote her back and said well she’s dead I hope you’re happy now!!
Then blocked her too. (We had no idea she was so close to dying at that point, it really devastated us all.)
Mama spent the next few days being as mean and spiteful as she could possibly be to everyone else she could get in touch with.
I kept her blocked and am eternally grateful that I never let her visit so she had no idea where I lived (still live).
THIS Is Unthinkable – America Considers Crossing The Economic Red Line
In a shocking twist of events, America’s special envoy is discussing the possibilities of using Russia’s frozen reserves to rebuild Ukraine. While this might be an immediate win for the West, it opens up Pandora’s box to more de-dollarization risks and a complete breakdown of financial trust. Here’s what you must know & why the big winner will be physical gold.
Try imagining the U.S. sets a budget of 1.5 billion over 5 years or 300 million a year to dig up as much dirt it can find about China! I think no one, no nation on earth are so obnoxious and despicable as the U.S. I think Nazi Germany at their height don’t set a budget of this size to demonised the Jews between 1935–1944!
The U.S. did this after 3 generations since 1949, badmouthing China, slurring China, spread misinformation about China, fabricate lies on China and casting doubts and basically demonising China. If I were an American who has been screaming freedom if information, speech and human rights I will be so shameful of the US, I will emigrate!
To the rest of the world we are clear as hell. A nation needing to do so much shit cannot be any good and cannot have any confidence. You can fool your ignorant millions of people in the U.S. and their US dogs nations like Canada, UK, Australia and their slave nations like Japan and Germany but 7.5 out of 8 billion people on earth aren’t fooled at all.
China is not perfect but it is way way way better than the U.S. in behaviour any day. Any where. China is doing extremely well in spite of the shit that you dumped on them. It does not have any bad intention towards anyone including the U.S. but it learned that it cannot rely and trust the U.S. at all. You cannot blame them.
It will overtake the U.S. completely and comprehensively because it has 4 times your population and everyone works harder, are more discipline and learn more everyday and are highly intelligent, very driven and industrious than Americans. There is nothing you can do to stop them without hurting yourself.
For me it is better that the U.S. take note of this and stop wasting your money and effort. It’s better to use the billions to help your own people instead. The million people who are homeless, the millions who have no medical insurance and the millions that has college debts and the millions suffering from chronic inflation.
China will overtake the U.S. and it will dwarf the US in a couple of generations. It is a humongous market even now. Don’t deprived your business and your people to enjoy a better standard of living. Everything you do China can do better, faster and cheaper. Stop dreaming you can deprived them of you technology. You better worry if China reciprocate and bankrupt you in the process.
Tai Lopez: Why I left America for More Freedom
BYD holds 15 times more patents than Tesla
In the fast-evolving world of electric vehicles, two names stand out: BYD and Tesla. While Tesla has been a front-runner in the EV market, recent data reveals that BYD has been quietly securing its position as the patent king of EVs, with a staggering 13,000 applications in comparison to Tesla’s 863 over the past two decades.
BYD, a Chinese automotive giant, has been diligently working behind the scenes, focusing on protecting its battery technology. A whopping 50% of BYD’s patents are dedicated to batteries, allowing the company to develop in-house battery packs, a feat not many car manufacturers can boast. This strategic move has positioned BYD as a leader in the development and manufacture of lithium-ion batteries with iron phosphate cathodes, which are notably more affordable than the ternary lithium batteries utilizing nickel and cobalt from their Korean counterparts.
On the other side of the spectrum, Tesla, the American EV behemoth, has taken a different approach. With a mere 863 patents filed, one might raise an eyebrow at the disparity. However, Tesla’s strategy leans heavily on software development, utilizing a plethora of publicly available information. A significant portion of Tesla’s patents revolve around charging infrastructure and communication between EVs and drivers, showcasing their focus on enhancing user experience and connectivity.
Patent lawyer Hideto Kono notes that a company of Tesla’s stature would typically file for at least ten times as many patents. The lower number of patents from Tesla raises questions about their reliance on software and the risk of imitation by competitors. Unlike BYD, Tesla mitigates this risk by implementing new production technology exclusively within its factories.
While patents offer a layer of protection, they also come with a caveat. The details of the patents are made public, leaving room for potential imitation. This is particularly crucial for BYD, as their proprietary battery technologies can be dissected by simply disassembling the battery packs. The company’s heavy reliance on patents underscores the importance of safeguarding its innovations in a competitive market.
I tried to tell you, but you CHOSE to IGNORE!
This is called currency devaluation.
Burger and Fries Pot Pie
Beef and potatoes come together in this cheesy pot pie that’s baked to perfection – a savory dinner.
burger fries pot pie
Prep: 20 min | Total Time: 45 min | Yield: 6 servings
In 12-inch nonstick skillet, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, until beef is thoroughly cooked; drain well.*
Sprinkle flour over beef mixture. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Stir in tomatoes; heat to boiling. Remove from heat.
In ungreased 1 1/2-quart casserole, spread beef mixture.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Arrange frozen potatoes evenly in single layer on top.
Bake uncovered about 20 minutes or until potatoes are golden brown.
Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.
* Be sure to drain the cooked ground beef really well. Any extra juices will make the pot pie too watery. When it’s too cold outside to grill those burgers, comfort food calls, and this pot pie will surely hit the spot! Serve this pot pie with ketchup, if desired.
My neighbour was a shell -shocked, disabled Vietnam Vet. He was on a plethora of medications. Hhe lived with his mother who had died about 2 weeks prior.
He had a old car body in front of a hill not far Huron the rural road. He regularly target practiced shooting at the car body. Sometimes he would “practice” for hours on end.
One day I’m driving past his house on the way to town. About a 1/2 mile down the road I see him sitting in a deep ditch beside the road. I had to drag him down the ditch until it was shallow enough to get him able to stand up. He was babbling word salad, obviously experiencing a psychotic break.
I drove him to the Veterans Hospital and helped this dear man up the elevator to the Psychiatric ward. The elevator opened and there was a a collective-inhale of the nurses at the station! The patient was in just his underwear and covered in mud shivering uncontrollably with a towel wrapped around his shoulders! Needless to say they were surprised!
He stayed hospitalised to 2 weeks and came home normal as anyone and apologised that he’d got his medication s mixed up, and thanked me for taking care of him.
He lived two more years and committed suicide.
He was a lovely person and I still think of him fondly.
Blessings on your journey.
Why I REALLY Left America
“We left a long time ago and have never regretted our decision. The key sentence in this video is that “ they are in decline “. This really echoes the current situation.”
If you back up to 2009, I went on a few dates with a lady and moved to Houston, shortly to find out she was pregnant. She told me it wasn’t a trap, and I did not have to be a father if I didn’t want to or wasn’t ready. I considered it, believe me. But then, I moved back to Dallas.
About 3 months from my daughter being born, I suddenly became crazy about the thought of holding my little girl. You would often find me looking at baby clothes, stock piling diapers, building a crib, or prepping her room. When she was born, I was hooked on that baby. Unfortunately, her mother wasn’t faithful, so we didn’t end up being together. I wasn’t sad about not being with her mom, I was sad I wouldn’t be in the same home with my daughter.
Emma, my daughter was so young and couldn’t speak intelligibly. We are nearing 1 and a half, and now, when I would go to pick her up from her mom’s house, she would reek of cigarette smoke, she was crazy dirty.. And always covered in scratches and the occasional bruises. Her mom would talk about how it was all just from playing outside, but seeing as Emma would go into a screaming rage on her way back to her mom’s and claw at the car seats to not get out, I knew there was something wrong. My mom did, too.
This behavior reminded me of, well, me… I was abused when I was a child. I exhibited extreme anxiety at such a young age and my first memories of anything were of my father beating me and being afraid to go home. Emma was being abused…so, I started building a case, and Emma started staying with me most of the time and occasionally going to her mom’s.
Now Emma is about 3… I go to pick her up from her mom’s one day and the driveway is covered in broken glass from a broken side patio door, and their minivan is sitting sideways in the driveway. Something is wrong. I feel it in my heart and no one has answered the phone all day. I call the house phone and hear the phone ringing through the door. When the answering machine came on, I said “if no one picks up, I am breaking the door down.”
Her step dad answered… “Hey buddy. They went to my mom’s down the street while I clean up this mess, we had an accident.”
I drove to his mom’s house, knocked, and Emma’s mom answered the door. I had never seen a person beat so bad. She was still covered in dry blood and her face and body were bruised. Emma came running out to me saying she didn’t want to go back to the “bloody house.”
I told her mom to get her shit and they were both coming with me. I had been building a case but I never took it to court because to me, it was all over. I got them out of the monster’s house.
Well, now we are months into her mom staying with Emma and me when I start noticing a lot of things. Emma’s mom is abusive. She would get drunk to the point of falling down every night. Literally unable to stand on her own feet, she would drag Emma out to the patio to smoke her cigarettes, and she argued incessantly with her husband through phone and text. She would cuss at me and try to provoke me into fighting. This, of course, is when I noticed her mom was an abuser too. I thought I was rescuing someone when in reality, I invited an abuser, another monster into my home. I don’t fight. I just observed. I later found out they were both beating each other up. Right in front of Emma. They were locking her outside to fight, and she was spending most of her time locked in her room and hiding under her bed.
For many reasons, I eventually kicked her out and my mom took her in. For disgusting reasons, my mom kicked her out and she disappeared. We took care of this lady for the better part of a year when she just abandoned Emma. She then called me out of the blue after months of no contact and said she wanted Emma to “come home.”
She moved back in with and remarried the same man. When I mentioned her months of promises to never letting Emma back into that home or environment, she said “Emma can get over it.”
I pulled out my case file and filed a restraining order. Over the next year, I fought and won custody of my daughter. Her mother abandoned all of her visitation, and has officially been completely gone for over half of Emma’s life. The only memories Emma has of her mom are abuse, but she has been gone so long that she is never spoken of.
I get tickled when Emma and I go out on the weekends, because people will literally make multiple derivatives of the same comment about me being a weekend father. Like — “Ooh, Saturday night date with daddy?”
No, it is just us. It always has been. I have her the other nights as well. All of the week days, all of the holidays, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Emma is a healthy, happy, ambitious, and extremely intelligent child. Because she didn’t have to endure a life of abuse. I didn’t become a man until she was born, and it took me until my mid twenties to finally get over my abusive childhood. If it weren’t for my mom saving us from my dad, I wouldn’t be the man I am today, and I doubt I would be a responsible father. If it were not for my dad abusing me, I would not have picked up early on the signs that I needed to save my daughter, so I thank them both. I am strong enough to have lived through being beaten… strong enough to never let my child live through it.
Some people have made some good comments about what makes a manly man. But I will stick to this one:
Everyone has a neighborhood grocery store where they often see the same customers… or maybe you have a job where you have regulars visit often. If you see a man holding the hands of his kids, and it isn’t the weekend – he is a real father. If you see a guy like me, with pink and glitter french-tipped painted finger nails, and bows and ribbons stuck in my hair and beard, it is because I am a masculine man… mature enough to show my child how she should be treated and respected on this little fucked up planet we live on.
Hamas delivered their greatest win and achieved something neither Egypt nor Syria could between 1948 to 2006
Israel made a fool of itself
First being attacked with full intelligence failure and then blindly bombing everything into oblivion and dictating lies like the beheading of 40 kids
Respect for Israel has crashed
Their vaunted Iron Dome lost to fifth grade rockets made from pipes
Their mossad, an organization I held huge respect for was so blind that Gaza imported enough materials under their nose citing that they needed to make BALL POINT PENS. Not once did anyone think why would the Palestinians need to make 500 Million Ball Pointpens?
What should Israel have done?
Quietly carried out Damage assessment
Reinforced their Army Positions
Made calls to Saudi and UAE and said “My New Friends. I must respond to this but I don’t want to kill Civilians. I am helpless. Use your influence to persuade the Civilians to move out of the Strip so that we can fight Hamas”
Made speeches saying “Hamas will be obliterated but Palestinians are victims, so I urge Palestinians to leave Gaza and abandon Hamas”
It would have been a master stroke
Then if the Hamas prevented Palestinians from leaving, THEY WOULD BE THE BAD GUYS and even Islamic nations would be forced to condem them
At the same time, Israel should have negotiated for their Hostages involving the Arab world
Forced Egypt, Saudi, UAE, China, Russia, India to demand that Hamas return the hostages unharmed
This way even if the hostages died – HAMAS WOULD BE THE VILLIANS , EVEN TO THE ENTIRE ARAB WORLD
Then maybe after 20 days, a sudden ground operation against Hamas after enough warnings citing the hostages
Then the bombings
Israel would say “Alas. I tried. Now we have no choice but war”
The whole of the Middle East would have no choice but to be neutral
It would be a glorious moment for Israel and the world would be forced to admit they had no choice
Instead, What did Israel do?
image 154
Shrieking and Screaming like Hysteric Kids who have never fought any war, Calling for Death of Palestinians, Threatening to flatten all of Gaza
It was like something Hrithik Taletiya Or Raju or some of our Quora heroes would say than leaders of a major nation
Immediately running to the US showing the entire Arab World how the equation worked between Master & Dog than Two Allies
Not consulting any Arab Nation
Blindly starting bombing operations without a care in the world for Civilians
Giving warnings to evacuate 1.1 Million Civilians in 24 hours, something that forced even old friends like Jaishankar to take a harsh line
As a result
The Entire Arab World is sympathetic to Hamas and Palestinians
The Entire Arab World trust the US less and Israel even lesser
The Israelis have little confidence in their Country anymore. The Old Israel under Shamir Or Rabin or even Sharon would have FIRST GOT THE HOSTAGES BACK
Nethanyahu is proving to be a brainless Idiot
Yov Gallant is proving to be a bloodthirsty fool with little brains for strategy or tactics
Support for the Two State Solution has massively intensified
The Hamas has won
Israel cannot recover from this blow
They may obliterate Gaza but they will never be able to repair the damage they have done
Plus the US as well
And the West
The Middle East will never trust them again
Turkey will be wondering about it’s own future in the EU or NATO
Egypt would be wondering when to call Putin and ask for 20,000 Soldiers just in case
If you feel they don’t, then hope to God, some sanity prevails and they undo at least 30% of the damage they are doing to themselves and the US in the middle East
How France and U.S Failed Africa Leading to Coup in Africa!
In Today’s Video: We are critically examining the actions and policies of the French government in Africa, pointing out contentious actions detrimental to the stability of African nations. Comparatively, we highlight China’s beneficial involvement.
I was on my way to trade in my old car for a new truck at the same place I’d already purchased several vehicles over the years. I stopped at the local 7–11 convenience store to use the ATM to get the last part of the cash I needed toward my new truck. I turned the car motor off, dug out my ATM card and began to exit my car. This teenage boy in a shiny little coupe zipped his car in so close beside mine; I couldn’t exit my car.
The kid quickly jumped out of his car and started heading into the 7-11. I yelled at him, “Hey, you blocked me in, I can’t get out of my car, move it!” I could not believe it, but he actually thumbed his nose at me with one hand, flipped me the bird with his other hand, and just kept walking. What a disrespectful little shit!
The kid left me no choice. He needed to learn a bit of respect, so I slammed open my driver’s side car door into his new shiny car and shimmied my way out of my car. I left a lovely revenge dent in his passenger door and the kid absolutely deserved it. He had his head so far in the clouds, he never even saw it when he hurried out of the store, smirking at me and laughing.
I arrived a few minutes later at the car dealership with cash in hand to trade-in my car and get my fancy new Dodge Dakota. I was a bit surprised to see that same little teenager’s zippy coupe parked right beside the front door, (blocking once again) at the car dealership.
The first thing I saw through the window was the car salesperson I had worked many deals with, Tony Carson. He was standing there, inside the car dealership with the coupe kid; both had their arms flailing in the air like the conversation between them was getting a bit heated.
I walked in the entrance and the kid, whose back was turned to me, said, “Dad, the old lady blocked me in. Dad I didn’t do anything. Dad it wasn’t my fault.” Tony responded, “How could you be so irresponsible? Did you call the cops? Did you get her license number?” I vaguely recall thinking that this family sure loved expressing themselves with their hands.
When Tony saw me, he stopped the conversation and said, “Son, I have to see this woman.” Fibbing little ‘Sonny’ turned around with that same sarcastic smirk on his face. I bet he thought he had put one over on the old man… until he saw me. I’ve never seen blood drain from a face so fast. I swear he turned white and swayed so fast he had to hold onto the display car beside him.
I asked, “Hello Tony, this must be your son?” Tony introduced his son, Trevor, to me. I told Tony that I had just met Trevor at the 7-11 and it all fell apart for Trevor from there. I think Trevor got a lesson in respect and humility that day. I walked away that day with an even better deal on my brand new Dodge Dakota, even got free tinted windows and floor covers. I paid no cash down, and, best of all, Trevor is now back on his bicycle!
Worried Mother Cat Brought Her Sick Kitten To The Hospital. Then The Nurses Did Next The Unexpected!
It was a relatively quiet day at a hospital emergency room in Istanbul, Turkey. Going to an emergency room is never a happy experience and waiting in line is never fun. But sadly many parents have felt the fear of needing to take their children to the emergency room. But this emergency room would have a very different family come in for some help. The worried mother cat brought her sick kitten to the hospital. In most cases, animals aren’t welcome in medical institutions But you won’t believe what the nurses did next. Come with us to see this mind-blowing story.
Tightening financial conditions to control inflation?
No.
Loss of market confidence, leading to a stampede in Chinese bonds a la UK gilts?
No.
Participating directly or indirectly in the economically draining Ukraine-Russia conflict?
No.
China has plenty of policy space to stimulate the economy, now that it is transiting from zero covid.
What is a “hard landing”? The worst year in the 4 decades since opening up has been 2020, as China reoriented the economy to fight covid.
Even then, it did not fall into recession, growing 2.2 percent for the year.
For 2021, it was 8.1 percent.
And based on President xi’s recent new year’s message, China grew 4.4 percent in 2022.
That’s 4.9 percent compounded growth over the past 3 years.
4.9 percent.
Are the Chinese expecting 2023 to be more challenging than 2022?
Externally, yes. The first world is heading into recession and the fallout from Ukraine will continue. American-led sanctions and anti-trade measures will only mushroom.
But domestically, things are looking up with the end of covid restrictions, especially services roaring back to life.
One particular bright spot: automobiles. China has quietly leapfrogged Japan in 2022 to become the no. 2 car exporter, behind only Germany. Domestically, the market share of both Japanese and German marques has shrunk from 25-30 percent to 15-20 percent each within a few short years.
2022 was a record year for the Chinese car market, with more than 27m vehicles sold, double the figure in 2010.
The catalyst?
The embrace of EVs.
Now you know what is driving the persistent chip shortage. Honda’s global production in particular has been decimated by almost 40 percent (1.9m cars) compared to 2019.
The Chinese will ask, what chip shortage?
The credit squeeze in the dollar denominated economy won’t stop China in 2023. Instead, the transition away from the dollar will continue, as China looks to domestic and Bri recirculation.
I expect China to comfortably beat 2022 in 2023.
She Abandons 35 Sick Kittens in the Woods, Then a Judge Gives Her a Taste of Her Own Medicine!
Michelle did the unthinkable when she abandoned thirty-five sick kittens in the woods, thinking it wouldn’t be traced back to her. She was wrong! She was subsequently charged to court, and what Judge Cocconetti sentenced her to will shock you! Watch: She Abandons 35 Sick Kittens in The Woods. Then a Judge Gives Her a Taste of Her Own Medicine!
Indeed, they could, if our government controlled by MIC will not leave them alone.
Russia will use it only as the last resort if Russia’s existence is at stake. The problem is that we do not know when they will make such determination, because they see things very differently than US government.
Contrary to Narrative, Kremlin never expressed the desire to “annex Ukraine” or deprive it from its “independence” (lost in 2014 to USA). The Russians are merely returning their own lands gifted to then-brotherly Ukraine, together with their own people who asked them to do it many times, because they do not like to be murdered by the puppets of the vicious Russophobes in DC, with the ever-compliant Western press covering this up.
The most important principle of government is that, to rule, the rulers need the consent of the ruled. The consent of South and East Ukraine to be ruled by Kiev was withdrawn back in 2014. Since then, Kiev regime became a tyranny, and the people had the right to rebel against it and call Russia for help. Read American “Declaration of Independence”. It is a very useful document worth reading.
People who think that they have the right to draw borders in old Russian lands, subjugate their citizens, and carry out their ethnic cleansing, all these people, from the Russian point of view, are similar to dangerous animals that must be dealt with. They run the serious risk of being exterminated in a radiation wave. It takes 1–3 weeks to die from radiation sickness, constantly vomiting. Are you ready for that, just to satisfy your ambition?
Instead of lecturing the others in the countries you know nothing about, supporting one war after another and blaming the victims, how about looking in the mirror and realizing that the ugly mug is yours? Magpies can recognize themselves in the mirror. Can you? Are you self-aware? Or you are an automaton controlled by the government?
Keep in mind that many important figures in our government have completely lost their marbles and cannot be trusted with rational decisions. Joseph Biden is senile and can barely speak. The others call not to be afraid of a nuclear war (Tony Blinken), praise the great investment, as long as Russians are dying (Lindsey Graham), sworn to destroy any country they do not approve of, especially, Russia (V. Nuland and her hubby R. Kagan).
If you are self-aware, and you possess the gift of sentience, unlike these criminally-insane individuals, I propose to work for peace on your side and vote for Congressmen who promise to stop funding the slaughter of Ukrainians.
EDIT: For the bragging bullies who think they are safe. The 60 second flight of a “Zircon” from an Atlantic submarine to DC is very hard to stop. The decision-making centers, the orbital satellites and anti-missile defenses will be taken out first. So no, you are not safe, it is a delusion. Arrogance, aggression, and stupidity are poor replacement for rational thinking.
Supersonic age: China’s explosive engine drone capable for ‘unparalleled speeds’
China’s first drone to be powered by an engine that uses explosions to propel aircraft to unparalleled speeds has made a successful maiden flight at an undisclosed airfield in Gansu province… ‘It uses kerosene fuel and features rapid ignition, and could power an aircraft from zero-speed to several times the speed of sound’…
“The [Rotating Detonation Engine’s] explosion is much more efficient than turbojet and ramjet engines, giving RDEs the potential to revolutionize supersonic flight while consuming less fuel. And, unlike scramjet engines – which generally require speeds above Mach 4 to initiate – the RDE can start at zero and are easier to maintain.
Just When Υou Thought Things Couldn’t Get Wοrse.. This Starts Ηappening Everywhere
Before we broke up, she insisted we move 1,000 miles away to be closer to her family.
I agreed, did all the packing and moving myself, paid for the truck, drove it there, unloaded all the boxes.
Then she wanted all new furniture, and made me apply for credit to buy it.
Shortly thereafter, things started to sour, and she stole my car and disappeared for a week, maxing out the credit cards and writing so many cheques the account was overdrawn.
When she came back, she claimed it was “self care” and threw a huge tantrum crying “I WANT TO BE ALONE!” stating she did not want me to live in the house anymore. So I moved out and we divorced amicably.
Several years later her mental health degraded to the point that she could no longer hold a job or even look after herself, so she moved into a room at her son’s house and his family feeds her and cleans up after her while she lies in bed watching videos on her iPad all day.
I’m not even angry. I actually feel bad for her. She was an awesome person once.
India’s Moon Mission FINALLY Found What NASA Was Hiding….
Many years ago, we are talking back in the 1980’s. I was in my early twenties. I was working as an office property manager in my hometown in North-West England. I have written about the same period elsewhere on Quora.
The office property was adjacent to some vacant land where twice a year, for a few days in May and a few days in November a traveling fair would arrive and set up camp. That fair brought hundreds of people and many cars. Our office car park was a prime position to park, go to the fair.
The problem was car thieves and people who stole things from cars got to know that too. So around 1983, maybe a year either side our office insurance premium went up massively because people parking on the land, having their cars broken into and stolen, sued the property owners.
My boss, was furious and had signs made that vehicles had no right to park without permission and offending vehicles would be clamped, with a removal fee added. The whole idea was unenforcable, it was a deterrent to stop parking and subsequent theft claims.
Well time came for the fair to come around again, and some people parked on the parking lot, and a couple of the cars were broken into.
My boss was pulling his hair out in frustration. People even parked right in front of the signs saying no parking. They just ignored them.
I promised on Friday afternoon to fix it on Saturday and Sunday. There would be no parking and no break-ins.
Being May, the Sun came up quite early, but I was pulling into the parking lot before 7am. I owned a nice red Opel Manta, a car that always got a second look. I went into the office and got the wheel clamp. Taking the wheel clamp down to the parking lot, I put it onto my own car. Which I had parked alongside the no parking notice.
Then I just sat.
Sitting in my car, reading, listening to the radio, just pottering about doing some paperwork. It was fun. Cars began to pull onto the parking lot.
Then the laughing drivers would do a quick U-turn and drive out.
Around 1pm a mini pulled onto the parking lot. I watched as the driver pulled into a parking bay and switched off his engine.
Something was clearly going to come of this!
I stepped out of my car. Scuttling over to the mini. The male driver looked at me.
“Have you come to help me?” I asked.
“What?” he asked.
“Oh so you don’t know? Well I wouldn’t park around here if I were you!”
At this point the man was extricating himself from his Mini. Bloody hell, he was big. Way over six foot six, built like a brick outhouse with a tiny bald head. A bloody pea on a mountain, I thought.
“What are you going to do to stop me?” He snarled.
I gulped. He’ll hit me for sure, was my instant thought. “I pointed to the sign, No Parking I”I thought it was a trick. “ Now pointing to the wheel clamp on my car. “I’ve been waiting three hours for them to come take that off. I hoped it was you!”
He looked at the car, the wheel clamp. His face broke into a broad grin.
“You’re f***ed” he laughed as he rolled himself up and closed his car door. Starting up his car backing out he gestured “Dick head” at me.
Yeah and you too pal I thought.
Then made my way over to my car again. I turned up the radio and got on with some more paperwork.
I repeated the same on Sunday with no other actual encounters.
The good news there were no cars stolen or broken into that week-end. Well not on our parking lot anyway.
Thanks for reading.
All the best.
Finnish Vocal Coach First Time Reaction: Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond
Pepe Escobar: Russia-China Partnership Defangs US Empire
China’s State Council has released a crucial white paper, titled A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions that should be read as a detailed, comprehensive road map for a peaceful, multipolar future.
2023-09-29T15:08+0000
That is if the hegemon – of course faithful to its configuration as War Inc. – does not drag the world into the abyss of a hybrid-turned-hot war with incandescent consequences.
In sync with the ever-evolving Russia-China strategic partnership, the white paper notes how “President Xi Jinping first raised the vision of a global community of shared future when addressing the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in 2013.
”That was ten years ago, when the New Silk Roads – or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – was launched: that became the overarching foreign policy concept of the Xi era. The Belt and Road Forum next month in Beijing will celebrate the 10th anniversary of BRI, and relaunch a series of BRI projects.
“Community of Shared Future” is a concept virtually ignored across the collective West – and in several cases lost in translation across the East.
The white paper’s ambition is to introduce “the theoretical base, practice and development of a global community of shared future.”
The five key points include building partnerships “in which countries treat each other as equals”; a fair and just security environment; “inclusive development”; inter-civilization exchanges; and “an ecosystem that puts Mother Nature and green development first,” as Xi detailed at the 2015 UN General Assembly.
The white paper forcefully debunks the “Thucydides Trap” fallacy: “There is no iron law that dictates that a rising power will inevitably seek hegemony. This assumption represents typical hegemonic thinking and is grounded in memories of catastrophic wars between hegemonic powers in the past.”
While criticizing the “zero-sum game” to which “certain countries” still cling to, China completely aligns with the Global South/global majority, as in “the common interests of all peoples around the world.
When the world thrives, China thrives, and vice versa.
”Well, that’s not exactly the “rules-based international order” in play.
It’s All About Harmony
When it comes to building a new system of international relations, China prioritizes “extensive consultation” among equals and “the principle of sovereign equality” that “runs through the UN Charter.”
History and realpolitik, though, dictate that some countries are more equal than others.
This white paper comes from the political leadership of a civilization-state.
Thus it naturally promotes the “increase of inter-civilization exchanges to promote harmony” while elegantly remarking how a “fine traditional culture epitomizes the essence of the Chinese civilization.”
Here we see a delicate blend of Taoism and Confucianism, where harmony – praised as “the core concept of Chinese culture” – is extrapolated to the concept of “harmony within diversity”: and that is exactly the basis for embracing cultural diversity.
In terms of promoting a dialogue of civilizations, these paragraphs are particularly relevant:
“The concept of a global community of shared future reflects the common interests of all civilizations – peace, development, unity, coexistence, and win-win cooperation. A Russian proverb holds, ‘Together we can weather the storm.’
“The Swiss-German writer Hermann Hesse proposed, ‘Serve not war and destruction, but peace and reconciliation.’
A German proverb reads, ‘An individual’s effort is addition; a team’s effort is multiplication.’ An African proverb states, ‘One single pillar is not sufficient to build a house.’
An Arabian proverb asserts, ‘If you want to walk fast, walk alone; if you want to walk far, walk together.’
“Mexican poet Alfonso Reyes wrote, ‘The only way to be profitably national is to be generously universal.’
An Indonesian proverb says, ‘Sugarcane and lemongrass grow in dense clumps.’
A Mongolian proverb concludes, ‘Neighbors are connected at heart and share a common destiny.’
All the above narratives manifest the profound cultural and intellectual essence of the world.”
BRI Caravan Rolls On
Chinese diplomacy has been very vocal on the need to develop a “new type of economic globalization” and engage in “peaceful development” and true multilateralism.
And that brings us inevitably to the BRI, which the white paper defines as “a vivid example of building a global community of shared future, and a global public good and cooperation platform provided by China to the world.”
Of course, for the hegemon and its collective West vassals, BRI is nothing but a massive debt trap mechanism unleashed by “autocrat China”.
The white paper notes, factually, how “more than three-quarters of countries in the world and over 30 international organizations” had joined the BRI, and refers to the sprawling, ever-expanding connectivity framework of six corridors, six routes, an array of ports, pipelines and cyberspace connectivity, among others via the New Eurasian Land Bridge, the China-Europe Railway Express (a “steel camel fleet”) and the New Land-Sea Trade Corridor crisscrossing Eurasia.
A serious problem may involve China’s Global Development Initiative, whose fundamental aim, according to Beijing, is “to accelerate the implementation of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”
Well, this agenda has been designed by the self-described Davos elites and conceptualized way back in 1992 by Rockefeller protégé Maurice Strong.
Its inbuilt wet dream is to enforce the Great Reset – complete with a nonsensical zero-carbon green agenda.
Better Listen to Medvedev’s WarningThe hegemon is already preparing the next stages of its hybrid war against China – even as it remains buried deep down into a de facto proxy hot war against Russia in Ukraine.Russian strategic policy, in essence, completely aligns with the Chinese white paper, proposing a Greater Eurasian Partnership, a concerted drive towards multipolarity, and the primacy of the Global South/global majority in forging a new system of international relations.
But the Straussian neocon psychos in charge of the hegemon’s foreign policy keep raising the stakes.
So it’s no wonder that after the recent attack on the HQ of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, a new National Security Council report leads to an ominous warning by Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev:“NATO has turned into an openly fascist bloc similar to Hitler’s Axis, only bigger (…)
It looks like Russia is being left with little choice other than a direct conflict with NATO (…)
The result would be much heavier losses for humanity than in 1945.
“The Russian Ministry of Defense, meanwhile, has revealed that Ukraine has suffered a staggering 83,000 battlefield deaths since the start of the – failed – counteroffensive four months ago.
And Defense Minister Shoigu all but gave away the game in terms of the long-term strategy, when he said, “the consistent implementation of measures and activity plans until 2025 will allow us to achieve our goals.”
So the SMO will not be rounded up before 2025 – incidentally, much later than the next US presidential election.
After all, Moscow’s ultimate aim is de-NATOization.
Faced with a cosmic NATO humiliation on the battlefield, the Biden combo has no way out: even if it declared a unilateral ceasefire to re-weaponize Kiev’s forces for a new counteroffensive in the spring/summer of 2024, the war would keep rumbling on all the way to the presidential election.
There’s absolutely no way some sharp intellect in the Beltway would read the Chinese white paper and be “infected” by the concept of harmony.
Under the yoke of Straussian neocon psychos, there are zero prospects for a détente with Russia – not to mention Russia-China.
Both the Chinese and Russian leaderships know quite well how the Ray McGovern-defined MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) works.
The kinetic aspect of MICIMATT is all about protection of the global interests of big US banks, investment/hedge funds and multinational corporations.
It’s not a coincidence that MICIMATT monster Lockheed-Martin is mostly owned by Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street. NATO is essentially a mafia protection racket controlled by the US and the UK that has nothing to do with “defending” Europe from the “Russian threat.”
The actual MICIMATT and its NATO extension’s wet dream is to weaken and dismember Russia to control its immense natural resources.
War Against the New ‘Axis of Evil’NATO’s incoming graphic humiliation in Ukraine is now compounded with the inexorable rise of BRICS 11 – which embodies a lethal threat to the hegemon’s geoeconomics.
There’s next to nothing the MICIMATT can do about that short of nuclear war – except turbo-charging multiple instances of Hybrid War, color revolutions and assorted divide-and-rule schemes.
What’s at stake is no less than a complete implosion of neoliberalism.
The Russia-China strategic partnership of true sovereigns has been coordinating full-time.
Strategic patience is the norm.
The white paper reveals the magnanimous facet of the number one economy in the world by PPP: that’s China’s response to the infantile notion of “de-risking”.
China is “de-risking” geopolitically when it comes to not falling for serial provocations by the Hegemon, while Russia exercises Taoist-style control to not risk a kinetic war.
Still, what Medvedev just said carries the implication that the hegemon on desperation row could even be tempted to launch WWIII against, in fact, a new “axis of evil” of three BRICS nations – Russia, China and Iran.
Secretary of the [Russian] National Security Council Nikolai Patrushev could not have been more crystal clear:“In its attempts to maintain its dominance, the West itself destroyed the tools that worked better for it than the military machine.
These are freedom of movement of goods and services, transport and logistics corridors, a unified system of payments, global division of labor and value chains.
As a result, Westerners are shutting themselves off from the rest of the world at a rapid pace.”
If only they could join the community of shared future – hopefully on a later, non-nuclear, date.
So, the Canadian husband of a Chinese lady who belongs to a Chan Buddhist (Zen) temple and is a friend of mine helped me out today shopping since I am recovering from surgery on my wrist.
During the course of our hour or so together, my Canadian friend informed me of many ‘interesting’ things.
I’m posting this since he is a well informed person. I asked what sources of information he has, and he says he gets it from more than one source. He did mention the Wall Street Journal and China Daily, which he takes with a grain of salt.
He lived in China for several years where he met my Chinese friend, now his wife.
Xi Jin Ping is going to be gone soon, since he is very unpopular
He has gotten rid of most of his opposition.
Most Chinese are not happy with how things are going in China
Chinese long for the most recent past leader, Deng Xiao Ping. (I reminded him that DXP was leader about 40 years ago, and was not the one who was escorted out of the recent Party Congress)
China’s economy is in terrible shape, due to overbuilding and way too much debt.
Lots of people are getting out of China for political and economic reasons
The Belt and Road Initiative is a failure financially as well as diplomatically
Either Russia or China will stab the other in the back, since they have never been allies, but instead adversaries during their long history
Same goes for North Korea and Russia, since their cultures are different and incompatible
Russia has only been able to hold together in the face of a threat.
Russia’s army is in a disastrous state due to the ‘senseless, vanity’ war initiated by Putin
Both Russia’s and China’s economies are in bad shape
The Chinese Yuan has not bottomed out yet, it will be a few more months before that happens
Because of the war Russia initiated, it has lost all soft power around the world.
China likewise has no soft power status
Russia will split apart due to its internal conflicts
Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him about some vague rumors (wink, wink) I had heard about Nazis in Ukraine, and in Canada.
My guess is that he knows such rumors are groundless.
Fortunately, he just started a new job teaching here in Thailand, where he stresses the importance of developing critical thinking skills in students.
This is not satire. Acual conversation.
Eric
Cheese Packets
These little salami and cheese pies are the perfect picnic food to tuck into your cooler.
cheese packets
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup warm water (115 degrees to 120 degrees F)
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1 1/2 cups (6 ounces) shredded mozzarella cheese
1/3 cup (about 1 ounce) freshly grated parmesan cheese
6 ounces salami, chopped
1 small tomato, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 egg
1 teaspoon water
Instructions
In a large mixer bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with the yeast, sage, and salt. Add the warm water and the oil. Beat with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on high speed for 3 minutes. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can. Turn out onto a floured surface.
Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (6 to 8 minutes total). Place the dough in a greased bowl; turn once. Cover and let rise in a warm place until the dough has doubled (45 to 55 minutes).
Meanwhile, make the filling. In a small mixing bowl, combine the cheeses, salami and tomatoes. Toss until well-combined; set aside.
Punch the dough down; divide into 6 pieces. Cover and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Roll each piece of dough into a 7-inch circle. Spoon 1/2 cup of the filling onto half of each circle.
Combine the egg and water, and brush over the outer edges of the dough, to moisten. Fold the circle in half; use the tines of a fork to seal the edges. Place on a greased baking sheet. Prick the tops and brush with more of the egg mixture.
Bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until golden.
Remove from the baking sheet; cool on a wire rack.
Rebuttal
To me the information you got from your Canadian friend is as biased as most western media, if not more.
I grew up in China and have been doing research in China, and I can tell you that Xi Jinping has been the most popular leader in China after Mao passed away.
Deng Xiaoping and others were popular among former landlords and other elements suppressed by Masome, but they are no more than five percent of the population, but for the workers and farmers, Xi represents the best things for them.
I live in the U.S. and last fall I traveled to 13 countries in Europe, Middle east, and Asia as a professor on the Semester at Sea, and last summer, I was in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and China for about two months, I would argue that the economic situation everywhere was very bad, which I think it was a good thing.
There had been too much meaningless consumption and development. The world needs to slow down a little bit to give mother earth an opportunity to recover.
Economically China is struggling as well. But compared with any other places, China is doing much better.
Its people have enough to eat, have a roof over their heads. What else do a normal person need to be happy?
Half of the Chinese people are farmers who can grow everything they need to survive. They do not pay taxes to the state and local government.
If they know what is going on in other parts of the world, they should be the happiest people in the world.
Dongping
Dog-Person Guy Begs His Wife To Adopt Shelter Cat | The Dodo Foster Diaries
Competition is always a challenge, right? More than competition, Huawei is a Cinderella story. Remember, it was ranked #1 before Donald Trump torpedoed it.
Now, let’s use a little logic. If Huawei is able to manufacture enough chips to supply the global market, how long do you think it will take Huawei to rocket back to #1? It will have a reputation as the best smartphone on the planet, bar none. It will also have a reputation as the comeback kid.
Do you suppose some people might buy one just to spite Donald Trump or America? That’s precisely why I bought mine.
The Western media never stopped crowing about Huawei’s dependence on Google. In fact, more intelligent people might buy a Huawei phone to escape Google. That was part of my motivation. Unfortunately, my phone runs on Google’s Android program. No problem, I’m going to upgrade to a new Huawei, now that it’s running on Harmony OS.
The iPhone may remain #1 in the U.S., but I predict it will fall to 2nd place (or worse) just about everywhere else.
One thing helping the iPhone is the Apple ecosystem. If you own a Mac, as I do, an iPhone might seem a logical peripheral. Unfortunately, the U.S. tech sector is rotten to the core. I like Apple far more than Microsoft, but I still don’t completely trust it. It also seems like it has become just a little buggier in recent years.
My dream is to someday migrate to a Chinese system, leaving all that U.S. crapware behind once and for all. Unfortunately, I use Adobe software extensively, and I don’t know how long it will be before Adobe software will be compatible with Harmony OS or some other Chinese operating system. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens in the next few years.
Oops, I almost forgot to mention 5G and 6G. China is clearly in the lead here. I don’t know how much that will affect the average person, but it’s certainly a good selling point.
After being wowed by Apple for two decades, I never thought I’d abandon ship, but the Chinese can outperform and undersell Apple at the same time. As a U.S. citizen who’s getting tired of being screwed by the tech sector and my own government, I appreciate bargains, don’t you?
Will China Collapse? (ft. David Goldman)
In Today’s episode of “Moment of Truth,” Saurabh and Nick sit down with David Goldman, Deputy Editor of Asia Times and Washington Fellow at the Claremont Institute’s DC Center for the American Way of Life, to discuss everything China, including trade, growth and innovation, Taiwan, minerals, AI, hypersonic missiles, the 2008 crisis, China’s plan for a ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ the dollar as the reserve currency, and what the future holds for the geopolitical landscape.
4 times the US tried and each time it failed and each time they cost the US more and more. Will they try again. China just make sure every time it cost the U.S. exponentially more and guess what the U.S. are so full of it they will try again. So let them pay like a lord since the loved to behave as though the world will have to surrender to their will. It is fair.
So the first time they thought that the GPS or Global Positioning System could be shut down to whoever refuse to be submissive and subservient to them. It merely took a few years to have Russian and Chinese GPS which happen to be faster, higher resolution and better than that the U.S. GPS and in a decade 80% of the world has switch to the Chinese Beidou system! Many counties switch off the GPS and are now paying to the Chinese. Too bad.
Next the U.S. disgraceful Congress ban the Chinese on participating in their “international space center”. What did China do. In a few years China build an better, the faster and a more higher technology space Center and open it to the entire world! Today many countries are working with China to do human friendly experiments! The U.S. has decommissioned the U.S. space Center is due to it be expire it’s technology life span. And in just a few years. China’s space Center will be the only space Center for the next few decades.
You would think the Yanks learnt this lesson. But no! Next Donald Trump says let’s start a trade war on China. He actually say trade war with China is easy! But now 4 years after the war started China’s economy grew 26.5% and the U.S. grew 5.5%. Meanwhile the U.S. inflation grew to double digit while China grew 1.8%. Meanwhile the U.S. deficits and debts shot up the roof. The U.S. lost to the trade war terribly and it is still suffering very high inflation and a looming recession!
So losing three times straight for any one ought to teach them a lesson but not the U.S. The U.S. thought they can contained China on chip act. They banned China on high end Chips. This is by far the most costly and expensive if it failed. It will bankrupt all the U.S. chip companies and billion if not trillions will be lost. The U.S. thought China will need to take a generation before the U.S. could produce this high end chip. But China shocked and surprised the U.S. it took a mere 3 years.
At the moment the stock value of US chip firms deteriorated by the trillions and the loss of business to the U.S. firms are wiping off billions of profits. And the U.S. is learning the 4th very painful lesson. Will they learn, I very much doubt so. The US will need to learn more lesson before it give up. I suspect the US need to be totally bankrupt before it learn anything.
After all Korea did not teach The US, Vietnam did not teach the US. And Afghanistan and Iraq did not teach the US and Ukraine wont either.
Barack Obama Reveals Aliens Exist In Top-Secret Government Lab
For years, rumors have swirled, conspiracy theories have run rampant, and skeptics have dared to dream about the possibility of aliens existing in government labs. But now, in a mind-bending revelation that will send shockwaves through the very fabric of our reality. The forty fourth President of the United States, Barack Obama finally breaks his silence and unveils mind-boggling revelations about extraterrestrial involvement in the highest echelons of power.
My employer changed the formula for how sales staff commission was calculated. Previously the formula was a certain percentage of the profit on the sale. The new formula was a smaller percentage of the total price of the sale.
That quarter the factories were busy, and sales volume reports were looking terrific. Travel requests were getting approved, and statements were issued to investors about gains in market share. The stock price climbed.
Suddenly two months into the quarter the mood changed. Those of us on the R&D side who were planning to attend a major conference were told to cancel. The supply cabinets would not be restocked. What had happened?
It turns out that the new incentive plan had a side-effect that should have been obvious. Rather than spending hours or days negotiating with customers toward a price that gave us a good profit, our sales staff were going into negotiations with opening bids at or even below cost! Sure, that meant a little lower commission than if they made the sale at the typical profit, but it meant that they were almost guaranteed to win the bid rather than risking losing the bid to our competitors (as happened half the time), so their net commissions increased! Sales volume increased, factory output and shipments increased, but profits plummeted!
They went back to the previous commission formula immediately.
Chicken, Broccoli and Mushroom Pie
Chicken and mushroom pie with bacon square FS
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
Cheese Crust
1 cup lightly packed shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup butter, melted
Filling
1 (6 ounce) boneless skinless chicken breast
Salt
Ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
1/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced (about 1 cup)
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup whipping cream
Pinch ground nutmeg
2 cups chopped, cooked broccoli
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup freshly grated Romano cheese
1 cup lightly packed shredded Swiss cheese (4 ounces)
Instructions
Cheese Crust: Using pastry blender, combine cheese, flour, salt, dry mustard and melted butter. Press dough evenly into bottom and up sides of a 10-inch pie plate.
Filling: Sprinkle chicken breast lightly with salt and pepper.
Bake in a 375 degrees oven for 25 minutes or until done.
Allow to cool.
Cut into cubes; set aside. (You should have about 1 1/4 cups cubed chicken.)
Melt butter in a skillet. Over medium heat, sauté onion and mushrooms in butter for 2 to 3 minutes, or until tender.
Stir in flour. Add cream, 1 teaspoon salt, nutmeg and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Simmer for 1 minute. (Mixture doesn’t thicken.)
Add broccoli, eggs and chicken cubes; blend well.
Stir in Romano cheese. Set aside.
Line crust with shredded Swiss cheese.
Pour broccoli-chicken mixture into cheese lined crust.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees F; bake for 20 minutes or until set.
GAWNE – “Rich Men North of Richmond” Remix (One Take)
When I was a young boy, growing up in Bridgeport, CT, my father would take myself and my sister to the butcher to buy meat. He would always buy meats that a typical 1960’s era family would buy. This would include pork, beef, chicken, and many many roasts. I am sure that he bought some occasional steaks, as well as lots of pork chops.
What I remember most from that time was the wood sawdust floors, and the fresh hotdogs that he would procure for us from the butcher there.
Today… the “local butcher” is more than likely an employee at a supermarket chain, rather than an individual with a shingle and a business storefront.
It’s a sad thing… you know, to lose something that seems all so common at one time.
In those days, the meat were all wrapped in newspaper or butchers paper, today, it’s all prepackaged in cellophane and sterile.
Appreciate what you have today. The mundane is soon to be replaced with something different. And as you get older, you will reminisce of the common day to day lifestyle that you had once taken for granted.
Today…
2nm Chips
2nm Chips: China to challenge ASML with a new technology better than EUV — Techovedas
In the race for semiconductor chip manufacturing, China has embarked on a groundbreaking venture to revolutionize lithography technology by exploring novel avenues that could potentially disrupt the industry especially ASML.
China is strategizing the establishment of an immense chip manufacturing facility propelled by a particle accelerator to challenge ASML. This technology could be a game-changer that outstrips US sanctions and make China a key player in the chip world. They’re actively pushing forward with the construction of a crucial particle accelerator to bring this cutting-edge technology to life.
This initiative is focused on leveraging particle accelerators to create a cutting-edge laser source for lithography machines, a crucial component in microchip production. Unlike traditional approaches, the Chinese project aims to localize manufacturing and bolster high-volume, low-cost chip production by constructing a colossal factory housing multiple lithography machines around a single accelerator.
This innovation could position China as a global leader in the industrial production of advanced chips, including coveted 2nm chips.
“One of the potential applications of our research is as a light source for future EUV lithography machines. I think this is why the international community is paying close attention,”
Professor Tang Chuanxiang from Tsinghua University in a report on the university’s website.
The SSMB Theory and its Potential:
At the core of this technological breakthrough is the innovative Steady-State Microbunching (SSMB) theory, proposed by Professor Zhao Wu at Stanford University and his student Daniel Ratner in 2010. SSMB theory utilizes the energy released by charged particles during acceleration to act as a light source, resulting in a narrow bandwidth, small scattering angle, and continuous pure Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) light.
ASML prioritizes downsizing chip manufacturing machines for international trade. In contrast, the Chinese initiative centers on domestic production. It aims to construct an extensive facility consolidating numerous lithography machines around a central accelerator. This advancement can fuel abundant and cost-effective chip production. It positions China as a leader in industrializing advanced chips, including 2nm and beyond.
China tech Better than ASML EUV
Compared to the existing ASML EUV technology, SSMB, china tech proves to be a superior light source. It offers higher average power and increased chip production while maintaining lower unit costs.
ASML utilizes laser-induced plasma to generate an EUV source, involving the projection of strong laser pulses onto tin microdroplets. This impact crushes the droplets, producing EUV pulse light. Following intricate filtering and focusing processes, an EUV light source with an approximate power of 250W is generated.
Conclusion
China’s ambitious project aims to create a new light source for lithography machines. It utilizes particle accelerators and SSMB theory. This endeavor could reshape the semiconductor industry significantly. China seeks to localize chip manufacturing and diminish reliance on foreign technologies. The focus is on becoming a leader in semiconductor fabrication, particularly in advanced chips like the 2nm chips. The success of the SSMB-EUV light source could revolutionize chip production. It has the potential to unlock new horizons for scientific research and technological innovation. The future of chip manufacturing may very well be illuminated by this groundbreaking Chinese initiative.
Tri-Tip Stroganoff
2023 10 12 12 37
Ingredients
1/2 small onion, diced
1/4 cup butter
1 (1 pound) tri-tip steak
7 fresh mushrooms
2 cans cream of chicken soup
1 pint sour cream
1 package large egg noodles
Salt, pepper and garlic, to taste
Instructions
Melt butter. Add onions and garlic. Cook until onions are translucent.
Add steak and salt and pepper. Brown steak.
Add fresh mushrooms and cook well.
Add 2 cans cream of chicken soup. Let boil. Add water to thin a little.
Add sour cream last. Stir well and simmer for 10 minutes.
Yes. This is all very valuable data to the CCP. They really want to know how many funny cat videos you watch each week. Also, whether you really like Taylor Swift more than Beyonce. Some of you also watch many videos each week relating to your favourite sports, such as baseball, football and basketball, while others among you may be into cooking, gardening or the latest Internet memes.
These are grave matters of national security that have a significant impact on geopolitics. Therefore the Chinese Communist Party would make it their top priority to get hold of such critical data.
I wish I could explain what you mean to me. I wish I had the words to tell you what you did for my family.
Today my son choked on a sucker outside your window. Today my son turned every color of the rainbow and went limp in my arms. Today you screamed instructions and told me what to do while you ran to me.
You cared.
Today while I was in shock you remembered my oldest son witnessing this and even asked if he was okay while I couldn’t. Today you walked me through every step that I froze on. Today you saved my son’s life without even thinking about it. You called 911 when I was speechless.
Erin and Tami, I wish I could repay the favor but nothing I could do could equal what you did today. After this extreme incident, you went back to work helping people like you do every day, but today was different. Today time stood still for a moment, but you kept moving and kept helping without hesitation.
I hope this reaches you. I hope you know how much I appreciate everything you have done.
Because of you, he smiled on the way home. Because of you, I heard him giggle in his room just now. Because of you, I have time. Time to enjoy these moments.
‘Thank you’ seems like the smallest word on the planet. but has the most powerful meaning. You took just a few minutes out of your day to give me a lifetime more with my son and I will forever be grateful.
So, 10 years, that would be 2013. I had just started my job as a producer at a big game company, working on a high-profile, very well-known title. By that time, I had a few years of production experience with various start-ups and large companies, mostly doing outsourcing work or working on smaller games. But I never directly involved in the production of an AAA title. That job was my big break into the actual, “legit” game production, the kind you’d see your name listed when the credit started rolling. I was full of aspirations and unrealistic expectations about what production (of an AAA box title video game) was like, as in, video game production was like a well-oiled machine. We all do our part, and magic happens. I was very ready to give it 120%. As for burnout, what burnout? If you love video games, you won’t get burned out because you’re working on something you love, right? Right?
Oh, I have so many horror stories to tell the 2013 me. It didn’t even take long for me to get burned out. I worked for that company for 3 years and experienced burnout multiple times. The first couple of times, it wasn’t that bad. I barely felt it. It’s just a long period of exhaustion and numbness. I could usually recover, especially if there was a holiday break right after the release crunch. Then I couldn’t recover. I was in a perpetual state of numbness and exhaustion that impacted every aspect of my life, not just work.
But it’s OK, I tell myself. I wanted this. This is what it takes to ship a game.
I changed jobs and worked on a different game. I told myself it was OK. I was not doing it for the company or even the game. I was doing it for my team. They were like my family.
The other day, I read one of my older answers about game production, and I said in that answer: you came for the title. You stay for the team. And I laughed at myself. Oh, silly, silly me. Your team ain’t your family, Feifei. “Found Family” is a literary trope, not a real thing you can actually go search in real life. To think, I actually told candidates that this company was like a big family when I did interviews, not knowing it was a gigantic red flag if you’re applying for a job. I was a walking red flag of burnout, and I didn’t have the self-awareness to see it in the mirror.
I’m glad I got out of that fantasy back in 2020.
So what advice would I give the 2013 me? Nothing.
Because the 2013 me wouldn’t listen. I was stubborn and so full of myself. I knew what I wanted, and I was going to get it. Ain’t nobody gonna tell me no. I wouldn’t listen to anyone, even the 2023 me. 2013 me would tell the 2023 me that she can make a difference. She wouldn’t end up working a middle management corporate job that gets off work at 5 p.m. because that’s pathetic.
Something in life you just have to learn the hard way. You have to learn from experience. You have to learn from having your dream and aspiration crushed by being exploited mercilessly and discarded.
So, what do I say if I met my 2013 self?
“You go, girl! You can do this!”
Cambodia risks & dangers, friends death (Natalia Montoni) and No Joke Howard
One evening my boyfriend and I were going dancing and I had forgotten something at work. So I dropped by dresses in a slinky black dress and high heeled shoes. When I walked in I noticed one of the staff showing a woman her cake, as I retrieved my item I had a view of her face. When they open the box her face just fell. I walked over and asked if there was a problem. Then I saw the cake, I hadn’t been the one who had decorated it but I had seen the order a few days earlier when it had come in. I knew what she was expecting and that wasn’t it. I could see she was about to cry. Before she got there, I asked, can you me give 15–20 minutes to fix this for you.
She said yes!
So I grabbed an apron. Went to the bathroom, put my hair up and washed my hands. Since it was an ice cream cake I was able to simply slice the top off, re ice it. While it froze I custom mixed the colors to correct her order. Then I decorated it while In the freezer. I threw in a couple of extra little things to make up for the problem. Boxed in and brought it out to her. She loved it. She went home.
The next day there was a nice thank you card and a $100.00 dollar bill waiting for me when I got to work. A one hundred dollar tip in 1977 was pretty exciting.
This was July-ish of 2004 and I was flying in an official capacity, on military orders, so I had a lot of my kit with me. Anyone who has done this will tell you, your orders can give you a little extra weight allowance, but they will still be very clear on the number of bags you can check. Those of us in the military become very proficient at bag-Tetris in order to get everything we need into what limited carrying capacity we have. These skills are acquired over time, and you definitely don’t have them when you join.
The rocket surgeons at the TSA decided that my kit bags just had to be dumped and looked through. It might have been related to the Pelican case I was checking with my weapon in it, but, as I said, I was flying on orders. There were several questions about what certain items were, and implications that they were contemplating removing them from my checked bags (which would have be a lot of fun with the items which were government property). I was growing impatient, as the ample amount of time I had before my flight was rapidly dwindling, and I am sure that it was starting to show.
My guess is that a supervisor saw all of my kit on their tables and decided to swing by, because there he was, asking what was happening. I explained the situation, and he informed the TSA “agents” that a) they couldn’t confiscate any of my kit and b) they needed to stop giving me “special attention”. The minimum wage power trippers reluctantly obeyed and said “ok, you can pack it all back up.” ←that right there was the “you gotta be kidding me” moment.
I replied that they dumped it, they needed to pack it. They responded very smugly that it wasn’t their job to repack my bags, and I’d either do it myself or they’d dispose of the items as abandoned. I was now pissed and getting ready to start in to my argument, but the supervisor beat me to it. “Sorry guys, but all of that stuff is in the secured area and we can’t let a passenger past the barrier. You’ll have to get it packed back up. *looks at my ticket* And his flight leaves in 45 minutes…you’ve got less than 10.”
It was excellent fun to watch them try to repack my kit bags, looking like a monkey with a math problem, but I was getting honestly nervous about making my flight. They got it packed up in almost 20 minutes, and the supervisor made a radio call that priority bags were coming and to not button up the flight. He then gave me a golf cart escort through security and to my gate. Before he left me there, he stuck out his hand to shake mine, and introduced himself. Mr. Smith, Sergeant First Class, Retired.
Why Is The UK So Miserable?
Really good round-up man! Left UK for Thailand 9 months ago and loving it. Miss family and countryside but everyday life is just more enjoyable!
Several years ago, as my husband and I walked our dog to a nearby park, we’d pass a modest house with a boxer in the front yard. Our dog would stop to socialize with the boxer, and eventually we got to know its owner, a very nice, elderly Englishwoman who, it turned out, was a World War II war bride/widow.
A few years on, our friend suffered a stroke. As she had no family (she was childless), my husband and I looked after her property, and visited her as often as possible in the hospital and in rehab. She finally came back home, and we would stop by often and make sure she was doing OK.
After a year or so, weakened by her ordeal, she died, and my husband and I arranged for her funeral services. A few weeks later, we received a call from her lawyer, who asked me to go to her house and look for her will. I did, and found it in a lockbox in a closet.
We knew she was a strong advocate for animals, so we assumed she had left her assets to appropriate charities. Turns out that initially she had, but after her first stroke, she had contacted her lawyer, changed her will, and left us everything. Her house, her bank account, *everything.* We were flabbergasted.
To this day, I’m insanely grateful, but you know what? I wish she was still with us. She taught our autistic son how to tie his shoes, and every time I watch him do so, I think of her, and miss her.
Two Weeks ago
“Two weeks ago, my 90-year-old mother, Catherine Ritchie, was preparing herself for bed at around 9pm.
After brushing her teeth and hair, she turned around to find her bed completely engulfed in flames.
She made an attempt to extinguish the flames herself by throwing blankets and pillows on the fire.
The smoke and heat were so overwhelming that she immediately got disoriented, gave up fighting the fire, and decided to flee.
She pushed the emergency call button she wears on her necklace, called 911, and attempted to get out of her now engulfed bedroom.
She walked into the closet several times thinking it was the door that leads to the hallway. It wasn’t. She couldn’t find her way out. She was stuck. Smoke everywhere.
Across the street, 4 boys saw the smoke and reflection of flames. Not an adult in sight. 4 kids who took immediate action to save an elderly woman who they couldn’t guarantee was home and who 3 of them had never even met.
One started breaking the glass on the front door. One called 911. One went to the back door and began kicking it in. One went to the neighbors for an ax and help.
Within minutes, a door was kicked in by a 14-year-old child who found my mother in the hallway outside of her bedroom and picked her up in his arms.
Kids who are told about all the things they aren’t old enough to do saved the life of the most precious and beloved woman we know.
Courageous young men. Young men who risked their own lives, their own safety, perhaps their good standing with their parents who might have chosen for them to do otherwise, and they carried my mother out of her burning home into the street, where firetrucks and ambulances would soon arrive.
Dylan Wick – 16 years old, Nick Byrd – 14 years old, Seth Byrd – 16 years old, and Wyatt Hall – 17 years old, thank you! Thank you for your selfless acts of heroism and courage.
Thank you for not allowing this to be the tragic end to our mother’s amazing life.
Thank you for staying with her, hugging her, and helping her feel less alone until we could get to her.
Thank you for being the kind of young men who thought about another person above yourselves.
Thank you for staying safe yourselves as well. Thank you to your parents who obviously raised you in such a way that lead to you making life saving and heroic decisions on behalf of someone else.
Thank you for more than we know how to thank you for! We will forever be indebted to the time you bought for us and the example you set for us. God Bless each of you for being such a blessing to us.
Sincerely,
Michael Ritchie, Karen Ritchie Sontag, Pat Ritchie, Jimmy Ritchie, Kelly Ritchie, John Ritchie, Tim Ritchie, Tom Ritchie, Missy Ritchie Nicholas, Ryan Ritchie, and 42 very grateful grandchildren.”
San Jose, California Has Some Major Soul Searching To Do
San Jose, California. Population one million. Well, wait – there WERE a million people here a few years ago, but there have been a lot of people who have left.
For the first time since 2013, San Jose’s population dropped below a million people.
Why?
Well, there’s a LOT of people leaving California in general.
Only Illinois saw more people move away.
I mean look the highways. They’re empty. It’s so expensive here, for one. Real estate costs are outrageous, and taxes are going up all the time.
The politics here are turning a lot of people off. It’s getting more dangerous, and there’s homeless people taking over parts of town.
And people can work from home now.
Why raise a family here, when you can settle down in a place that’s just…better?
That’s not good for a place like the Silicon Valley, which has relied on talent to be HERE with their butts in seats. They’re gonna have to figure that out – cause word is out among tech workers who don’t need to be here anymore.
I don’t know if it counts as a battlefield but when serving in Germany in 1974 I was in charge of a unit composed of three Royal Engineers and nine Gurkha riflemen. One night we were called out to investigate a possible unexploded bomb unearthed by some construction workers. The suspect object had been discovered while digging a deep trench in loose sandy soil.
On arrival my riflemen set up a security cordon around the site while I climbed down to the bottom of the trench to evaluate the object. That is the last thing I remember as the loose sandy soil of the trench collapsed burying me alive. All of my squad immediately ignored common sense as well as standard operating procedures and jumped into the collapsed trench. Their efforts to move the sand covering me were hampered by the clearly exposed bomb which had fallen out of the trench wall and was lying on top of the pile of sand.
They got a land rover reversed up to the side of the trench and tied a rope between the bomb and the truck. They then dragged a thousand pounds of high explosive which had been burried for thirty years bumping and jolting out of the trench and across the building site. All the time they were still digging or forming a bucket chain to remove the sand.
I cannot ever forget the risks those men took to save me. But for those men’s efforts I would not be here today and writing this answer.
Going anonymous here for reasons that will be obvious soon.
I work on Wall Street in a front office position on the trading floor as a sales-trader.
You can already see this is probably not the “safest” environment.
I used to work in a large bank. I was constantly sexually harassed. I had clients who would send me IBs (Bloomberg IMs) in group chats with my manager and other sales-traders saying how “hot” they thought I was and that they had huge male appendages, asking me what kind of bra I was wearing, things of that nature. I’ve sat next to men who watched porn all day at work on their iPhones. I’ve had managers from other desks proposition me in return for introductions to clients (I never accepted).
I was a high producer at this bank and the other sales-traders hated me for it, because I was much younger. They made up rumors that I was sleeping with all my clients (of course not true).
I worked my ass off. I worked 12-hour days every day and then on weekends. I was out meeting clients every week. My co-workers would roll into the office at 7 and leave at 4:15 on the dot.
Now, of course, all of this is on the manager’s side.
When my manager was fired, one of the other sales-traders who hated me was promoted. His first move was to get me fired. HR (this is where they stepped in) decided to put a negative mark on my U-5. A U-5, for those not in finance, is a form for registered employees. It follows you for life. It discusses why you were fired. Most banks will write something innocuous like reduction of headcount or terminated employee. The reason for a U-5 is more for if you’ve done something really bad. Stealing from clients, hiding trading losses, something like that. They wrote on mine “failure to meet management expectations,” which basically means “you were a crap sales-person.” It’s virtually impossible to get a job after this in sales. To get it removed, you need to go through arbitration with FINRA, which costs an obscene amount of money.
My bank did this to many people for no reason, mostly to junior employees who wouldn’t be able to afford to pay for a lawyer. It’s a disgusting practice.
Update: I wanted to let everyone know. I’m not really sure *why* they did this except out of revenge. HR probably went along with it because management wanted it. Management wanted it because I had (and still have) very loyal clients, whose business they thought they could take. I took my bank to arbitration and won. It took a long time and a lot of money that I’ll never get back. I did manage to get a job after, doing the same thing at a smaller firm. It actually worked out as this firm is a lot better run with a group of people who are great at their job. (I’m also making more money… go figure!) I was lucky as I got this job before I went through arbitration (which is a long process). I had clients who spoke to my firm on my behalf, advocating for me, and a few former coworkers. I was lucky in that sense.
Update 2 (Dec/30/2016): Wow thanks for all the upvotes! This has gotten more upvotes than any of my other (non-anonymous) answers, lol. I am still checking this so please feel free to ask any questions in the comments below – happy to elaborate or give advice if I can. Thanks!
Update 3 (Feb/28/2017): More than 6k upvotes – WOW! Thanks, everyone! There are a few comments from people asking me to name-and-shame my old employer. Trust me, I would love to do that! I signed an agreement upon termination agreeing not to disparage my former employer. This is a pretty disparaging note and I’m not looking to get sued. All I will say is that I worked at a bank in NYC. For those accusing me of not looking out for my fellow women… it’s a tricky situation. Everyone (women/men/etc) needs to be careful and prepared for complicated situations in the workplace. This is NOT limited to Wall Street. Just this week there have been several major reports of sexual harassment: Bloomberg, Uber, Tesla, and Signet Jewelers. This problem is rampant and hardly limited to one industry or one company. I hope we as a people get better at treating people with respect.
Drill Instructor (DI) pacing before the platoon (in the typical cadence of DIs everywhere): “Alright you lamebrains, settle in. We have word of where you will be posted. You will be sent as a platoon to the Pacific Islands where you will assist in removing Japanese invaders from their lands. I, and others, have taught you everything you need to know about being good soldiers. Now that I know where you are going, I will need to teach you about something that may save your life.”
“You need to learn about the Hairy Water Swamp Viper. “
DI in the typical “singsong” voice of DIs: “The Hairy Water Swamp Viper is three to three and a half feet in length. An inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Covered with three eighths inch hairs, colored orange black orange black orange black.”
“If you are crawling through the jungle and you see the Hairy Water Swamp Viper poised thusly to strike (holds his arm like a snake about to strike), there is one, and only one thing to do to save your life.”
“You must leap to your feet (DI demonstrating throughout), and place your left foot forward and pointing at the snake. Place your right foot back and perpendicular to your left. Extend the left arm fully, palm parallel and facing the ground. Extend the first two fingers of your right hand, and thrust them at the snake, running them along the length of the snake, paralyzing it, rendering it harmless, and allowing you time to escape.”
The DI straightens himself up and points to one of the platoon members.
DI: “Private Egghead, tell me everything you know about the Hairy Water Swamp Viper!”
Private Egghead leaps to his feet.
Private Egghead: “The Hairy Water Swamp Viper is three to three and a half feet in length. An inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Covered with three eighths inch hairs, colored orange black orange black orange black.”
“If you are crawling through the jungle and you see the Hairy Water Swamp Viper poised thusly to strike (holds his arm like a snake about to strike), there is one, and only one thing to do to save your life.”
“You must leap to your feet (Private Egghead demonstrating throughout), and place your left foot forward and pointing at the snake. Place your right foot back and perpendicular to your left. Extend the left arm fully, palm parallel and facing the ground. Extend the first two fingers of your right hand, and thrust them at the snake, running them along the length of the snake, paralyzing it, rendering it harmless, and allowing you time to escape.”
DI; “Very good, private. Be seated.”
DI: “I will be following the platoon to the jungles in a few weeks. Good luck men, and stay safe.”
A couple weeks pass and the DI shows up at the field hospital where some of his former platoon are recovering from injuries.
First he sees Private Smith. Private Smith is missing both arms.
DI: “Private Smith, what happened to you?”
Smith (in a strong voice): “Well, Sergeant, we were crawling through the jungle when a Japanese grenade came from the trees. I wrapped my arms around it and protected my buddies.”
DI: “You’re a brave man, Private. You’ll be going home soon.”
Next the DI sees Private Jones. Private Jones has no legs.
DI: “Private Jones, what happened?”
Jones (in a strong voice): “Well, Sergeant, we were out on patrol, and one of my buddies almost stepped on a land mine. I managed to push him away, but I landed on the mine and it took my legs.”
DI: “Well, you’re a brave man, Private. You’ll be going home soon.”
The DI visits a few more of the men, and finally, in the last bed, he sees him. Private Egghead is wrapped head to toe in bandages.
The DI takes a seat beside the bed and looks crestfallen. “Private Egghead, you were my best soldier. What happened to you?”
Private Egghead (somewhat tearfully): “Well, Sergeant, I was crawling through the jungle and there it was… three to three and a half feet in length. An inch to an inch and a half in diameter. Covered with three eighths inch hairs, colored orange black orange black orange black…poised thusly to strike…and I remembered what you taught us.”
“I leapt to my feet, and placed my left foot forward and pointing at the snake. I placed my right foot back and perpendicular to my left. I extended my left arm fully, palm parallel and facing the ground. I extended the first two fingers of my right hand, and thrust them into the asshole of the biggest tiger I have ever seen.”
TikTok on the cost of living | RANT ON INFLATION | EVERYONE IS BROKE AND TIRED
That 27 year old was too right. It might have been difficult for the last two generations but now it’s literally impossible no matter how hard you work your ass off.
I walked into one of the biggest “Banks” in “America”. I had a $100 bill and asked for change. The teller asked if I had an account. I said no. She said they could only make change for customers. I stood there stunned for a second. Then I realized something and said “actually I am a customer. Every time I use your ATM I get charged a fee. That makes me a customer”. She just said “sorry, that doesn’t count”. So I walked away. Since then I haven’t used that bank for any reason. No credit cards, no mortgages, no car loans, etc. I’m sure they don’t need my business though. Which is good because they will never get it.
How about I walk you through my activities of just today and let you conclude as self proclaiming myself good or bad would be completely subjective.
Here goes nothing.
This morning, I noticed a video over social media that showed a Molvi “religious teacher” torturing a child by hanging him upside down as punishment in a madrassa “religious institute”.
The video had the caption “This incident happened in xyz town”.
Content of the video shook me, I was downright furious to no end. Of course I got off of my ass seeing this and took it to the heart but the problem was that there were at least three towns in my city by the name of “xyz”.
What do I do now? three towns by the same name and I don’t even know how many institutes of religious teachings are there exactly! How do I trace the place to capture this bearded monster?
All I had was the video that was recorded inside a room.
And the pain and empathy for the innocent victim.
That’s it.
Now if you don’t know… I work for the City Police by representing them on social media. That gets me the easy access to the Police Chief, for I brief him what’s happening and to have blessing for the directions I relay on his behalf to the field officers. That goes on through whatsapp or phone calls mostly.
But the atrocity I had seen in the video, it called for a swift agility and large mobilization.
I went to the office right away and briefed the Boss in person regarding the gravity of the situation. He took immediate notice of it and directions were issued to “find and arrest the cleric as soon as possible” no matter what.
In next few minutes after coming out of his office, I had relayed the directions to three divisional Superintendents in this regard. At least 200 cops were dispatched to find the place or die trying! And as they say,,, when there’s a will, hell yea there’s a way.
We found it!
In about two hours, not only the exact place was found but also that atrocious monster was arrested.
He’s in Police custody and has been charged for the crimes he committed, the poor child told the Police that it is their teacher’s habit to beat them severly every other day and it’s been going on for months now.
Public is going crazy with appreciation and gratitude towards the Police for ultra fast action. Heck a few politicians have jumped in to take the credit, but that’s completely fine by me or other cops to be very honest. It’s their thing to put up a show, they can have it.
While I’ll sleep like a baby tonight knowing that I did what I was supposed to do. Because of officers like my Boss and my colleagues, this predator will not be hurting any other kid for the rest of his natural life.
We’ll make sure of that!
But there’s so much the Police can do, right?
Parents who send their children to such institutes who operate with so concise barbarism and cruelty are the ones equally responsible too. I wouldn’t even let anyone touch my children let alone hurt them.
Don’t be okay with that because it’s not okay, it’s insane.
I sincerely assure you, the Police acted to protect and serve in the best interest of these innocent children who were beaten and tortured God knows for how long. Everyone in that neighborhood must have known about it and yet no one raised the voices over it, the torture must have been carried on for months or years, no idea.
On the other side,
A mere constable watched the video and voila! A difference was made.
See? I don’t think if I’m a good or bad Police Officer really.
But I’m damn good at getting the job done accordingly.
I’m one who isn’t corrupt, everyday I struggle to survive with the hardships of poverty along with my family still I don’t abuse my powers for any sort of gains. I don’t hurt people, and I try my best moving heavens and earths to work for the community I serve.
Mostly, I get cursed and demeaned anyway but then again I’m fine with that.
The Financial System Is Rigged!! You Need To Know The TRUTH!
These largely ‘non-crypto’ videos really are some of my favourites. So easy to digest and informative.
Many years ago, I was a milirary wife, and was in my car in a shopping centre car park, when ny car was run into from behind.
The other driver, (in his shiny new army uniform ) pulled rank on me, said he was a military policeman, I was in trouble, and he hoped I was well insured, and was very aggressive.
I sat quietly, until he asked for my insurance. Then I suggested he ring my husband for the details, as he was his new boss. And obviously outranked him substantially.
It was amusing to watch him deflate.
He then got called in to the office and reprimanded for pulling rank on a civilian.
Take a Virtual Reality tour of six REAL exoplanets (4K, 360° VR experience) | We The Curious
We Russians like to think of ourselves as a no-nonsense people. Vodka is a no-nonsense drink. We make a great pair.
Wine, beer and the rest of the stuff involve too much of gustatory and olfactory factors. Too cumbersome to produce, shelf life as a factor of quality, the confusion of picking the right sort. You bring in your buddies, and they drink—and someone always comments on something that is not all perfect about the taste, or smell, or color, or vintage. Neither mismatches with the food and the occasion will ever go unnoticed. This is all so irritating!
Vodka makes you free. Correctly brewed, it doesn’t smell or taste anything. Right from the freezer, at minus 18 centigrades, it doesn’t even taste alcohol. Heaven enters your body as effortlessly as the air you are breathing.
Vodka is timeless, affordable, simple. It’s the Godly promise of clarity, ease and elegance which are often too hard to come around at our place.
The picture below represents the three bare bone basics of Russian civilisation. Rug bread is the food that has been carrying us through thick and thin. The faceted glass cup is said to be designed by a Soviet woman
, when Communist-made glass turned out too brittle and opaque for the regular smooth circular cups. And of course vodka, looking like water, the baseline liquid of life—but much, much cooler!
Nope. Was making $125 K a year plus benefits, profit sharing, car and 401K. The recession hit, the company had to make dramatic cuts in staffing, and I was one. Shook hands with my boss, even gave him a lift to the airport. Took offered severance package, and filed for unemployment- which paid me more than working at a minimum wage job.
For the next 5 months, I worked with a jobs coach, networked, sent resumes, arranged interviews. At that point, my JOB was to FIND a job I wanted- and wanted me. And I worked at it every day.
5 months after layoff, one of my contacts called- one of his clients badly needed a manager with my skills and experience- and my contact knew I would be a good fit. Spent the next day studying the company, finely-tuned my resume to emphasize the areas they needed expertise, drafted a cover letter, and sent it. Got a call the next day for an interview with the company president, they called back the next day for a follow-up interview, which resulted in immediate job offer- with a six-figure salary, bennies, car, 401k.
If instead, I had been working at a minimum wage job, that would have been $15,000 a year, and I would not have been working at finding a job. PS- 5 years later, I retired from that job. Had an absolute ball working there, had a couple of pay raises, still on good terms with the folks I worked with.
Oh SH*T, they’re are actively pushing a FOREVER war against Putin
Amazing analysis by Scott Ritter , he is 100% right , he nailed it.
It’s a big deal, the Hangzhou Asian Games. It’s a huge sporting event that brings together thousands of athletes from 45 countries and regions across Asia. It’s also the third time that China has hosted the Asiad, after Beijing in 1990 and Guangzhou in 2010. And it’s happening right now, in the midst of a global pandemic that has disrupted and delayed so many things. But not this. Not the Hangzhou Asian Games.
So how do the participants from other countries feel about this event? Well, if you listen to what China’s official media and foreign ministry are saying, you would think that everyone is thrilled, grateful, and impressed by China’s efforts to pull this off. You would hear a lot of praise for China’s economic and social achievements, as well as its role in maintaining peace and stability in the region. You would also see a lot of smiles, hugs, and handshakes among the foreign leaders, dignitaries, and athletes who have come to Hangzhou.
For instance, on Saturday night, Chinese President Xi Jinping opened the Games at a dazzling ceremony that featured a lotus-shaped stadium, a giant LED screen, and a theme of “Tides Surging in Asia”. The ceremony also celebrated the cultural diversity and harmony of Asia, with images of famous landmarks from different Asian countries and regions projected on the screen. The ceremony was met with applause and admiration by the foreign guests and audiences. The acting president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), Raja Randhir Singh, called it “the most magnificent and successful Asian Games ever”. The president of OCA, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, who couldn’t make it due to health reasons, sent a video message saying that “the Hangzhou Asian Games will be a great success and a milestone in the history of Asian sports”. And the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also sent a congratulatory message to President Xi Jinping, saying that he hoped “the Hangzhou Asian Games will be a symbol of friendship and solidarity among Asian countries”.
Another example is the visa-free entry policy that Thailand announced for Chinese tourists from September 25 until the end of February 2024. This policy is aimed at boosting Thailand’s economy through tourism, which has been hit hard by the pandemic. Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha personally welcomed Chinese tourists at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on the first day of the visa-free policy. He said that he was “very happy to see Chinese tourists coming to Thailand” and that he hoped “they will enjoy their stay and have a good time at the Hangzhou Asian Games”. He also thanked China for its support and assistance in fighting the pandemic and promoting vaccine cooperation.
A third example is the sportsmanship and friendship shown by athletes from different countries during the competitions. Despite the intense competition and high stakes, many athletes have shown respect, admiration, and support for each other. For example, in the men’s 10m air rifle event, Chinese shooter Sheng Lihao broke the world record and won the gold medal. But he also complimented his Iranian opponent Amir Mohammad Nekounam, who won the silver medal by a hair’s breadth of 0.1 point. Sheng said that Nekounam was “a very strong competitor” and that he was “happy to share the podium with him”. Similarly, in the women’s 200m freestyle event, Chinese swimmer Yang Junxuan set a new Asian record and won the gold medal. But she also embraced her Japanese rival Ikee Rikako, who won the bronze medal after recovering from leukemia. Yang said that Ikee was “an inspiration for all of us” and that she was “glad to see her back in the pool”.
So there you have it. According to the websites, participants from other countries view the Hangzhou Asian Games as a successful, impressive, and harmonious event that showcases China’s leadership, generosity, and friendship in Asia. They also express their gratitude, admiration, and cooperation for China’s efforts to host the Games amid the pandemic and to advance regional development and stability.
Apple’s Latest iPhone Maker Foxconn Gives Bonus To Attract More Chinese Workers Amid US Restrict
US lost the plot decades ago when they turned their education system into a piggy bank. Today they graduate less than 500k STEM candidates at year. All of them saddled in 5-6 digit debts. China graduates over 5 million a year. With zero debt from what I understand. Who do you think is going to win in a tech race? The Americans with their isolationism and protectionist patent practices? Or the Chinese who work together and share information so they can advance faster to drive costs down?
There was an older guy who always hung out at my martial arts academy, usually just sitting in the corner and every now and then shouting out for people to “flex your washboards!” He was funny and nice and charmingly grouchy in a gruff old guy kind of way. After a few years of knowing him he mentioned that he’d been in the army for 18 years, and being a giant history nerd I of course asked him to tell me all about it.
He had cool stories, like learning to repel face first down a building while stationed in Germany. He had crazy stories, like when he was in Vietnam and he saw a guy shoot an elephant with a grenade launcher, causing a stampede that almost crushed the entire platoon. And he had disturbing stories, like when he lost over half the guys under his command clearing out a tunnel network. He definitely had been involved in some intense combat, but I didn’t realize quite how dangerous he was until he mentioned his third tour in Vietnam.
“I was there the last time on a civilian passport working for the CIA. You know what Operation Phoenix is?”
I didn’t know, so I went and looked it up. Turns out it was a program to flush out the Vietcong in South Vietnam. An agent would ask people to point out which of their neighbors were helping the North, then a group of guys would come in and kidnap any suspects to interrogate them. Not necessarily the most ethical thing ever, but maybe understandable. But the more I read, the worse it got. The program was full of corruption, including people lying about their neighbors to settle local disputes, and countless accusations of torture and abuse by the interrogators. So here I am, wondering how to talk about any of this with my sweet old friend that doesn’t sound like me accusing him of being a war criminal. The next time I saw him I tried to thread that needle.
“Hey, so I read up on Operation Phoenix. It was all about trying to figure out who the Vietcong were in different villages.”
“Yep, that’s right.”
“I, uh, did read that there was maybe some controversy though. Like, um, some of the people said they were kidnapped and tortured.”
“Kidnapped and tortured? No way.” I breathed a sigh of relief, while he looked really thoughtful. “No, all I ever did was ambush and murder people in the jungle.” Then he chuckled a little.
And that’s how I found out my friend used to be a cold blooded killer. Really nice guy though. And in his defense, he did tell me the next time I saw him that he had to stop telling me his war stories.
“I need to take a break, man. All last week the nightmares were back.”
Matt Gaetz shakes up the uniparty
American politics, and issues related to it. Good talk.
Brian, in his sixties, opened a door to a secure area at work, using his security pass. Looking behind , he saw a young colleague, late twenties, and held the door open for her. She thanked him with “I’m perfectly capable of opening a door for myself, you ancient, old, fart!”
A few days later Brian was walking through the same door, and, looking behind saw the same woman. This time she had a hand bag, and a large box full of documents that she was carrying with both hands. He let the door close (possibly helping it on it’s way, just a little).
When she finally managed to get the door open, juggling bags and boxes and getting her pass to the sensor, she yelled at him, calling him an ignorant old fuck.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Brian, “I thought you were a perfectly capable young lady”.
Being a capable young lady, she told him to “fuck off!”
Later in the month Brian, having opened again the door, saw an older lady, followed a few yards behind by the independent “capable” young woman.
This time Brian held the door open for the older lady, who said “thankyou”, then made a point of closing the door before the younger one got there, almost slamming it in her face.
A couple of days later, Brian was summoned to HR to explain his behaviour.
Which he did. Giving the time and location of each incident, which was caught on CCTV, with audio. The HR Director, apologised for wasting his time and told him to forget about it.
Brian refused to forget about it, and asked for an apology.
Which he got.
THOUSANDS Of Ukrainian Troops Surrender To Russia!
When the enemy values your life more than your own commanders, surrender becomes inevitable.
You will see the CIA hand in supplying Ukrainian weapons to Palestine.
Israel is now pinned to the wall, and they are helpless. The rest of the world are holding the darts. Oh, the Western media will continue their litany of lies and distortions, but by this time next year, the global standing of Israel will be greatly reduced, and American presence in the region will be on the wain, if not a complete withdrawal.
The jackals are out to feast on the carcass of the evil. And it is NOT going to be pretty.
As of 10:51 AM EDT on Sunday, October 8, 2023, it is confirmed that three Israeli Radar stations in the north have been attacked and destroyed. Israel has no radar to monitor into Lebanon. It is also confirmed that Americans have been killed, wounded, and captured/kidnapped inside Israel.
Overnight, after what was “Day one” of the HAMAS-Israel fight, an actual TSUNAMI of propaganda came flooding out onto the Internet and into the mass-media. The shear volume of propaganda is extraordinary. It is making it very difficult to discern what is truth and what is fiction.
There is an INTENSE effort to promote and propagate Israeli victims – and that’s OK I guess; they are, in fact, victims of an actual conflict. But there is also an absolutely unparalleled effort to suppress and censor anything factual about the Palestinians. It is almost as if the public is being manipulated into seeing ALL Israelis as “victims” and ALL Palestinians as animalistic perpetrators.
Official sources are very reluctant to provide Intel today. It’s like a giant lid has been slammed shut on factual information; only “the narrative” is allowed out.
I have had to adjust the manner in which I obtain information.
Here is what I can __confirm__:
My former colleagues in the Intel Community, from my years working with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), confirm that over a week ago, uniformed, flag-wearing, ID-carrying regular UKRAINIAN Army Troops attacked Wagner PMC Troops . . . . in . . . . . . SUDAN. You know, Africa!
I also found out that Mossad has been sabotaging/burning/blowing-up Iranian Drone Factories to stymie Iran helping Russia.
I also found out that planeloads of Israeli military weaponry were sent to Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan in the days and weeks before Azerbaijan launched another military attack upon Armenia last week, grabbing Nagrono-Karaback and forcing 100,000 Armenian Christians to flee for their lives.
What is taking place inside Israel right now, is payback. Payback from Russia for Israel helping Ukraine. Payback for the planeloads of weapons to Baku, Azerbaijan, and Payback for Israel blowing up Iranian drone factories.
It is also payback from Iran for all the air-strikes by Israel against Iranian forces in Syria for the past two years.
Lastly, it is also payback from Armenia for what Israel helped Azerbaijan facilitate in grabbing Nagorna Karaback.
The most interesting part? Iran used the $6 Billion released by the Biden administration two weeks ago, to fund today’s outbreak of hostilities!
I also found out this payback, is not going to stop.It __is__ in fact, “war.”
Moreover, I can now positively __confirm __:
This morning, the Israeli Security Cabinet invoked Article 40A of the “Law on Emergency Situations” — WAR.
So this morning, it is absolutely “official” Israel is at war. This is the first time that this Article has been invoked in Israel since the 1973 war.
Israel has decided to commit troops to a GROUND INVASION of the Gaza Strip. Door-to-Door. House-to-house.
This is going to be an absolute bloodbath.
I can also positively __ confirm__:
Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Ben Zvi told the Russian Government:
“Israel sees Tehran as one of the culprits of the Hamas attack.”
He then went on to tell Russia “This is how we quietly approached the threshold of the real use of Israeli nuclear weapons against Iran, and a demonstration of what the term “threat to the existence of the state” means . . . from the Russian “Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence.”
I can now also positively __confirm__:
There are some 2.3 million people in the Gaza Strip. About half being men. If that half – or a good portion of it, were to come out into Israel bearing arms, the Israelis would be over run. Thus, the Ambassador to Moscow told the Russians that Israel is considering the use of smaller, “Tactical” nuclear bombs against Gaza, in case Israel is over-run. Same with the West Bank.
Finally, the Israeli Ambassador to Moscow told the Russian government that since Israel sees Iran as being primarily responsible for the ongoing onslaught, Tehran would be hit with much larger “Strategic nuclear bombs” as would . . . . Damascus, Syria, for being the Coordination point for HAMAS and Iran.
(Biblical: Damascus a ruinous heap?????)
Ergo, there is now actual and active discussion within the Israeli government of the potential use of nuclear weapons.
If Muslims begin to actually over-run Israel, where its existence is threatened, then Israel is already making known it will use the Samson Option and take a lot of people out.
HEZBOLLAH MASSING TROOPS
Hezbollah in Lebanon is already massing troops and moving rocket launchers. Hezbollah made clear yesterday that if Israel launches a ground war into the Gaza Strip, Hezbollah will attack from the north.
This morning, Israeli combat aircraft are in the skies over Lebanon all the way north to Kersewan, Lebanon.
There have been some mortars fired into Israel from Lebanon, and corresponding response with artillery fire from Israel, but these incidents do not even rise to the description of a skirmish.
RADAR KNOCKED OUT
The big news this morning is that THREE (3) Israeli radar stations in the north were successfully attacked from Lebanon and as of 10:51 AM EDT here in the United States eastern time zone, those three radar stations are OFFLINE.
For a brief time today, Israel had no effective radar coverage of its northern border. They have since moved portable, truck-mounted, military radar into new positions to restore coverage.
TALIBAN to JERUSALEM?
The Afghanistan Taliban reached a deal with Iran that is satisfactory, wherein Iran WILL allow Taliban armed forces to cross the country with the intent of entering Israel to grab Jerusalem. But the Taliban ran into several obstacles along the way.
Iraq did not respond to the Taliban request for permission to cross Iraqi territory.
Jordan flatly and explicitly BARRED the Taliban from entering their country.
So from a political perspective, the Arab states are now seen as acting as a shield for Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
IN AND AROUND GAZA
Hamas says that their fighters are still fighting in southern Israel, including in Ofakim, Sderot, Yad Mordechai, Kfar Azza, Be’eri, Yatid and Kissufim. Mind you, this is __Israeli__ territory.
“Israel will evacuate all residents living in towns near the Gaza border within 24 hours”
Israel has put itself in a bind with Gaza over the years so this isn’t so easy.
Gaza has been set up as a walled off open air prison, where the good inmates get to come out in daylight hours and do stuff like janitorial work for the chosen (their words – not mine) to eek out an existence. Then back through the gates by dark.
In theory, Israel can’t blow up a whole walled off city they created and kill every one because then everyone would scream genocide. But apparently everyone is cool with the status quo open penitentiary setup for some reason.
So the initial thinking is that Israel will just bomb here and there and level enough buildings to make everyone think they got payback and that will be that. It has always been that way. But no one is quite so sure this time. It may end up being an actual Genocide of Gaza.
The Israeli army issued orders to close all resorts near the border with Lebanon.
Most interesting this morning so far: : US weapons left behind in Afghanistan were used to attack Israel.
A high-ranking Israel Defense Forces (IDF) commander said US weapons left in Afghanistan by the Biden administration were found in the hands of Palestinian groups active in the Gaza Strip.
POLAND EVACUATING NATIONALS FROM ISRAEL
Poland has announced it intends to evacuate its nationals from Israel. Poland threatens: If any Polish aircraft is targeted or Polish nationals feel in danger after their aircraft enter the airspace.” Article 5 of the 31-nation NATO alliance will be activated and raids will be launched across all of Palestine.
EUROPE WARNED OF COMING RIOTS
Intel sources are now urgently reporting that Muslims will be on the rampage in Europe shortly; burning every major city in protest of the coming Israeli offensive into GAZA.
The authorities running Gaza know they cannot withstand a full Israeli military onslaught, so they have reached out to Muslims in Europe to have THEM cause trouble, making the Gaza problem, Europe’s problem too. The thinking is that Europe will be able to call-off a full blown Israeli wipeout of Gaza.
Intelligence sources say worst hit will be Paris, Brussels, London, and Marseille.
ON SCHEDULE
Everything is going to plan and is on schedule.
The neutering of Israel is in process.
We do not know how severe it will be, but one thing is certain; the American “military center” located smack-dab in the middle of the Middle East is slipping away…
Remember boys and girls, the “news” is not intended to inform. It’s purpose is to distract and manipulate. And upon this great backdrop of chaos a new global world is emerging. One where the evil bankers and their crazy psychopathic “leadership” have no sway. You all have a front row seat to this. Do not blink your eyes, or you will miss something important.
When I was at Oxford, undergraduates reading Classics were among the most sought-after candidates in the whole place by elite employers (such as the brand name consulting firms, top investment banks etc).
Homer
Why?
A few reasons:
Classics was widely regarded as one of the toughest undergraduate disciplines at Oxford
For starters, it was a four-year course (rather than the 3-year duration more typical both at Oxford and at English universities generally)
It had the most extensive and rigorous examination schedule of all the Oxford undergraduate programs, with the most aggregate examination hours
Reading Classics meant learning Ancient Greek and Latin (which, while no doubt preferred, were not required to have been studied in high school in order to be admitted)
It takes a somewhat singular mind to want to pursue such a subject; in particular, one that is highly analytical and enjoys tackling complex and esoteric problems.
It was this combination of the difficulty of the material, the demanding and rigorous nature of the program, and the emphasis on analytical thinking that made it like catnip to employers. Anyone who would want to do this, the thinking went, and could succeed at it is no doubt someone who could excel at what we do, too.
i made you AWARE, but you didn’t acknowledge my WARNING!
Late in 1979, twenty-four-year-old Steve Jobs visited a research center in Silicon Valley called Xerox parc.
Xerox parc was the innovation center of Xerox Corp.
During the 70’s, Xerox had the world’s best engineers leading innovation at the time.
If you wanted to see the future, Xerox parc was the place to be.
Steve Jobs didn’t miss this opportunity.
He walked into the facility with a very clear purpose in mind.
What’s the lesson of Steve Jobs’s story?
Your brain can ONLY find what it’s intentionally looking for!
Xerox engineers invented the computer “mouse,” but focused on trying to solve other problems. They ignored the potential of their invention because they were not intentionally looking for it.
Steve had his brain focused on finding an opportunity.
Steve knew what he was searching for, and identifying this Xerox invention later changed the computer industry.
Steve later said in an interview, “Within ten minutes, it was obvious to me that all computers would be like this some day.”
To answer your question, what advice do I have for young people?
Today we live in a very complex economy.
Attention is the most valuable asset in the world.
So, my question to you is:
Where is your attention?
Do you know what you’re looking for?
If you don’t know what you want, you have a huge disadvantage in life!
Why?
Because every road leads to your “goal” if you DON’T know what you want!
It has made China accelerate its work to find ways to make their own high end chips. Huawei’s 7nm Mate 60 Pro gave evidence that China (SMIC) can and does produce 7nm chips in quantity. Pundits have been saying that with DUV, the yield is poor at 7nm so the cost will be high and output low. Obviously SMIC knows something these pundits don’t. They are producing millions of these 7nm chips. Huawei’s first order was for 20 million 9000s from SMIC. Last week it ordered 10 million more.
Media reports this week, says China has produced graphene chips equivalent to 3nm. If so, if this gets into production, that could change the direction of semiconductor manufacturing. Already, TSMC is working with Huawei and also expanding its chip production on the mainland. Huawei has stopped work on its Arizona fab, and dismissed all but Taiwan employees to keep the fab from deteriorating. Intel, likewise, has stopped construction of its mega’fab in Ohio. They see demand in decline and uncompetitive in the US. Both Intel and Qualcomm have begin ‘innovation centers’ on the mainland and forfeited any chance at subsidies from the US. Ditto for TSMC and Samsung. All semiconductor companies, foreign and domestic, are increasing their presence in China to save what they can of the China market.
Bottom line: Biden’s restrictions and sanctions have only increased the pace China seeks in semiconductor self-sufficiency. Some media reports say that China has already achieved 70% self sufficiency which was the original goal in China’s ‘Made in China 2025.’
Carl Zha on Huawei, ‘Chinese Spies’ and Chinese economy on Redacted
Our crew was building a 20 unit apartment complex. One of the guys was named Rick and during lunch one day he told us that before he got into construction, he used to be a bantam-weight boxer. He showed us some moves that were really impressive. Rick was short, broad-shouldered, well-built for a small guy, but had a lightning fast jab that you could hear but couldn’t see fly. He was amazingly fast and skilled.
A few months later, a new guy joined the crew whose name was Randy. Randy was tall, muscular, good-looking, and arrogant. And he didn’t like Rick. Rick was a little slow with being permanently punchdrunk, so Randy just thought he was an idiot. Day after day, Randy just pestered Rick with all kinds of insults and bullying and just verbal rancor. Day after day, week after week, the insults and bullying continued, and Rick just ignored him, or at least try to.
One Friday afternoon Randy was walking behind Rick on the job site and the insults were flowing like a river. Finally, Rick had had enough and told him, “Randy f-ing shut up.” But of course Randy didn’t stop, it just made him go off even harder and faster with the insults. Then Rick warned him again, “Dude, you better shut up! You’re gonna piss me off.” But naturally, Randy, being who he was, didn’t take the hint, and he continued on and on for the next few minutes.
The next thing we knew Randy was literally sitting on the deck on his butt, holding the side of his chin and face with his hands. No one even saw the punch fly, especially Randy. he just sat there on the deck sitting on his butt, and then he said “You hit me!” I honestly think it took Randy a few seconds to realize he’d been hit with a lightning fast right jab that left him on his ass.
The next words out of Rick’s mouth were, “Dude, I told you to shut up.”
The next words out of Randy’s mouth were, “Ah, yea.”
Then Rick says, “Just be glad I pulled that punch.“
The rest of us just stood around there looking dumbfounded. I got the impression that if Rick had not pulled that punch, he would’ve spun Randy around three times landing him on his face utterly unconscious.
Randy never insulted Rick again. It was glorious to watch a bully get knocked off his high horse!
I have a friend who was a Ph.D.microbiologist out in Silicon Valley.
He was brilliant – He developed a rapid test for detecting resistant microorganisms that have netted his firm billions of dollars and saved countless lives.
After he completed that, his female boss refused to give him any projects to work on and wanted him to ”let the woman employees have a chance to shine now”.
For the next 3 years, he came to work, with no assignments, and just read or searched the internet for 8 hours a day. His boss told the other employees not to bother him.
He was getting bored and restless with no work and had a couple of discussions about it with his boss.
He and his husband had purchased a retirement home in Fort Lauderdale and they had been spending vacation time fixing it up for when they retire. He was not ready to retire and was still working after 65.
One time when he was in Fort Lauderdale to work on the house, his company-owned cell phone suddenly quit working, He called his boss to see what was up. She told him that they were terminating him because he was not doing anything.
They deposited his final check and a severance check directly to his bank account, They terminated his computer access (understandable, but they would not even let him have access to his personal research notes).
They hurled all his personal items from work into a box and broke some of them. It was delivered to his apartment knowing he was out of town. It was placed by his apartment door. Fortunately, a neighbor found it and saved it for when he returned. Lastly, they demanded that he send his 10-year-old cell phone back by mail right now (that is just crazy, Do you know how much a 10-year-old phone is worth?)
The worst thing they did to him was to cash out his multi-million-dollar company retirement account and stocks and deposit it into his checking account so that he was suddenly responsible for federal and California income tax in one lump sum. He was devastated! And they refused to talk with him anymore.
He is a pleasant, affable person who always wanted to help out his coworkers. We have known each other for 45 years and this was the first time I saw him cry.
He decided to bail out of working anymore.
It was a tremendous loss to the microbiology community and the lab tests that he could have brought to market to save countless people’s lives.
You Just Changed Timelines – Kyle Cease
He’s talking about “time lines”. But what he actually means is “templates”.
Triple Pepper Steak
This dish was made for meat lovers! Beef is sliced and seared in a wok, then tossed with a robust brown sauce filled with colorful bell peppers.
2023 10 12 12 35
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
Marinade and Beef
2 tablespoons oyster-flavored sauce
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
3/4 pound flank steak, thinly sliced across the grain
Sauce
1/3 cup beef broth
2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoon cooking oil
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced ginger
1/2 each green, red, and yellow bell peppers, julienned*
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 2 teaspoons water
1/2 fresh jalapeno chile, sliced
Instructions
Marinade and Beef
\Combine marinade ingredients in a bowl. Add beef and stir to coat. Let stand for 10 minutes.
Sauce
Combine ingredients in a bowl.
Place a wok over high heat until hot. Add 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, swirling to coat sides. Add garlic and ginger and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 10 seconds.
Add beef and stir-fry until no longer pink, 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.
Remove meat from pan.
Add remaining 1/2 tablespoon oil to wok, swirling to coat sides.
Add bell peppers and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add water and stir-fry until peppers are tender-crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Return meat to wok and add sauce; bring to a boil. Add cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until sauce boils and thickens.
To serve, garnish with chile slices.
Notes
* Pepper Prep: Cut off the top and bottom of the pepper. Next, make a single cut along the side, to open the pepper. Pull out and discard the central core of membranes and seeds. Now lay the pepper, skin side down, on a cutting board, spreading it out flat. Holding a sharp knife or cleaver flat against the pepper, trim away any remaining membrane. You now have a long flat rectangle that’s easy to slice crosswise.
A Slaughtered Cat Turned into a Beauty in the Hands of a Kind Girl
Suddenly, she noticed a small gray face peeking out from the dense bamboo.
When I was a young boy, my father would semi-frequently take us all to local museums. I really appreciated that. It was, and still is, some of my most favorite memories.
On one such visit my father bought me a small bronze mastodon. It was magnificent, but tiny and I loved it a lot.
I loved it because of the great long tusks. It looked so cool, and I loved to hold it in my hand. It was one of my favorite nick-nacks, and I set it proudly on my brick-a-brack shelf in my bedroom.
One day, I came home from school and discovered that my little treasure was tusk-less.
You see, my father was afraid that I might hurt myself with the tusks, so he sawed them off.
I don’t know where he got that “hair up his ass” about me hurting myself. After all, he got me a cub-scout pocket knife two years earlier. What’s this shit about pointy tusks?
Anyways, someone influenced him. Bastard.
…
My little story for today. Take what you will from it. Be careful of the poison that seeps into the ears of others. Who knows what damage it would do…
Today…
Western powers are falling behind in technology, held back by systemic rot
Western powers are falling behind in the development of new technologies, particularly in the military domain. This is partly caused by the perverse system of incentives that suffocates research and development work, but also by a system of education that’s producing less and less technical, scientific and engineering talent. From the strategic point of view, this is a critical problem, as I elaborated in an earlier Substack, “Of Empires and Technology.”
Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato Pie
Bacon Tomato Pie with Gluten Free Option
Ingredients
12 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled
1 cup shredded cheese
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup mayonnaise
Chopped onion to taste
4 eggs
1 cup Bisquick
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Butter a 9-inch pie pan.
Layer bacon crumbs on bottom and cheese on top.
Beat remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour over top.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes.
Cool for 5 minutes.
Garnish with mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato and bacon.
Cutting of living essentials to Civilians is a violation of Article 33
However there are ways to spin this and claim this is NOT a collective punishment but a strategy for war
Israel may say, we are targeting the HAMAS but they hide among civilians and thus we have no choice
Israel may say “The 1949 Amendment was inserted when the world didn’t know about Terrorism of this type”
Israel may point out to the British inplementing the same violations in Belfast from 1963 to 1984 (Northern Ireland) or Malaya in 1955
They may point out US Violations in Vietnam between 1968–1972
So sadly today, the winners dictate the laws and their interpretation
At the 8th Eastern Economic Forum held earlier this month in Vladivostok, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin spoke about the development of a new generation of weapons: “If one looks into the security sphere, new physical principles weapons will ensure the security of any country in the near historic perspective. We understand this very well and are working on it.”
The kinds of weapons Putin was referring to include particle beams, laser, ultrasonic, radio-frequency and electromagnetic systems. That sounds quite futuristic – was Putin telling tall tales? When he announced that Russia had developed a variety of undetectable hypersonic weapons back in 2018, many in the West thought that he was bluffing and we heard much mocking and crowing: “the West outspends Russia 10 to 1, the Russians can’t possibly bla, bla, bla…” And like the Chinese, the Russians are inferior and incapable of innovating, they can’t think strategically, etc.
Fast forward to today: the Russian forces have successfully deployed hypersonic Kinzhal and Zircon missiles in Ukraine, delivering pinpoint strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure and military facilities, the crowing and the gloating about all the ways in which the Russians are inferior to us westerners has died down a bit. Still, we can’t just admit that Russian weapons systems are superior to the western arsenal, so the western press, relying on Ukrainian sources, claimed that Ukraine’s air defenses manage to intercept and shoot down Russian hypersonic missiles.
That would actually quite spectacular since NATO officials themselves have corroborated what Putin had said: that the missiles are undetectable and were not picked up by western radar systems. Either the Ukrainians have managed to develop targeting solutions very fast, using binoculars, or they’re lying. Whatever the case, Putin’s latest announcement did not trigger much mocking and crowing this time around. In fact, some western analysts now concede that Russia’s military technology has eclipsed that of the west.
The significance of hypersonic weapons
But how can this even be possible if for decades now, western “defense” spending outstripped that of Russia by a factor of 10 or even more? In a recent article titled, “Hypersonic Missiles Are Game-Changers, and America Doesn’t Have Them,” the Wall Street Journal explored why the US and the West have fallen behind.
“For more than 60 years,” says WSJ, “the U.S. has invested billions of dollars in dozens of programs to develop its own version of the [hypersonic weapons] technology. Those efforts have either ended in failure or have been cancelled before having a chance to succeed. … This situation is raising alarms.”
Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal didn’t provide any convincing explanation for why western powers are falling behind in development of new technologies. It also didn’t explore the fact that they even fall behind in production and maintenance of legacy systems. As NATO’s Admiral Robert Bauer lamented this week,
“Today the chiefs of defense expressed their concern that across the alliance, production capacity is lagging behind. Delivery times are moving to the right [they’re getting longer] and prices for equipment and ammunition are shooting up. Right now we are paying more and more for exactly the same, and that means that we cannot make sure that the increased defense spending actually leads to more security.”
Bauer’s statement is a clear admission that defense spending does not translate into better defense. He also said that, “Our liberal economies are not apt at creating the prioritization that is so desperately needed right now.”
The problem with incentives
There is a great deal to ponder in all this, but it is perhaps Admiral Bauer’s last statement that provides the most food for thought. Western powers do spend massively on the military, but most of that money is squandered, lubricating the wheels of corruption in the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). Spending the money (i.e. allocating it to defense contractors), is much more important than actually developing new systems and the upkeep of legacy systems.
In the United States, the MIC consists of publicly traded corporations whose market value is determined by how profitable they are. Today, about half of the Defense Department’s (DOD) $850+ billion budget is spent with the DOD’s top five “prime contractors” who, after decades of consolidation have all but eliminated all competition (in the 1990s the DOD had more than 50 such “prime contractors”).
Given that research and development (R&D) is a cost which cuts into profitability of these very powerful contractors, they’re incentivized to reduce it as much as possible to maximize the profiteering. The more profits, the higher the stock price and the higher the executives’ bonuses. On the other hand, cutting the R&D and skimping on the essential work of technology development means that a lot of real talent and promising projects get axed even as massive pork-barrel programs like Lockheed Martin’s F35 Joint Strike Fighter drain trillions of taxpayer funds. The F35 is now more than 15 years behind schedule and for its $1.7 trillion in expenditure, the program has delivered no meaningful military advantage.
Meanwhile, the lobbying arm of the MIC makes sure that such spending remains protected behind the flag and a veil of patriotism. Military generals who go along are rewarded and those who challenge the system get sidelined. That is how our wonderful “democratic system” sources top talent and delivers bestest solutions. The problem is that the top talent it draws are MBAs, lawyers and lobbyists, not scientists, engineers and systems developers. The actual military capabilities of the United States only receive lip service necessary to keep the American public distracted and unable to identify the root of the problem which is corroding the competitiveness of American industries in a very real way.
Losing talent
However, there may be deeper problems blunting the West’s technology edge, including education and cultivation of skills that are required for the challenge. Today, fewer than 20% of Americans choose STEM degrees in universities (STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) as more and more talent gravitates toward law and business degrees or humanities like gender studies.
According to the UNESCO, in countries like Tunisia and Malaysia as many as 37.9% and 43.5% of students (respectively), choose STEM degrees. In Germany, UAE, Belarus and India about 35% of students choose STEM degrees. While it’s true that western nations can overcome the shortage of human potential by attracting foreign talent, more and more nations today offer great career opportunities and compelling work to young professionals, so western nations face tougher competition for talent.
Ignorance is strength?
There’s also the problem of rigor in education, which has gone very loose in the West, and it is even affecting the prevailing cultural environment. Today for example, if you say that there are only two genders, your career could be finished that day. But if you insist that feelings matter more than facts and that 2+2 = 5, you could have a stellar career and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation might even fund your cause with tens of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, it is the Chinese youth that are sweeping the medals in one math competition after another. They may not know how to count genders, but they seem better prepared to solve practical problems.
Wife Self-Deletes After Husband Discovers All 4 Kids Aren’t His
I can feel the love in this gentleman’s heart. I had the same for the son I raised for over 2 years and found out he wasn’t mine. It takes a toll on your sanity. I was down for years afterwards and gave up on women for around 10 years, and still couldn’t ever trust another woman for the rest of my life. Which is a shame because I have a lot of love in my heart to give, but western women are just horrible. No accountability at all for anything. I will definitely be saying prayers for this guy and his kids
When I married my ex, he had an 18 month old boy. I loved him as my own. I raised him for 5 years before my ex and I divorced. It was an awful marriage and my ex was never around. The boy’s mother showed up to visit him maybe once every 2–3 months. I had to stay with my parents while I was getting the divorce. They hated my ex and were very controlling of me. It was a very small community and everyone knew everyone.
In the courtroom (ex didn’t show up), the judge asked where my son was. I responded that he was my step-child and I didn’t have any rights to him. The judge said “He IS your son. He loves you as his own mother. In fact, he loves you more than his own mother.”
I responded that I couldn’t have him. The judge said “Do you want him? I can make it to where you’ll never have to deal with his biological parents. He needs you!” I thought about it and knew that my parents would have a fit. I declined the offer and cried the rest of the day. My mother told me they would never let me stay with them with my boy.
This horrid story does have a happy ending! My mother called me one day out of the blue. She said “Someone knocked on our door and when I opened it, the handsomest young man was standing there. He said “Is my Mama here?”. She invited him in and they had a wonderful visit. She gave him my phone number and he called me! That was 30 years ago. My boy came to live with us at the age of 17. He stayed until he met and married a wonderful young lady. We have the best relationship ever! I have 5 grandchildren from him and 3 great grandchildren! I love my boy so much!
UPDATE: I am very surprised by the responses to this. Please understand. I was very young, had no job and no way to support myself and a child. My parents were very controlling and were afraid my ex would use the child to worm his way back into my life.
I am 61 years old and for much of my life, I have seen the Arab/Israeli hatred for each other manifest in tragedy after tragedy, fight after fight, war after war and frankly I’m sick of it. I say, let them fight it out to the death. Right now.
It’s not like we didn’t try. We did. We spent literally hundreds of billions of dollars trying to educate, placate, pacify, please, or even coerce, both sides into behaving like normal human beings. It has all failed.
You see, the mistake we’ve made for decades, is treating these Barbarians as if they are civilized people. They aren’t. Neither side!
Their never-ending fighting, bickering, and warring has been going on since before Jesus Christ walked the earth two thousand or so years ago. And these Barbarians — and that’s what they are – have hated each other, deceived each other, fought each other, and killed each other for that entire time.
As the world got smaller thanks to modern travel and innovation, both sides recruited others into their age-old hatred. The Jews with money, the Arabs with oil and the wealth it generates.
It’s NEVER going to stop, unless we in the rest of the world, step back, and tell them both: Go at it. Go ahead, slaughter each other. We don’t care anymore. We’re tired of your bullshit. We’re tired of paying you to be nice to each other. We’re tired of hearing how you’re both always being wronged by the other. We’re tired of you. We don’t want YOU or your bullshit in our lives anymore.
So go fight it out. Kill each other. Fight until you’re ALL dead for all we care. But if any of you survive, we will be ready to have good relations and do business with whoever wins.
You see, it’s simple: the world will know absolutely no peace unless and until the two sides are allowed to slaughter each other.
I don’t care if the entire Middle East runs knee-deep in blood. We in the United States, and the rest of the civilized world, should do absolutely nothing.
Both sides are big talkers. Both sides are tough guys. OK, let’s see how that works out when big brother America is no longer there to influence the outcome.
Let’s see how each side does when the checks written by their big mouths, arrogant posturing, and intransigent positions, have to actually be cashed by their bodies as they fight it out to the death.
Your mouths have been writing checks that your bodies can’t cash. It’s time to ante-up and fight it out once and for all.
Go ahead and slaughter each other. The rest of us just don’t give a shit anymore.
Oh, and if any Americans or Europeans are so incensed at the situation that THEY think WE should be involved, then THOSE PEOPLE in the US and in Europe should head on over to whichever side they support, and offer to fight along side them.
Let them get killed to. This way the rest of us can have peace.
Sorry to go anonymous, but I never feel comfortable enough to reveal my name.
I was about 7 years old and my sister was 5, we just came home from Halloween and were sitting on our carpet in our room, dividing our candies in equal parts (but mostly eating all of them).
I remember my sister suddenly stopped talking, looked at me in the eyes without saying a word, with her eyes wide-open, pointing at her throat.
She was suffocating and I started panicking. I was taught in school what to do so I put myself behind her and started pushing above her stomach, but as you can imagine I didn’t have much strength as a 7 years old.
My mum, whom I had been desperately calling from the beginning, rushed in our bedroom and started taking my place in doing the “move” but nothing was working. I was sitting in our carpet, helpless and in full panic mode, watching my sister turn more and more blue as seconds went by. I really thought I would have seen her die in front of me and I couldn’t bear to look. I shouted “sorry, sorry, I will always love you” and closed myself in the toilet, crying and shouting as if the world was going to end.
After maybe 2 minutes, but it could as well have been much less (Time always seems stretched in situations like these) I hear the bedroom go silent. I hear my mom stopping to try. And I hear… breathing. Heavy breathing.
I’m scared that if I go in the bedroom I will see her dead, but I gather my courage and exit the bathroom.
Turns out my mum had grabbed her by the feet in hope to let gravity do its work, as a last hope move… and it worked. She had inhaled a whole hard candy and it was stuck in her throat, slowly suffocating her.
The candy was still on the carpet when I entered the room, and there was my sister, on the ground, slowly going back to a normal color.
I hugged her so tight that she almost lost her breath again, but I was the happiest person in the whole world. That time I really thought I would have lost her.
From that day on, I always check if she bites the candy as soon as she puts them in her mouth. When she lost her back childhood teeth, I would take her candy and break it into little pieces with my knife, and then give it to her. She sometimes got annoyed but she will never know the fear I felt that day.
15 years later and I’m still as attached to my sister as I was that day. I still secretly check if she bites her candies. It truly traumatized me for good. I never want to lose her.
WSJ Joins Neocons To Instigate War On Iran
Updated below.
The neo-conservatives want to blame Iran for the current war in Palestine/Gaza.
They have for years tried to instigate war against it. Now they again see a chance. But its not a big one – yet.
Asked whether Hamas may have acted in partnership with Iran to disrupt the effort to broker a Saudi deal, Blinken said “that could have been part of the motivation. Look, who opposes normalization? Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran.”
But, he said, “we have not yet seen evidence that Iran directed or was behind this particular attack.”
—
Fear not, say the neocons, we still have the Wall Street Journal to carry water for us:
DUBAI—Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group.
Officers of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had worked with Hamas since August to devise the air, land and sea incursions—the most significant breach of Israel’s borders since the 1973 Yom Kippur War—those people said.
Details of the operation were refined during several meetings in Beirut attended by IRGC officers and representatives of four Iran-backed militant groups, including Hamas, which holds power in Gaza, and Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group and political faction in Lebanon, they said.
WSJ authors in Dubai(!) have access to “senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah”?
Both groups are notorious for their secrecy and their senior leadership is usually hidden away. Those facts alone are enough to debunk the report as nonsense. But the WSJ authors continue:
“We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate this account,” said a U.S. official of the meetings.
A European official and an adviser to the Syrian government, however, gave the same account of Iran’s involvement in the lead-up to the attack as the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members.
Asked about the meetings, Mahmoud Mirdawi, a senior Hamas official, said the group planned the attacks on its own. “This is a Palestinian and Hamas decision,” he said.
A spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations said the Islamic Republic stood in support of Gaza’s actions but didn’t direct them.
“The decisions made by the Palestinian resistance are fiercely autonomous and unwaveringly aligned with the legitimate interests of the Palestinian people,” the spokesman said. “We are not involved in Palestine’s response, as it is taken solely by Palestine itself.”
Three direct rejections by official sources of the WSJ claims get countered with an anonymous ‘European official’ and a likewise anonymous ‘adviser to the Syrian government’.
It is like the authors don’t even try to sound believable:
A direct Iranian role would take Tehran’s long-running conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of broader conflict in the Middle East. Senior Israeli security officials have pledged to strike at Iran’s leadership if Tehran is found responsible for killing Israelis.
The IRGC’s broader plan is to create a multi-front threat that can strangle Israel from all sides—Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the north and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas in Gaza and the West Bank, according to the senior Hamas and Hezbollah members and an Iranian official. … Israel has blamed Iran, saying it is behind the attacks, if indirectly. “We know that there were meetings in Syria and in Lebanon with other leaders of the terror armies that surround Israel so obviously it’s easy to understand that they tried to coordinate. The proxies of Iran in our region, they tried to be coordinated as much as possible with Iran,” Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said Sunday.
There is however little evidence for the Israeli assertion:
Leading the effort to wrangle Iran’s foreign proxies under a unified command has been Ismail Qaani, the leader of the IRGC’s international military arm, the Quds Force.
Qaani launched coordination among several militias surrounding Israel in April during a meeting in Lebanon, The Wall Street Journal has reported, where Hamas began working more closely with other groups such as Hezbollah for the first time.
Hamas and Hezbollah have cooperated for decades. During the war on Syria some Hamas members took the side of the ‘moderate rebels’. They taught them how to dig large tunnels, a technique they themselves had once learned from Hizbullah:
Abu Musaab, a leader in Ahrar al-Sham, told the pro-uprising satellite television station Orient News that the Syrian militant group received tutorial videos from Gazans showing them how to repair collapsing tunnels.
“The ground here became damp and began to fall on us…and some of our youth were trapped inside. So we spoke to those with expertise, our brothers in Gaza, may God reward their good deeds,” Abu Musaab was quoted as saying.
“We consulted them regarding the problem and they advised us to bring in wood (plates), sending us video segment showing us how they do it and we replicated that,” Abu Musaab added. … And in June 2013, the pro-Hezbollah al-Akhbar newspaper reported that “sources close to Hezbollah and the Syrian regime claim that Hamas had a role to play in the battles of Qusayr, [where tunnels] … had been dug using small Iranian devices that Hezbollah had transferred to Hamas.”
“Some of the explosives, they added, were found to contain electronic chips that Hamas had acquired from Iran and Hezbollah,” the Lebanese paper said.
After the war in Syria was decided in the governments favor, Hamas slowly found its way back into the resistance camp. Consultations between Hezbullah and Hamas have been constant since. Back to the WSJ:
Representatives of these groups have met with Quds Force leaders at least biweekly in Lebanon since August to discuss this weekend’s attack on Israel and what happens next, they said. Qaani has attended some of those meetings along with Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah, Islamic Jihad leader al-Nakhalah, and Saleh al-Arouri, Hamas’s military chief, the militant-group members said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian attended at least two of the meetings, they said.
This, however, is clearly no believable. Amir-Abdollahian is a professional diplomat, not a security official. While he has been deeply involved in political issues regarding Palestine he is unlikely to have been involved in any top-secret operational planning.
Also biweekly meetings between Qaani, Nasrallah and other high ranking resistance leaders are unlikely to have ever happened. Each such meeting would be a security nightmare.
The planning for the recent Hamas operation must have taken years not just the few month since August. While the WSJ lets it seem that there is operational coordination between the various resistance groups their real cooperation is on a way more strategic level.
Each group in the resistance axis has its own plans and goals. That does not exclude strategic cooperation, but not on the detail level of fighting:
Egypt, which is trying to mediate in the conflict, has warned Israeli officials that a ground invasion into Gaza would trigger a military response from Hezbollah, opening up a second battlefront, people familiar with the matter said. Israel and Hezbollah exchanged fire briefly on Sunday. … The Iranian official said that if Iran were attacked, it would respond with missile strikes on Israel from Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, and send Iranian fighters into Israel from Syria to attack cities in the north and east of Israel.
While there is no denying that Iran, Hezbullah, Hamas and others consult with each other on a high level, any deeper cooperation, training or assistance is unlikely to still exist. It is each on their own, but with a common big goal in mind.
The main reporter on this story, @summer_said, has a history of dishonesty and inventing stories. I fired her from Reuters in 2008 for this reason. I’m surprised that the @WSJ has hired her and is publishing her stories that are clearly bogus.
Posted by b on October 9, 2023 at 11:20 UTC | Permalink
The problem with going fast…
Paradoxically, even technology itself may have contributed to the slowing of progress in the west through the ubiquity of software tools that make problem solving much easier than it used to be. I recently came across this little chart on social media. I must say, I felt the sting of its message personally.
When I was in high school in Croatia, our training in mathematics and science was very extensive: we had 9 hours of math per week and 6 hours of physics in addition to chemistry, biology, information technologies, software programming and more. It was a lot of work – so much so that when I came to the United States and enrolled in AP (advanced placement) math as a high school senior, I found the program very easy and aced it without even trying very hard.
By today however, I’m definitely at the “spreadsheet” stage of life: without Excel I think I’d be lost and I fear that my own conceptual thinking abilities and math problem solving skills have atrophied disconcertingly.
In the west, where fast and efficient problem solving is prized over conceptual thinking and inventiveness, more and more scientists and engineers work in that last, “spreadsheet” phase, quickly working out solutions to problems, perhaps at the expense of more creative, conceptual “out of the box” thinking.
The importance of pencil-and-paper work
In places like Russia and China, that broad-based thinking and working with pencil and paper is still very much prized and their educational institutions continue to insist on it (or at least have done so in the recent past). Of course, it would be difficult to assess how creative Russian or Chinese engineers or software developers are compared to their western counterparts, but beyond leapfrogging the west in development of hypersonic weapons, I came across an interesting case that speaks to this gap.
Namely, in 2009 Goldman Sachs pressed charges for theft of intellectual property against one of their software developers, a Russian man named Sergey Aleynikov. In 2013, Michael Lewis wrote a fascinating story about that case in Vanity Fair in which he revealed that more than half of Goldman Sachs’ software developers were Russian – an extremely interesting bit of information, especially in view of the notorious rigor which Goldmans is known to apply in recruiting their quants and software engineers.
Now, given that Russian software engineers don’t constitute half the population of the US, either Goldman Sachs liked to have a lot of Russians lurking around, or it could be that they found them better prepared to tackle tough problem solving. The latter possibility might also explain Russia’s ability to develop the Zircons, Kinzhals and Avantgard missiles as well as weapons based on new physical principles. Here’s how Aleynikov himself explained the difference between Russian and American education:
“In Russia, time on the computer was measured in minutes,” he says. “When you write a program, you are given a tiny time slot to make it work. Consequently we learned to write the code in a way that minimized the amount of debugging. And so you had to think about it a lot before you committed it to paper. . . . The ready availability of computer time creates this mode of working where you just have an idea and type it and maybe erase it 10 times. Good Russian programmers, they tend to have had that one experience at some time in the past: the experience of limited access to computer time.”
Indeed, clicking “run,” then deleting and retyping code is no substitute for doing a lot of thinking, which is absolutely indispensable to building high quality, reliable solutions and genuinely useful innovations.
My own experience with ‘pencil-and-paper’ R&D
My own experience in developing the I-System trading model confirmed its importance. In 1999, when my team and I built the model’s prototype, it turned out to be a maintenance nightmare and it was clear that I needed to hire serious software talent to turn the prototype into a reliable tool. For a few months in 1999 I worked with an American software engineer, David B., who had recently graduated from Stanford University. Although David was extremely bright, he was literally working in the debug mode almost nonstop.
He was able to maintain the software and fix bugs as they crept up, but the code itself was growing into a patchwork of fixes and workarounds. I began to worry that sooner or later it would become unmaintainable and in 2000 I decided to hire an older engineer from Croatia, Boris Brec. Boris was old school and he insisted on extensive pencil-and-paper foundation work. He pretty much told me that he wouldn’t lift a finger until I had drafted the full set of specifications explaining exactly how the model worked, including schematic process-flow drawings of all the routines under the model’s hood.
The process of upgrading the I-System from the prototype to its ‘industrial’ version was extraordinarily labor-intensive, costly, and it took four years to complete. That was the cost of quality, which included the tradeoff between diving headlong into trading and continuing with the fastidious development work, going over every algorithm with a fine tooth-comb and testing everything ad nauseum. I was only able to do this because I managed to wrest full control and ownership over the project from my superiors.
Had the costs of project’s development impacted someone’s bonus, the firm’s profitability or market cap, it would have been axed and never lived to see its upgraded version. Fighting to keep the project alive and adequatly funded was a struggle at every turn. For me it is easy to see how frequently great and promising projects must die over money, missed deadlines and organizational politics.
Quality solutions, breakthroughs require abundant time and resources
The difference between I-System’s prototype and the upgrade was the change from nonstop maintenance patchwork with David to the flawlessly functioning, zero-maintenance machine put together by Boris. It was worth the four years and every euro spent on it: quality is the gift that keeps on giving, not only in having the system that functions as intended, glitch free for 20 years, but also in having the peace of mind, never fearing whether all the patchwork maintenance introduced new hidden bugs into the edifice.
The experience has taught me that this kind of work MUST begin with pencil and paper, that it must be methodical, that it must be given adequate time and resources, and that if we want to achieve quality solutions we must be willing to bear the associated costs. Where the system of incentives generates pressures to cut corners, take shortcuts and rush out half-baked solutions, it will ultimately suffocate creative work and kill many quality solutions before they had the chance to prove their merit.
Programs like supersonic weapons are only symptoms of self-inflicted systemic headwinds that are now slowing the advancements of science and technology in the Western world. A reform – nay, an overhaul of the system – will have to look at those perverse incentives as well as our educational and governance systems. This won’t be easy, especially as the western nations have deliberately seeded their political and academic structures with ideologues and zealots who are far too busy policing social justice, hate speech and gender equality to worry about the real future challenges faced by our societies.
Was looking at one of my wife’s old cookbooks, for some reason and found the old lore and wisdom in the book fascinating. It’s hard to imagine people believed these things back then.
Like these:
‘When frogs holler, rain will soon foller.’ That could help my weatherman who has no idea when it’s going to rain.
‘Anyone born when the mulberries are ripe have a good chance of being red-headed.’ That one has got to be true, right?
Here’s an old insult. ‘His family is like potatoes. All that is good of them is underground!’
‘Corn is not ready to grind into meal until it is dry as an old maid’s kiss’ ouch.
‘We huckleberry gatherers don’t like to admit it, but what we call huckleberries are actually mountain blueberries.’ “I’m your huckleberry,” Doc Holliday.
‘To take the last piece of bread on a plate foretells rain.’
If a piece of buttered bread drops on the floor butter side down, it will rain soon.’
“We’re eatin’ the long corn now,” meant one was finally financially well off. No wonder it’s raining so much in my area. Happens to me all the time.
‘Corn must be knee high by the fourth of July.’
‘Onion skin very thin, mild winters coming in. Onion skin thick and tough, coming winter cold and rough.’
I love this one. ‘When you are tired of life and all its busy scenes; just run to the garden and hide behind the beans.’ God I wish I had a garden sometimes!
‘Always bake a cake when the sun is going up or it will fall.’ The cake or the sun?
‘A cow with its tail to the west, weather the best. A cow with it’s tail to the east, makes weather the least. ’THATS what my weatherman needs, a cow. He’s always wrong.’
‘If a bat flies into your head, you’ll soon become bald.’ Now we know what happened to The Rock and John Travolta to name a few.
Okay guys, here it is. A cure for baldness. ‘Consume the gall of a lizard, fresh mouse meat or mole’s blood.’
‘To prevent lockjaw, ‘If a needle is stuck in a foot, put fat meat next to the puncture then a penny over that.’ I’ll try that next time. The hell with a tetanus shot.
To cure a blister, ‘Kiss a red headed fellow.’ I’ll bet a lot of red headed guys were hanging around women sweeping the floor.
A good spring tonic? Anvil dust mixed with cream. Yum.
To cure asthma. ‘Stick the dried skin of a mole to the chest with honey.’ Did people really do that back then?
Mock cherry pie? Use cranberries and raisins.’ No one will tell the difference. Especially if they’ve never had cherry pie before. Then make them a sandwich of mock chicken.
To prevent mumps. ‘take a chip of wood from a log, and rub it on your jaw and throat every day.’ And see how many girls you’ll meet. None maybe? “Watch out for Ned, he’s off his rocker. Keeps rubbing a hunk of wood on his jaw and throat!” “Eeeeuuuw” “Here he comes! RUN!”
In the mid 1700s, women shaved their foreheads and eyebrows so they could press on mouse skin eyebrows. Girls, don’t you wish you lived back then. Save a lot of money on makeup.
Hi, Jain Patel. Thanks for the very interesting question.
No, China doesn’t have any school colleges, science centers, institutes, or science universities.
We get a couple of years of primary school, but after that, we all have to go and get tracker microchips implanted at the base of our skulls and start working in the Factories.
These Factories are run by our alien overlords.
Here are some pictures I took on my way to work.
These are the “Prime Sentinels” that guard the Factories. If you are late for work, you will get stomped on.
image 143image 144image 145
The vast majority of us live in the mountains.
We have to bore holes into the mountains, and we live in those holes.
With a year’s salary, we get to buy a house/bedroom. I say house/bedroom because the house is literally just one room – your bedroom. That room is your house, and it’s also your bedroom.
Here’s a picture I took of my house/bedroom.
The view’s not too bad. Especially in the morning.
image 146
Here’s a pic of my neighbors’ house/bedrooms. These guys live just below me:
image 147
The pay for working in the factories isn’t that great. I get paid USD 0.01 a day. If I work overtime, I get paid USD 0.001 an hour.
Thankfully, the soil in the mountains is pretty good and we can grow a lot of vegetables in our allocated community gardens.
Here is the community garden allocated to the people who live on my side of the mountain. Everyone gets to take home a small piece of broccoli for dinner.
Oh, and because we don’t have electricity in China, the three most common modes of travel are:
(1) Horse:
(2) Boat:
image 148
(3) Sword (powered by qi):
image 150
Some of the richer peeps own aero-cycles. These are tiny little bike/seating platforms powered by qi:
image 149
Since there’s no electricity, we have to find creative ways to spend our weekends.
Going to the local monastery to hone our martial skills is one option:
image 152
As is hiking in the hinterlands:
image 151
In the evenings, some of us enjoy playing mahjong at the local park.
A long time ago, a race of giants used to live in the mountains. For some reason, they enjoyed cutting down the many giant trees that dotted China’s many mountain ranges. The tree stump you see below is just one of many giant tree stumps you’ll find up here in the mountains.
It makes for a great mahjong table.
image 153
Conclusion (a.k.a. TLDR):
No, Jain Patel , China doesn’t have any school colleges, science centers, institutes, or science universities.
As a United States Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, I went to work one fine morning, to discover a young lady laying down on the horn of her car at 0730 in the morning! Dressed like they were going to the beach?
She had some of her Girlfriends with her.
I approached her, and inquired what the problem was, and pointed out to her that she was blaring her car horn in front of an enlisted barracks FULL of people who worked 2nd Shift and the Graveyard Shift that needed their rest and sleep. Military Police, Watch Standards, Cooks, Bakers, Corpsmen (Medics) etc.
She responded with, do you know who my Daddy is? Pointing towards the Blue Base vehicle sticker on thr lefthand , lower windshield. Sticker with THE STAR!
(Meaning her Whoever Whatever was a Commissioned Officer) !
And laid down on the car horn again!!!!
I called the MP’s on her and reported her! And went to work (It was on a Sunday) Forgot, all about it.
Next morning? (A Monday) I had the Commanding General of Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina walk into my office with his daughter apologizing to me!!! A Marine Staff Sergeant?
Disabled cat was about to be euthanized. This woman took her home.
Epic Games laid off over 800 of its employees on Thursday.
The official number is 830, but the actual number could be well into 900 because of various legal considerations outside the US and Canada.
And I’m one of those 16% unlucky bastards who got screwed over.
I already signed my severance package, so I can’t say much about this other than this is such a shitshow. Layoffs are, unfortunately, very common in the video game industry, to the point that it’s almost expected. But the way Epic did it, it’s just so … anyway, Like I said, if I want my severance, I better shut the fuck up about it.
I was in shock on Thursday when I got the news. It was so sudden. I got an email around 8 am in the morning (PST), and within half an hour, all my company access was shut down/removed. I get up early because I work East Coast hours. A lot of my West Coast colleagues don’t start their day until 10 a.m., and they arrive at the company with everything shut down and no longer have a job. I had to reach out to my co-workers via text because Slack is no longer accessible. I imagine, if I were working at the office, this would be the time when the security escort all of us out of the building.
I guess when you have to cut 900 people, you have to be quick and brutal about it.
900 people, that’s the size of a large company. Poof, gone.
Thinking back, this is actually the first time since I started working in video games that I got laid off. For over a decade, I dodged every layoff from every company I was with until my luck finally ran out. You play the game company layoff Russian roulette, there’s always a bullet waiting for you sooner or later.
All things considered, severance is generous. We have 60 days of pay from the WARN Act and then 4 months of severance. So, all together, I’m covered for 6 months until I need to dip into my savings.
After the initial shock, anger, and fear, and frustration, and anxiety, I actually started to feel better about it. I went to bed that evening, realizing I didn’t need to get up at the crack of dawn every day from now on. My brain suddenly has some extra processing power because I don’t need to think about work-related stuff anymore. It’s funny. I found myself habitually thinking about the stuff I was doing before I got laid off, the Tableau project I was working on, the AirTable updates I needed to do… And I realized, wait, none of that matters anymore. When I was working, there is a portion of my brain never stopped thinking about work. It’d be like a program running in the background, taking up memory and CPU. Even if I’m on vacation or holiday, that program is always running. I can’t shut it down.
Now, it’s gone. And I feel lighter with an odd sense of emptiness.
I realized this is my opportunity to take a step back and think about what I want with my life. Do I even want to go back to the video game industry? Or do I want to try something new? I’m already 43. If I want to make a pivotal change in my life, this is perhaps the last time I still have the energy to do it.
Maybe I could start a podcast! LOL.
On the bright side, Epic might screw us over, but the people who are laid off and people who are still working for the company are so supportive. I’ve already joined several slack/discord spaces organized by Ex-Epic folks. We vent about the layoff, and we pull our resources to help with job searching and networking. I have multiple people reaching out to me with tips and potential job leads. Recruiters are already sending me emails hours after I put on the “Open to Work” sticker on LinkedIn. The general consensus on social media is overwhelmingly supportive of employees who recently lost their jobs. So all of these is really nice, makes me feel less isolated and shitty about this whole thing.
And of course, there’s Baldur’s Gate 3. I just finished my first run as a Warlock. My Tav saved the World from the big bad. The game landed on a positive note, with Tav and Astarion going on their next adventure together, even though I couldn’t give every single companion their own happy ending.
I immediately started my second run as Dark Urge oathbreaker Paladin Tav. I’m thinking about doing a “good ending” run again, with Tav trying to resist the Dark Urge.
Maybe on my third run, I’ll do a total evil run with “Ascend” Astarion. Although I still want to try the Bard class. I heard so many good things about playing as Bard, with so many fun dialogue options.
That’s already another 2 runs, meaning an additional 200–300 hours. And there’s Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty and, of course, Starfield. My schedule is full! LOL.
Maybe 5 or 10 years from now, I’ll look at this period of time thinking, “While it sucked at the time, I’m glad I got laid off from Epic. Otherwise, I’ll never <insert awesome stuff here>.”
Lavrov’s answer to Blinken’s Ukraine conflict freeze
When my oldest daughter was about 2 years old, a longtime and very dear friend stopped by for a visit. The friend referred to me as his second mom. Danny was a good good guy who made a lot of mistakes. I always treated him with love; and, I gave him advice when he asked for it. Outside of his asking, I only gave advice when he was doing something that could hurt him or someone else. After his visit, I was sitting in the living room when my daughter picked up a plastic bag. It’s contents were a white powder. It was cocaine. I was livid. I flushed it. Later, Danny called frantically and asked if I had found anything that he may have left. I told him about the bag and he admitted that it was his; he had accidentally dropped it. I told him that he was no longer welcome in my home. He was upset that I flushed it. Oh well, I didn’t care if he was mad. He didn’t understand why I was mad. You brought something into my home and lost it. My child picked it up. If I hadn’t seen it immediately, I’m sure that it would have been in her mouth. That’s what little children do. I have no doubt that this would have killed her had she consumed it. Danny did apologize later. But, I couldn’t allow someone that reckless into my home.
I realize that flushing it might not have been a good solution. But it was the only way I could think of to get it out of my home ASAP.
Waffle Potatoes. Holy shit this is good!
So in case you didn’t know, hubby was a professional chef. He cooks for us M-F and I have started cooking on weekends (I do need to know how to care for myself). He teaches me things as we go. Tonight was a carb bomb that is so damn tasty! He said the only place you will ever see this in a restaurant is a staff meal because it’s used to teach technique (knife cuts). He remembered it last night and decided this was going to be dinner tonight.
Ignore the smudge of mayo on the plate. There were 3 of these and I only thought about posting here when I was down to one.
Basically, you take a potato, square it off and cut it into “steaks”. Then you use skewers to measure your cuts and make fine cuts on both sides to make it almost accordion-like. Boil them in an alkaline solution (water + baking soda), fry them until GBD (golden brown delicious), then top with stuff and put in oven to warm everything.
Ours were topped with caramelized onions with bacon and shredded cheddar cheese. When he took them out of the oven and put them on the plates, he drizzled them with a seasoned mayo.
I’m going into a happy, full food coma right now.
EDIT: Since so many people asked, I’m putting the recipe below. There aren’t too many measurements because he doesn’t really measure, so it may take a bit of tweaking. I’ll describe everything best as I can. I do not write recipes well.
3 large potatoes, like the kind you would use for a baked potato.
Skewers
Make your caramelized onions and any other toppings before even starting. We also used shredded cheddar cheese, so get that all done now. Here is how he did the mayo: 3parts mayo, 1 part sour cream, a dallop of dijon mustard, 2 garlic cloves smashed, salt, pepper, a dash of garlic and onion powder, and a spritz of lemon juice (not enough to squeeze a whole lemon half, just a few drops).
Start some water in a pot and add 2 TBSP of baking soda, NOT BAKING POWDER. Bring to a boil.
Square off your potatoes. Don’t worry about cutting the ends off. Cut the potatoes into “steaks”. I’d say they were about 1/2″ thick?
On your cutting board, place a potato steak and put a skewer on either side against the potato. DON’T SKEWER THE POTATO. The skewers are your cutting guides to make sure you don’t cut all the way through. (That was a super neat trick to me). Cut the potato diagonally along the entire length. Because I’m a visual learner, I did not understand this when he explained it to me, only when I saw it.
Flip the potato over and repeat on the other side cutting the opposite diagonal. Keep the potatoes in cold water while doing this so the ones you aren’t working on don’t dry out. When done, the potato should sort of be like an accordion. Don’t worry if you accidentally cut through a couple. If it’s just the end, take it off. If it’s through the middle, toss it.
Once all the potatoes are cut, put them in the now boiling water for about 8 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with foil and place a rack on top. We use a baking cooling rack.
Heat oven to 350F. Heat oil in a deep pan to 275F. We used a wok for the oil. You don’t need to fill the pan, but put enough in that it will cover the potato slices with a little more so they can move and not sit on the bottom.
When 8ish minutes have passed, pull you potatoes out of the boiling water and place them on the rack. It’s a convenient place to put them while you fry them in batches.
Fry the potatoes in batches in the oil once the oil is up to temp. Don’t over crowd the pan. You want to be able to flip them regularly. Fry until they look GBD (Golden Brown Delicious). Remove them back to the rack. Continue until all of them are fried.
Now put your toppings on, NOT THE MAYO. It doesn’t matter if the toppings are cold, that’s what the oven is for. He spread the caramelized onions pretty thick, like he was making a bruschetta. Sprinkle the cheese on top if you want cheese. (Who doesn’t want cheese?)
Put baking sheet in the oven and bake until the cheese is all melty and the toppings are warmed.
Place them on plates and drizzle with the mayo.
Make sure you have napkins and gobble that shit down.
China’s PC system announced to be permanently free, PC version of HarmonyOS system will come soon!
China is the only Nation on Earth who can manufacture Photonic Chips Cost Effectively
No other Nation on Earth Can
US gave it up nearly 20 years ago
You simply cannot run a sustainable Profit
The Scale for which Profit is required is simply unsustainable
The Demand would need to be So Tremendous to justify a scale which would involve ENTIRE CITIES dedicated to manufacture Photonic Chips.
Its not the Technology. The Technology is available openly and readily.
LIke Hypersonic Missiles
The Technology was available in 2000 itself and was nothing new. The Theory was available. However manufacturing efficiently was not possible and US decided it was not worth it.
China and Russia later managed to use their Manufacturing Dominance (China) and Raw Material Haven (Russia) to ensure they could make efficienct Hypersonics and ensure that they now have or plan to have a cost effective Arsenal.
Likewise Photonic Chips Manufacture can be done by China at Effective Cost and on a Scale large enough to achieve sustainability for its own Internal Domestic Market.
That is the Good News!!!!
So All Good?
2023 is simply impossible
Developing the Basic Infrastructure for Indigenous Implementation of the Technology may take 5 Years and another 3 Years for achieving Commercial Dominance
Thats 8 Years or 2030
In the meanwhile China still has to keep targeting the 3nm or 5 nm Wafer Fabrications Indigenously and keep spending the massive Scale of Production
So you see the Problem
China could abandon the 3nm/5nm Manufacture Aim and move completely to Photonic Chips but that would mean a 8 Year Gap and after that – the Results could be screwed up or the Photonic Chips may not work as China expects to
That means a Waste of 8 Years
The Cost of which would be a Delay in Chinas AI plans, Robotics Plans, Upgrading Technology plans
China could stay with the 5 nm/3 nm Manufacture Aim and achieve Indigenous Manufacture by say 2025–2027 and dominate AI and Robotics and move to the next phase of Technology
That would be easier than developing and taking a risk on Photonic Chips
Its the same as Abandoning the Option of Manufacturing of J-20s to make it as good as a F-22 Raptor , and instead seeking to manufacture the Avengers version of Aircraft
Better to persevere and make aircraft like the F-22 in 4–5 years than totally abandon everything to hope to make Captain Americas Helicarriers
Can China do Both?
That would be the thing
However it would need a Huge Load of Investment
HUAWEI
Huawei is in a perfect position to explore and work on Photonic Chips
Huawei has the Technological Edge and the Exponential Leap into cutting edge Research
SMIC
SMIC Meanwhile can continue to explore and keep targeting the Indigenous Supply Chain dominance of Chips within the Chinese Economy
Presently SMIC has achieved Commercial Production Capability of 14nm
And that was fast
So its a Lot of Hard Work and China shouldnt be like India
This “Ready to supply the World by 2023 and 1000 Times better”- this is Indian Language
Chinas language is always China Hopes to achieve indigenous control over its Chips and leave it there
Its Possible and if China can manage it – It would be incredible
Fingers Crossed!!!!
Time Travel Possible? Evidence Says Yes | 9 Time Travelers caught on film
Is time travel possible? According to physicists, yes. Time travel to the future is not only possible, it’s been scientifically proven.
But what about traveling to the past? Well, that’s a little trickier. BUT, there does seem to be evidence that travelers from the future have visited us in the past; and may be among us right now.
The human race has been fascinated with traveling through time ever since, well, ever since the human race understood what time was.
But has time travel been achieved by future humans?
And if so, did they leave us clues that they were here? We’ve scoured the internet for the best time travel stories we could find. You may know some of them. Some are hoaxes.
A few have been debunked. But there are a couple of stories that defy explanation. Why are we so obsessed with time travel?
Probably because we’re obsessed with time.
Time rules our lives.
Who doesn’t wish they could go back and talk to our younger selves, or meet our ancestors, or witness historical events.
Time creates possibilities; but time also ends possibilities. It’s finite. When a moment is over. It’s over. There are no second chances.
The expression “time is money” isn’t exactly true. Time is much more valuable than money.
Wealth can be made; lost and made again.
But time? Once we lose it, we can never get it back. Time is the most valuable thing you have.
Spend it wisely.
Beef Pies
beef and venison pie large
Ingredients
2 (8 ounce) packages refrigerated biscuits
1 pound lean ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon oregano
Instructions
Separate biscuits; then pat each on floured surface to 5-inch circles.
Lightly brown ground beef, onion and bell pepper in a skillet. Pour off fat.
Add remaining ingredients to the skillet and stir.
Place heaping portion of meat mixture on each biscuit circle. Fold in half and seal edges with a fork.
Deep fry until golden brown in 2 inches of oil at 375 degrees F.
Drain on paper towels.
Yield: 10 pies
My Wife & F**inist Daughters Turned Against Me & Took EVERYTHING…Now I’m Thriving & They’re Toast!
Amazing story. Many mistakes. Modern America. (Sigh)
The US is the true “empire of lies”, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Saturday, lashing out at a US State Department report that accused China of ploughing billions of dollars annually into information manipulation efforts.
China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, the US State Department said.
Despite the unprecedented resources devoted to the campaign, Beijing had hit “major setbacks” when targeting democratic countries, due to local media and civil society push-back, according to the report, which was produced under a congressional mandate to detail state information manipulation.
The report has disregarded facts, and is itself false information, the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.
The agencies of the US State Department that produced the report “were the source of false information and the command post of ‘cognitive warfare’,” the Chinese ministry said.
“Facts have repeatedly proven that the United States is the true ‘empire of lies’,” it added.
The US report comes amid controversy over China’s attempts in recent years to increase the global footprint of its government-controlled media. Beijing is seeking to combat the negative images of China it feels are propagated by global media.
Huawei chip disassembly report,18-core chip far exceeds its peers.TSMC Intel are starting to panic
Huawei chip disassembly report, The 18-core chip far exceeds its peers. TSMC and Intel are starting to panic
Well, in the smartphone arena, there is really only one foreign brand left in China.
Yes, Apple.
LG is gone.
HTC is gone.
Samsung is irrelevant.
Nokia, Motorola, Blackberry, Pixel, Sony and a host of has-beens or bit-players are all irrelevant.
It’s Chinese brands, and Apple, with 3 ecosystems, Hongmeng, iOS and Android.
No prizes for guessing how the balance will evolve, given the clear and present risk of disruptive sanctions forcing Google to pull Android licensing from other Chinese vendors.
In Africa, Transsion outsells Samsung, and Chinese brands as a whole dominate market share. Transsion, based in Shenzhen, has a sizable global share of >10%. It is the hidden champion no one has heard of.
The Chinese EV makers recently made waves in the Munich car show, with several media outlets trumpeting them as the “star of the show”. The Chinese overtook Japan as the No. 1 car exporting nation this year, and next year promises more growth.
Fancy Toyota defending its position in a sunset industry? I thought it impossible but the speed of the Chinese transition and the scale plus depth of the EV supply chain they have built is putting lots of doubt in my mind. Not to mention the dearth in AI/ML/big data/UI and battery advances among Japanese automakers.
It isn’t all doom and gloom.
Let’s take a cursory look at Hyundai’s EV strategy. The Ioniq series is a clear step up from the typical Hyundai ICE offering, with premium materials, interiors, paintwork and fit and finish typically not found in the price segment. It is positioned as a bang for the buck premium series, almost luxury, but affordable.
Why?
Because the Chinese are making the mass market EV impossible to compete on cost alone. Besides, volume production necessary for economies of scale are impossible without Chinese partners. Hyundai wisely decided to cede market space and move up the segment instead. Fewer but better, or like my friend puts it, becoming “German”. Hyundai is quietly positioning itself as the Korean BMW or Audi EV.
The Japanese have been slower in response. I am increasingly pessimistic about their chances. What happened to Honda and Mazda’s mainland operations in the past few years portend seismic shifts ahead. EVs are not like ICE cars, because there are critical materials and technologies upstream that China controls.
This time, the patent walls and enabling tools/tech favor China, too.
What happens when the Koreans, Taiwanese, and Japanese can’t make a killing through export-driven demand for their mass market goods?
They will have to move upmarket, selling less for hopefully, more, much like Sony’s repositioning and reorganization. Those that cannot adjust to the speed of the Chinese transition will be crushed.
There we have it.
The days of Samsung and Toyota hitting home runs from economy to premium is coming to an end. They will have to specialize and move upmarket, or bleed red competing with the Chinese.
We’re in for interesting times.
Very interesting times.
This is the real trade war, with abiding consequences.
Mirror Spock mind-melding McCoy
The part of the 4th episode “Mirror Mirror” of TOS 2nd season.
This oversight is easily fixable. Once NATO falls apart, and Finland faces the angry bear it poked and provoked for cheap thrills, its entire population will be shaken by the violent paroxysm of love to Russia and all things Russian.
Just kidding! Relax. Russia does not need Finland. Russia created this pesky nation from the ass of Sweden, like Eve from Adam’s rib, and let them go long time ago. It had many opportunities to re-annex them. If it did not, it means it just does not want to, because it is much better the way it is. That Finnish state and many Finns in Quora forgot all the good between the two countries and sold out their soul to the overseas Russophobes is too bad.
As an American of Russian background, I feel enraged that rabid Russophobes and neocolonialists possessing our government started the bloody conflict in Europe in 2014. When President Trump called Zelensky, in order to find out what is going on, he was impeached. Elections 2020 were rigged on an unprecedented scale, followed by the January 6th false-flag provocation timed to prevent Objections to be heard in Senate. The corrupt elite illegally holding power that belongs to We the People will not go without struggle.
USA Terminates Project! China Takes Over $25 Billion Saudi Military Projects | USA is Disappointed!
In 2019 exactly ONE MONTH before CNY and the launch of the COVID-19 bioweapon I received a call.
A Irish “company” wanted to interview me for a COO position.
They would pay me 500,000 yuan per month!
They were “supposedly” a billion dollar company and were interested in me.
So, of course, I had a zoom meeting with the HR manager.
…
But, there wasn’t an HR.
Instead it was a contractor who interviewed me for the CEO directly.
The CEO was “too busy” to chat with me himself.
Don’t you know…
…
As it was explained to me, the company was located in Shenzhen, made consumer products, billions of dollars in revenue, and wanted some basic questions about me, how I worked, and what I was doing.
They wanted to know my background…
RED FLAGS GALORE
There are no consumer appliance companies with billions of dollar revenue in my particular specialty area. I worked at the largest int he world. Multi-million dollar companies, sure. Billions. Nope.
I did a check on the company. Doesn’t exist in Ireland, and nothing inside of SZ or China.
They had a slick webpage. Lots of computer renderings of a office building… that did not exist. A leader profile of a bunch of guys in their 30’s. No one over 40.
No one could tell me what specific type of product that they dealt with.
No return or follow up calls. E-mail address were dead ends.
After the interview…. nothing.
No follow back, no rejection, no next steps. Etc.
I had three interns try to dig up information on the company. All failed. The company simply did not exist in any form, not even under a trade name.
…
The “Five Eyes” conducted an interview of myself prior to the release of the Covid-19 bioweapon. They must have done it exactly one week prior to the release.
They just wanted to know where I was, and what I was doing…
…figured that I was inert, and nothing of concern…
…and ignored me and let me be.
…
Life is funny, don’t you know. Especially if you are ME.
The U.S. don’t need any bad mouthing at all. It stands out clearly and vividly as a very barbaric nation that bullies most nations in planet earth. Everyone on earth knows there are only 3 types of allies the U.S. has. The US slave vassal states that has no choice of their own, their fellow despicable former colonial masters that needs to keep its loot sand plunder and perpetuate their crimes and small and weak nations that like to poke Russia in the eyes and then hide under the U.S. skirt.
These facts are so obviously clear to the entire world even though the U.S. has the best propaganda machine that has a full time job of demonising nations the refused to be submissive and subservient to them. This the U.S. has carried out for a full century. Hence there are some portion of west that buys into these like gospel truths.
China don’t need to do a thing to influence their people. Firstly the Chinese are highly influenced by Confucianism whose ethics and mantra include thinking for itself and seeking out the ultimate truths. The Chinese media has very few opinions. It doesn’t make judgements. They News are short precise to the point on facts, truth, accuracy and with proofs and evidence. Sort of it Chinese people refused to believed.
Western media ignores facts and propel set narratives that demonise China. As a default mode. It is opinionated and opinion filled. Chinese people don’t buy any of these shit. In fact almost no one buys any of these shit apart from some portion of the U.S. cronies. These represent no more than 5% of the world’s population and a mere dozen nations or so mainly Caucasians and Anglo Saxons.
I sincerely feels it don’t helped the U.S. and in fact hurt the U.S. image as most societies in the world don’t take kindly to lies innuendos and misinformation. It showed the weakness of the U.S. At best some nations fear the U.S. but almost no nation respects the U.S. I am here in QUORA to provide as much obvious truths mainly to them for their own good.
You Won’t Believe what Anthony Blinken Said !!
Anthony Blinken recently delivered a speech at John Hopkins University on the emerging new world order. I was astounded at some of the things he said. Here i give my thoughts and opinions
You know what’s a really big question that a lot of people are asking these days? It’s whether China’s economy has reached its peak or not. Whether China has run out of steam or still has some gas left in the tank. Whether China is facing a hard landing or a soft landing. Whether China is doomed to stagnate or destined to thrive.
Well, let me tell you something. That question is based on a false premise. A false premise that assumes that China’s economy is somehow close to its limit or its ceiling. A false premise that ignores the facts and the evidence that show otherwise. A false premise that overlooks the potential and the opportunities that lie ahead for China.
Because the truth is, China’s economy still has a lot of room to grow. A lot of room to grow and a lot of potential to unleash. And there are three main reasons why.
The first reason is that China has a massive and dynamic domestic market. A domestic market that consists of 1.4 billion people, which is the largest population in the world. A domestic market that boasts a fast-growing middle class, which is projected to reach 780 million by 2025. A domestic market that is becoming more diverse and sophisticated, as consumers demand higher quality products and services, and more personalized and customized experiences.
This means that China has a huge consumer base that can drive domestic demand and consumption, as well as innovation and entrepreneurship. This means that China has a huge market for new business models and sectors to emerge and flourish, such as e-commerce, digital entertainment, health care, education, green technology, and so on.
The second reason is that China has a strong investment in infrastructure, technology, and human capital. An investment that builds and upgrades its physical infrastructure, such as roads, railways, airports, ports, power grids, and so on. An investment that develops and enhances its technological capabilities, especially in areas such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, quantum computing, 5G, and so on. An investment that improves and expands its human capital, by providing access to education, health care, social security, and so on.
This means that China improves the connectivity and efficiency of its economy, as well as the living standards of its people. This means that China increases the productivity and competitiveness of its economy, as well as the innovation potential of its society. This means that China boosts the skills and well-being of its workforce, as well as the social stability and cohesion of its nation.
The third reason is that China has an active participation in global trade and cooperation. A participation that makes it the world’s largest trader of goods and services, accounting for about 13% of global trade in 2020. A participation that makes it a major source and destination of foreign direct investment (FDI), attracting $163 billion of FDI inflows in 2020, and investing $133 billion of FDI outflows in 2020. A participation that makes it a key player in regional and multilateral economic initiatives, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI), and so on.
This means that China can access new markets and resources, share its development experience and best practices, and contribute to global economic growth and stability. This means that China can benefit from trade liberalization, infrastructure connectivity, policy coordination, and mutual benefit among participating countries and regions. This means that China can pursue win-win cooperation and multilateralism with its partners around the world.
Now, this is not to say that China’s economy does not face any challenges or risks. It does. It faces challenges such as slowing down of population growth and aging of society; rising environmental costs and pressures; increasing income inequality and social discontent; intensifying trade frictions and geopolitical tensions; and so on.
But these challenges are not insurmountable. They are not impossible to overcome. They require China to adopt appropriate policies and strategies to address them effectively and proactively. Policies and strategies such as accelerating economic restructuring and transformation; promoting green development and ecological civilization; enhancing social justice and welfare; pursuing win-win cooperation and multilateralism; and so on.
These policies and strategies can help China overcome its difficulties and achieve high-quality development. Development that is balanced and comprehensive. Development that can benefit itself and the world.
So, to answer your question: No, China’s economy has not peaked or is close to peaking. Yes, China’s economy still has room to grow or potential to unleash.
And if you want to learn more about this topic or ask me any follow-up questions or comments, please feel free to do so on Quora.
My sister’s friend interned for a company over the summer.
Being a poor college student, she could not afford to rent furniture for the three months she spent living in the town of her internship.
She had just a blanket, a pillow, and a suitcase of clothes in her flat. She also had a plate, a glass, a mug, a pan, and a cookie sheet.
It was shocking to walk into her apartment, as a well-paid engineering intern, to see absolutely nothing but a blanket and a pillow in her apartment. It was empty.
One day, she invited the neighbor kid over to make some cookies. He was about ten years old.
He came into her apartment and made cookies with her and left back home after their stomachs were full.
The very next day, my sister’s friend heard a knock on the door. She opened to see her neighbor kid and his dad standing in front of her with an armchair. The kid had told his dad that her apartment did not have single thing in it.
They said, embarrassedly, “We’d like to donate this armchair to you.”
They carried it in, and set it down in her room as the sole piece of furniture in her entire apartment, and never spoke of it again.
She said she never appreciated an armchair more than that summer.
Spam came out in 1937, a product of Hormel Foods .The name Spam is said to have derived from Spiced Ham but that is not proven yet. It is made mostly with with pork shoulder, a cut not so much used at the time; a cheap cut of meat. Made of pork and ham, salt, sugar, potato starch water and good old sodium nitrate which I’m sure will be banned from foods in the future. The meat is ground up and the mixture is put into cans, vacuum sealed and cooked inside the can. After cooling, the cans are ready for sale. It is claimed by Hormel that 13 cans of SPAM are sold every second. I am one of those buyers.
It was invented because they were looking for a way that meat could be preserved not having to be refrigerated but kept on a shelf in the home. It could be eaten right from the can, baked or fried and was an inexpensive meal especially toward the end of the depression.
Later 100 million pounds of the stuff was consumed by Allied soldiers during WWII. Nikita Khrushchev stated that SPAM saved the Russian Army during the war. SPAM was sent to Great Britain from the US through the Land Lease plan and was used by many house wives the same as every where else. With the British and Canadian Armies it was tins of corn beef that they survived on. Spam was also eagerly devoured by the US military during the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Along with C rations of course.
I love both canned corned beef (from Brazil) and Spam and have tins of the stuff in the pantry. When I feel like some Spam, I will place one in the fridge for awhile, take it out then open the tin. I will either make a sandwich out of it or cut chunks and put them on a plate then slather relish and mustard over the Spam and gulp it down.
Same with the corned beef. I either make a sandwich or again, cut chunks and put them on a plate and with a fork, dip the meat pieces in mustard and again, gulp them down along with a pickle and slice of bread. Delicious.
The ten-year-old Belt and Road Initiative is not a concrete-pouring binge, at least not anymore. China is encouraging private enterprises to take a more active role and participate in projects labeled as “small and beautiful.” Some attribute the shift to China’s economic headwind and take it as a sign that the BRI is losing steam. This argument lacks a basic understanding of the rationale behind the China-proposed development initiative. The shift indicates the BRI has run its natural course and entered a new phase.
To expound it, one must go back to the central question: why did China put forward the BRI in the first place? Some clichés include: it is a geopolitical strategy designed to expand China’s sphere of influence; it is an ambition to counter the U.S-led global order; it is a series of investment projects to transfer domestic overcapacity and import raw materials; it is a charity program attached with political strings.
None of these arguments is close to the real picture. In essence, the BRI aims to bring the global value chains to the digital era. It is a globalization proposal that seems ahead of its time. Consider the following scenarios: a New York City resident and a villager from a remote town on the African continent browse the same TikTok videos on their cellphones (yes, both of them own more than one cellphone). A Chinese car buyer can purchase the latest Tesla model entirely built in China and cheaper than American consumers. A young person can get a postgraduate diploma from a UK university via remote study and be employed by the local branch of a UK-headquartered multinational without the necessity to set foot on British soil. Globalization in the digital era is disrupting the hierarchy of traditional value chains and blurring the boundaries of producers and consumers. In a word, this round of globalization is reshaping how factors of production are being distributed and utilized.
All this means the efforts to vitalize the newfound or hidden factors of production will be generously rewarded. It is common sense that most of these factors can only be found in developing economies. The promoters of the BRI are aware that the approach toward shared prosperity is to vitalize these factors of production and put them in the right places with a set of catalysts, such as transport and information connectivity, better education, poverty reduction, and empowerment of digital literacy.
From the perspective of China, the sustainability of its economic prosperity lies in how long and to what extent its economy will intertwine with the global value chains. As an economy at the middle end of these chains, it will take long and arduous efforts to climb up the established ladder. At the same time, it is inevitable to move away from merely being the world factory. All this has left China with little choice but to explore new foreign partners through new non-disruptive arrangements to the existing system, from which it has benefited a lot since reform and opening up, particularly since its accession into the World Trade Organization in 2001. More importantly, these new arrangements must also bear enough potential to create new opportunities for the new partners. It does not work if these projects only benefit China. This is the primary rationale of the Belt and Road Initiative.
Research shows that the private sector has proved to be more effective in creating and fine-tuning value chains compared with their government-led counterparts. Private companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, are the eventual driving force in this cause. In the beginning phase of the BRI, large and state-owned contractors took the lead in building basic infrastructure. Those projects helped to nurture political goodwill and energize local business partners. Thanks to them, private Chinese companies now feel more comfortable doing business in BRI countries.
Now, a paradigm shift is taking place. The private sector is catching up quickly and encouraged to play a more prominent role. An increasing number of big projects have adopted the Build-Operate-Transfer models, which emphasize the participation of local partners and the sustainability of the projects. More market players now prefer indirect investment, which has also proved more efficient and sustainable in maintaining the value chains. Besides, the Chinese government encourages projects labeled as “small and beautiful,” which refers to the smaller projects directly connected with improving local livelihoods. New investment favorites include businesses in sectors such as new energy, healthcare, mobile communication, and e-commerce.
The Belt and Road Initiative is entering a new phase, an intentional adjustment in line with its original missions, and it will provide more benefits to the private sector and local participants.
China SHOCKED US Yet Again With $3 Billion 6th Generation Fighter Jet
In the ever-evolving realm of aerial warfare, the stage is currently commanded by the formidable 5th gen stealth fighters like the mighty dragon Chengdu-J20 or the famed F-35 raptor. Eyes now remain fixed upon the emergence of 6th generation stealth fighters. Today’s episode will uncover China’s upcoming 6th generation stealth fighter jet that has shocked the entire world.
When the recession hit in 2007–2009, the owner of the company I worked for made a grand speech about how tight things were and how he was doing his best to keep from laying anyone off, so everyone needed to work really hard and go the extra mile. This was one of those “be happy you have a job” speeches that meant raises and bonuses were going to be absolute shit, which might be justifiable if the company were in dire straits, but we weren’t. The recession went on and we kept growing, but management was all doom and gloom. At some point after the recession was over, somebody that had access to the CFO’s bonus spreadsheet printed it out and accidentally left it on the printer. Another employee found it and brought me a copy. The owner gave himself a $22M bonus that first year of the recession and the next few years were similar. I knew at that point they couldn’t be trusted.
. Industry observers cited by the publication believe that the contract maker of chips anticipates stricter sanctions from the U.S. and is stockpiling the materials it needs. There could be other reasons, too.
The buzz in the industry suggests that SMIC has recently approached its partners in Taiwan, placing substantial orders equivalent to around two years’ worth of materials supply. Some believe that this move is to ensure a steady supply for its 7nm chip production, hinting at the company’s forward-thinking approach.
The larger question revolves around SMIC’s motivations for such significant stockpiling. Some think it could be a proactive measure against potential new restrictions from the U.S. Others feel it could be an effort to raise their inventory, anticipating a surge in client requirements.
Huawei has high hopes for its Mate 60-series smartphones and expects to ship as many as 20 million units this year if supply remains intact. But these smartphones will keep shipping next year, and their sales will only increase. Furthermore, the company will likely introduce other smartphones based on its chips, significantly increasing its requirements for SoCs. As a result, it makes sense for SMIC to increase procurement of raw materials pure enough for its 7nm production.
SMIC and other Chinese chipmakers are not novices when it comes to stockpiling. In anticipation of U.S. sanctions and restrictions, they have imported virtually all chip-making equipment from Europe, Japan, and the U.S. they could lay their hands on in recent months.
The BEST Retirement Advice EVER From Retirees + MORE FUN!
Things to know before retirement, top tips to plan your time to retire, things you must know before retirement. These ideas come from people who have actually done it. It’s what they recommend along with the ideas you need to know in your early retirement years. If you’re thinking about retiring soon, then you’re in for a real treat! In this video, we’ve gathered some of the best advice from retirees about their personal retirement. Aside from giving you some great advice, this video is also packed with helpful retirement stories and tips. If you’re ready to retire soon, then this is the video for you!
People on the internet think I am a blind supporter of China. Some even think I am paid by Chinese propaganda department to write pro-China answers! (Hell! It would be great to get paid for narrating facts, but sigh … so far, no payment. Not even a job offer :p).
For reasons unknown (and probably very biased) stating plain and simple historical and current facts offends a lot of people. Comparing the actions of countries offends people.
Here are a few examples.
Example 1. Hong Kong Riots
Last year (in 2020) Quora was overflowing with certain people expressing their support for Hong Kong rioters, claiming they are fighting for “freedom” and that secession is a right of people.
I wrote a couple of answers stating the plain fact that at least Indians should stop expressing their “deep concerns” for Hong Kong rioters, considering how India is handling the freedom movement in Jammu and Kashmir: no internet connectivity (since more than 8 months now) for the region, curfew almost daily, and lots of reports of rapes committed by the military. A lot of people were “offended” because of my comparison.
I also compared Hong Kong rioters with American civil war. The northern states of USA refused to let the southern states break free of the union. If “freedom” is the right of people, northern states should have allowed the southern states to break free.
Similarly, UK should have allowed Ireland to be free.
Somehow, when India, USA and UK does it, it’s all justified and acceptable. But when China does it (and on top of that, China didn’t even use lethal force against those rioters), suddenly China is at fault! I don’t understand the logic here.
Example 2. China’s Island Building In SCS
I wrote that every nation has a right to defend itself and no nation has a (moral) right to display aggression and policing at other nation’s borders. This too, offended a lot of people. People mentioned “freedom of navigation” and whatnot. I pointed out that USA has not ratified UNCLOS and therefore has no right to implement it on others.
There was a long debate about how USA and western powers have “freedom” to roam in their warships close to Chinese shores, but China has no right to install weapon systems on islands in South China Sea.
Some US guy went on a long argument with me in that answer, claiming that although USA has not signed UNCLOS, it still has the right to implement it on others. The most remarkable thing is that he claimed he was not even being biased and was completely transparent and morally fair in his claim!
Example 3. China – Australia Trade Dispute
I wrote that a customer is not and should not be forced to purchase from any seller, therefore China is not forced to purchase ore and food products from Australia, considering that Australian government went on a smear campaign against China (proposing to find Covid-19 origin only in China) and banning Huwawei.
Some people got offended, and claimed that China should be forced to buy from Australia, but Australia is “free” to not buy from China. Some people also claimed that China is “weaponizing trade” and that they must be “put to their place”.
All I can say about it is that their logic is incomprehensible for me.
Example 4. China – US Trade War
I wrote in an answer that if US is so concerned about trade deficit, they have all the right to stop buying from China and shift their imports to some other country. Similarly, China has the right to stop buying from USA and start buying food products from South America.
Similarly, I wrote that both countries have the right to place as many tariffs as they want, on their imports. Both are free in what they do within their borders.
This offended a lot of people. They claimed that it is China’s “legal responsibility” to avoid placing tariffs on US goods but USA is “free” to place as many tariffs as they want on Chinese goods.
Example 5. Chinese Loans And Investments In Africa
Someone asked if Chinese loans and investments in Africa were attempts by China to colonize Africa. I posted some pictures of African colonialism and showed what colonialism really looks like.
Some guys started arguing in the comments that China is “exploiting” Africa with their loans and whatnot. I simply stated that nobody is forcing African countries to get loans from China. They are free to get loans from IMF and World Bank if they want. If they are getting loans from China, they know the conditions. They are written clearly in front of them. If African countries and China, both agree on the terms and conditions, why is someone else trying to run around amok with arms flailing and crying foul?
They claimed that Africans are “simple minded” (yes, they were indeed simple minded, or else they would not have been enslaved by the western powers for centuries) and do not “see through” the traps. I asked if their countries have better loan offers for African countries, they should present the offers. Somehow that further offended them and they quit in rage, claiming I work for China’s propaganda department.
In 2017, China created a new instrument called Debt backed Govt Guarantee to their Private Players and Corporates and SOEs to allow them to borrow money from US Banks and EU Banks
I wondered back then why would they need to do that? Why would they gurantee the debt of their companies and what were they using to guarantee this debt?
Turns out they are guaranteeing these Debts using US Treasury Bonds and US Corporate Bonds.
Long story short, a huge chunk of US Treasuries are pledged by China against massive borrowings from European or American Banks
So if US defaults on its Debt to China
China laughs and defaults on its huge bank debts from US and Europe guaranteed against US Treasuries and Corporate Bonds
So either US redeems these bonds fully or Banks in US and EU collapse and a bailout could cost 3.5 times more or around 2.1 Trillion Dollars
More printing money, more debt, more. Inflation and a certain guarantee that nobody will buy US bonds anymore
China maybe loses 15% or around $ 120–130 Billion
So China would not be too unhappy if US tried such a move. It would be another nail in the US coffin
FIRST TIME REACTION TO AC/DC – WHOLE LOTTA ROSIE | SPEECHLESS…
Huawei’s mobile devices consumer division was kneecapped and decapitated through sanction, suffering a 90% drop in shipped volume in the last 4 years.
That’s a 100–200b dollar swing in revenue, just for handsets. To put that in perspective, that’s equal to 1–2 Boeings at its 2018 peak.
The US was trying to kill Huawei, and bury the telecoms business by bleeding revenue off its high margin consumer division.
That’s way grander than “stop Huawei from doing research innovation”.
Huawei is still under sanction, and Bloomberg’s recent name and shame of Taiwanese companies helping Huawei/SMIC with foundry infrastructure is a thinly veiled attempt at threatening companies not to deal with Huawei, even though the contracts they have entered into do not fall under current sanction.
Gina is free to suggest sanction escalation and fix Huawei like America did to Russia and Russian oligarchs, but Beijing will retaliate this time. And there is ~1 trillion in annual S&P 500 revenue generated from the mainland to aim for. The Chinese don’t have a significant presence stateside.
Personally, I think the ship on Huawei has already sailed. I won’t be surprised if Huawei breaks 100m phones shipped annually in the next 18–24 months. I also won’t be surprised if Huawei introduces new WIFI and telecoms standards in the next 5 years that end up being adopted in Apple phones. Neither Apple nor Google are capable of driving hardware standards revolution.
I can’t think of any easy-to-implement/low cost cards that the Department of Commerce can still deal when it comes to Huawei.
Do you even know that there is no such thing as “50 cents”party? This is a western media concoction and western media made up slur.
You are right China do not care about polishing their opinion for few reasons. One, if you understand the Chinese people, the Confucianism characteristics in them do not wish to listen to or read chest beating about themselves. In fact the Chinese psyche prefers people to underestimating them. Hence they prefer to hide their strength.
Two, Chinese government do not need to be popular at all. There political system is not a popularity contest like the west. They last thing they would do it’s to pay for compliments. They don’t need it. They don’t want to. And Chinese people are highly intelligent. They know the Chinese people cannot be easily fool.
Chinese people are highly pragmatic and very honest about themselves about where they really are. Hence China calls 1850–1950 as the “century of humiliation” because that is what it is. They don’t sugar coat.
Now let me explain the many positive writings in the social media about China and the Chinese people. I am very qualified to explain this not only because I am of Chinese origin but because I am guilty of writing positively about China.
So why do I do it?
I do it to counter the barrage of Anti China and Chinese haters writings by the westerners in the social media. Worst many who wrote these garbage are naively and ignorantly made to hate the Chinese people due primarily to the U.S. and western media and their government. I actually and honestly feel very sorry for them.
I am a 66 years old Singaporean living in Malaysia who is sadly fully English educated. At my ripe old age, I thought I want to do my part to balance the view about China and the Chinese people. And since I write in English. It can reach to the westerners particularly the Anglo Saxon group. My target is to talk to those who hate China and or the Chinese people. You can call this voluntary global social service.
I have never received a cent from China and Chinese authorities or from anyone ever! But there must be at least 10 thousands disgruntled western Caucasians who accuse me of being paid by CCP or that I am working for China. How I wish these 10 thousand haters give me a million each to shut up! Hahaha. I guarantee you I will. And I will glorify the West everyday for the rest of my life!
I am joking. My mind is not for sale!
Why are there many people like me? My guess is that we are here because we are forced into this by the lies, innuendos, fabrications, half truths, the lies, the misinformation, the demonisations about China and the Chinese people. Yes we stood up. And I am here in QUORA to call out racist, xenophobic, white supremacist, China and Chinese haters. I don’t hate them, nor do I want them hurt. I guaranteed you I don’t have a single hate bone inside me. But I want the truth out to you.
Yes particularly you!
I think there are many who speak well about Chinese because there are at least 7.5 billion who thinks well about China and the Chinese out of the world’s 8 billion population! If you think otherwise it is due to your western media reporting as though the world is thinking lie the very small proportion of mainly white, conservative, less read and less travelled older westerners is the world! It is not.
These 7.5 billion have been quiet until your media and you went over board. Hence this nonsense about 50 cents army! It a figment of your imagination.
China Did This After US Blacklisted Three Chinese Companies
The United States is a country defined by extreme violence, where people are threatened by both violent crime and violent law enforcement, and their safety is far from being guaranteed. Prisons are overcrowded and have become a modern slavery establishment where forced labor and sexual exploitation are commonplace
Prior to my “retirement” I had opened a number of bank accounts in China. I did this, at that time unknowing of my future, as a “good thing” to do, “just in case”.
Talk about foresight! Eh?
I had two bank accounts.
I opened up an account at BOC in Shanghai and placed $40,000 in it. I deposited a cashier’s check in it, and used a “passbook savings account”. I was told that it would take three months to clear, and that I had to keep the receipt in the book to “lock” the exchange rate of 9.5 RMB to USD. This brought me (the potential of) 380,000 RMB. Ah. Enough to buy property in China.
The other account was in Shenzhen and much smaller; being only $5000.
Well…
BOOM! I am “retired” and stuck in Arkansas.
My father needed to hire an attorney to get me out of the mess, and tried to extract the money from BOC. Good luck! No one could take it out except myself.
He needed my thumb print.
When he held the BOC passbook, he discarded the receipt. He thought it was a “worthless scrap of paper”.
…
So, even though I couldn’t hire an attorney, and my bank was frozen, no one else could seize the money.
Good going China!
So I still have money in China; a life in China…and hope in China.
Meanwhile, everything else was gone; stolen and discarded.
All of this while my properties, and belongings were systematically looted, stolen and acquired by all the “friends” and “family” surrounding me.
Jackals.
Seriously.
Now, eventually I get out of the USA. I am in China, and I use the $5000 to start a new! Fantastic, and I related this story to youse guys earlier.
But of the $40,000 in Shanghai?
Well, my well meaning father, discarded that little receipt in the passbook as unimportant. And when I opened up my bank account, I discovered that it only had 220,000 RMB in it. Not the 380,000 RMB I was expecting.
Why?
That little “junk” slip of paper was my proof of a 9.5 conversion rate. Not the 5.5 conversion rate at the time of retrieval.
I lost one FUCK of a lot of money in the process.
…
The point in this little story is that …
…”if you are handling other people’s affairs, keep everything. Do not discard even the most trivial item. You probably are understating its importance.”
Have you ever wondered why we don’t have too many commercial operating systems outside of Windows and MacOS?
I don’t include Linux which is by no means a commercial operating system despite its many advantages
Have you wondered why China and India are unable to make a PC Operating system despite so many skilled students and so much of a software base
Its because a commercial OS needs to be compatible with your processor
The Processor is INTEL Or AMD and they need to ensure your OS is compatible with their processor
This was a huge argument in an ANTITRUST case against Microsoft that the plaintiffs lost
Without that compatibility , you can never control an ecosystem or have an OS that controls the entire ecosystem
You can have secondary systems that can never replace MS Windows or MacOS
Tomorrow if India develops an OS on par with Windows, India will be throttled by Intel and AMD
They will cite security concerns, backdoor etc and simply prevent the Indian OS from freely competing
Thus India needs to develop a processor as well
This processor better be on par with the Intel or AMD or people simply won’t buy the processor and thus by association, the Indian made operating system
Say India develops a cutting edge web browser
The same has to be integrated & compatible with your search engine for maximum efficiency
Google and Bing both have maximum integrated compatibility with Chrome and IE, so your browser will not be able to host these search engines efficiently
That’s goodbye to a good technology right there
Thus you need a search engine of similar standard and a web browser of efficiency plus an Operating System plus your Hardware
THE WEST CONTROLS IT ALL
Rather US controls most of it
Let’s say India develops an App that can beat Facebook
Or an app that can beat Twitter
Android and iOS can simply refuse to give a bundling agreement for that App citing security reasons or other reasons
Tik Tok got a bundling deal with IoS and Android in 2014 for 25 years until 2039 along with WeChat and Alipay and other apps
Telegram got a similar deal until 2033 (15 year deal)
It’s why both Android and iOS cannot remove these apps from their playstores
Today both Android and iOS no longer do bundling deals for long term periods, but only for 12 month periods and renew them (Since 1/1/2020)
So Indian Twitter and Indian Facebook could be throttled simply by refusing to bundle them or integrate them into the Android or iOS ecosystem
If indeed these apps became a threat to the US equivalents, India would become a major security threat in 20 minutes
The Whole world accepted this dominance of the West and their complete control over the Information and Communications Ecosystems
Including many Chinese companies
Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo all happily kowtowed to the Western dominance and slogged hard to make 8% and hand over 92% to the west
Thousands of excellent apps and games are unable to leave China because they can’t get bundling deals with Android and iOS outside the mainland
Then ONE MAN CAME ALONG who said THISISRIDICULOUS
He dared to envision his own ecosystem
The Chip – the Kirin designed entirely by Mainland China
The OS – The Harmony
The 5G Modem – To deliver highest speeds
The Networks – To ensure the lowest latents
Once the Huawei ecosystem was in place, a flood of competition would be unleashed
Chinese Apps would roar into the global market where they had been throttled before
Baidu would finally compete with Google on a one on one platform and combat MSM propaganda in neutral nations
Chinese Digital Payment systems would soar across and surge through the Global South
They throttled Huawei
They simply cut off the source of chips
Huawei had the design but they couldn’t get the chips made because the world’s only makers TSMC and Samsung wouldnt due to sanctions
The excuse was Huawei had business with the Govt of China. So did Oppo but Oppo was a meek obedient boy
Then Huawei tried to get the chips made in SMIC
They retaliated by cutting off access to EUV machines
Yet Huawei managed to mass produce 5 nm Chips with the 7 nm process using very innovative stacking using DUVs
Now Huawei has the Chip and the OS
The US and the West couldn’t succeed in throttling Huawei
Now the next step is probably to stop DUVs
It’s why SMIC is stockpiling and also accelarating it’s own lithography progress
So it’s not the phones
It was never the phones
Tomorrow if Huawei dropped their Chip idea, signed a 20 year deal with Qualcomm and dropped their OS idea and modem idea – US would lift the sanctions in 10 seconds
It’s the ECOSYSTEM that Huawei brings with it that will finally break the US (Western) dominance and bring in a new player and country after virtually 30 years of control
If Huawei triumphs, the world as we know it changes
India could take inspiration and proceed on our own path to develop our own Ecosystem
In the industries of yesterday, there will eventually come a time when China isn’t affected by American sanctions. That will happen within the next 10-20 years, as Chinese manufacturing go from the current 30+ percent to over 50 percent of global output, and the Chinese patent portfolio matures.
Now, turn the coin on its head and ask yourself a simple question.
What happens in a world where the Chinese option is the cutting edge?
Tesla entered into partnership with panasonic just a decade or so ago to build its first gigafactory. Panasonic, a Japanese company, had the best and most mature battery tech then. Similarly, yuasa, another Japanese company, was chosen by Boeing for the 787.
Today, the best batteries using novel chemistries and materials are Chinese, promising unbeatable energy densities at great prices. Many ev makers have entered into partnership with a variety of Chinese battery makers, and that includes Tesla. China will become the go-to for batteries in the coming decade, driven by economy of scale.
Shocking change in just 10 years no?
In nuclear fission, China has leadership in gen 3 reactors, with the indigenous hualong in mass production and a steady stream of projects in the works. More importantly, China has the world’s first and only gen 4 gas cooled demonstrator online and plugged into the grid, promising even greater safety and reliability.
Expect commercial availability within the decade.
Same story in photovoltaics. China is already the biggest maker of solar panels and related modules, with leading edge options. My friend in the industry says it’s practically impossible to make a project viable without Chinese panels, not without massive subsidies or tariff walls. That’s how good the Chinese are.
The best hsr system is Chinese, despite China being 50 years late to the game. Better than the Germans and Japanese? Yes, because the installed length is already greater than the rest of the world combined, and serve a broader range of conditions and latitudes. The ride comfort and stability is second to none. Try it yourself if you don’t believe the claim.
Make a guess how many containers Chinese ports handled last year.
300m.
That’s 3, followed by 8 (eight) zeros.
America just about crumbled with a modest 5–10 percent increase above the 50m they usually deal with, as a direct result of covid induced changes in lifestyle.
Rates for China-US TEU went up more than 10x, an order of magnitude, at its peak. Ships were returned SANS empty containers, just to beat the logjam in American ports.
Imagine first world American ports and infrastructure being unable to handle domestic demand, while China happily fulfilled GLOBAL demand with a future-proof, scalable automated port system.
The Chinese are already leaders in digital payment, facial recognition, aspects of ai and big data, quantum computing, and many other technologies of the future. Some of the most exciting breakthroughs of tomorrow will happen in china, and revolutionize the world.
Is the world prepared for that, especially served by a media that’s reluctant to report China in the slightest factual, and positive light?
The first world may very well be caught unawares.
Huawei 6G is coming, 100Gb per second transfer speed
Good news that more and more Chinese researchers are leaving the States for China. It will help China.
Back in 1996, I worked as a Field Technician for Lanier Business Systems in Houston, Texas. Specifically, I handled recording devices and systems, though on occasion I also handled copiers, printers, and fax machines. My territory was into the 610 loop and all overlapping zip codes. This included all the hospitals in the Houston Medical Center. Those that are technical people will figure out what is going on with this before I finish the explanation.
So, for one of the hospitals, they had one of our dictation systems and one day, I get a call from the hospital administrator complaining that they haven’t had backups running on their system for six months. So, I head to the hospital, walk into the admin office, and begin working on the system. I go through the settings, and confirm it is setup to backup changes to the 3.5 in floppy drive. I checked the logs and confirmed the backups ran with no errors, or where there were errors is was able to resolve them and move on.
I checked the disk, and it was blank. Completely blank, In fact, the disk wasn’t even formatted. Assuming that was the problem, I formatted the disk with Lanier’s proprietary encryption protocols, and confirmed I could copy data to the drive. I left the disk in the drive, and explained to the admin what I thought the problem was, and that I had fixed it.
The next morning, she registered the same problem so I head back to the hospital, with a new disk drive. I pull the old drive install a new one, then proceed to run a few tests on the old drive with my testing equipment. Everything checks out, no problems on the drive, but I leave the new drive in just in case. Again, I explain to her what did, and felt fairly certain the problem was resolved.
Next morning, I get another call. Same problem. At this point, I am scratching my head. I know the system is working, I was able to confirm the doctors are making recordings, i confirmed the backup are configured properly, so I talk to the admin and explain that I will come by this evening and confirm that the backups are running tonight.
That evening, I head to the hospital and sit down at the monitor. She pulls the disk off the side of the system hands it so me and I insert it into the drive. ten minutes later the backup runs, I watch it, and after about fifteen minutes it completes with no errors. I sit down go through the logs, check the data on the disk. I confirm the backups are there, verify the data integrity. I even make certain that I can restore the data to the system. Everything looks great, I think the problem is solved. I hand the backup disk back to the administrator, and we talk for a few minutes. As, I am leaving, she puts the disk in a clip and slaps it onto the side of the system.
I stop, and I stare at her for a moment, She looks at me, and asks what I’m waiting for. I look from her to the disk stuck to the side of the computer, back to her.
I had spent three days troubleshooting this problem. I had confirmed that the equipment was completely in working order, and I knew for a fact that backups were running properly. I literally just confirmed that the backup was run, and the data was right there on the disk.
Her actions had just made all those efforts pointless. She just erased everything off the disk and wasted all of my effort. Heck, she has been wasting her own efforts for six months and was getting frustrated because of what she just did.
That clip is a magnetic refrigerator magnet. That magnet wiped the data from the magnetic disc in the floppy disk. She was the cause of all these problems, and has been doing it for six months. I had walked over, removed the disk and put it back in the drive. She looks at me confused. I pull up the floppy disk and it needs to be formatted. She asks me where the data went. I looked at her and handed her the refrigerator magnet.
“Is it on here?”
“No.”
“Then where it is?”
“Gone, you erased the disk.”
She stares at me, dumbstruck, “What…what…what to you mean, I erased it. she mumbles curiously.
I then explain to her that floppy disks are magnetic and are very sensitive to magnetic fields. That refrigerator magnet was strong enough when attached to metal object to erase the disk. She felt horrible.
However, I spent the next several hours, backing up changes for six months of data onto a box of 3.5 inch floppy drives.
I then explained proper disk storage, and told her to keep magnets away from the backups.
After I was done, she was extremely appreciative, and apologetic.
Additionally, I got 3 hours of overtime pay, and because the problem wasn’t caused by our equipment, which meant it wasn’t covered under contract. I made the company a nice profit. The base charges for such failures was $300 per hour, which easily covered my overtime pay.
HE DID IT AGAIN! (OLIVER ANTHONY – I WANT TO GO HOME REACTION)
I watched a recent speech by Biden in Asia. It was a press conference in Vietnam. Biden was so bad that while he was still talking, his own US press secretary cut him off halfway by muting his microphone, declaring abruptly that the conference was over; and turning on jazz music in the room so that Biden’s voice could not be heard anymore. This was damage control. The US press secretary did it, to stop Biden from continuing to ramble on spouting nonsense in front of a roomful of journalists and media crews.
The poor man is senile. He is still President, of course. But surely he is no longer making the real decisions for the USA. He is just the front, the puppet on stage – the people in charge are the ones behind the curtains pulling on the strings.
It’s pointless for Xi to meet Biden. Xi probably knows it already. Any meeting with Biden would just be for ceremonial purposes and publicity reasons. Nothing will actually come out of such a meeting, because Biden doesn’t make decisions anymore.
Xi is a busy man and I wouldn’t be too surprised if he decides never to meet Biden again. There’s not much point in such a meeting.
Puyi has been seen in history as a villain of sorts. He was the last vestige of the Qing dynasty, a living testament to imperialism. He was called effeminate by many and impotent by some. He was selfish, shallow, and childish in his early years. He was also rumored to be cruel to others for his pleasure.
However, we must view him with nuance and remember the time period he was born into. He was groomed from birth to be ineffective by the women in his family who wanted to hold onto their power to rule through him as their proxy. He was born into a family where opulence and excess was considered normal and expected even. But it was also a time where the peasants were deeply unhappy with an ineffectual government and orchestrated a revolution that toppled his world as he knew it.
He united with the Japanese which made him a traitor in the eyes of the Chinese; but Japan had promised him the opportunity to return to a throne and that was the only life he knew. His early wives would tell you he was self centered and downright nasty when he wanted to be.
While he was not a good man in many ways, he was not irredeemable either. Mao allowed him to be the gardener of the Beijing Botanical Gardens. Puyi sought, with his last years, to redeem himself and to become a better man. He once said that the Puyi of his youth was the enemy to the Puyi of his latter years. He often wept when shown examples of his past damage to China. He was overwhelmed when shown the horrors of Unit 731 and cried that those atrocities had been done in his name. His transformation so complete that he became a man of humility. He was reported to have accidentally knocked an elderly woman over with his bicycle and visited her in the hospital every day until she was released.
In the end he found love with his last wife, Li Shuxian, being “all he had in the world,” and she reported in an interview that his love for her was such that when she was sick he would sit by her bedside all night, seeing to her every need.” He had come to be a man who took pleasure in simple things and in his love for his wife. He had indeed become the model citizen and died at the age of 61 of kidney cancer. His widow had his ashes placed with nine other emperors that had come before him. In death he had been returned to his family.
China shocks Europe by canceling ASML’s $580 billion lithography order!
I am the Tujia nationality, and I belong to the eighth largest ethnic minority in China. We have 8 million people.
1. Add points in the most important exam in China-the college entrance examination;（It used to be 20 points, but now it has been reduced to 5 points due to the improvement of educational facilities and standards.）
2. To study for master’s and doctorate with a score lower than Han people, the tuition fee is exempt.
3. Before the “one-child policy” was abolished, ethnic minorities (the ethnic minorities who joined the Communist Party of China are only allowed to have one child) can have 2 or more children, and the Han can only have one;
4. Use and develop the spoken and written languages of ethnic minorities. Most ethnic minorities only have languages without a writing system. The GOV has developed a writing system for us;
Orange-Chipotle Skirt Steaks
orange chipotle skirt steaks
Marinate: 6 hr to overnight | Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
Marinade
Juice of 1 medium orange
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons adobo sauce (from chipotle peppers)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Steaks
1 1/2 pounds beef skirt steak, cut into 4 to 6 inch pieces
Tomatillo Salsa
2 medium oranges, divided
2 cups chopped tomatillos (4 to 5 small to medium)
1/2 cup chopped red onion
2 to 3 teaspoons minced chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Marinade
Combine ingredients in a small bowl.
Steaks
Place beef steaks in food-safe plastic bag; turn steaks to coat. Close bag securely and marinate in refrigerator 6 hours or as long as overnight, turning occasionally.
Tomatillo Salsa
Grate 1/2 teaspoon peel from 1 orange. Cut this orange and half of remaining orange into segments. Chop segments into 1/2 inch pieces.
Combine orange peel and segments, tomatillos, onion, chipotle peppers, cumin and salt in medium bowl; cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Cut remaining 1/2 orange into wedges; reserve for garnish.
Remove steaks from marinade; discard marinade.
Place steaks on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, uncovered, 10 to 13 minutes (over medium heat on preheated gas grill, covered, 8 to 12 minutes) for medium rare (145 degrees F) to medium (160 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally.
Carve steaks diagonally across the grain into thin slices; season with salt, as desired.
Serve with tomatillo salsa. Garnish with reserved orange wedges.
Oliver Anthony ‘Rich Men North of Richmond’ Intense Listening Sesh/Reaction – POWERFUL!
I will try to make this brief. My husband and I are a “multicultural” pair; he was brought up in Scotland and I was brought up in Cleveland, Ohio. Some of the time during our marriage we have lived in Ohio, some of the time in Glasgow.
Somewhere in the mid ’90s we decided to move again from Ohio back to Glasgow. I had three little children at that time — three girls, 7, 3, and 1. We had practically all our worldly possessions with us in 13 metal trunks and the usual baby paraphernalia. We flew from Florida to Glasgow, after flying from Ohio to Florida. The leg from Florida to Glasgow was a direct flight but lasted 10 hours. Needless to say we were very tired, stiff and sleep deprived.
We saddled the family onto an airport bus to take us “home” after such an exhausting trip. After loading our 13 trunks into the hold of this huge bus our bus driver let everyone else off at the usual stop. Before letting our family deboard, he asked us, “Hey, where do you folks live?” We told him the exact location where our small house was located. He laughed and said, “Stay on the bus, I’ll take you to your door. No taxi I know of will fit all this stuff.”
So that’s what this hero did. He pulled his massive 88-seater bus right into our cul-de-sac, right up to our door, and also helped unload the 13 trunks and our very tired family.
It was an act of kindness I have never forgotten. Oh and I forgot to mention, it was 4am.
I was working as the assistant accountant at a company and had to leave early one day as I was sick. My boss insisted on a doctor certificate to cover that half day so I managed to see my gp the next morning who gave me a certificate for 3 days off plus the half day. I objected but the doc said if you’re feeling better in a few days just go back to work.
So 2 days later I’m feeling better and return to work. My boss was annoyed because instead of a few hours I’m now out 2 days so she says I need to go back to same dr to get a clearance to return to work.
By this time it’s midmorning of the last day of the certificate. I’m fine. It’s the last week of month and we’re super busy and she wants me to drive 40 minutes each way to the dr to get a certificate and the chances of an appointment with the same dr is unlikely. And it’s going to cost me $80 for appointment.
I had lots of sick leave accrued and it’s also November.
I explained that we’d lose 1/2 to 3/4 of the day and I’d be out of pocket but nope she wanted me to go back to the dr.
Previously no one had ever enforced a dr certificate if anyone came back early (unless it was workers comp). She told me that this was my “punishment” for leaving early when I was sick a few days before!
When she said that, I made a decision. I said I wasn’t prepared to spend the money for the dr to reassess me for 1/2 day work. She said in that case you can’t work today.
No problems I said. I’ll go do my Christmas shopping and I grabbed my handbag and sauntered out.
I’m told her face just dropped and she bitched to the GM after I’d left and he laughed and told her she was the one who forced the issue.
”What Do You Have To Offer A Man?”
I think this is THE fundamental question both men AND women should be asking… if you have a long list of demands, you better have a long list of qualities to offer.
Employees will pay for personal calls on the company’s cell phone.
This happened about 2003. The developer team took turns being “on-call” and carrying the company phone. Most of us had cell phones but we did not use them as much as we do now. My plan was expensive even though it was the minimum number of minutes, I think 60, per month. In any case, I rarely went over the number of minutes per month. The company phone, on the other hand, had an unlimited plan so there would be no overage charges. The business use of the phone required a lot of minutes.
When it was my turn to carry the phone, I did not carry my personal cell phone at the same time. If I needed to make a call, I would just use the company phone. Most of us did the same thing. Cell phones were bulky and it did not cost the company anything extra. Also, we only made a few short calls on the work phone.
Well our boss, the CTO, called a meeting and showed a new form for us to record our personal calls when we carried the company phone. He told us that it did not matter that the company’s unlimited plan made the calls free. It was the company’s phone and the company’s money. However, he appreciated that it was inconvenient to carry two phones so he was implementing a new policy that the person using the on-call phone for a personal call would log the call and reimburse the company the going rate. It was something like 20 cents per minute which was the normal per minute cost at the time. We were to use the form to pay the company for personal calls on the work phone.
Most of us thought it was a little petty because the company’s plan was unlimited and a few short calls did not cost the company anything. However, we acknowledged it was a reasonable policy and we would just have to pay a little for convenience or carry two phones. Not really a big deal. Then I thought of something.
I asked the boss, “Can we use the same form for the company to reimburse us for work calls on our personal phones?” He asked if we used our personal cells for work. “Of course, whoever is on-call often calls his colleagues for advice about a problem or how a system was configured. If we are not home, we take the call on our cell. As a matter of fact, twice this year I went over my monthly minutes and had to pay overage charges.” He replied that I would not pay extra if I was more careful to not go over my minutes. “Well, as you explained, it does not matter if I pay extra or not. It’s about keeping personal calls and work calls separate. So, can we use the same form or should we use a different form?” Without answering the question, he ended the meeting shortly thereafter.
He never said anything more about the form, and the policy never went into effect.
I admit that I did not like the guy because he viewed us as commodities instead of employees. The feeling was mutual and he fired me the next year. Oh well, I got a better job after that.
China Tests New Laser Weapon That Destroys Planes In Seconds!
The Debt crisis in China isn’t a shock to the global economy
Evergrande crisis happened in 2021 and it’s 2 years old and yet Evergrande hasn’t fallen
The Debt crisis is two years old, maybe three years old now
So even if the big names begin failing, the systemic shocks to Chinas Economy Or the Global Economy will be much milder than a sudden unexpected shock
The difference between US and China, is that in US, the Institutions which are privately owned and have very little regulations, lie and cheat and bury the information deep and keeps allowing more and more trouble to accumulate
Lehman Brothers crisis in 2008 is an example as is the 1929 depression or the recent Silicon Valley Bank failures
They pretend nothing is wrong, they pretend everything is hunky dory, they even manipulate the system like they did in 2008 with Moodys and S&P
Then THERE IS ALWAYS A SUDDEN COLLAPSE AND A MASSIVE SYSTEMIC SHOCK
Like in 2008 when there was a downward swing in investment indices by a whopping 60% across 2 years
People lost homes, savings everything and plunged into poverty
China is entirely different
China has lots of regulations and State has a huge control which means no pretension, no burying of information
The Chinese in fact start openly publishing info from Day 1 about such problems
Evergrande problems were published 30 days before their first default while the real estate debt crisis problems were openly revealed yuan for yuan almost 3 months before Evergrande (which is how the West knew about it in the first place)
As a result the system gets a DULL SHOCK rather than a SUDDEN SHOCK AND COLLAPSE
This Dull Shock is absorbed slowly into the economy of China and by the investors, then smaller shocks happen and they too get absorbed
Thus Indices will fall maybe 6–8% in China , maybe 10% over 5–6 years and then stabilize and recover
The Impact will probably be 10% of the 2008 Crisis at the most
Lehman collapsed in 14 days, Lehman Bros when it collapses will do so after almost 825 days to 900 days
Lot of time to absorb the shock
Experts gauge China will absorb it’s debt crisis at a cost of around 1.2% a year in it’s economic growth for around 5 years and 0.7% a year for the next five
That’s around 13.5 Trillion Yuan
Worst case, that’s more than double of the estimated value of impact of the debt crisis (6 Trillion Yuan)
Chinas past growth and surging development will keep China protected from the debt crisis and get China off safely and with a nice soft landing
image 5
Another 5 years if Xi had buried this and kept up illusions and kept seeing debt rollovers and price rise rapidly
China would have had 6–6.5% growth for the next 5 years or so but then the impact would have been maybe 30–35 Trillion after a decade or so
An example of the astute leadership of China which cares about long term prospects
Unlike a problem with democracies which bury all the problems hoping the next party will deal with them
Ask you CEOs why they think they are entitled to earn 100 times more that Chinese CEOs? Ask your employees and your unions what the push their salary to 5 times that of China? Ask your employees why they expects 10 times their benefits compared to Chinese counterparts? Ask why they are willing to work 25% less hours compared to the Chinese workers? Ask why are your education system turning out lawyers and bull shit artiste instead of stem engineers?
Ask your government why your infrastructure is dilapidated and why are there no trainings and retraining of workers sufficient to meet today’s manufacturing needs? Those question get you real answers and make the U.S. face realities?
China did not put a gun on the heads on 330 million Americans to buy Chinese products! The 330 million Americans chosed value for money like everyone on earth. The U.S. government and the U.S. people made wrong choices. They choose wars and war mongering rather than helping their manufacturers and factories. The citizens chose those leaders! If the U.S. citizens were to turn around and kicked out any politicians that prioritise wars over work kick them out of office they can make the difference.
There are so many Americans here in QUORA who champion wars and worship power but ask why China makes everything? You need to choose wisely. You go around telling everyone you have a freedom to chose and are so proud of that freedom but you blow it every 4 years for 250 years long.
You chose leaders that don’t care about you and in fact destroy you!
At my wife’s father’s wake, we told her uncle he wasn’t welcome.
We had texted him and asked him not to show up early , as he wasn’t welcome but said that we would be leaving early so he could come later, but he came early anyway with his two sons and his screaming Harpy of a wife.
We had rented the hall and paid for the food and bar.
I stopped them at the door, expecting trouble. I asked him to leave and come back in a few hours when we would be gone.
They tried to push past me and called my wife a c##t
I reacted without thinking.
I shattered his and his two sons noses with three strikes in about two seconds.
They know I am a Wing Chun Gung Fu stylist who is also a 6′ 200 lb pro renovation contractor.
They called the police.
The police called them white trash and suggested they didn’t want to go in front of a judge considering their conduct.
They backed down and left.
One of the cops was Irish , he said he would buy me a whiskey right in front of the jack ass’s if he wasn’t on duty while they were holding their noses.
P. S. I don’t advocate violence, but I have no regrets at this time.
Love some, trust few, and do no great harm.
Baby Wasn’t Able To Tell Parents About Cruel Sitter — But His Dog Could
This is Vesna Vulović.
She holds the Guinness World Record for the highest fall without a parachute and surviving. She is reported to have fallen 6.3 miles (33,330 ft; 10,160 m) from the sky when a briefcase bomb exploded onboard JAT Flight 367 and crashed into what was then Czechoslovakia in 1972.
So, how exactly did she survive the fall? When the bomb exploded during mid-flight, almost all the passengers were sucked out of the airplane into subfreezing temperatures and fell to their deaths. Vulović was trapped inside the fuselage and pinned down by a food cart. She landed in a heavily wooded area with snow, which helped cushion her fall. Interestingly enough, Vulović’s low blood pressure allowed her to pass out quickly when the cabin depressurized and prevented her heart from bursting on impact. When applying to become a flight attendant, Vulović had concealed her low blood pressure from the medical examiners by drinking several cups of coffee.
Vulović was the only survivor, and upon impact, had broken both her legs, parts of her vertebrae, and several ribs. She also fractured her skull and pelvis. After spending several days in a coma, Vulović awoke and asked for a cigarette. She had no recollection of the explosion or the crash. Her recuperation took a total of 16 months.
BREAKING! China and U.S. headed for all out war, and Putin knows it
“Any hotel expense over $XX must be approved by your Supervisor unless previously authorized (Daytona during Bike Week, going into hurricane devastated areas, or other known high cost areas, etc.)”.
Sure, I’m on the road for 3–6 weeks at a time and only after working the planned for 8–10 hours a day (yes 50+work hours a week were the norm) would I be on the road to the next job which was often 100 or more miles away. Needless to say, there were many, Many nights where I arrived at a hotel at around midnight.
Guess who went home at 5 PM back in the office? Yep, our supervisor. So, someone found his home phone number and we all began calling it when we arrived somewhere that wasn’t within the price range they expected.
So they changed the rule to say “Don’t call your Supervisor, but you are responsible for finding a hotel within per diem limits”.
Sure, but since it’s something you told me to do then I’m still at work. Do you Really think its worthwhile to pay me an extra hour’s pay just to save $10 for a night? Do you Really want me to add the two hours travel time to my pay-sheet because the only hotel in the price range was that far away?
I just remembered another prime example backfiring: the company had a policy that if we screwed up a job then it was our responsibility to go back and fix it on our own time. (If we didn’t want to then we’d mysteriously find our services weren’t in such high demand for the next week or three). So, one fine Saturday morning after I’d finished installing the computer system for a well-known coffee chain, I got a phone call that said I had to travel 400 miles to Memphis and fix a problem with a printer that didn’t work. Obviously it not working must have been my fault. It didn’t help much to say that part of my checkout procedure was to get a number from a document the help desk printed to their new POS system’s laser printer.
So, yeah, I’ll go back to Memphis on my own dime, BUT if it’s not my fault then I get paid. Traveled 6.5 hours to Memphis and walked into the coffee shop to hear the manager complain that his printer wasn’t working. I asked him what the help desk had him do. Turns out he didn’t call his help desk but just his contact at the company I worked for. I walked into the office, took a quick look and flipped the “ON” switch to the printer. Then I handed him the work order and told him he was going to be charged for 8 hours of travel to Memphis (400 miles at 50 MPH) 4 hours of overtime (our minimum charge and it was Saturday) and 8 hours of travel back to my house.
“B-But it didn’t work, you installed it wrong!” Nope, here’s the printout and the confirmation number from your help desk printed to that computer saying everything worked. Your help desk would have asked you what lights were on the printer, IF you had called them first.
A terrible day, so I spent the afternoon on Beale St. before heading home to pack up for the next Monday’s job in Charlotte or somewhere, who knows?
Tucker Carlson ‘ You’ve No Idea What is Coming, start Preparing Now
When my daughter was 15 (2000) I asked her what kind of car she wanted. Her answer stunned me: an old VW Beetle. We decided rather than looking for a good one to buy we would buy a beat up old junker and restore it together. I acquired the catalogs from suppliers and was shocked at how cheap the parts were and could not find a single thing that was not available new. We stripped that old junker down, did the body work and painted it. Bought all new chrome and stainless steel trim, all new upholstery, head liner, carpet and replaced every piece of rubber on the car.
When it came time to rebuild the engine I took a list of the parts I thought I would need to a local shop that specialized in VWs. He looked at the list and ask if I was planning on rebuilding the engine. When I said “yes” he responded that I was not going to do it, I was going to pay them to do it. I ask why? He said because this list of part is going to cost you 800 dollars and we will rebuild it for 875 dollars. Thinking it was a scam, I asked what if the crank is bad? His response was we are not going to use anything but the block, everything else is new including the heads . We picked up the engine and, as he said, it was 875 dollars.
When she turned 16 I gave her driving lessons in her VW. She drove it through high school and well after college. she didn’t stop using it until she had her first child.
Rather than let it sit we gave it to a friend who, 20 years after our rebuild, is still using it.
Total cost of the junk car, parts, and materials, including the engine rebuild: $3,300. Never had a part that we couldn’t get within a couple of days (side note; for several years she claimed she could not drive an automatic [or any other car] because she only knew how to drive a VW.)
Digging Dollar’s Grave! ASEAN Nations To Use Yuan As Their New Single Currency!
https://youtu.be/lvsZlBlfvW8
Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media
The mass hysteria reflects the biases inherent in the world’s most powerful media outlets.
By Chandran Nair
February 21, 2023
A key feature of mainstream Western media today is the relentless China-bashing. It is off the charts and tiring, often involving regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. But such stories continue to be churned out with no end in sight.
Countering this in international media by offering more balanced views for a global audience is near impossible as censorship is rife. There almost seems to be a global compact to control the narrative, a propaganda war powered by today’s digital technology.
Just try looking for a positive story on China any day of the week in any of the leading global media outlets. Apart from reports in January about the Lunar New Year, there will hardly be any, and these too are likely to have a negative spin. It would appear there is a confidential memo circulating within Western media groups that guides reporters and editors to ensure there cannot be any positive news arising from a country with 1.3 billion people.
Typically, the negative stories adhere to three core ideas, which inform the unspoken guidelines within these press rooms when it comes to reporting on China.
First is the belief that China is a threat to the world and that this belief must be relentlessly reinforced at every available opportunity. How and why China is a threat is never explored; such is the deep-rooted and almost religious nature of the belief. Sound arguments do not matter. The basic tenets of good journalism are ignored when it comes to a China story. There is no need to explain or give evidence of why China is a global threat.
Left ignored is the plentiful evidence that shows China is not a global threat – even if one can point to mistakes and overreach in certain areas. China has not invaded any country in decades, or imposed sanctions that have devasted the lives of millions in poor countries, unlike the West, led by the United States.
Second is that China must be linked to every possible global event that affects the West. This provides an opportunity for the West to bash China while simultaneously burnishing its own credentials as the supposed arbiters of what is right and wrong in international relations. From the pandemic to the Russia-Ukraine war to carbon emissions; from rising sea levels to the scramble for rare earths; from the building of infrastructure in Africa to the production of vaccines – there must be an angle to demonize the country and instill fear in Western nations (and beyond).
Indeed, media outlets are reverting to the “yellow peril” of the late 1800s. There is no subtle and nuanced approach to instilling fear like this. It is full-on and very often blatantly racist – but it is now acceptable for one to be racist about the Chinese in Western media, despite the fact that Black-White relations are very carefully described.
The third part of this phenomenon, which is surprisingly not challenged by liberal readers of mainstream media, is the sentiment that everything must be done – even illegal and unfair methods – to arrest the rise of China. Never mind the rights of hundreds of millions of Chinese to have a better life after a century of poverty and deprivation.
Headline after headline that capture this sentiment have normalized the view that there is a need to curb the rise of China, and that this is a legitimate geopolitical objective. There is no explanation about why or if it is even morally acceptable. It has become a feature of Western commentary on China to say that its rise is a concern and a threat. With this assumption unassailably in place, the West has the right to galvanize – and even bully – its allies and ask the absurd question, “what should be done about China’s rise?” – as if China does not have the right to carve its own place in the new world.
There is even a school of thought in the United States that it was America that magnanimously allowed China its first baby steps into the globalized economy, and that in hindsight the U.S. was too nice to China. This view betrays everything that is imperial about the West and why it is unable to come to terms with the legitimate rights of other nations to grow and become powers in their own right. The assumption is that the rise of others is a gift from the West, and accordingly they must never challenge its supremacy. The deeply entrenched view in the West from centuries of domination is that it will decide which nations will be permitted to be participants in the global economy according to its self-serving “rules-based order.”
Indeed, Western media seem wholly tied to the hegemonic competition view of geopolitics, constantly referencing the “Thucydides Trap” and being stuck in the Western canon as if there are no other ways of looking at geopolitics and world order. This view assumes conflict is inevitable and helps to demonize China while justifying the hegemonic position of the West – and the United States in particular – as a globally stabilizing force.
Needless to say, this is an extremely belligerent position to take, and not something media should be egging on. Whatever happened to promoting multilateralism? And why are people who speak to multilateralism side-lined as idealists or China apologists? This flies in the face of fair reporting.
So, how to fix this?
First, people in China and the non-Western world must realize that when it comes to the workings of the mainstream media we are in a new era – a propaganda war the likes of which the world has never seen before, powered by today’s digital technology. The media war is real, and tech-driven, and it is not a fight for eyeballs to deliver fair, honest, and educational news. It is almost everything else but that, especially when it comes to China or enemies of the West.
On one side is sheer propaganda aimed at the preservation of Western power. Participants include the most well-known brands in the Western media world, which are household names across the world.
The idea that Western media is run by fair-minded people who are independent, driven only by a desire to talk truth to power, is a mirage. It is a myth, and it is a bitter pill that needs to be swallowed. The idea that the Western journalist is a paragon of virtue also needs to be banished from the minds of consumers of media.
That is the first stage in enabling one to step out of the propaganda mist we are engulfed in on a daily basis, so that one can examine different viewpoints as news is consumed. This is not easy, given the current dominance of Western media outlets and their apparently collective mission.
The next step is to dismantle the dominance of Western media.
This too will be a long, hard fight. Mainstream Western media are the most powerful in the world and for close to a century, Western media have had a stranglehold on the dissemination of international news and viewpoints across the world. Many had their origins in colonialism, the preservation of empire and later the spread of Western ideas about how the world should be run. These outlets are a powerful economic force and dislodging them will require investments.
Across the world there is an opportunity to contribute to this effort, not necessarily by building large media companies but by investing in media companies that are committed to fair and objective analysis, so that local audiences in the first instance have choices and are not inundated by the propaganda of mainstream Western media. This too will not be an easy task and there are many hurdles to overcome, but this is not the space to dive into those details. Ultimately, it is all about readers becoming more aware of global issues by having more non-Western sources to rely on, so they are not victims of the current propaganda war. This is beginning to happen as more alternatives flourish.
It is an urgent need in the West too so that the mass hysteria generated by mainstream media is prevented from creating fear and pitting Western societies against the rest of the world. Today the target is China; tomorrow India and then maybe Africa.
Merkules – ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix (Reaction)
Young Boy Looks Out The Window And Sees Sister Bring Dragged Into The Woods
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At some point or another in most of our lives, we will have an opportunity to be a hero. Some people will take that opportunity and run with it, and that includes Owen Burns.
Owen was coming home from school in the afternoon when he heard screaming. It was his sister, and at first, he didn’t feel that it was anything serious.
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Eventually, he did turn and look out the window and what he saw on the outside was enough to make his blood run cold. It was a frightening issue but one that he decided to put out of his mind and do the right thing.
Owen was getting ready to play Call of Duty on his PlayStation when his sister started screaming from the backyard. As any 13-year-old brother would do, he got irritated because he thought she was overreacting and just being annoying.
When he looked out the bedroom window, however, he saw that his sister was being dragged away by a stranger. His sister was only eight years old and they were headed for the woods behind the house.
Immediately, the teenage boy grabbed a slingshot and anything he could use as ammunition, including a rock and a marble. He took aim and got off a shot, hitting his sister’s abductor right between the eyes.
He got off a second shot, hitting the man in the chest, and at that point, the man was swearing and cursing.
This wasn’t something that was hidden from view, it happened in broad daylight at their home in Michigan. The mother, Maggie Burns, said that it is not common for kidnappings to occur in the neighborhood.
Fortunately, the abductor was scared away and the 8-year-old girl was unharmed. They were able to capture the would-be kidnapper, a 17-year-old. They didn’t release his identity but they did say he would face charges as an adult.
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According to John Grimshaw, a Lieut. with the police force, Owen saved his sister’s life, or from something seriously bad happening to her. They called his actions extraordinary.
He also said that the young man should be commended for what he did. He used a regular slingshot that was purchased for three dollars on sale. He did practice shooting on occasion at old orange juice cans, and that helped him to improve his aim.
Owen said that he only had one thing on his mind when he saw someone trying to kidnap his sister. He was afraid that the kidnapper would either kill her or use her as a sex slave.
He said that the abductor had come behind his sister and grabbed her just like you would see in the movies, putting his hand over her mouth and his arm around her waist. He was trying to get her into the woods.
That is when Owen grabbed his slingshot and started shooting at him. When the kidnapper finally let his grip on the little girl go, she ran into the house crying and said that she had almost been killed.
Owen was angry at that point and ran outside to curse at the kidnapper. He threw a baseball in his direction but it missed.
At that point, he tried to shoot him again with a slingshot but the rubber band broke.
They then called the mother who had been at a relative’s house to help as she was on her way from work. She ran home, called the police, and it all stems from hearing her kids on the phone. The only thing she heard was the word, kidnapper.
They found the 17-year-old kidnapper hiding at a gas station nearby. He was indicted in the County Court on charges of kidnapping and attempted criminal assault. They will also charge him with misdemeanor assault and battery.
The police said that: “He had obvious signs of an injury consistent with those that would have been sustained from the slingshot strikes to his head and chest.”
The mother was skeptical at first that Owen had hit the kidnapper in the face and chest from 200 feet away. When the police confirmed the injuries, they even said that the goose egg on his head continued to get bigger while they were speaking with him.
Heroes come in all shapes and sizes and I would say Owen and is as close to a superhero as you can get.
Office of Naval Intelligence Leak: China Building Naval Ships 232 Times faster than USA – “Lift to Invade North America”
The United States office of Naval Intelligence suffered a leak of an intel briefing slide, showing China now has naval ship building capacity 232 times greater than the USA. This capacity can be used to build enough ships to “lift” an army to invade North America – successfully.
This amazingly oversized capacity to build naval vessels has caused some analysts to raise the alarm that the United States cannot even hope to catch-up . . . for years.
Other analysts have a more dire view: China is building this enormous amount of “lift” to be able to field a 200 million man army to invade and conquer North America, which it needs for food production and for its gigantic and growing population.
The seeds for this dire analysis began under the Trudeau government in Canada, when it signed a Treaty with the China Communist Party (CCP) in Beijing to allow Chinese Troops into Canada – to “protect Chinese investments.” The Treaty made it explicitly clear that local governments in Canada would not be notified and could not do anything about the presence of such troops.
By using Canada as a beachhead, giving China a foothold on north American, China can now pre-position armor and troops along the US northern border until they reach such mass that an invasion of the US would be almost a fait accompli!
US Military in Recruiting Shambles
In the meantime, the armed forces of the United States are in a Recruiting shambles. EVERY branch of US Armed Forces have been missing their recruiting goals for the all-volunteer force, and have been missing those goals for years.
The troubles plaguing recruiting do not come from lack of available people but rather a whole host of issues with those people. For instance, a very large portion of American young people are “morbidly obese” to such a degree, that the physical strength and stamina simply cannot be restored to make them fit for military service.
Other potential recruits suffer from a host of disqualifying psychiatric issues: Men who think they’re actually women trapped in the wrong body . . . . women who think they’re men . . . . candidates with a history of suicidal ideation and/or actual suicide attempts and more.
Also plaguing the pool of potential recruits is the mental inability to think critically; to make judgements, and act on immediate information.
As if all of this wasn’t bad enough, a sizeable portion of the potential recruits are so physically weak and effeminate, they simply cannot be brought to military strength.
Drug use is also a major factor in disqualifying potential recruits. Psychiatric drugs for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), addiction to Adderall, on top of others who are using illicit drugs like Cocaine, Heroin, or a
plethora of other, exotic “designer drugs,” has disqualified very many potential recruits because withdrawal from such drugs can lead to long-term violent outbursts and unstable mental states.
DEFENSE INDUSTRY IN SHAMBLES
Adding fuel to the fire is the Defense Industry itself. At present, the US Defense Industry is UNABLE to re-supply the most basic war-fighting products like Ammunition and artillery shells in sufficient quantities to re-stock what the US has already given away to Ukraine, never mind to fight an active war with a near-peer rival.
Instead of hiring new employees to increase defense production, many defense contractors are having to LAY OFF workers because they simply cannot get the parts necessary to assemble replacement weaponry like Javelin Missiles! American manufacturer’s “out-sourced” many jobs to overseas locations, and, in the case of China, that is now coming back to bit the US in its ass.
For instance, China recently imposed economic Sanctions on Lockheed Martin and other American Defense Contractors, for supplying weapons to Taiwan. This means that Chinese manufacturers can no longer sell certain electronics to those companies; electronics necessary to build and re-supply US military weapon systems!
Not only is this affecting the US ability to continue providing weaponry to Ukraine, it is also affecting our ability to make weapons to defend . . . OURSELVES. With the vast array and quantities of weaponry being “given” to Ukraine, it appears to some Defense Analysts that the US is being INTENTIONALLY DISARMED by its own federal government.
COMMERCIAL ENTITIES UNABLE TO SERVICE or CUTTING-OFF US MILITARY
Reverting back to the subject of ships for a moment, it became known this week that Danish shipping giant, MAERSK, is “backing away” from providing shipping services to the Department of Defense.
With most of US Ship-building gone from environmental regulations and Union Labor contract demands, the few shipbuilders the US still has, simply cannot meet the demand for new vessels or to timely repair existing vessels.
The US has to rely on foreign shipbuilders for Hulls and for shipping services.
MAERSK has not said why they are “backing away” from providing services to the Department of Defense, but they are, in fact, doing so.
Are these companies being pressured by China or other foreign governments to cripple the US? Are these companies being threatened with losing the ability to provide shipping services to foreign countries if they continue helping the US? The answer to those questions is not known, but it __may__ be a possibility.
Which brings up the issue of future US ship building and moving men and materiel.
With China having 232 times the US ship building capacity, and with commercial ventures in the US unable to re-supply or even timely service existing ships, and now commercial entitities “backing away” from providing services to the US, it is starting to look as though we are being set up to be invaded and conquered.
MILITARY-AGE MEN SOUTHERN BORDER INVASION
All of the above brings us to the US Southern Border. There has been an over Nine-hundred percent (900%+) increase in young, fit, military-age, Chinese men crossing illegally into the US via the southern border. This is confirmed by FOX NEWS.
Why the sudden surge of Chinese men? Some analysts think they are a fifth column; wolves in sheep’s clothing, entering our country at the behest of the China Communist Party to lay in wait for an order to attack the US from within.
And the US federal Government is making it EASIER for people to enter the country illegally! The Biden regime has ordered gates in former President Trump’s border wall . . . . to be welded open! YEs, you read that correctly, the gates are being welded open so even US citizens, concerned about illegals entering the country, can’t simply close and lock the gates.
STRATEGIC PETROLEUM RESERVE, DRAINED
The United States established the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) after the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970’s. The SPR can hold a little over seven-hundred-million barrels of oil in giant caverns in Louisiana and Texas. Yet the Biden regime has ordered the SPR to sell-off much of that reserve to artificially reduce gasoline prices in the USA.
As of today, more than two-thirds of that 700 million barrel SPR, have been sold off and are gone. There are presently no plans (and no money) to refill it.
If the US is invaded, and we cannot import foreign oil because we’re a war zone where ships cannot safely come and go, we won’t have more than a month or two of fuel with which to fight and defend our own land.
TREACHERY?
This appears to be deliberate treachery on the part of the federal government, some of whom may simply have been bribed by China, or other countries, to sell-out our nation and prime us for invasion.
This week, Congress beings Impeachment Hearings into President Joe Biden, who allegedly received potentially millions in bribes from China and elsewhere. Congress has already revealed that Bank Wire Transfers to Hunter Biden, showing Joe Biden’s home address in Wilmington, Delaware as the recipient’s address, have been confirmed as having taken place. At least $250,000 of such wire transfers are said to have come from Beijing.
Also this week, Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) was Indicted and Arraigned in federal court, after being caught with some $458,000 cash stuffed into envelopes hidden in clothing in a closet, and in a safe, in his Englewood Cliffs home, along with 81.5 ounces of gold bullion in bars, allegedly for making military deals with and for, Egypt.
Menendez is charged with Bribery.
If Menendez took Bribes from Egypt to sell out US weapons, one has to wonder if he also took money from China to sell us out? Or if he also took money from other countries?
One also has to wonder if any OTHER Senators or Congressmen took such Bribes?
It appears the United States of America is suffering a level of treachery from within, that may actually cause our nation to cease to exist.
China Exposes New G20 Summit Hypocrisy and lies
You won’t believe what Biden just said after all the sanctions the US imposed on China. Biden gave a statement thinking that he is trying to create good relations with China after the G20 meeting with China’s Premier League Biden said we don’t want to contain China instead we want to make sure we have a relationship that is on the up and up squared away but don’t be misled by this statement before you know the actual truth According to Forbes, the US has imposed a list of sanctions on China, and its motive is simply to contain China, so when it comes to words, the US has a lot to say to impress you, but when it comes to actions, you won’t find anyone more brutal in the world than the US, so the question is why is there such a big difference between the US’s actions and its words, let’s find out in this video we will discuss the reality behind the US’s claims to not contain China We will also analyze the impact of Biden and Lee’s G20 summit on US-China relations. Watch the video until the conclusion to find out if the US is being honest this time or if this is just another tactic to attain ulterior aims.
https://youtu.be/w0MMrKvJZLQ
COVERT INTEL: CLOSEST PUTIN ADVISOR SAYS “NUKE U.K. OFF THE MAP” TO STOP UKRAINE WAR AND WW3
One of the closest and most trusted Advisors to Russian President Vladimir Putin has formally told his boss that a “massive” use of nuclear weapons is necessary to actually “prevent” World War 3 and save humanity. He urges the complete destruction of the United Kingdom as a warning to others to stop.
Mediterranean Steak and Pasta with Tomato-Olive Sauce
Whole-wheat pasta is served with beef Sirloin Tip Center Steaks and a tomato and olive sauce. This one will please the adults and the kids in your family.
mediterranean steak pasta
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
8 ounces uncooked whole grain fettuccine
4 beef Sirloin Tip Center Steaks, cut 3/4 inch thick (about 4 ounces each)
1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce with olives*
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves, crushed
1/4 cup finely shredded Italian cheese blend or mozzarella cheese
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
Cook fettuccine according to package directions; drain and keep warm.
Heat large nonstick skillet over medium heat until hot. Place beef steaks in skillet; cook for 11 to 13 minutes for medium rare (145 degrees F) doneness, turning occasionally. (Do not overcook.) Remove from skillet; keep warm.
Combine pasta sauce and oregano in same skillet; heat until hot. Return steaks to skillet; turn to coat with sauce.
Place steaks on fettuccine; spoon sauce over all.
Sprinkle steaks with cheese, allowing cheese to melt. Sprinkle with parsley.
Notes
* You may substitute 1 (26 ounce) jar pasta sauce with olives for 1 (26 ounce) pasta sauce plus 1/4 cup chopped olives.
I used to coach swimming in the early 2000’s. It probably won’t surprise you that my most challenging group was the middle school boys.
But where a few of them were difficult, others were in need of help. They were “different”. Consequently, they were bullied frequently at school. They would come in upset about how their day had gone.
I identified with them on so many levels as I’ve spent my entire life having people tell me, “You are one weird guy.”
I would reassure them that they were simply misunderstood and that they were in good company: some of the greatest people who ever lived were treated as weirdos.
Frederick Nietzsche, another mega genius, was in this camp at one point too. He was, by very definition, different than his peers. People tend to attack things they don’t understand.
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Throughout his life, he proposed many wild and brilliant ideas, faced his own share of critics, and endured his own moments of social isolation.
One line he wrote, that I encourage any who feel misunderstood to remember:
And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.
Humanity is filled with wild and shimmering variety. Those who see “different” and attack are afraid of their own authenticity.
Don’t shy away from living your own truth.
If you haven’t been told “You’re weird.” a few times along the way, you aren’t doing it right.
When I was in seventh grade, my father bought me a hat for Christmas. It was some kind of furry alpine hat with flair and it even had a feather in the top. Man! Oh man! was I ridiculed by everyone in the class for wearing it. My other classmates all wore orange hunting caps, but I had my Alpine masterpiece…
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I got to be the brunt of many a joke because of this hat.
Anyways, one day, one of the loudest boys who made fun of my hat, took me aside and told me in private that he liked my hat and thought that it was really cool. Well… good for him. I appreciate it.
If you are a parent, please take the time and give some thought to what your children might think of your fashion choices…
I own the building in the picture, 6–8 Commerical Street, Castleford, West Yorkshire, England.
(picture omitted)
My financial advisory company occupies the two two floors. The electricity Supplier Opus Energy tried billing me for a standard charge to supply the non-existent number 10 Commercial Street, so I wrote to them as below –
Dear Sirs
Account Number ********** Invoice Number ***************
Your bill (scan attached) has nothing to do with me.
1. I own 6-8 Commercial Street, not number 10. There is no number 10. It does not exist.
2. I have never signed a contract with you for any premises whatsoever.
3. The meter to which this refers has a label attached to it saying ‘Dead’. You say that the bill is for my ‘connection to the network. I am not connected to the network via your company but via British Gas. I have 2 meters with British Gas, one for the 1st floor and 1 for the 2nd (top) floor. The baker and hairdresser on the ground floor have their own meters. I refuse point blank to pay you for a dead meter that supplies absolutely nothing.
4. The reading on your meter – 94717kwh – is the same as it was on the day I bought the building, 1 March 2017.
5. The ‘balance before this bill’ of £33.08 plus VAT should presumably be directed to the previous owners if anyone, though they did not own 10 Commercial Street either. If they were paying you in error then that is their problem. I do not intend to make the same mistake.
In view of the above:
1. Please cancel this invoice and ensure no more are sent. You are not supplying me with electricity; British Gas is.
2. Please arrange for your engineers to safely remove your meter without affecting my supply or that of my tenants.
3. I reserve the right to charge you £1 per day rent for the wall space your meter is taking up backdated to the date I acquired the property.
This argument went on for two years! They eventually threatened to take me to court. I said “Okay, get on with it. I’ll see you in court.” At that point somebody with a brain in his head (their legal department I’m guessing) looked at it and dropped the demand. Case closed.
Mexican Pepper Steak
Mexican Style Pepper Steak superJumbo
Ingredients
6 steaks
1 cup red, ripe Anaheim chiles or 3 red bell peppers, seeded and sliced into thin strips
2 tablespoons butter
1 clove garlic, minced
Instructions
Choose your favorite steak.
Grill the steaks al carbon and serve them topped with the chiles or bell peppers.
To prepare the topping, heat butter in a skillet over medium heat.
Add garlic and chiles or peppers and sauté them until they are soft.
If you are using bell peppers, add black pepper, to taste.
China permanently stops exporting two important minerals for manufacturing electronic chips
In a significant development, China has made the decision to permanently cease the export of two crucial minerals essential for the production of electronic chips. This decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for the global electronics industry.
The move comes as China aims to prioritize its domestic technology sector and strengthen its position in the global market. With the halt in the export of these minerals, manufacturers of electronic chips worldwide will face challenges in sourcing the necessary materials, potentially leading to supply chain disruptions and increased costs.
As electronic chips are vital components in various devices, including smartphones, computers, and automotive electronics, this decision by China is likely to impact the availability and affordability of these products globally. It may also prompt countries and companies to explore alternative sources or develop new technologies to mitigate the impact.
The implications of China’s decision on the electronics industry are significant, and stakeholders will need to adapt to this new landscape. Stay tuned for further updates on how this development unfolds and its potential ramifications for the global technology sector.
I’m convinced we are going to see a politician die on TV — and not because of an assassination.
Neither of our two likely presidential candidates can run up a flight of stairs without great risk. Even back in January 2021, the top three candidates (Trump, Biden, and Sanders) would have each been the oldest president ever at the start of their terms.
Mitch McConnell’s eyes are rolling back like a ref is giving him a standing 8 count against Mike Tyson. His publicized medical report said there were no signs of any problem. But politicians decide if medical reports are released. For context, Trump’s doctor also said he was in “extraordinary” good health.
I’ve also stopped buying into Biden’s speech impediment excuse. Watch a few of his younger speeches — there’s a huge difference. Notably, he was also one of the youngest senators in history at age 30. At the time, he said, “The seniority system has more drawbacks than merits”.
God bless Biden for hanging in there but even as a left-leaning moderate, I can’t watch anymore. Per a NYT piece, even his aides are extremely nervous each day, worried he’ll fall or make another serious gaffe.
Politicians have never been a bastion for youth —but a revival is in order. I watched the Republican debates and saw a number of bright candidates, who’d be a much better alternative to Trump. But we are boxed in as usual. Even my parents, who are die-hard conservatives, have lost their enthusiasm.
It’s either a fascist narcissistic billionaire or a democrat who forgets which country he is in.
What a mess.
So what gives?
Why is it so hard to find a fresh 40-something with bold, good ideas —and more cognitive shelf life?
For starters, there’s an incentive problem. The US political system favors experience — but not experience in drafting policy or leading. It favors experience in building allies and raising money.
You might wonder: Why doesn’t a wealthy donor support a younger politician? Because political donors aren’t altruistic. They want people with power, who can use that power to benefit them.
We have abysmal representation for young voters— especially when it comes to issues like climate change. I see countless older politicians advocating for the use of coal when it’s one of the most dangerous sources of energy on a per KWH basis. We have embarrassing, recurring viral moments of politicians completely misunderstanding technology and social media.
But incumbent politicians are devilishly difficult to dethrone, particularly after they’ve been in office for a few terms. They have name recognition and access to enormous campaign financing. They are on TV constantly, dropping zingers on their opponents. And —there are no term limits.
There’s a reason you rarely see 80-year-olds running for their first term.
The only means of entry seems to be through extreme partisanship, which is why you see so many young and over-the-top politicians.
We are to blame
Voters often prefer candidates who are closest to themselves in age. Moreover, we tend to vote for demographics that align with us, and voter turnout remains terrible for young people.
It isn’t just politicians getting older. The average age of incoming S&P 500 CEOs has increased by 14 years over the previous decade. Two-thirds of the nation’s wealth is held by Americans 55 and older, despite them being less than one-third of the population.
The age in Congress dropped slightly after the midterms, with an average age of 58. The average age in the Senate is 64. Meanwhile, the average American is only 38.
We live in a technical age, with sophisticated and evolving artificial intelligence sweeping across every sector. Meanwhile, 72-year-old Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer is still using a flip phone.
Many of these leaders were born in the 1940s and were shaped by an era that has blinded them to massive problems at our doorstep. How can you care about climate change if you aren’t concerned about what 2050 looks like?
Biden looks and seems much older than he did only a few years ago. Trump lost his marbles long before he hit his 70s.
And age is causing problems in the actual procedures of governance. Senator Diane Feinstein (90) has well-documented health problems issues that have held up passing legislation.
The lack of a filtration system
There are no real physical demands of the job. This isn’t construction in equatorial heat. If you have a sound mind, and sometimes, even if you don’t, you can stay in office.
Perhaps the job is too easy. Most of us have stressful work that involves tons of multitasking and recurring deadlines we lose sleep over. We look forward to retiring. If people are eager to leave office in a coffin, maybe we haven’t asked enough of them. CEOs rarely last work past decline as they do in politics. They are typically shown the door or leave when they hear the creak of it being opened.
And is that how you’d want to be remembered as a politician? As a cantankerous curmudgeon who refuses to leave?
Sure, there is an appeal to age and experience. Wisdom isn’t inherited. But only to an extent. We need younger blood in office now more than ever.
And so to the people voting, on both sides of the aisle, and both sides of the hill, consider giving fresh voices a chance. Being president has morphed from being a popularity contest —to being a contest of which politician you hate the least. It doesn’t have to be this way.
And more broadly, this is a reminder that just because things are done a certain way, doesn’t mean they should always be done that way. Keep an open mind and good heavens, exercise your right to vote.
HOW I SEE THE USA AS A EUROPEAN (after 6 months)
“Cultural shocks? Differences between Europe and the USA? Regrets, struggles, positive surprises? In this video, I want to share with you some of my impressions of the United States after spending 6 months traveling the country. So, do you reckon I should come back?”
America loves wars. And it wages wars on enemies and allies alike.
Recent events this year indicate that the US is waging a hybrid war on India. It started with a BBC documentary that recycled Hindu-Muslim conflicts from 20+ years ago; then, allegations against Indian billionaire Adani by an American company; followed by calls for better democracy by Soros; and now the latest bombshell accusations from Canada against the Indian government regarding the murder of Sikh separatists.
By the way, the word “allies” is just a euphemism for vassals. Modern wars are hybrid in nature — they include hot wars, economic wars, tech wars, trade wars, propaganda wars, spy wars, political wars and so on. The US wages hybrid wars on its vassals to make sure that the vassals don’t collude or start making independent decisions. Thus, the US spies on its European allies, stages soft coups in allied countries, wrecks their economies when they get too strong, and even forces them into proxy wars. This is standard procedure, and India is now getting a taste of it. With Soros’ involvement, there might even be a color revolution.
To counteract America’s hybrid war, India should re-embrace China! Yes, bring back Huawei 5G, TikTok, Alibaba etc., and the US will back off quickly. That’s smart, “Chanakya” geopolitics.
In this article, we will discuss one of the powerful modern tools for regime change — use of NGOs by the US foreign policy establishment. Then we will discuss why India is under attack and how India can fight back to protect its sovereignty and focus on rapid growth.
How the Attacks are Unfolding
2023 started with a BBC documentary on Modi that rekindled the controversies about the Hindu-Muslim riots 20 years ago. (I thought the documentary was pretty good; and the Indian government should not have banned it). The US and its Western allies are like a geopolitical Godfather and his consigliere.
The BBC documentary was not a coincidence as evidenced by the Hindenburg report that came a couple of days later in a one-two punch fashion. The allegations of fraud have eviscerated $100 billion of (corrupt?) Indian oligarch Gautam Adani’s wealth. He quickly fell from the 2nd wealthiest man to #25 in the Bloomberg Index
.
Then came George Soros, the king of color revolutions, who linked these two incidents, attacked Modi, and called for a “democratic revival” in India. This was the final confirmation of America’s war on India.
The latest attack is from Canada, a member of the Anglo-American Empire and Five Eyes. Don’t mistake me — it’s very likely that the Indian government in some level was involved in the shooting of the Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. The media is now reporting that there are incriminating recordings of Indian diplomats in Canada. Not surprised at all.
The whole thing was an entrapment. Just like how the US ambassador in Iraq told Saddam Hussein that if he invaded Kuwait, the US wouldn’t do anything.
In India’s case, it’s likely that someone from the CIA (or even the Mossad) gave the green light for the assassination, while other groups collected the evidences.
(Note that India’s intelligence group, R&AW — which is like the Indian CIA — has carried out such assassinations of Khalistan or Islamist terrorists in Pakistan before. However, to carry out such acts in a NATO/G7 country — killing a Canadian citizen in Canada — is quite brazen and probably a massive geopolitical blunder by India).
What is America’s goal? Either regime change or forcing Modi government to change some of its domestic and foreign policies.
Another sign of the escalating hostility is the sudden change in the tone of the Western media. Look what the influential journal Economist says
:
🔹“India is invariably weaker than its leaders publicly proclaim”
🔹“If the investigation confirms Indian involvement in this crime, it is time for a tougher line.”
🔹“On its own turf, India has muzzled the press, cowed the courts and persecuted minorities”
Understanding America’s Overt Regime-Change Ops
A quick history lesson here is important. During the Cold War, the CIA blatantly assassinated many leaders of sovereign nations all over the world to “stop the spread of communism.” The real reason was, of course, to extend American hegemony globally and ensure cheap supplies of raw materials as well as open markets for American products.
However, by the 1970s, a lot of allies started to complain, since murdering political leaders was a bit too much even for the co-conspirators and obedient puppets of imperialism. Thus, in the 1980s, the US polished its regime change operations and came up with the idea of revolutions through propaganda and soft power. This was the result of people like George Soros and a myriad of organizations like NED and NDI.
Thus, the US shifted many of its operations from covert to overt. Rather than knife-and-dagger, try to overthrow leaders openly!
In 1991, Allen Weinstein, the founder of NED, admitted
that, “ A lot of what we do today was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.”
The goal was to spend billions of dollars in “NGOs” in developing countries, especially those that are resistant to American influence. In an Orwellian fashion, these “non-governmental” organizations are funded and directed by the US government! The term “NGO” just means that they are free from the governments of the countries where the NGOs are located.
These NGOs create a vast array of groups including those that promote “journalism,” “free speech,” “women’s rights,” “environmentalism” etc. Plus, to give some legitimacy, they also include groups that allegedly help fight poverty or illiteracy. However, all their actions are focused on promoting pro-American sentiments and Western corporate interests. The leaders of these groups can make a lot of money and enjoy celebrity status. They can attend workshops in Europe, get to testify before the US Congress, write articles for the NY Times, appear on CNN etc. If they are really good, like that North Korean defector Yeonmi Park, they can make $10,000 a speech, making up absurd stories.
You can see these US/EU-funded fake NGO groups now, in 2023, in Myanmar, Thailand, Belarus, Kazakhstan etc. For more than two decades, they were busy in Hong Kong, until they were completely dismantled by China two years ago. The separatist movement in the Xinjiang-Uyghur region is also fueled by the same people. Other places that were recent victims of US-led protests include Venezuela, Syria, Libya, Cuba and even the so-called Arab Spring.
In Ukraine, they started in the early 1990s and lasted until 2014, when the Nazi-led and US-orchestrated Maidan Coup overthrew a democratically elected leader. Since then, the Ukrainian NGO groups have shifted their energy to 100% anti-Russian propaganda.
George Soros, the General of Color Revolutions
While the US government funds groups like NED and NDI to create chaos in not-so-subservient nations around the world, these groups still had direct links to the US government, which was embarrassing at times. Thus, the US deep state picked George Soros as its henchman or general. He was a Jewish immigrant from Hungary, had strong anti-Russian and anti-communist feelings, and was the perfect pick.
And Soros has been extraordinarily successful. In an interview, he boasted
, “After the fall of the Soviet Empire, I picked up the pieces and created the Soros Empire.”
With Wall Street’s help, the CIA made him a billionaire. With insider information, Soros made his first billion by shorting the British Pound in 1992. Then, subsequently, he made more billions during the Asian financial crisis, Russian crisis, and Mexican crisis during the late 1990s. Get rich by destroying others!
He started his grassroots movements in the late 1980s — first in Hungary, then expanded to Poland and even mainland China.
Soros played a significant role in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. Soon after that, China banned him and his organizations. A couple of years ago, Putin finally banned Soros; and now even his native place Hungary is trying to ban him!
Soros and his groups play the long game. For example, his “Open Society” group brags about how it has spent billions of dollars in Ukraine since the 1990s.
A characteristic of his movement is the use of colors — like:
“Rose Revolution” in Georgia in 2003
“Orange Revolution” in Ukraine in 2004
“Tulip Revolution” in Kyrgyzstan in 2005
In each of the above cases, when a pro-Russia leader won the election, Soros turned on his useful idiots and provocateurs, who started large protests. Then, the US/EU governments would cry crocodile tears about human rights, freedom, and democracy. US/UK media operating in those countries would carry out intense propaganda campaigns about corruption. Then the governments were forced to hold another election, in which the pro-US leader won by a small margin.
The interesting and obvious phenomenon is that when a pro-US government is established, Soros quietly shuts down all his “grassroots” organizations. All those protesters and influencers quietly vanish in thin air. Thus, the people are left with the same corrupt system but with different or worse rulers.
Take Ukraine, for example.
In 2004, Ukraine became slightly pro-US after the first color revolution;
In 2014, Ukraine became a total American puppet.
What did the Ukrainian people gain? Nothing but poverty and destruction.
In 2021, before the war started, the average pension in Ukraine was just $150 a month. Ukraine was still the poorest country in Europe. Worse, the Ukrainians got a comedian president, rule by the same oligarchy, Nazism, civil war, Russian invasion, millions of people turned into refugees, and utter destruction of the entire country.
While the US has groups like the National Endowment of Democracy (NED), people like Soros are even more effective. Why? It gives US deep state “plausible deniability” — “Hey, he’s just an individual, not the US government.”
For Soros, he enjoys immense power — to manipulate millions of people and overthrow governments. Of course, the new puppets installed in these countries will let Soros and his financial buddies in New York and London make enormous amount of money through various “reforms” such as privatization. So, for example, Soros’ hedge fund would be able to buy a natural gas field, a bank or an airline for pennies on the dollar. The investment money belongs to other oligarchs and financial institutions in the US/Europe, and Soros gets a juicy commission. This strategy of OPM — Other People’s Money — is more discrete and smarter than Soros himself becoming the owner of a new bank or an airline — then, even the average useful idiot of the color revolution will be able to connect the dots.
For example, after the fall of the USSR, vampires like Soros descended upon Moscow, handpicked Russian oligarchs and politicians- based on their loyalty to US/EU, and looted hundreds of billions of dollars.
What India Needs to Realize
Indian leaders should understand the complexity of this network. Indian FM Jaishankar only attacked Soros personally, which gives the wrong impression. George Soros is part of the US/EU Deep State — a group of elites from the foreign policy establishment, Wall Street, military, spy agencies, and the media.
Similarly, Canada is not a tiny country acting alone. Whatever Trudeau says or does is a reflection of the collective decisions made by the Five Eyes — US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Of course, the US is the boss.
Also, in order to circumvent pesky constitutional limits, the Five Eyes do dirty work on each other’s countries. So, British agencies spy on certain Americans; and the CIA/NSA spy on diplomats in Canada, and so on.
Canada is a key designated member of the Five Eyes to attract separatists from all over the world — Sikh separatists from India, Uyghur and Hong Kong separatists from China, Islamists from Syria and so on. These groups are geopolitical pawns for the Western countries to harass developing nations, rivals, or simply any country not being “cooperative” — a.k.a. obedient.
Thus, it’s not just BBC or Hindenburg or Soros or Trudeau attacking India. The entire Western establishment is targeting India.
And the attacks are not going to stop, unless the Modi government gives into the US demands. And what does the US want? I am not sure, but here are my guesses:
Stop buying weapons from Russia. Instead, buy US weapons.
Allow US military bases in India.
Stop helping the expansion of BRICS, especially with the addition of Saudi Arabia and Iran. (This threatens the petrodollar hegemony).
Be more anti-China. (Recently, the Indian government has been trying to downplay the tensions with China. When there were some border conflicts, it was the British media that leaked the news. Also, India-China trade has been booming. It looks like the Modi government realizes its mistake of over-hyping anti-China sentiments).
Allow privatization of India’s financial sector — let US giants buy shares in Indian banks, insurance companies, stock market exchange etc.
America is a Brutal Empire
Many Indians have no clue about the real nature of the U.S. partly because of immigration and partly because of the abysmal job of the Indian mainstream media. For example, how many Indians know that the U.S. blew up the Nord Stream pipeline? It’s pure terrorism, like a 9/11 on Germany, America’s “ally.”
Most people also don’t know that the U.S. has armed and funded Al Qaeda since the fall of the Soviet Union — as seen in Chechnya, Kosovo etc. ISIS was also a U.S. creation in the proxy war against Syria. And the U.S. has been funding, recruiting and training Nazis in Ukraine for a decade; U.S. Pentagon also established bio-weapon labs in Ukraine and quickly ordered them to be destroyed when Russia invaded. There are many more such examples of atrocities committed by the USA.
Whatever it takes to maintain the American primacy.
Now, think for a moment what the U.S. would do to create more tensions between India and China. For example, could the U.S. have rigged the GPS system of Indian soldiers in Ladakh in 2020?
to remove President Dilma Rousseff, when she wasn’t acting like an obedient puppet.
Consider that India’s 5G is all 100% foreign and from US and its close puppet allies. Plus, Indian leaders all probably use Gmail, Outlook etc., which are all spy tools for US deep state. Thus, all forms of communications — phone calls, text messages, emails — in India are under American surveillance.
The spying on Indian diplomats in Canada should wake up Indians to one more gruesome fact: The US is also spying on key business and political elites in India through 5G, Google Pay, WhatsApp, e-commerce (Amazon & Flipkart), Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Amazon AWS cloud, undersea fiber optic cables and so on. Go back and read Edward Snowden’s revelations from a decade ago. Even hard drives and semiconductor chips have back-doors for the NSA to spy. Don’t be fooled by the Indian CEO faces in some US hi-tech companies.
Finally, imagine if the US sanctions India. It will ruin the Indian economy. Imagine if Google Pay, Whatsapp, Amazon, Flipkart etc. get turned off at the snap of a finger! Thus, India becomes very vulnerable when it depends on US technology so much.
The current American chutzpah in attacking India can only be explained by India’s distancing itself from China. Without any powerful ally other than the US, India is hapless. India must rectify this immediately with a shot across the bow: Seek detente with China! It will absolutely blow the American mind.
Bring back TikTok and watch Facebook and Google cry! Bring back Alibaba or AliExpress and watch Amazon shake in its boots! Approve Huawei 5G for India’s networks and watch the CIA weep about how it can’t spy on Indian elites! Let China build some massive infrastructure projects in India — from clean coal power plants and solar farms to airports and highways. Create joint ventures with Chinese firms to create massive manufacturing ecosystems.
India’s strategic ambiguity will get it better deals from China (including technology transfer in some areas) and force the U.S. to curtail its imperialist actions.
If you’re worried about the border disputes, see my blog
on some ideas on resolving them.
Conclusion
India is at a critical inflection point. The next two decades will determine India’s 21st century. Thus, it’s a geopolitical imperative that India navigate this exigent period carefully and wisely. This is the time to focus on growth and prosperity, while making sovereign decisions. India’s focus and goal should be:
Maintaining Strategic ambiguity while balancing China and the West
Stopping any nefarious regime change operations… and
Resisting being a geopolitical pawn of the American Empire
Huawei Stealing American Technology? Ha ha… We’re ‘Stealing’ America’s Technology of Tomorrow!
The spokesperson of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs made a statement emphasizing that Huawei, a Chinese company, is excellent but faces prejudice due to its Chinese origin.
Meanwhile, in the United States, there is a department called the “China Task Force,” led by Mike Gallagher, which aims to tarnish China’s image and suppress Chinese technology companies.
Even before the US government released an official report on Huawei’s Mate60 smartphone, which featured the Kirin 9000S chip developed domestically, Mike Gallagher called for a halt to all technology exports to Huawei and SMIC.
He also accused Huawei of relying on US technology to produce the Kirin 9000S chip.
These accusations from US politicians are not new and have been ongoing since May 2018, with claims of national security concerns and technology theft by Chinese companies like Huawei.
In response to these allegations, Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, stated that if Huawei had stolen US technology, it would mean stealing technology that the US hasn’t even developed yet.
He suggested that the US may be attempting to suppress Huawei because it is ahead in technological advancements.
It is an omen of what social collapse and government breakdown looks like. I’ve been to many countries, but unlike any of these places, there were no traffic rules properly enforced in Cairo. Some streets are absolute wrecks of apocalyptic chaos. Honking everywhere, shattering your ears. Swerving cars with cracked windows. Smog pouring out exhaust pipes. I saw a woman pulling a donkey and cart on a congested highway surrounded by cars. Many cars break down on roads.
The pyramids were overrated and very difficult to appreciate due to the madness around them. This included all sorts of merchants or vehicle operators screaming at you or fighting each other. They are also fringed by what is essentially the slum construction site of Giza with donkey faeces and piles of litter everywhere. Many buildings look like they are crumbling and I heard they appear like this on purpose because painting them technically means they are complete and thus available for taxation. So the population has seemingly agreed to not paint their buildings.
Much of Cairo is falling apart. The old city really is about to roll into a coffin. The sheer scale of people flowing down the small streets was extraordinary. At some points it was almost impossible to move without pushing through crowds. The dining options were not great either. Some places stunk of raw meat or looked unbelievably unsanitary. I saw a man sitting in a cafe looking nonplussed as he seemed to be covered in exhaust smog with his ears being obliterated by honking.
Your instincts are screaming at you everywhere. The pictures online are nothing like experiencing it in reality. The best place is your hotel, away from the chaos. I’ve seen inside perhaps an average home and it seemed well organised and clean, but the outside world is unmitigated lunacy.
The tourist industry is also probably the most aggressive in the world. Many of those working within it actively scam tourists as a major aspect of business dealings. This is ingrained in almost every aspect of it from tour guides to hotels. You cannot trust the prices they quote and they also demand tips quite hawkishly. Cafe owners will mislead you and taxi or tour drivers will take you to so-called museums which are gift shops where owners sit you down to try and sell you stuff. Even in Luxor, ticket sellers demanded tips.
The tourist industry is also very dystopic and along Egypt’s east coast, it is basically an infinite line of resorts for many miles. All of them are heavily guarded by the military and police because one incident against a tourist bankrupts the industry for months or over a year. The military is necessary here, but seeing machine guns and road blocks everywhere puts you on high alert, being afraid that some crazy person is going to burst into the resort and rampage around or it could be one of the guards. Of course, this doesn’t happen and terrible events are very rare, but the thought remains.
Finally the sun. It is so powerful and without sunglasses you will be squinting everywhere. The sun is very intense. This can’t be helped geographically, but with all the traffic congestion it makes the country exceptionally broiling.
I hope the country can fix itself. There are good people who I encountered, but they are very far away from the tourist industry.
Immigrants have started to Leave Canada in 2023 – WHY?
True 100%. We decided to move out of Canada due to lack of access to health care and influence of gender ideology in schools.
It was not what I said but really what I did. I brought a pen.
It may seem like a small thing, but I truly think it made a huge impact. When I went to my interview I was handed a packet of documents that outlined the responsibilities of the position I was hoping for. I immediately brought out a pen and as we went over each bullet point I made notes. For instance things that she hoped the hire would take on complete responsibility for, I put a star next to. If she mentioned a software or computer program the company used, especially if I was not familiar with it, I wrote it down to look up later. On things I wanted clarification on, I marked down the new information I was given. I was called in for a second interview.
I brought my pen again, and I brought all that information from the packet. I had researched the program that was mentioned during the first interview. I referred to points made previously. At one point I even brought out a small notebook to jot another note down. I was called in for the final interview.
Not going to lie, I did not need my pen here, nor did I get the opportunity to use it with the VP of HR who was conducting the last phase. She told me she wanted to hire me right then, and if it were not for assessment needed for my department it would be a done deal. I went outside and took my assessment. I did horrible. I am not the best at math, and I had not used fractional math for years so I am sure I got every question wrong. The rest of it I aced. Since math took up over half, I was sure I was out. I cried all the way home, even though they told me strait up it was not pass/fail so much ad they wanted to see where I needed training.
I was called two days later and offered the job. I am sure it was because I came prepared with a pen and showed how serious I was taking things. Take a pen with you.
To retire Yoon Seok-yeol weightlifting, which works evil in the entire area of puppet The struggle of all walks of life is expanding day by day.
On the 16th, Yoon Seok-yeol Station was retired from all areas, including Seoul The 3rd Pan-National Congress of the withdrawal of the Yoon Seok-yeol Regime was held.
November, we held the “People’s Gun Contest” and announced the withdrawal of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime. I’m going to have a total struggle for it.”I decided.
Yoon Seok-yeol, chairman of the Democratic Ro-gun, is not only in Seoul, but also in all over the world.On this day, he said that he was raising the eccentricity of the regime’s departure. We have been informed of the situation of the rally that is taking place in the entire area of the puppet.
He continued, ” If we don’t struggle together against the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, we don’t fight together.” We can only be forced to continue to work for a long time.”Once again the protest of the people who brought down the Park Geun-hye regime Let’s organize. We in this position will take the lead, and the people will step out together..”, “In November, the Yoon Seok-yeol regime with the people’s guns stopped your runaway.> , <There’s no place for you guys to live.>Let’s declare it unabashedly.”It was a great place to stay.
On the other hand, the participants of the 3rd Pan-National Convention for the withdrawal of the Yoon Seok-yeol Regime on this day “Japan Radioactive Polluted Water Marine Dumping” held in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, Korea in the afternoon! Yoon Seok joined the 4th Pan-National Convention and condemned the defeat of the Yeomanry I raised my voice even more.
In order to stop the runaway of the Yoon Seok-yeol regime, the speakers said, ” Everyone from all walks of life We must unite as one.”, “One day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day, one day Of course, I ask you to be responsible for non-walnut Japan’s nuclear pollutant second world war. We must order the impeachment of Yoon Seok-yeol to the National Assembly in the name of the people..”He strongly insisted.
“Only COWARDS fear World War 3!” Sean Penn on giving more money to Ukraine
Ugh.
Minute Steak Parmesan
2023 09 25 15 19
Ingredients
5 minute steaks
1 beaten egg
1 tablespoon water
Dash of pepper
1/4 cup soda cracker crumbs
1 (8 ounce) can pizza sauce
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Instructions
Dip steaks in combined egg, water and pepper. Coat with mixture of crumbs and half of the cheese.
Brown in hot oil; drain on absorbent paper.
Arrange in baking dish; cover with pizza sauce, and top with remaining cheese.
We worked for a LOT of apartments. A lease renewal clean was done by the apartment complex once a year for the tenants lease renewal. The apartment community paid for the clean so it was free for the resident and we did not move furniture as part of the deal.
Clean an apartment for a Spanish couple. SHE complained (in Spanish) the entire time that I was doing a horrible job and I needed to move everything. Me, the VERY white Gringo-American just kept cleaning and asking the husband, in English, if everything was alright. HE explained, in English it was fine and kept telling his wife, in Spanish, that it was fine amd to stop complaining. SlThis went on for the entire clean.
Getting done, packed up and heading out, I looked at him and in English asked if they needed anything more. Nope was his reply.
I turned to her amd in SPANISH said, “Thank you for the job, please open your windows a crack to help the carpets dry. It should take about 2–3 hours. Have a good day.”
My mother in law did something similar to me. She was a terrible cook and her two grown daughters asked if they could all come to our house for Mother’s Day one year. I knocked myself out fixing dinner for 14 people but ordered 2 pecan pies and a cake from an expensive bakery since I didn’t have time to make desserts too.
Everyone arrived and complimented the table but my sister-in-law pulled me aside and told me their mother had insisted on taking them to a buffet at a restaurant an hour before the time I had set for our dinner.
Only my husband and our kids ate. Everyone else pushed the food around embarrassedly. I was furious and finally couldn’t hold back. I looked at my mother in law and said I wished she hadn’t taken them out to eat when she knew I was cooking for them.
Instead of apologizing she giggled and said “My bad.” I’ve never forgotten that smug look on that witch’s face.
The next time anyone asked me to cook for a holiday I politely said no, we were having a small feast with just the four of us and I stuck with it.
People who pull that kind of stunt are emotionally stunted and don’t deserve anything from us except contempt.
USA on the Brink of Chaos: How Americans Are Living the End of the American Dream
In case you were unaware about how things are going in the United States today.
One of the MANY kinds of music that I enjoy is “Trance”. This is a kind of melodic continuous beat, many times with a female vocalist signing her heart out.
I was listening to some Trance on you-tube, and thought about it… you know… the pace and the beat of the music lends itself well to porn. No shit!
So, on a lark, I went to one of the porn sites; xHampster, and spent a minute or two watching the video while the you-tube Trance music played. Sure as shit, I kid you not, the music and the melody absolutely matched the actions of the porn actors and actresses. LOL.
Both the men and the woman busy in frenzied (erp) activity…
I think that this is more than just a casual observation. It’s a reflection of the ties to emotional and mental biological attachments relative to our drives.
Sex is but one of our many, many drives.
…
How does the music you listen to reflect your interests and desires?
I mean if Trance can equate to porn, then what does Country & Western music equate to? What does Classic Rock equate to?
Carry on my wayward son
Stairway to Heaven
Back in Black
Black Magic Woman
It seems to me that David Lee Roth is always singing about prostitutes, and Van Halen roars out about cars…
Ah.
…but what about polkas?
2023 09 28 10 45
… Vodka drunk aunties, with roses clenched in their teeth, and little kids running all over the stage, eh?
…
Music reflects our inner desires, and under certain conditions, they can enhance or suppress them.
Jazz.
Pop.
Banjo…
…
Todays…
NATO Planning for 3.5 MILLION to Serve if War With Russia Starts
In the event of a direct war with Russia, the NATO military bloc will utilize the 300 thousand troops already on the Border with Russia, in the first month. “NATO will then “attract” up to 3.5 million troops” according to Admiral Rob Bauer, the head of the military committee of the North Atlantic Alliance, .
Where do they think they’re going to get those 3.5 Million troops? Why, YOU – and your children — of course! Ready to go fight and die for the armpit of eastern Europe, Ukraine?
Admiral Bauer noted that NATO’s new regional defense plans involve further reinforcement on the borders with Russia in case of a possible confrontation.
“If they attack, we must be ready. So we need more militaries at a high level of readiness, and that’s not something that can be done overnight. They will need training, weapons, ammunition, everything else. Therefore, we are talking about 300 thousand military personnel at a high level of readiness. In total, NATO countries, together with Finland and Sweden, have 3.5 million troops,” said Bauer.
Rattling sabers will not help. Sooner or later Russia will complete its plans for its new Northern Military District, and NATO knows about this.
NATO, the clown force defeated by horseback riders from Afghani caves.
Beef and Mushrooms
Wild Mushroom and Beef Stew Recipe 5 of 10
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/4 pounds sirloin steak, cut into 1 inch pieces
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 (10 ounce) package sliced mushrooms
1 (16 ounce) package frozen pearl onions
2 cups red wine
1 (10.75 ounce) can Campbell’s Golden Mushroom soup
1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, chopped (optional)
Instructions
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.
Season steak with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper and cook until browned, about 5 minutes.
Transfer steak to a bowl and set aside.
Add mushrooms and onions to the pan and cook until liquid has evaporated.
Add the wine and simmer until reduced by half, 5 to 6 minutes.
Stir in soup and 1/4 cup water and bring to a boil.
Add steak and its juices from the bowl and simmer, 2 minutes.
Divide into individual bowls and sprinkle with the parsley, if using.
Trump Latinos – Rich Men North Of Richmond “Official Video”
America does not believe in fair competition, Tonya Harding is its role model.
What has the US done while China is improving?
…
NOTHING.
Just a whole lot of talk, blustering and promises…
China released new photolithography factory plan, U.S. restrictions will no longer be in effect.
Oh man this is a very wonderful news, hope it can be made soon and can’t wait to see US semiconductor companies close their doors one by one as no other market can absorb their products … I would say well done USA for digging your own grave yard, very well planned!
My first “real” marketing job, back in the 80’s, was working in the fragrance division of a world renowned fashion designer. 2x a year, I was given $2,000-$3,000 to go shopping at Bloomingdales buying up the competition’s newest products.
I learned that if I dressed down, jeans & tees, I could freely shop the dept without sales pressure. I could easily make a list of what I needed to buy Basically, I was ignored and when I tried to get help, I was ignored even more by the seasoned sales people. They would rather talk to each other than help me.
Eventually, a new or young sales clerk would take pity on me & ask if they could help me. I would hand them my list and watch the delight spread over their face as they mentally calculated their sizeable commission, especially as I pulled out the cash.
And it was super fun watching the scowls on those that wouldn’t help me, when they saw the size of my purchase. And yes, as I walked out, I said to each one of them “ you had your chance.” Lol
There were only two things that shocked me when I came to the US.
The complete lack of maintenance for the infrastructure. I thought Americans loved to drive? So why not spend some money on maintenance. I’ve seen more potholes in 6 days in the Usa, than in my entire life in the Netherlands
The way police officers and other other uniformed people behaved. It already started on the airport at border security, all of the guys in uniform acted like they were the most important person in the world and we were just measly worms. Come on, I know you have a job to do, but why can’t you just try to be pollite? If Dutch police officers would behave like that, they would be considered unfit for the job.
You could try doing what my neighbor did 50 years ago. His mother was a stubborn woman from the old country. She won’t consider going to a nursing home having any help in her place etc. she fired several people as soon as they started. So he hired another person and they concocted this plan. He told his mother that this person wanted to rent a room from her and she would pay her every week. But that she was a bit hard up and couldn’t afford the full cost of the rent so in order to get a lower rent she was going to help around the house and other things that might need to be done. So every week the son gave the Aide an extra $50 and the Aide handed the mother the $50 and she gave it to her son to put in the bank. So the Aide started helping around the house and then slowly started with personal care. Pretty soon she was taking full care of the mother and the mother thought she was great and offered a bigger reduction in her “rent” and she told her son that she had a nice tenant who helped her “a little” and it was so much better than having an Aide messing around in her house plus she was earning an extra $50 a week!
When I was in school, they held a robotics competition.
It was pretty simple, conceptually. You had to make a firefighting robot. It would have to navigate a maze, find a candle and put it out (fully automated, no remote control). I can’t remember the exact size but I think the robot had to be smaller than 1 foot in length, width, and height.
Scoring was as follows. You start with your time (how long it takes to search every room and put out the candle), and get deductions (bonus points) if your robot:
Put out the candle with anything other than a fan (water, for instance)
Searched every room, didn’t just stop at the one with the candle
Could separate into parts to search rooms in parallel
Was very efficient algorithmically (there were a few benchmarks for this)
Most entries looked like what you would expect, a bunch of sub-systems. Each one with a specific purpose. A Robot.
I entered a block of dry ice. It held a simple metal device attached to it.
It basically just had a spring-powered hammer to shatter it into little pieces when the start timer went (so that it would evaporate faster)
In seconds the entire maze was filled with a white fog and the candle was definitely out. I had the fastest time by a landslide even before you counted my deductions:
Didn’t use a fan? Check
Search every room? Check.
Separate into parts to put out fires in parallel? Check
I think I could’ve been the only person in history to ever win a robotics competition without writing a single line of code or soldering a single wire.
But alas, the judges disqualified me by unanimous vote.
Aztec Death Whistle | The Scariest Sound You’ve Ever Heard
During the Iraq war, soldiers frequently used Silly String to help detect booby traps.
Specifically:
If you were entering a house, a perimeter, any at-risk area, you would stand near the areas, and spray Silly String around the room.
Wherever the string caught, seeming to hang in the air—was often a tripwire, that was designed to set off a bomb killing all in the immediate vicinity. (Source: Silly String Has a Real Purpose: Exposing Trip Wires. Ferro, Shaunacy)
Because Silly String is so light, it doesn’t set the wire off. And—you can get Silly String that glows in the dark and is bright. So it has become a popular request from soldiers in the field.
A woman in New Jersey, whose son was serving, even created a charity and collected 80,000 cans of the stuff to ship over to them.
My parents used to fuss at me so bad about my adventures, mainly because I would bring junk home from the multiple dumpster areas. One in particular was located in the middle of nowhere, which is now a very nice neighborhood. Before this area boomed into what it is now, this particular set of dumpsters was literally rich people stuff from the surrounding lake homes. If Dad told me to take off the trash, I drove the extra few miles down the small road to go to these. Anyways, one day I hit mega jackpot!
Since these were so remote, nobody ever really used them and they were not picked through. I can tell you we had pickers in the others, because one day I threw a bag in and the dumpster said “hey watch it!”. That was quite the surprise. On this day the stars aligned for me though. As I was emptying Dad’s old truck, my eyes happened to see what I couldn’t believe….a nearly new VCR. Back then dad said he wouldn’t buy one they were just too expensive. This was back in the late 80s when VCRs were literally thousands of dollars, and this one was top of the line too! Somebody must have gotten angry at it, as I could tell it had been bashed. It was lying in a pile of stuff, deep down inside. So I pull the trusty truck up to the door where I could crawl inside. Low and behold it gets even better! Under it was a fairly new Sears stereo system…..like WHAT!!!! This was thousands of dollars of stuff here, and me being 17 I was just overcome with emotion. The cabinet was smashed as someone had just tossed it all in. I didn’t care I was in heaven. I retrieved my prizes and headed home. I was beside myself. When I pulled up to the house, I was so excited I could barely speak. Dad was skeptical. I admit the stuff had been scratched and damaged, but it was complete!
I understand why someone threw it out. The VCR ate tapes more than it played them. At 17 though, my skills as a repair person were developing. What happened was the rubber was not staying on the wheel that drove the tape, it was slipping. Gluing the rubber to the wheel solved the problem. The stereo was way more complicated to fix. It only had one side that was working, the left channel. The right was dead. It took me some time to figure it all out, but with help from the neighbor down the street (who had a Commodore 64 controlling his whole house) we were able to get it repaired. It was a burned up circuit on the board. I held on to that stereo and VCR for years, until it became totally obsolete and I finally placed it for recycling. My roommate for college was utterly shocked with the electronics I had. He couldn’t figure out how someone who barely worked could afford such high end stuff. He was even more miffed when I said I literally got it for free. I was always scared he was going to steal it too.
I ran a company for years and I told my employees that I expected them at work every day unless they were truly sick or had something that had to me taken care of.
I paid well and took good care of my people. One day, a guy named Tommy called in sick. Later in the day, I had to go look at a job on a part of town I’d never been in. As I drove, there was a group of guys in a yard drinking beer. Tommy was there with them. I waved as I drove by, and the look on his face was priceless.
I had a car phone which was rare back then. Tommy called after a bit and I told him his check would be ready on Friday.
Later, his wife called and asked me to give him one more chance that this was the best job he’d ever had and that their family was more secure than they’d ever been.
I let him come to a staff meeting and stand up and tell everyone what he’d done. I passed out slips of paper to everyone and let them vote. Stay or fired. They wrote, folded the papers and put them in a hat as it went around.
Most voted to let him stay. I did and he was a great employee from then on. I think it made a strong impression on all of the crews and I’m glad I gave him another chance. If his wife had not called, he would never have gotten the second chance.
Shopping at One of the Last Open Kmart’s Before it Closes Forever! Westwood NJ
Signs of America.
When my mother started to suffer from dementia.
I was in that position. It’s not an uncommon position to be in.
My mother was living alone and had early dementia. While not 91, she needed help and someone to talk with. And she was slowly losing it. She was in her late 70’s and had cancer. She lived in a big “Manor” house about an hours drive out of Pittsburgh, PA.
My sister lived the next town over and didn’t want to have anything to do with her. Instead, she wanted to put her in a care-home for aged people, and then take over her estate. Which was really selfish, and rude, but her husband was / is a self-centered bastard, so what can you expect.
My other sister lived a five hour drive away, and while she wanted to do something, it really wasn’t possible. She had her own business, and was busy. She could visit maybe once a month, but that was it.
My younger brother lived in Colorado, had his own business and couldn’t do anything.
And I, well, I was living in Boston, MA at the time. I was working as the VP of an International automotive electronics company, and I (as the oldest) was faced with the task on what to to. My brother and older sister discussed the matter with me and none of us wanted to put here in a “home”. So it was really up to me.
I quit my job.
Packed up all my belongings, and moved into the “Carriage House” (a caretaker building) on the property. Technically, I didn’t live in the house, but I was with her every day. We shared meals together. I took care of the property, and drove her to her medical appointments and kept an eye on her.
I did this for three years.
Then on Easter day, she got really tired. She couldn’t eat dinner with all of us. Instead she just sat in the kitchen, unable to move. We ate, and talked and then we carefully helped her to the couch in the TV room.
We put on a rental movie, and watched it together. She closed her eyes and went to sleep. Everyone else left, and that night, I sat beside her writing e-mails to my girlfriend in China.
She never woke up.
And I, well, I sat beside her all night, and into the next afternoon. Hospice came. We moved her into a bed in the TV room. She laid there.
And I sat beside her.
I was there beside her as she passed on.
…
You can either be a man and take responsibility for your family, or not. I took responsibility, and those three years with my mother were very special to me. Treasures. Really.
After she passed on, a new chapter opened up in my life.
When has a Company in US ever lowered its retail costs to compete fairly?
The Answer is NEVER
At least not since the 1970s
Japanese cars and steel threatened to swamp out the US overpriced cars in the 1980s
You had the PLAZA ACCORDS to destroy the Japanese export market for two decades
Tik Tok has a huge market in US and threatens every Big Tech Giant and their applications
It became a National security threat
…
Huawei became a major competition for Apple globally and looked poised with their innovation to eclipse Apple by 2025
It became a National Security Threat and was hit with every commercial sanction in the book
…
Chinese Electric vehicles threaten to dominate the world market by 2025
Bang!!!! European Parliament decides to look into anti dumping and raise tariffs. After all, it became a National Security Threat.
The fact is these guys haven’t properly competed with any rival for more than five decades
I mean the West of course
They have a four way formula to keep skirting around competition:-
Powerful Brand Image and Billions of Dollars in advertising and marketing
Powerful Lobby Groups in US and powerful political forces to throttle any competition outside the Western Bloc plus Japan using the ‘National Security Threat’
Political manouvering to use Tariffs, Sanctions and vague Export controls to throttle foreign competition
Outright buying up of opposition through voluntary or involuntary acquisitions
In short ‘BULLYBOY TACTICS’
India does the exact same thing, so do most democracies these days
Dr Singh wanted multiple entities to set up mobile services in India to develop fair competition and lowering the prices
33 to be exact
Instead we set up mock bribery charges and wiped out the entire plan and established a Cartel
So the US and it’s lackeys will never play fair economics
They will talk about it of course until kingdom come
Tomorrow if China decides to ban Iphones for 50 people, they will shriek and scream about ‘Laissez Faire’ and ‘Free market’
Yet these demented fools will never see that they are doing worse. They have been brainwashed into believing they are the good guys.
The only way to defeat them is the Chinese way which involves simply innovating, lowering costs and establishing markets wherever possible in the Global South especially BRI countries where Chinas influence exceeds the West and their influence
And slowly keep your cards close to your chest and use some of the same protection tactics that the West adopts and cut off their products from your market threatening a SCORCHED EARTH POLICY.
Or have you forgotten what and how the United States treated Huawei?
My wife works for a big logistics company in China. When the US sanctions hit, DHL withheld some Huawei equipments in their European warehouses for American investigation. This totally set Huawei off and prompted the company to look for domestic alternatives. My wife says their service is worse and more expensive than DHL, in fact totally incomparable in Europe, but after the episode Huawei was just never going to trust DHL again. Thanks to the money Huawei keep throwing their way these past few years, they’ve been able to grow and expand in Europe, becoming more respectable. At this very monent she’s on a business trip in Europe to open a new office for their newly acquired Dutch subsidiary and the inauguration of a new cargo airline.
This is just one very narrow and personal peek into the consequences of the trade war, but I think it’s a window into other areas like chips as well.
American chips were good and cheap and flooded the Chinese market before the tech war, in fact they still do, so Chinese domestic chip makers just couldn’t grow. In 1997 Chinese ministry of education downright cut the semiconductor major in universities, probably believing such majors to be unnecessary since cheap American chips are readily available and Chinese companies just weren’t making them so graduates couldn’t find jobs.
The chip war has changed that. Now semiconductor is the hottest major in China and new Chinese engineers are filling up new Chinese chip start ups. If the US drops the sanctions and flood the Chinese market again now, it will still have tarnished its reputation as a reliable supplier, and we have an entire nation, if not more, wary of the potential of American political untrustworthiness disrupting supply lines. Just like Huawei refuses to use DHL despite its service being better and cheaper, allowing for my wife’s company to grow and maybe one day take on DHL, some Chinese companies will just not trust American chips again, despite them being cheap or not, leaving room for domestic chip business to grow.
Cambodian Girl Surprises Me With Kindness in Phnom Penh
As an attorney, I had someone served with an involuntary bankruptcy at his wedding.
He had refused to pay both child and spousal support for years. He worked for his daddy and claimed he wasn’t making any money. Almost everything he owned was in someone else’s name, except for the house.
He drove expensive cars, had a boat, a couple of quads and dressed in very upscale clothing.
He would eat at the finest restaurants and travel all over the world.
Yet his ex-wife could hardly put food on the table for herself and her children, who were his children also.
I filed an involuntary bankruptcy against him to get the equity in the house to pay for the support.
He kept dodging my process server. His car would be at his work, but they would claim he was not there. Same at home, his car would be there, but his girlfriend would claim he was not home.
I spent about six months trying to get him served, when his children (the ones he refused to support) got an invitation to his wedding.
I had my process server dress as a delivery lady, with a big gift-wrapped box. Someone at the door said they would take the gift, but the process server told them that the gift was so special, it had to be delivered to the man personally.
He came to the door, the process server opened the box and, “Mr. So-and-so, you have been served.” He blew a cork and started screaming at the process server using every cuss word you could imagine.
I found out later that he was served just as the wedding was about to start.
During one of the court proceedings, he told the judge that I ruined his wedding and his honeymoon, to which I replied that was OK because he had ruined his children’s lives.
Daddy came up with the money for the back support and my attorney fees. I also got a lien on the house for all future support payments. I then dismissed the bankruptcy.
I really dislike anyone who will not support their own children, especially when they have the ability to do so.
I consider this to be one of my finest cases.
Shanghai Has Changed Forever Since The Lockdown
A dated video. But gives you an idea bout the feeling at that time.
I arrived at a very old and very prestigious school for a job interview as a teacher. The first thing I thought upon arrival was “Oh my God! This place is way outside my comfort zone.” It looked just so venerable and posh. Much of the building was Tudor (1547ish) and extensively re-modelled in Victorian gothic. It was imposing and intimidating as a potential workplace.
But then I walked into the school office and Reception and there on the Reception desk was a letter “In-Tray” with a huge ginger Tom Cat curled up alseep in it. I thought that “only in a very old, very British, very eccentric school that was very sure of itself would a cat be sleeping in the Reception Desk in-tray.”
The cat was called Henry and he had the run of the whole school and everyone loved him.
Anyway, I got the job and was ringing round various companies to acquire new equipment for my Technology lab. One company I wished to use had no supply contract with the school and so I was asked by their representative on the phone to set up a credit account. The conversation went like this:
“We will need some business credentials for your company in order to set up the credit account”
“Yes of course; what do you need to know?”
“Firstly, how long has your business be operating?”
“Four hundred and seventy-five years”
“Ah. I don’t think there will be any problem setting you up with a credit account”.
The De-Civilization of America | Victor Davis Hanson
When I was in 3rd grade, there was a class bully by the name of Chris. My cousin Ryan was also in the class, and we were buddies. One day Chris decided to pick on my cousin. Incensed, I punched Chris in the face and knocked him clean out of his chair.
Horrified by what I had done, I quickly turned to see if the teacher had seen. She hadn’t. She had her back to the class writing on the chalk board and had missed the whole thing. I was so relieved. I attended a private school that employed corporal punishment and I was so sure I was going to get paddled.
I found out years later from my parents that she had actually seen the whole thing and had quickly turned to the board to hide her huge smile. She had been aching to punch Chris herself for months.
Chris never bothered me or my cousin again.
Constitution 101 | Lecture 1
Learn the meaning of the Constitution and the principles of American government in this new version of Hillsdale’s most popular course. Visit hillsdale.edu/con101 to begin your course today.
Two things – not necessarily strange, just quirky. My father died quite unexpectedly of an aneurysm over a decade ago. He had a terrific sense of humor, and an awful gold and tan plaid sports jacket from the 70s. My mom had begged him to get rid of it for years, but no. He even wore it to my best friend’s wedding, insisting she’d find it funny. She did. When I got to it in the closet, I wasn’t sure I could give it away, but I checked the pockets anyway. Each pocket held 13 crisp $100 bills – $3900 total.
The other item was inside a puzzle box I had given him many years prior. It was the kind where you had to tap on one section, twist another, etc. in a specific order to get it open. I heard something inside when I shook it. Took me almost an hour to get it open to find his neatly written recipe for barbecue sauce.
Gosh, I miss him!
9 Things Your Cat Does for You Without You Knowing
I am disabled and I see a psychiatrist, as required by disability.
My doctor was the only one in town who accepted medicare/medicaid. He accepted me as his patient when I went for my first appointment. We got on well right away. Over the years, he has helped me along my journey to better mental health. I have had to change medications quite a few times. Sometimes they stopped working. Sometimes the side effects were too bad, or they didn’t help at all. Each time, he listened to me describe my thoughts on the medications. He worked with me and offered different solutions in order to find the best fit for me. I sincerely like and respect my psychiatrist.
I had an appointment one afternoon, and at the end of our session, he told me that he wasn’t going to be accepting medicare/medicaid patients any more. My heart sank, because this meant either forking over cash, or driving to another town to see a psychiatrist.
Then he told me that he had decided to keep a handful of his medicare/medicaid patients and see them pro-bono. He said that I was one of those patients.
So now I have a doctor who sees me regularly, fills out paper work to the satisfaction of disability people, and prescribes my medications and monitors how they are working for me. And he does it without charging me a dime.
My income is small. This is an enormous benefit to me. I can’t thank him enough. I’m proud to know a charitable person who silently helps people with no expectation of gaining anything from it. If my situation changes, I will be glad to start paying him to see me, even if it hurts my pocketbook.
1980s Things That Are Not Socially Acceptable Today
My 8th grade PE teacher was tall, black, muscular, and pretty terrifying. His wife came by class one day; she was white, plump, mid height, and sweet. I’d never seen a mixed race couple before and was a little shocked. (It wasn’t that I didn’t like the idea; I had zero exposure to mixed race anything in a nearly all white neighborhood.) What was more shocking was she took none of his shit. He barked at her like he barked at us and she told him to settle down. She instantly became my hero. They loved each other a lot, that was obvious. I never thought twice about mixed race couples again.
Yep. Our local McDonalds recently completed their renovation, which includes the new kiosks. I walked in and noticed the kiosks, but went straight to the cash register.
The manager asked me to please use the kiosk. I said no thank you. She said, we’re trying to get all of our customers to use them. Again, I said no thanks. She got really huffy and stopped what she was doing at the french fry station and turned to me and said, why won’t you use them?
I said, “I didn’t come here this morning to do your job. You want me to take an order, then pay me.” That stopped her. She came and took my order.
While she was taking my order I explained, “To use your kiosk, I have to make multiple selections, and each one requires that I choose between many options. I don’t want to do that. I just want a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. I can tell you that in one simple sentence. I don’t have to pick through multiple screens of options of things I don’t want.”
That’s why you won’t ever see me at the kiosk.
“We Can’t Be Afraid Of Nuclear War!” Says Sean Penn
EU could become as dependent on China for lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells by 2030 as it was on Russia for energy before the Ukrosia war unless it takes strong measures.
Worried by China’s growing global assertiveness and economic weight, the leaders will discuss the European Commission’s proposals to reduce the risk of Europe being too dependent on China and the need diversify towards Africa and Latin America.
While the EU has a strong position in the intermediate and assembly phases of making electrolysers, with a more than 50% global market share, it relies heavily on China for fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries crucial for electric vehicles.
According to the European Commission, in 2021, the year before Ukrosia war, the EU took more than 40% of its total gas consumption, 27% of oil imports and 46% of coal imports from Russia.
Ending most energy purchases from Russia caused an energy price shock in the EU and a surge in consumer inflation, forcing the European Central Bank to sharply raise interest rates in a move that has curbed economic growth.
Lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells were not the only area of EU vulnerability.
A similar scenario could unfold in the digital-tech space. Forecasts suggest that the demand for digital devices such as sensors, drones, data servers, storage equipment and data transmission networks will rise sharply in this decade.
The EU has a relatively strong position in the latter, but it shows significant weaknesses in the other areas.
By 2030, this foreign dependency could seriously hinder the productivity gains that the European industry and service sector urgently require and could impede the modernization of agriculture systems essential to addressing climate change.
China Ignores the US & Deepens its Ties with Russia!
China Creates world’s most powerful RADAR Chip
Article HERE Amid US tech sanctions, Chinese scientists say they made the world’s most powerful radar chip
New semiconductor performs at orders of magnitude higher than similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems, says Chinese team
It uses gallium nitride despite export bans by the US government blocking high powered gallium-based semiconductors to China
A research team with a major Chinese defence company says it has built a radar chip with a record power output using semiconductor technology that is the subject of strict US sanctions. The finger-sized chip can generate radar signals with peak power reaching 2.4 kilowatts. It is one or two orders of magnitude higher than the performance of similar power-amplifying chips in most existing radar systems.
This after China banns the export of Gallium to NATO countries.
American foreign policy is based around “security”. But our notion of “security” does not distinguish between a possible threat and an actual threat. If it could possibly be a threat, then we treat it as if it’s threatening us right now. We dominate the North American continent; that’s not secure enough, so we establish military bases in Europe; that’s not secure enough, so more bases in Asia; that’s not secure enough, so take over space. In fifty years, we’ll probably be trying to colonize Mars to forestall the “threat” of somebody else getting to it first (that’s a little joke). To get an idea of how American foreign policy works, imagine a psychopathic Uncle Sam, staring at some small country with creepy twitching eyes, and saying, “You’re threatening me” while reaching for a knife.
There is a thing called nuclear primacy. Suppose that you can attack another country with nuclear weapons and destroy the whole country without the possibility of retaliation. The United States can do this to any nation on the planet, except for Russia. If Russia’s arsenal degrades to the point where it can no longer retaliate, then the United States has nuclear primacy, meaning the ability to destroy anyone without consequence. Total impunity.
There is another thing called full spectrum dominance, which is similar to nuclear primacy, except for every single dimension of warfare, not just nuclear weapons. Domination of land, air, sea, cyber warfare, everything. The United States has this over most other countries. There are a few exceptions, though. China is one. The stated intention of American military policy is to achieve full spectrum dominance over any possible opponent. Total control.
When Washington describes China as a threat, they mean that China may one day be a country that the United States can’t dominate completely with zero consequences. The chances of this are quite small and remote, but higher than zero. That makes China a “threat”, in the way that Washington uses the word. So we have to remove the “threat” by ham-stringing China, preferably by partitioning them.
Which brings me to my next point: divide-and-rule is a strategy as old as empire. Western countries excel at it. The idea is to take someone else’s country and break it apart into many smaller countries. We call this “partitioning”. Partitioning weakens your enemy by destroying their unity. But partition is a nasty, aggressive word, and Washington likes to frame all of its actions as just and defensive. So instead of partitioning, we say we’re “decolonizing” other countries. We don’t want to dominate Russia and China by partitioning them. No, see, they’re the evil imperialists, so we’re going to decolonize them, tee-hee! We’re the good guys!
This last requires a lot of propaganda to frame our enemies as “colonizers”. So we take lands that have been Chinese for centuries and claim that the Chinese are evil colonizers for having those lands. Of course, we’re also evil colonizers, but that’s okay because I started with a land acknowledgment. This is also why you hear Western intellectuals say things like, “China has never been truly unified” and “There is no continuous Chinese civilization”. This is manufacturing a justification for partitioning China a few decades down the line. Or perhaps sooner than that…
What I fear is that American hubris will suck us into a Thucydides trap. What if we decide that it’s intolerable for us not to control the world? What if we decide that World War Three is a better option? Because those are the only two options Washington sees as viable: total domination, or apocalypse.
Don’t get me wrong, by the way. I love my country. But the America I love is 4th of July parades, cookouts, and deer jerky. The America that glasses a small Middle Eastern country so some guy at Raytheon can get a new yacht — that America I don’t love.
It seems the Dutch Government has forbidden ASML to sell EUVs to SMIC from 1/9/23
Yet orders placed until 23:59 on 31/8/23 can be shipped and fulfilled.
So technically ASML can ship orders to SMIC upto the time the last order placed on 31/8/23 is fulfilled
That’s for 21 EUV Machines & 1850 DUV Machines
In September, ASML has delivered 4 EUV Machines & 390 DUV Machines
Meanwhile there is another legal complication
SMIC has now introduced a Distributor company who can buy EUVs from ASML and simply sell them to SMIC for a 10% commission (10% is just an example)
Now the Dutch order said only SMIC was forbidden from receiving ASML EUVs so ASML has also accepted 8 more orders for EUVs from this distributor
Technically Dutch Govt cannot specifically forbid ASML from selling to China as a whole as that is a major WTO violation
So they can only blacklist importers
So China can keep bringing up new distributors and placing orders and ASML is happy because TSMC has cancelled 24 Machines recently and i am sure China offered full price for the machines
Ultimately MONEY TALKS
Once again the US is furious but again it’s all about the legalese now
SMIC is forbidden so an agency buys and sells to SMIC
The Dutch look the other way of course
ASML is delighted because they sell more machines
My guess is this new agency will be blacklisted soon and they will incorporate more laws to prevent such measures
Yet that gets China another 8 machines plus a further 24 machines which I bet China will place as they are already in process
This means SMIC technically can make 7 nm and 5 nm Chips in decent quantities at least till 2026/2027
By then they should crack some breakthrough
So China has gained TIME and the Dutch have put business ahead of stupidity
Just like NVDIA and Intel just sold products to China which were slightly off the specs in huge numbers
Economics is ultimately invincible
Reality
Beef Medallions with Cognac Sauce
Beef Medallions wCognac Sauce
Yield: 2 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 teaspoon (packed) brown sugar
1 cup canned low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup canned beef broth
1/2 cup Cognac or brandy
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 (4 to 5 ounce) beef tenderloin steaks (each about 1 inch thick)
Fresh Chives
Instructions
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy medium saucepan over medium heat.
Add shallots and sauté until tender, about 4 minutes.
Add brown sugar; stir 1 minute.
Add chicken broth, beef broth and Cognac. Simmer until sauce is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 20 minutes.
Add cream. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill.)
Sprinkle steaks with salt and pepper.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat.
Add steaks; cook to desired doneness, about 4 minutes per side for rare.
Transfer steaks to plates.
Add sauce to skillet; bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits.
Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Slice steaks; fan slices on plates.
Top with sauce and garnish with chives.
Notes
Serve Cabernet Sauvignon with the steaks.
The cost of living in Chiang Mai, Thailand 2023. Retire in Thailand affordably – live in Chiang Mai!
The rest of the world is a great IMPROVEMENT over that of the “good ol’ USA”.
When my daughters were babies/toddlers, I/we used to have to walk to the supermarket and back to get our groceries for the week. Most of the time, this went alright. It was a bit of a juggling act and it always stressed me out on the way home, but it was also nice to get out with them without my then husband.
Anyhow, one day we’re really struggling to get home. My oldest didn’t want to walk and I couldn’t carry them both and the bags etc, so we’re doing everything the hardest way possible. The only way possible. Then a lady, a bit older than myself, stopped me and told me to ‘wait right there please”. I was completely confused, but thought maybe she was going to get her car or something? Who knew. I was exhausted, my kids were too, so we waited and I thought I was an idiot for waiting.
Then she came back, with a double stroller. Not some glamorous kind, nothing with all the bells and whistles and not brand new, but one that I could use as a buggy or as a stoller. I could put one of my kids in it and still have room behind them for bags, or put both kids in.. or neither kid and lay the front seat down. Anyways, it was perfect for us and I could’ve cried and kissed that lady. She kept saying she didn’t need it anymore and it wasn’t a big deal, but it was a huge deal for us. I offered to pay her or do something, but she wouldn’t hear of it. I’ll never forget her generosity or how much she helped us.
RUSSIAN SUPERMARKET TOUR! 🇷🇺 0,2$ BREAD and 0,2$ POTATO
When I lived in Indiana USA, we (my wife and I) took a welding class for fun and enjoyment. This was a college course out of the local college, and we attended classes on Saturday morning. We really enjoyed the class, aside from learning how to weld.
I had a blast, and my wife really thought it was fun.
2023 09 28 10 29
Anyways, we were in a class of around 30 students, and we were the oldest students. The rest were kids in their 20’s. Maybe one or two almost our age.
But there was one kid, a teenager, who came every Saturday, signed his name and left.
In and then two minutes later… gone.
He never stuck around.
Never learned anything.
Didn’t chat or talk with any of us and never even attempted to learn.
He never actually learned anything. He didn’t get to enjoy any fun, and he certainly didn’t get anything out of it. I couldn’t figure out why he came, signed in and left.
So I asked the instructor.
He was arrested on possession and sales of illegal drugs. He was 18 years old. The judge cut him a deal instead of sending him off to prison for a few years. He would be free and not go to jail or prison, as long as he attended the welding class to learn a skill. If he did that, his record would be purged, and he would be a better person with a skill to rely upon.
I think that the judge made the right decision, but failed to police the actions of the young kid. Now, that kid will “on paper” appear to have a skill, but in truth all that happened is that he is going to keep on doing what he has been doing, no hope off the treadmill, and he has no idea that he is on one to begin with.
Next problem will be far worse, and then the recovery will be equally worse.
Dumb smuck.
…
Take advantage of every opportunity, never think that you are getting more for less by cutting corners. Life does not work that way.
Today…
RUSSIA LAUNCHES 50 MISSILES INTO UKRAINE; 48 HIT ***NATO*** INFRA-STRUCTURE AND AMMO DUMPS!
Breaking: Russia has bombed NATO Infrastructure across Ukraine as an apparent message is sent . . . loud and clear.
Logistics Hubs, “Mercenary” (NATO, UK, and USA) barracks, quarters and Bases, Weapons and Depleted Uranium Ammunition Depots have all been set ablaze in a gigantic strike with more than 50 missiles.
The __only__ purely Ukraine target was the Rivne thermal power station . . . which was was completely destroyed.
Carpetbagger Steak
800full carpetbag steak
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 cup fresh oysters, drained and chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
3 tablespoons melted butter
4 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
1 ounce crumbled bleu cheese
1/4 cup sauterne or other dry white wine
4 thick-sliced rib eye or filet steaks
Instructions
Sauté oysters, mushrooms and parsley in butter until mushrooms are tender; drain.
Stir in bacon, cheese and sauterne; set aside.
Make pocket in side of steak. Stuff pocket with oyster mixture; secure with wooden picks.
Broil steaks about 6 inches from heat for 8 to 10 minutes on each side or until desired degree of doneness.
Give a kid dinner, and he eats for a day. Teach a kid to make dinner, and THE PARENTS EAT UNTIL HE MOVES OUT.
Before our 11-year old had even finished expressing his interest in cooking, we were handing him whisks and salted butter. Get started, kid!
Kids curing their boredom by cooking? That is SO much better than building model rockets. Can you eat a model rocket? You cannot. And, half the time they wind up stuck in trees.
But can I eat this pasta sauce that he made? Yes. Yes, I can.
image 95
Wait, he wants to start a restaurant in the kitchen, so that mom & dad can sit at the table on a Sunday morning and be waited on? SOLD.
image 96
Sure, he forgot to put coffee on the menu, but the waiter was accommodating when we asked for it.
Mom opted for the egg sandwich:
image 97
I went for the BLT because… bacon:
image 98
I’d give him 5-stars on Yelp, if he were on Yelp.
After he suggested he wanted to try his hand at baking, I was immediately racing to the store to get him a 9″ springform pan. I had no idea what that even was until he mentioned it. It helps him make things like this:
image 99
I’m all for it.
After school yesterday, he decided he wanted to make a dessert. I told him to pick out a recipe. I had to make a special trip that evening to buy almond flour, but the payoff was I got to have his Olive Oil Cake:
image 100
Will he stick with it? We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime, while there are plenty of things for an 11-year old to do when bored, this is one of my favorites.
No. The US has had four years of trying to kill Huawei and it is not working.
While Huawei has dropped to #6 position in global smartphone sales. It has created its own Operating System thereby avoiding android. Their OS is available for other phone manufacturers to use. The company has also designed its own chipset. Production of their own 14nm and 7nm 5G chips is said to begin this year.
Meanwhile Huawei has been working on 6G which expectations for 2030.
Huawei Q2 2023 revenue was up 4.8% y/o/y to $25 billion USD.
I was looking for old mystery novels—the kind of 1950’s cheap pulp crap that never even hits a second printing. I didn’t find any, but I did find a couple of Agatha Christies, so I went to check out.
The shop owner was unpacking a new box from somebody who’d gone “you can have the whole thing for five bucks, I just want it gone.” She’d set aside one book about the same size as an adult woman’s hand, a nasty little grubby thing that looked like it might have a bad case of mold. I was curious, so I asked about it.
Her reply: “I don’t think I even have a place for it on the shelf. It’s going to sit forever.”
I bought it for 50 cents and took it home.
There was no title page, and neither my mom nor I recognized the work in it, so my mom—now also curious—bought a baby toothbrush and spent a lot of hours teasing the dirt off the cover with the barest amounts of water and a lot of paper towels. Just one word for a title: “Essays.” But now we knew what the cover looked like—not grunge black, but a pretty tan and green—so she started doing research.
First edition of Emerson’s Essays, as confirmed by the cloth color on the cover and the lack of a title page.
BUT WAIT.
You think that’s the find of a lifetime. And for someone else in another bookshop, it is.
But here’s the thing. There were TWO first editions of Emerson’s Essays. A binding error led to the release of a few hundred copies with about 20 pages missing, and a couple of others upside-down. These error copies were quickly destroyed, barring those that had already been purchased, and the current going price for such a copy was several hundred dollars, possibly as much as a thousand—as opposed to the $50 or so garnered for a “first” (corrected) edition.
My mom and I read this on an appraiser’s website and stared at each other, barely daring to breathe. I asked if she’d looked. She said no. “You bought it, you look.”
I picked it up and flipped to the page numbers indicated. Missing—but that wasn’t good enough. Pages can be removed. I had to confirm the other error, too.
I flipped the pages—so, so carefully. I was shaking. I looked.
I gasped so loudly you could have heard me three counties over, dropped the book, caught it, and set it down like it was made out of glass.
And that’s the story of how I paid our mortgage AND electricity for a month for just fifty cents.
VIKING tells the COLDEST truth about the female nature
“At 55 years old. I live on my own now for 6 years. Never will I allow myself to be treated poorly again. I relate to this man.”
At every level, America is ready to explode.
He is speaking TRUTH. It stings. And it is real. Agony.
My ex gf had a son around 10 years old at the time who is on the Autism spectrum. He was the sweetest, smartest little boy just didn’t have the best socializing skills. One day I stopped by their home to pick up my watch that I left there that morning. Me stopping by wasn’t part of the daily routine or planned ahead of time, and he was surprised when I got there. Every time I’d get to their house and he was home I would always talk to him first before even giving my gf a hug. So after saying hello and telling him why I was there I sat on the couch with him to chat while he was playing with play doh. While we were talking he was writing something in a flat piece of play doh. Then he handed it to me. It said “why don’t you leave?” I read and it thought I’d mess with him a little. I said out loud, “don’t leave!” I said ok, bud! I’ll stay all day!” He yells “No! It says why don’t you leave!?!” “oh ok, I said I didn’t see that part. Ok, I’ll leave I didn’t mean to bother you.” Mom jumps in while hearing this and tells him that was very rude and blah blah blah. I interrupted her and told him it’s all good!!! I always want you to tell me the truth about how you feel. You never have to hide your feelings because of me. So if you don’t want company when I’m here you just have to say so. You can always talk to me. I asked him if I could give him a hug before I left and he said yes. I gave him a hug and gf walked me out. She apologized over and over. It was all good. I know he has a hard time socializing so I wasn’t too upset.
It all began when the US started playing dirty and Trump sanctioned Huawei
Other players in China began to start stockpiling Chips and placed large orders with TSMC
So TSMC sales boomed but in reality all that was happening was the mainland was buying more and more chips to stockpile
Every smartphone maker feared a similar ban from the demented United States
Today China has between 140% -170% of the 7 nm Chips it needs
Global Demand has weakened which means these Chips can last until 2025 November
Until then TSMC won’t get any more orders from China or will get minimal orders
Who else buys 7 nm Chips?
So TSMC will see a fall in sales for the next few quarters
Meanwhile if the Chinese in these two years cost effectively crack the 7/5 DUV Stacking Chip process of Huawei and make the imported equivalent of 18 Billion ICs a year, then it’s likely Chinas TSMC imports will fall by as much as 70% from 2026 onwards
So obviously they have slashed 40% of their orders from 40 to 24 EUV Lithography Machines
No need for Xi Xinping to say it, the world already know it and the world except for some dozen or so cronies and slave nation do not like it and the world will slowly but surely, step by step dismantle this so called International Rules Based Order.
To the world every nation or group of nations cannot have a right to fxxk up any nation using arbitrary sanctions. And the world have acted. The unfair and unjust U.S. and European actions on Russia in war blamed on Russia although fully goaded and provoked by the U.S. and UK. Is the straw that break the camel’s back.
International norm must be truly international not set by some white Caucasian Anglo nations. Especially when a nation like the U.S. and UK failed every test on a truly international norm. Plundering, looting, stealing, bombings, war mongering, unilateral sanctions, regime change, orchestrating coups, demonstrations, revolutions are not international norm. They are bullying, mafia behaviour. Coercion by force.
The world has moved on from this western bullying.
On June 17, 2022, the FDA authorized emergency use of the mRNA Covid vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to include use in children down to 6 months of age. Turns out, it KILLED a lot of them.
Just over a year later, the report – which was quietly released by CDC and subsequently suppressed by the mainstream media – revealed that nearly half a million children and young adults have now died since the injections were approved for use on most children.
Over 118,000 of those deaths are suspected to be DIRECTLY linked to the Covid vaccines’ side effects.
Despite the staggering death toll revealed in the report, it has been met with deafening silence from the mainstream media.
The latest data from the CDC has just been published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OEC).
The OEC is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries and it hosts a wealth of data on excess deaths, including data from the CDC that isn’t easily available to the American people.
The thing about nm claims is that they turn out to be marketing.
So you have to go with the economics of semiconductors. The first company that invests in top of the line semiconductors has to spend a ton of money on research and development that go nowhere. For example, there are two ways you can produce 7nm, one that works and one that doesn’t. Intel put all their money on a process that just doesn’t work, whereas TSMC put billions of dollars in two different processes, once of which worked, which means that you spent billions on a dead end.
Because the leading companies have to recover the costs of dead ends, they will sell the best chips at a huge premium. Once you’ve figured out how to produce the chips the cost of the chip is low and you are just recovering R&D costs.
This is why China can produce mature chips super chip. Once you know that you can produce chip X using process Y, then you just do it. It turns out that this is really symbotic because it means that Taiwan and South Korea can focus on R&D and then Mainland China focuses on mature chips. The thing about this is that most of the advanced chips end up in Mainland China where you have Santa’s elves put these together into consumer goods.
The thing about Biden’s semiconductor policy is that there seems to be absolutely no strategic thinking behind them, and a lot of this has to do with US politics in which different groups want different things. The basic problem is that you have people that want to “starve”China from semiconductors, whereas most of the people that actually understand how semiconductors work haven’t bought in on decoupling.
My personal opinion is that US policy will end up screwing over Taiwan, and by 2028 this is going to be so obvious that you will have a blue wave in 2028.
Did you feel the earth move?
On April 19, 2010, a Muslim cleric in Iran blamed earthquakes on women who dressed – immodestly.
Jen McCreight was a student at Purdue University when she heard this. She didn’t like the idea of natural disasters being blamed on sinful women so decided to do something about it. She wrote a blog post entitled: “In the name of science, I offer my boobs”.
I was playing Galaga in the basement of the Student Union building at CUNY Queens College about 35 years ago. There was this gorgeous, Asian, punk girl who I was somewhat acquainted with who sat opposite me. We played for about 15 minutes and I said, “crap. I’m all out of quarters”.
She said, “What do you want to do now?”
I said, “Take you up to the roof and bang the hell out of you.”
I had no idea how this just came out. I wasn’t thinking at all. I had removed the filter between my brain and mouth and it just happened.
The discoveries will help shorten mining time by about 70 percent, reduce the impurity content by 70 percent and increases the recovery rate of rare earths by about 30 percent.
The findings were made by He Hongping’s team from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences. They presented the research results at a scientific evaluation meeting in Meizhou City, South China’s Guangdong Province.
This new mining technology is mainly applied to the mining of weathered crust rare earth ores, a characteristic resource in China. It aims to solve the problems of present in-situ leaching technology in ecology, resource efficiency, and to promote efficient and green utilization of rare earth resources in China.
Professor He’s team creatively developed a new way of using electric currents to extract rare earth elements (REEs), compared to traditional methods which uses ammonium chloride as leaching agents to extract REEs. The new technology is more environmental friendly as it avoids soil contamination caused by leaching agents, which responded to Chinese government’s demand for environmental protection and green and efficient mining.
With a 5,000-ton earth-moving scale demonstration area, professor He’s team was able to test his findings on soil and achieved design outcomes on the ground. This key technology and its results have helped He’s team publish 11 high-level papers in journals such as Nature Sustainability, and to obtain 7 patents for inventions. Citing a report from Nature Sustainability, Anouk Borst, a geologist at KU Leuven called the strategy “A game changer, providing that it is feasible on a large scale.”
Through years of efforts, China has formed a complete industrial chain around REEs. In 2022, China accounted for 63 percent of the world’s rare-earth mining, 85 percent of rare-earth processing, and 92 percent of rare-earth magnet production, according to Politico.
The new rare-earth extraction technology could increase China’s advantage in rare-earth sectors by making the extraction process greener and more efficient. The strategy could help China keep its leading position in the global rare-earth industrial chain.
If You Think The Last Few Years Were Difficult…
Mark Twain once said that “If voting made a difference, they wouldn’t let us do it.”
“This sense of unease. People of upset. There is a sense of anger and frustration.”
China’s total national debt to GDP is high, pushing 300%. Government wants to control it. It sees this as a serious impediment to sustainable growth. This is a critical part of the structural change in the country. Another critical part of the structural change is to drive consumer expenditure, such as to improve consumer confidence, such as through better access to healthcare, personal insurances, and pension and retirement plans. These structural changes underway have slowed growth, which could persist in the next 2–3 years.
Overwhelmingly, the debt is owed by corporates, as part of business finance, and by local authorities, in pursuit of their development plan. The debt owed by the central government is very small, at 21% of GDP. The overwhelming amount of the debts are domestic debts in RMB. RMB is issued by PBOC, the legal tender in China. China has very little foreign debts. Its net international financial position is in surplus. Indeed, the single most important factor for the slow take-off to internationalize the RMB is that it has low international liquidity, due to China’s persistent current account surplus.
China has no problem to borrow more money. (1) Central government has low debt at only 21% of GDP, (2) the overwhelming debts are owed by corporates and local authorities in RMB, (3) PBOC has full control over the RMB, and (4) China’s net international financial position is in surplus. Quite the opposite. China does not want the debt to rise in the country. The most visible of this is the 3 red lines regulations on the real estate sector.
US government debt at about $33 trillion is pushing 130% of GDP (compared with 21% for China). It rose dramatically from $31.4 trillion when debt ceiling was raised in June, to $33 trillion at end-August. About 30% of US TBs are held by foreigners, the 3 largest are Japan, China, and UK. China has reduced its holdings from the high of over $1.1 trillion to less than $850 billion.
US government is in chronic deficit, running at an annual rate of over $1 trillion, and rising. US government debt will rise in consonant. Rising issue of TBs will require an elevated interest rates regime to attract investors, which increasingly will be domestic investors as foreigners could shy away. Elevated interest rates have driven the government’s interest bill towards $1 trillion, growing faster and exceeding the defense budget.
Rising US government borrowings and elevated interest rates could distort the financial markets. One consequence of the Fed’s interest hikes has been the loss of the market value of TBs. It has stressed the banking system, including the collapse of a few regional banks. Bloomberg estimated that as of May, the banking system was sitting on unrealized losses of $1.84 trillion on their holdings of TBs. The regional banks are the most stressed. They are the main lenders to commercial real estates. An estimate by Newmark Group, a brokerage, has it that $1.2 trillion of such debts are potentially troubled when refinancing is due, the combination of lower quantum from falling property prices and lower leverage, as well as, higher interest rates. Many property owners have defaulted and let the lenders take the properties rather than to put up more money.
You are right that borrowing more money in the US may become more difficult.
China Laughs at American Sanctions
It seems that when the United States can’t compete fairly they revert to underhanded tactics. They can’t handle a peer competitor and that is exactly what China has become.
The Chinese automotive manufacturing is the largest in the world as is most sections of manufacturing. China built their own space station and now 7nm Semiconductors built by SMIC. Huawei although sanctioned has come up with an amazing cell phone Mate 60 Pro that the Americans say can’t be possible.
It seems sanctions no longer work against Chinese growing economy and the United States is getting nervous.
Taiwan is in China. The island of Taiwan is surrounded by Chinese warships and the American, Japanese and Australian fleets are unable to approach Taiwan.
Biden did not tell the US citizens that he wanted to invade China, only “to defend Taiwan”.
So, I ask, how does the US plan on doing that? with some sort of video game competition?
I mean, in order to “defend Taiwan”, you have to have military troops pertorming military actions, aka combat inside of China – And that’s because Taiwan is in China.
So currently America has soldiers in Taiwan, which is either illegal, or at the very least gray area because that’s part of China. And the government of China doesn’t approve of that and hasn’t allowed it. So that’s the current status.
If US start performing miltary action, that’s an effort to militarily conquer at least China or push them back inside of China.
That‘s called an invasion.
Sorry, everybody, if you don’t agree with this definition, but that’s what it is.
The 1.4 billion Chinese people have told the small hooligans led by the United States countless times that the Taiwan question is the bottom line of the Chinese people, and foreign forces are not allowed to get their hands on it.
China can use all its forces to resist the invasion, and after this naval battle all the warships of China, the United States, Japan and Australia will be destroyed.
Do you think that after the end of the naval war, it will stop here? No, it has not come to a stop yet.
At the same time, China will fight back against its territory. Although all of China’s warships were sunk in the war with the United States, Japan and Australia, let us not forget that China has the largest number of civilian ships in the world, and Chinese soldiers will be present in those countries.
No matter what era we are in, apart from the indiscriminate bombing in the early stage of the war, the later stage of the war will be a ground war.
Does Australia have 50,000 soldiers combined? China can send 500,000 troops to Australia and take it over.
Japan: China does not need to send troops to occupy, dropping a few atomic bombs would be enough. The four Japanese islands are so resource-poor that even if China occupied them, they would be a liability and would be better off being completely destroyed.As for the US, China wouldn’t send troops to occupy it either, but a huge army landing on US soil would be enough to make the US pay. China’s huge population could provide a steady stream of soldiers. You have to be prepared for America to become a battlefield.
The United States is keen on Preemptive war. However, China has always adheres to the principles of defense, self-defense and post-strike response, and adopts active defense. It keeps to the stance that “we will not attack unless we are attacked, but we will surely counterattack if attacked”.
“post-strike response“,”we will surely counterattack if attacked” →→→ We have already told you what we will do!
Don’t think that if China is bullied, it will swallow its anger and not take revenge. There are limits to tolerance. Modern China is no longer the China a hundred years ago.
This is like a group of American hooligans always bullying a high-achieving Chinese student at school. Chinese students usually don’t give a damn about the provocations of American hooligans, but once they can’t stand it anymore and decide to fight back, the American hooligans will have to start paying a high price for their previous stupid provocations.
This question has been asked for years, if not decades.
The key problem is that, as a westerner, you have no idea how fast China has been developed.
In the place where you live, things around you don’t change much even after one or two decades. The layout of streets, the buildings, even the stores don’t change much.
They also don’t know the size and population of China. They just assume that China is more or less the same as where they live, maybe slightly bigger.
Above link is about a man called Kevin and his family.
He went to China from Belgium when he was 6 with his parents, to one of the poorest province, Guizhou, and lived there for 20 years. In this video, he talked about things when they went back to Belgium.
He described the scene when he was chatting with his relatives about China. His relatives in Belgium thought that when Kevin said they need to go to another city to take a plane, they assume it is like 50 kilo or something, but the reality is 300KM. People in Belgium cannot imagine a country which is about the same size as Europe.
Then they mentioned certain people think China is all city, and others think China is all village and nature.
Then the camera guy asked them a question: “Don’t they go online?”, and this is how they react:
2023 09 27 14 49
“Yeah… but what could we do?”
While the west enjoying their nice infrastructure, meanwhile in China:
image 94
The country was developed in a speed which the world had never seen.
image 93
Same thing happned in Shenzhen too.
The urbanization ratio was very low in China, and began to grow up rapidly.
In 1978, China had 17.92% urban resident, in 2022 it was 65.2%.
In comparison: The US in 80%, Germany is 77.65%, the UK is 84.4%.
If we set China’s standard with the lowest of the 3, Germany, then there is still 77.65–62.2=12.42% of Chinese people waiting to move into urban areas.
That is 1400×12.42%=173.88 million people.
image 28
This is a Japanese news in 2017 reporting about a subway station called Cao Jia Wan in Chongqing.
I don’t fully understand the title, but I can read the Kanjis. It says somthing about looking like a ruin or military base.
image 27
In 2020, a Japanese posting on Twitter about Cao Jia Wan station. It looked very differently already.
It was not very crowed, because of the pandemic.
image 26
In 2022, it looks like this.
China doesn’t count on the invisible hand,
image 92
not entirely at least.
The government plans ahead, then lay down the infrastucture for people to move in.
The actual move happens after most of the plan is finished: shopping, transportation, education, medical care, etc.
It’s rarely that a western media could do a follow up about the “ghost town” they reported. Because in several years, there will be crowded.
They will just make more ghost town news to make their audiences thinking that China is full of ghost town.
Just think about this: If China’s GDP and other aspects are indeed faked as the western media say, then how come that white house considers China as its top rival?
The US national debt reached $33 trillion for the first time
The fiscal milestone comes as Congress is facing a new spending fight with a government shutdown looming – NYT.
Since the “debt ceiling crisis”, the US has been adding $1 trillion to its debt every month. Over the past 5 years, the US debt has increased by a total of $11.5 trillion.
This should be the real ‘war’ Americans should be fighting against. The ‘war’ of relentless money printing but not seeing any significant upgrades to Americans’ standard of living, where did the money go? why no accountability from the leaders who were elected into the office?
Why I’m Raising My Children in CHINA – NOT the UK or US!
What was the stupidest thing someone has called the police on you for?
I lived in a large apartment building, with lots of nosy neighbors.
I was going to a work conference for a long weekend. My kids were teenagers, but I didn’t want to leave them alone. My (very able) mother was available, so I asked her to stay with them while I was gone. No big deal. (They watched out for her more than she did for them.)
The very first night I was gone, the police showed up at my door. My daughter, (all six-foot-two of her) answered the door. The police were a little flummoxed (and shorter). They said they had a report that I had abandoned my kids. (Apparently, they were expecting little children.) My mother, who was very able-bodied, confronted the police. Let’s just say that my mother could teach a sailor how to curse, and she knew a version of the riot act that was applicable. The police didn’t come back.
But the nosy neighbors certainly got an earful regarding their ill behavior. So did the manager of the apartment complex as there was a “police report” on me. He wrote a threatening letter to me. I filed a counter-complaint about harassment, and I wasn’t having it. Again, the riot act was applied.
Children’s Protective Services were also called. And again, we had to have the confrontation. All of this drama because I was doing my job. My mistake was that I was seen carrying my suitcase to my car.
I’ll never understand why some people are happily destructive requiring an overkill of drama, even if it’s not their own.
Online Safety Bill becomes law – internet freedom destroyed
I was 22 and had sudden, sharp pain low in my groin. It was so bad I couldn’t stand up straight and could barely walk. I made an emergency appointment with my OB/GYN. After a very brief and cursory exam he told me it was a “swollen ovary” and it would go away in TWO OR THREE MONTHS.
I went home and told my then-husband what the doctor said. He insisted I get a second opinion. I made many calls. Most doctors didn’t “do” second opinions. I finally got one nurse who (in a bored voice) asked “What are your symptoms?” I explained and she said she’d talk to the doctor and call me back. This was at 11 am one workday. She called back and said he’d see me at 1. I went to his office straight from lunch.
That doctor did an exam then turned to the nurse and said, “She’s the one.” I asked what he meant. He said that 1 in 1000 women claiming they had an emergency actually did, and I was that one. Then he asked, “What did you have for lunch?” I responded (a burger) and he frowned, then said, “You need surgery.” I tried to tell him I needed to go back to the office and close out some projects first. He said, “Oh, you’re not leaving here.”
They put me in a wheelchair and rolled me 200 feet across the parking lot to the hospital. I was given time to make 2 phone calls — one to my husband (I had to leave a message with the office admin — this is long before the days of cell phones) and one to my parents (since I couldn’t reach my husband).
Later, in the recovery room Dr. Horowitz explained. I had an ovarian torsion on my right side. That happens when an ovaries (and in my case also the fallopian tube) bent and twisted around the tissue they’re connected to. The torsion happened because there was a grapefruit-sized tumor on that ovary. It was benign, thankfully, but he said it was so close to bursting (and probably killing me) that he didn’t dare let me go home.
My husband returned to the first doctor’s office and read him the riot act for “almost killing my wife”.
Chicken Fried Steak
The Best Chicken Fried Steak scaled 1
Yield: 6 to 8 servings; 2 cups Cream Gravy
Ingredients
1 (2 1/2 to 3 pound) round steak
1 (5 ounce) can evaporated milk
2 tablespoons green Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups all-purpose flour, divided
2 teaspoons paprika
3/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon each salt and cracked pepper
Vegetable oil
Instructions
Trim steak and pound, if needed, to 1/2 inch thick; cut into 6 to 8 pieces.
Combine milk, Tabasco sauce and salt in a bowl.
Measure 1 cup of flour into a bowl.
Combine remaining flour, paprika, garlic powder, salt and pepper in another bowl. Dip steak into flour, into milk mixture, and then into seasoned flour. Set aside until all meat is coated.
Heat 1 or 2 inches of oil in a heavy fry pan. Fry meat until both sides are golden brown, about 2 minutes per side.
Drain on paper towels. Serve with cream gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits.
Cream Gravy: Pour off all but 6 tablespoons of fat from fry pan; add 6 tablespoons flour into pan (use any leftover seasoned flour) and blend well. Gradually stir in 2 1/2 cups of milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened.
Hi, Krennick . Thanks for your very interesting question!
In China, we only have 56 official ethnic groups. I’m sure this pales in comparison to the number of ethnic groups in Western countries, but it is what it is, and your question appears to be asking for a number, so ask and ye shall receive, bruv!
Yes, 56.
There you go! Sorted! Done and dusted!
I don’t have time to post pictures of all 56 ethnic groups, so instead, I’ll just post the traditional wedding attire of a few of those 56 ethnic groups.
Because who doesn’t like looking at pretty wedding dresses, amirite? 😀
So, without further ado, here we go!
The traditional wedding attire for Han, Miao, Mongolian, and Hui:
image 101
The traditional wedding attire for Zhuang, Qiang, Manchu, and Tibetan:
image 103
The traditional wedding attire for Yi and Bai:
image 102
There you go! 10 out of the 56 should do for now, aye.
As always, I’m happy to help with your questions, Krennick ! I hope this has helped sate your curiosity!
The Rock ANGRILY Oprah Winfrey True Role In Maui Wildfire
In early August 2023, a series of devastating wildfires broke out in Hawaii, primarily on the island of Maui. These wind-driven wildfires led to extensive evacuations and widespread destruction, particularly in the town of Lahaina, Hawaii. As a result of these fires, at least 115 people lost their lives, and over 1,000 others were reported missing.
https://youtu.be/TMqRQNsGrSk
A preacher
A preacher was making his rounds to his parishioners on a bicycle when he came upon little Johnny trying to sell a lawn mower. “How much do you want for the mower?” asked the preacher.
“I just want enough money to go out and buy me a bicycle,” said little Johnny.
After a moment of consideration, the preacher asked, “Will you take my bike in trade for it?”
Little Johnny said, “Mister, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
The preacher took the mower and tried to start it. He pulled and pulled on the rope until he was dripping with sweat but the mower refuses to start.
The preacher called little Johnny over and said, “I can’t get this mower to start.”
Little Johnny said, “That’s because you have to cuss at it to get it started.”
The preacher said, “I’m a man of the church and I can’t cuss. It’s been so long since I’ve been saved that I don’t even remember how to cuss.”
Little Johnny looked at him happily and said, “Just keep pulling on that rope. It’ll come back to ya.”
China’s cancellation of UK’s $240bn nuclear power plant order shocks Europe US!
In this video, host Steffan explores China’s recent withdrawal from a £24 billion nuclear project in the UK. Nuclear technology’s global evolution and its applications in various sectors are discussed, highlighting China’s leadership in nuclear technology. The video delves into the reasons behind China’s withdrawal, touching on carbon neutrality goals, coal combustion phase-out, and the UK’s role in the project.
https://youtu.be/g0Z2lSJmHjI
Confession of the Day
My husband(31M) has never gone beyond a kiss to me (28F) in the 4 years we’ve been married.
My husband was my best friend: knew each other in 2014, and I wanted him to stay with me (he’s from England) with the hope everything would turn into more.
First year of marriage, he had severe back problems and I understood.
Second year was COVID and I understood then.
Third year, we bought our house and I told him I wasn’t happy. He was overtly affectionate for a couple weeks and went back to the same routine.
Now I’m coming up on 4 years and he went through my messages last Monday with some friends and came across me venting to a guy friend I had been semi-flirtatious with about our marriage and how I felt ugly and unloved.
Now he tells me it’s because when he was 15/16 and was an apprentice, an older man took him out back and did things, which is why he has intimacy issues. Which, I completely understand how that is traumatic, as I was sexually assaulted when I was a young teen.
But the past 4 years I’ve felt inadequate while catering to his life. Paying for green card paperwork, driving him everywhere as he has no license (he works nights, I wake up at 5:40am every morning tuesday thru saturday to pick him up), making his doctor appointments for him, handling all the loans and bills, and all big decisions that really should be joint decisions. All while feeling unloved and ugly.
On Saturday he tried to initiate sex with me while drunk and it made me so mad and upset. That the only way he could fuck me is if he was intoxicated. And now I feel I am so mentally and emotionally clocked out that unless he pulls a miracle change, that I will leave him by the end of the year.
I don’t know what to do going forward but I’m just so sad because he was my best friend and if it weren’t for this issue, I think we’d be fine. But I’m not equipped to be anyone’s therapist, and this was definitely something I should have been told, as he has kept hanging the possibility of children over my head, knowing I desperately want them.
Before anyone says anything: I have initiated every single aspect of our relationship. I wanted him to do this one thing and made it clear to him. Never has he said anything. I’m just. Ugh.
Saudi Arabia Rejects US Demand, Send $70 Billion in Project Orders To China
My husband and I have raised 4 kids to adults. When our youngest was an infant, we found out she had brain cancer. Talk about a stressful time for our family! My MIL was and is very close to us geographically, as well as one I consider a friend and ally. With 3 kids in school and a seriously ill baby, we leaned on her for emotional support and she was there! We tried to go on snowmobile trips with our kids, her and extended family. (The oncologists gave us suggestions on how and when we could safely take our youngest with us — we followed his advice and still maintained her drug regimen protocols.)
One member who accompanied us all was one of my SILs. She didn’t have any kids at that time and was impatient to get on the trails the first morning. I got my three older kids ready and equipped with extra hats, gloves, snacks, drinks, helmets and snowsuits as well as any other cold-weather gear they would need. Next was my baby. Cleaning her Hickman Catheter (her drugs and all blood draws were done through it), making sure she had the blankets, toys, vanilla PediaSure (the ONLY thing she could hold down and that was the only flavor she would drink), making sure I had her anti-nausea and anti-seizure medications, as well as diapers and extra clothing she might need in case of accidents or nausea. Most of this was packed the night before, but I am in the habit of double checking (I HAVE forgotten her meds before).
My SIL complained about my incompetence as a mother to our MIL. Our MIL looked her in the eye and asked her if she had ever had to mobilize an army of sleepy young children before dawn and take care of the needs of a baby with cancer that was well enough to go on this trip? My SIL said “NO!” Our MIL then said, “I have experience with 6 sleepy kids. All of them were healthy. It is not easy in the best of circumstances. I think she is doing an excellent job.” When our MIL finished what she was doing, she went and helped me. I am blessed to have her in my life!
When my husband met my family for the first time we were all so nervous.
As you may know, he’s American. Meaning he’s pretty clueless about some of our traditions and concepts.
As he and my father were discussing important matters and the tension rising in the air… he did something he shouldn’t have…:-
He crossed his legs, putting his calf on his knee!
My inner self was going “no no no Mike please put that leg down!!!”
My parents’ eyes went to the his feet. I could already see what they are going to say later.
Anyhow, after we went home. My mother said “He really lacks respect. He talks aggressively and did you see how he put his leg up so rudely?!”
I was like “ugh I saw that coming”.
I had to take them a step back and tell them that he’s not an Arab and he doesn’t know that this is rude in our culture. They didn’t seem convinced.
So yeah, if you’re in a serious setting with an Egyptian, don’t ever let the sole of your shoes/ feet be seen. Especially if it’s in front of someone older than you.
Feet here symbolize humiliation.
So for example some people here would view a woman rubbing her husband’s feet as a humiliating act.
And a man giving his wife a foot rub is so rare and if it’s done then it’s in private.
That’s why until this day I feel very guilty if I’m getting feet pedicures at salons. Similarly, if I’m sitting at home, spreading my legs on the couch, my father would yell at me to move my feet because they are facing him.
My mother was astonished to know that my husband gives me foot rubs, and prayed for god to always make him so good and humble haha !
The US commerce minister’s confession that the US does not know how, when, or the scale of Huawei Mate 60 series production could be seen as evidence that the Huawei Mate series are the world’s most advanced, most secure, and only spy-proof smartphones in the world. However, it is important to note that there is no definitive proof that this is the case.
Huawei has been under intense US scrutiny for several years now, and the US has repeatedly accused Huawei of being a security risk. The US has also imposed a number of sanctions on Huawei, which have made it difficult for the company to do business with US companies.
Despite these challenges, Huawei has continued to develop and produce advanced smartphones. The Huawei Mate series is one of Huawei’s most popular and critically acclaimed smartphone lines. The Mate series is known for its large screens, powerful processors, and impressive camera systems.
The fact that the US does not know how Huawei is able to produce the Mate 60 series could be seen as a sign that Huawei is using advanced technologies that the US is not aware of. However, it is also possible that the US simply does not have access to the necessary information.
Whether or not the Huawei Mate series are the world’s most advanced, most secure, and only spy-proof smartphones in the world is a matter of opinion. There is no definitive proof to support or refute this claim.
It is important to note that the US has a vested interest in discrediting Huawei. The US is currently in a trade war with China, and Huawei is one of China’s most successful technology companies. By accusing Huawei of being a security risk, the US is trying to damage Huawei’s reputation and make it more difficult for the company to compete in the global market.
Ultimately, it is up to each individual consumer to decide whether or not they believe that the Huawei Mate series are the world’s most advanced, most secure, and only spy-proof smartphones in the world.
In my early 20s I lived in an apartment complex. My direct neighbor was an elderly Hispanic man. He always seemed so nice. He would speak to me in Spanish, which, at the time, I knew very little of (had taken 2 years mandatory class in high school). He would say this phrase and nod his head. I would always nod back, assuming we were somehow communicating pleasantries across a language barrier.
5 months go by and a friend I had made in that town, who was a Latina, saw our interaction one day. She got SO mad at the man and started yelling at him in Spanish. I was mortified. I was raised to respect my elders and I thought she was being disrespectful. She grabs my arm and drags me into my house. She explained to me what the man had said to me, HAD been saying to me since the day I moved in was “do you want to see my big fat d$%k?” I was so shocked! Turns out, every time I was nodding to him, I WAS communicating with him 🤣🤣🤣.
To this day, 20 something years later, my friend and I still get a laugh out of that story.
I did decide to take some Spanish classes at college after that. I’m glad i did too! It has been a valuable asset to my work in the medical field. Probably would have never taken those classes if it wasn’t for senor pervy.
A cat was found on the stairs of an apartment building. Two weeks later, his life completely changed
When we lived in Indiana, we lived in a mobile home. We moved that home from park to park, and must have lived in perhaps eight different locations. Living in a trailer park is an experience in itself.
I do not recommend it.
Weekends are non-stop grass mowing and 200 families take turns on the hour mowing their grass from the crack of dawn to sunset. And let’s not talk about the poor quality of people that invariably inhabit SOME of the trailers.
I have many stories of this period in my life, but today, I wish to relate one that is charming.
It’s late July.
The sun is setting, and the fireflies come out.
You can still see them, but they turn on their mini lights and pop in and out of sight. And there, my wife and I are sitting outside on our chaise-lounges enjoying the evening when we notice our cats playing.
They all try to catch the fireflies. The light attracts them, and then they go pounce up and catch the little bugs.
I will tell youse guys that they all were having a blast, and we were truly enjoying watching them. Those little guys were just having a blast! It was the time of their little kitty-hood. Don’t you know.
…
These little moments… we all have little moments… but they should be treasured, and appreciated. Who knows what little moments that you so absent mindlessly ignore though the day, only to one day twenty years from now, look back in wistful nostalgia.
Like me.
Today…
More Voices Call On Biden To Withdraw From The 2024 Race
I do not know who is supposed to manage Biden’s public relations but whoever that is is doing a bad job.
The strategists for the Democratic Party and those concerned with winning elections should seriously think about replacing Biden with someone who is better at handling himself.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday directed top congressional Republicans to open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, reversing his previous stance that such an investigation should be initiated only with a vote of the House.
In doing so, Mr. McCarthy leveled a series of accusations against Mr. Biden that he said amounted to a “picture of a culture of corruption” and warranted the House using its most potent investigative tool to try to make the case for removing the president.
The impeachment proceedings, like those against Donald Trump, are mostly a public relation gimmick. But they are also likely to show that the Biden family business is as corrupt as they come.
The British establishment, largely on the Democrats side, is clearly concerned.
Yet although Mr Comer’s investigation is failing to prove the existence of what Donald Trump calls the “Biden crime family”, congressional inquiries will now multiply. … Indeed, the younger Mr Biden’s legal problems are intensifying. On September 6th prosecutors serving under David Weiss, the special counsel investigating Hunter, announced that they expect an indictment by the end of the month. The president’s son is likely to be charged with not paying taxes and lying on a form when buying a gun at a time when he was addicted to crack cocaine. A plea deal that would have kept him out of jail on those charges fell apart in July. And other, more damaging charges—such as lobbying for a foreign government without registering—have not been ruled out.
None of that implicates the president. Yet he may suffer for it nonetheless. According to a CNN poll, three-fifths of Americans think Mr Biden was involved in his son’s business. Pump out enough smoke and you might create fire.
The CIA’s influence peddler and Washington Post columnist David Ignatius is the latest establishment voice to warn of a likely defeat of Biden should he decide to keep running:
Like the Economist writers Ignatius is as friendly to Democrats as they come. The CIA and FBI had both intervened after the election of Donald Trump. They launched Russiagate, a series of fake stories, to hamper Trump’s ability to govern and to get Biden elected. That its senior management has commissioned Ignatius to call on Biden to give up can be understood as a warning.
Ignatius names two points that put Biden’s reelection into jeopardy:
Biden would carry two big liabilities into a 2024 campaign. He would be 82 when he began a second term. According to a recent Associated Press-NORC poll, 77 percent of the public, including 69 percent of Democrats, think he’s too old to be effective for four more years. Biden’s age isn’t just a Fox News trope; it’s been the subject of dinner-table conversations across America this summer.
Because of their concerns about Biden’s age, voters would sensibly focus on his presumptive running mate, Harris. She is less popular than Biden, with a 39.5 percent approval rating, according to polling website FiveThirtyEight. Harris has many laudable qualities, but the simple fact is that she has failed to gain traction in the country or even within her own party.
Biden at least should get rid of Harris who is a bit of a millstone to popularity:
Biden could encourage a more open vice-presidential selection process that could produce a stronger running mate.
Ignatius goes on to ask Biden to step down and to immediately announce that he will not be available for another round:
Biden has never been good at saying no. He should have resisted the choice of Harris, who was a colleague of his beloved son Beau when they were both state attorneys general. He should have blocked then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which has done considerable damage to the island’s security. He should have stopped his son Hunter from joining the board of a Ukrainian gas company and representing companies in China — and he certainly should have resisted Hunter’s attempts to impress clients by getting Dad on the phone.
Biden has another chance to say no — to himself, this time — by withdrawing from the 2024 race. It might not be in character for Biden, but it would be a wise choice for the country.
I doubt that Joe Biden, or the people around him, will follow that advice. They are too full of themselves to voluntarily make room for others. It will require more intervention, probably from former president Obama, to convince Biden to give up.
Or someone could create some ‘medical emergency’. That should not be too difficult given Biden’s general condition and age.
Anyway. If the Democrats want to keep the presidency, something needs to be done.
Soften yeast in warm water and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
Add milk to sugar and salt. Mix and cool to lukewarm.
Add 1 cup flour and mix until smooth. Stir in yeast. Add remaining flour mixing well. Knead dough on floured board until smooth. Put in greased bowl, grease top, cover with towel and let rise in warm room until double.
Punch down dough, and roll into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Brush with the softened butter and spread with mixture of raisins, currants, citron, the 1/4 cup brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up like a jellyroll and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices. Lay the slices in a buttered 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Cover and let rise until doubled.
I’m in my second week of at home suspension for striking a teacher. He locked me in a classroom and attempted to assault me when I wouldn’t consent to his advances on 14 year old me.
The knock on the door was a deputy that served legal papers in our little town. The papers he served me was a summons to court for legal action pertaining to expenses incurred from point there after. I’m being sued by this teacher.
My dad exploded, that jerk has bigger problems than money, just wait I don’t care if he’s in a courtroom. OMG I was saying daddy calm down a lot, I only call my dad “daddy” when I need him to calm down and focus on me so he doesn’t get into trouble or worse.
The day of court arrived and there stands Mr Smug in his neck brace, bandaged nose, and black eye. I am holding my dad by both hands, telling him to look at me, please I don’t want you in jail dad.
It doesn’t help that I’m shaking and I’m sure dad can feel it.
Then the judge starts reading the case notes, Mr Smug is suing one Miss Key for medical expenses incurred during an altercation that resulted in a fractured nose, two chipped teeth, severe painful swelling in the groin, blurry vision, slight concussion, and upper neck pain.
So young lady how do you plead?
I asked the judge if I could present my papers (please don’t laugh we couldn’t afford a lawyer).
He accepts my papers which are the affidavits from the custodian, vice principal and teacher (the witnesses that pulled me off of Mr Smug), the arresting deputy, and the school nurse that treated me before my dad arrived.
His whole demeanor changed. WTH?!
You mean to tell me that you are suing this girl because she kicked your but during an assault?
His lawyer started trying to make an argument about me being malicious, and over bearing about defending myself.
The judge told him to shut up, in what world does a 30 year old man believe he has a case against a 14 year old child that he is attempting to assault?
Lawyer sets in with that is just allegations and hear-say, there’s no proof.
I didn’t ask you lawyer I asked your client because as it stands this is the stupidest case I’ve ever heard of.
In fact it’s so stupid that I’m dismissing it without prejudice, on grounds of incomprehension and competence.
And might I extend my gratitude to you Mr Key for raising an able and resourceful young lady.
After the accident, she was left on the side of the road, no one stopped the car to help her
A severely injured cat was found on the road, accompanied by meowing kittens. A man called for help, unable to afford vet care. Promising assistance, we advised taking the cat to a nearby clinic. Despite financial constraints, we assured the man we’d cover the costs. We directed him to the nearest clinic known to us.
Team members searched for kittens nearby and found three. Unfortunately, the cat couldn’t be saved due to delay, leaving us saddened. Confirming her as the mother, we arranged a burial.
We decided to adopt the motherless kittens and raise them with another cat.
The loss saddened us, but we hoped for a better life for the kittens.
As many of you know, there is a lot of stray paws in Punjab and I try my best to take care of them. When I get off from my job, I go every day to feed these poor hungry cats. On weekends I get a lot of time to help these stray cats and kittens. I go for street feeding everyday. It gives me great pleasure to help these poor animals. I get internal peace. I want to share these moments with you.
My opinion: 5G apps. Apple has yet to produce its own 5G transceiver. Today, it uses Qualcomm. Media reports think it will be 2025. By that time, Huawei will be promoting 5.5G heavily and experimenting with 6G. When Harmony OS can show the same number of apps, it has a good chance of surpassing Apple. In the current generation of mobile phones, Huawei can communicate via satellite, achieve data rates comparable to 6G, and come at a lower price point than Apple. Apple’s annual comfab on its mobile phones revealed nothing exciting, The biggest deal was Apple incorporating USB to charge because the EU forced them to. Everyone is speculating what will Huawei do with photonics, graphene, and quantum chips, the near term poses exciting possibilities.
I bought a home with 16 acres and a week after I moved in while staining the exterior a pickup came up the driveway and a man got out and informed me he would be hunting on my property that fall. I told him that no, no one would be hunting on my property and if I caught anyone doing so I would have them trespassed. He said the pervious owner said he could so he would be hunting. I couldn’t believe the audacity of this guy.
I came down from the ladder and told him it did not matter what anyone had told him before, I now owned the place and he was not going to hunt on my property and was going to get back in his truck and get off of my property immediately. I also told him I had cameras up and I had better not catch him here again or I would take the steps that needed to be taken to ensure he would come to realize how serious I am that my private property was just that, private, and that the previous owner had warned me about him.
I never caught him on any of the trail cameras I put up and never caught him on my property again, but I did catch him on camera leaving deer entrails next to my mailbox which was across the road a couple times during the following deer season, but after than nothing more. The foxes, coyotes, and buzzards took care of his mess in short order too.
No one believe he will alive over the night but he beat all odds and thrive now!
There are some really great answers, but I figure I’ll add mine. I’m going anonymous for my own, personal reasons.
When I was a little kid I had a pretty decent life- upper middle class, two parents, live-in nanny, lots of pets. The works. The problem was, none of it was real. All the money was borrowed, and every piece of luxury was a facade to hide my parents’ crumbling lives.
When I was six my mother got into a car accident. She wound up with nerve damage and went on some pretty heavy duty painkillers- we’ll come back to that. The more immediate effect was that this accident triggered a resurgence of repressed memories from her own childhood. She spent the next year or two in and out of psychiatric care. I don’t know how long, exactly; time is a little blurry.
My most vivid memory of that year is laying awake in my bed, my door cracked, my mother on all fours in the hallway, dragging my father’s safe, and screaming “He’ll never get us again. He’ll never get us again.” This went on for a long time. I pretended I wasn’t there.
When I was seven my father also got into a car accident. He walked away relatively unscathed, but used the accident as cause to start seeing a neurologist. He complained of headaches, which he had apparently always had. He also got a prescription for heavy painkillers. Within months, both my parents were taking enough Dilaudid to kill a horse. Even at seven years old, I could tell that they weren’t as sharp as the used to be.
I have a sister who is much older than I am. Years later, she would confirm my suspicions, the ones that were just starting to form at this time: both my parents were long-time drug addicts, who had only temporarily gotten clean. I didn’t know what to do, so I pretended I wasn’t there.
When I was eight my parents sent me to a private school. Not only were they addicted to narcotics, they were also addicted to the perception of wealth and social status. Sending me to private school furthered this. I didn’t fit in. My grades plummeted.
When my first report cards came back, my father’s belt came out. I’d never been hit before, not more than spanked, anyway. I don’t remember the moment of contact of the belt, or the palms, or the fists. I only ever remember the swing. I only ever remember the feeling of the carpet against my cheeks, wet with tears. I never remember the moment of contact.
Every time I would get beat by my father, my mother’s response would be the same. She would cry, rocking herself to comfort, a few feet away, but watching the whole thing. Sometimes, she would come up to me afterward and say, “Don’t you dare fuck this up for me.” It took a long time before I found out what that meant.
I wonder if I never remember the moments i got hit because I was pretending I wasn’t there.
When I was eleven my father had his major breakdown. We had moved to a new town, a cheaper house. We didn’t have as many cars, and luxuries were becoming fewer and fewer. The facade was crumbling, and the rot inside was starting to show. Both of my parents were high most of the time at that point. I guess part of it was to cope with the stress of their crumbling lives, and part of it was just their nature. It was a cycle, a spiral, and they were coming unhinged.
My father was the first one to snap. One day I woke up to banging and screaming. My parents fought a lot, and I would usually pretend I wasn’t there. Something was different this time, though. I could tell. I went out of my room to see what was happening, and the next moment are a blur. I don’t know if, in the excitement, I failed to form memories for a minute, or if I’ve blocked something out entirely.
What I do remember starts shortly after leaving my room. My mother and I are running down the stairs, each carrying as many guns as we can. My father was running close behind us, screaming, naked. He wanted to kill us. This I remember. He tried to get to his guns, but we got to them first. This I remember. I have never been so scared in my life. This I remember.
He was an avid gun collector, despite a history of drug abuse and instability. For obvious reasons, I am an avid supporter of strict gun control legislation.
Sometimes I think of the boulder scene from Indiana Jones. That’s exactly what it felt like, but instead of treasure, we were running away with guns. Instead of a boulder, it was a doped-up maniac who wanted to kill my mother and me.
We ran outside, pulling things down behind us however we could without dropping the guns. We managed to get to my mother’s car and lock the guns inside. We knew it wouldn’t stop him, but it slowed him down. That’s all we needed. The cops showed up shortly after we got the guns in the car. He struggled, but at least half a dozen cars were there. He had no chance. That was the day I watched the cops take my father away.
I don’t remember the next days very well. I tried to pretend I wasn’t there.
When I was fourteen I went to visit my father. They were always supervised visits, so my mother was there as well. On the way out, she told me to wait in the car, and they stayed back in the entryway for a couple minutes. I started to hear raised voices, then saw my mother try to leave. I saw my father grab her by the arm, twist it behind her back, and pin her against the garage door.
I didn’t know what to do, so I did what I wanted.
I got out of the car, and ran over to the two of them. I yelled at my father. It was the first time I really yelled, instead of screaming. It was a terrifying noise. Every time I have to yell, I still think about that moment. I don’t yell much.
He didn’t respond to the noise, so I did the next logical thing.
I hit him.
I hit him again.
And again.
And again.
I pressed my forearm into his neck and made clear, in no uncertain terms, that he had better never hurt either of us again. I got into the car, and my mother and I left.
That was the day I didn’t pretend I wasn’t there.
When I was fifteen my mother started drinking. She had been clean for a few years, since my father got taken away, but it got really bad, really quickly. She had trouble holding down jobs, kept driving drunk and getting into car accidents. She broke a bunch of bones, lost a bunch of weight. She was killing herself.
We had no money, no food. She could hold a job for maybe a week or two. Any cash she had went into cheap alcohol. I used to look for change on the street. When I had enough, I’d go to the gas station and get a gallon of kerosene for our furnace. That got harder when it started snowing. We went without heat a lot. I stayed over at friends’ places as much as possible. Their parents would let me eat family meals with them. Nobody asked questions. Nobody had to. By January of that year I was stealing money for food. I made a little extra cash by selling small amounts of drugs, but it wasn’t enough to make a living.
In February, my mother got drunker than I’d ever seen her. She kept telling me she wished I was never born, that I was a mistake. She told me why she decided to have a child. My father was planning on a divorce. So she sabotaged the birth control. I was her tool. Now I understood why she was always so upset that I would fuck it all up for her.
After a while, words weren’t enough. She picked up a knife, and tried to stab me in the neck. I was so shocked that I almost didn’t get out of the way in time, but she was very drunk, and I was 15 and spry. I grabbed her by the wrist, took the knife from her, and locked myself in the bathroom until I figured out what to do.
I wanted to pretend I wasn’t there, but I couldn’t.
Instead, I called the cops, and, for the second time in my life, I watched them take away one of my parents.
I was alone, and I had no idea what to do.
I called my father.
When I was sixteen I was living with my father. He had cleaned up, sort of. He was at least functional. We lived with his girlfriend in a huge house in a rich neighborhood. He had found his way back into the glamour. My room was, quite literally, a large closet under the stairs. I read Harry Potter multiple times that year. It made me feel a little better.
Things were generally okay between my father and I at that point. At least, I smoothed things along. He was pathological liar, and used every chance he had to manipulate people. That never changed. But… it was better than foster care, it was better than being homeless. We moved around a lot back then. I think six moves in two years. It made it hard to make friends, but I was biding my time. I knew I’d get through it.
Then I was raped.
Back then, I didn’t think men could be raped, at least not by women. It took a long time for me to call it what it was. In fact, it wasn’t until I was in my twenties that I could really say it. I was raped. Over, and over. The difficulty in calling it rape was that 1) I was so hung up on traditional gender roles at that age, and didn’t know better, and 2) that this happened inside of a relationship. I was in an abusive relationship, and I had no idea. I had no idea that it was wrong.
I thought that I was what was wrong.
Whenever it was happening, I would just close my eyes and pretend I wasn’t there.
Then, one day, I snapped.
When I was twenty I got so tired of pretending. I got so tired of acting like I wasn’t being hurt. I got so tired of letting people have power over me. So I stopped it all.
One by one, ended every abusive relationship.
I called my partner. I told her I never wanted to see her again. I still didn’t call what she did rape at that point, but I knew it was wrong. I knew I was done with it.
I called my mother. I told her I never wanted to see her again. We had tried to repair our relationship after she tried to kill me, but it never really worked. She never could see that she did anything wrong. It was always about how it affected her life. She’s not my responsibility.
I called my father. I told him I never wanted to see him again. Living with him for the two years I needed before I was eighteen was tolerable, but only because I would always pretend I wasn’t there. It was harder to leave him, because I don’t think he’s a bad person. I think he’s just profoundly narcissistic, unable to control himself, and incredibly dangerous to all those around him. In the two years I was living with him, he almost shot me again, but I talked him down. I knew, no matter what his intentions were, I would never be safe with him in my life.
Out of all of these, I do miss my father. Or more accurately, I desperately miss the person he could have been.
That was when I stopped pretending.
I would never again pretend I wasn’t there, because now I really wasn’t.
Leaving was the best, and hardest, thing I have ever done in my life. Beyond every single nightmare moment- leaving was the hardest.
But I’m so glad I did.
When I was twenty one I started my first semester of graduate school. Five and a half years later, and I’m doing really well. I’m in therapy, and have been for a few years. It really helps, but there’s so much left to work through. I have good friends, healthy relationships, and a satisfying life. I’m defending my doctoral dissertation in three weeks, and then starting a job that I’m really excited for. I managed to get my life on a really good track, and I’m immensely thankful.
Leaving was so incredibly, incredibly hard, but it was so good for me.
I don’t have to pretend I’m not there anymore.
Now I’m here.
THIS HITS HARD!!! OLIVER ANTHONY – COBWEBS AND COCAINE (REACTION)
You guys are great. I love your reactions… They seem real to me so if they’re not you’re doing a great job if they are you’re doing a great job. Oliver…. Mr. Christopher Anthony is a blessing to us all…. Unexpected…. Breath of fresh air… With divine timing. We all need more people like Oliver… Mr. Christopher Anthony. We are All just as great as he is…. He is a blessing because he created a spark worldwide . His message is for all …
The Dutch sucked up to the U.S. and refuse to sell their EU.V machines to China. A fatal mistake. China did it with other technology that is cheaper, better and faster. Now the Dutch EUV machines will lose not only Chinese business but businesses across the world. It will go bankrupt in no time or at least until the U.S. stop paying billions of subsidies to them. And if and when the U.S. stop the Dutch company ought to sue the U.S. for trillions of dollars.
What can the US do? If it is smart it change a president and forget containing China. But I suspect it is not smart enough. It will hurt the US to no end by killing US industry one by one.
Opera Singer Reacts to Dio – The Last In Line
Dio wasn’t just a once in a lifetime vocalist… He was a once in a century talent.
The BRICS alliance inducted six new countries into the bloc at the 15th summit in Johannesburg last month. Out of the six countries, five are oil-producing nations that export millions of barrels across the globe every year. The six countries joining BRICS are Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt, Iran, and Ethiopia, while Argentina is the only non-oil-producing country.
There’s a high risk that Saudi Arabia and the UAE might start accepting local currencies for oil and ditch the U.S. dollar.
The new mission of BRICS is to end reliance on the U.S. dollar and promote local currencies for global trade. Therefore, chances are high that Saudi Arabia might consider accepting local currencies as payment for oil to reduce its dependency on the U.S. dollar.
BRICS is looking to control the oil markets, and inducting Saudi Arabia was the best choice. But what could happen to the U.S. dollar if Saudi Arabia accepts local currencies to settle oil and gas payments.
First and foremost, the weakening of the U.S. dollar would begin if Saudi Arabia accepted local currencies for oil trade. If Saudi Arabia demands that other countries pay in local currencies only, then demand for the U.S. dollar would dip drastically. The move could lead to the dollar facing a depreciation in the international forex and currency markets. A weak dollar would make imported goods more expensive in the United States and potentially impact the overall U.S. economy.
Secondly, other nations will begin to diversify their reserves and accumulate other currencies apart from the U.S. dollar. The development would increase demand for other local currencies and put them in direct competition with the dollar. Central Banks around the world will keep reserves of all currencies and commodities like gold, making the USD dip.
BREAKING NEWS: Oprah Winfrey INVESTIGATED For Maui Fires!
That woman needs to be investigated for much more egregious kind that involve the kiddies. There are some serious questions here. Something suggests some profit motives by the mega-wealthy.
I had a daughter. Her mother became pregnant and we moved into a house together. Six months later my daughter was born. Mom had four children from another marriage and made an effort to remind the older children she was their half-sibling. When she was two, the older siblings went from full time with us to half the time with their dad. When she was five, I started to notice mother’s subtle abuses through passive aggression and blame: having my daughter’s hair develop tangles and using a comb to brush, blaming the five-year-old for the tangled hair, and then chopping her hair off. This happened three times by the time she was five years old — and her mom was a hairdresser.
I filed for divorce and custody was joint. My daughter looked a lot like me. So it was a shocker when paternity was challenged. Police knocked on my door and showed me a court order. Mom waited across the street with her ex-husband while a social worker had to pull my daughter away screaming and begging to stay. The social worker kept apologizing and let my daughter come running back when my daughter started to have an asthma attack. After about 20 minutes, a police sergeant came up to the front porch where I was with my daughter, who had started to calm down and her breathing was under control at this point. He just looked at me and said, “I’m sorry,” then walked back to the curb. He spoke to the other two officers, who got in their cars and left. Then he walked across the street and talked to my wife and her ex.
After a few minutes he handcuffed her ex-husband, put him in his cruiser, and left. Mom walked across the street and stood at the curb. I told my daughter that everything was going to be all right, that I’d see her soon, that I loved her and I was so proud of her. I promised her I’d see her soon. Mom told her she’d see me the next week as she took her hand, then they drove off. I haven’t seen her since. I decided a long time ago I was not going to fight it. The divorce court changed the case to divorce without children and it was over.
I haven’t heard anything and have no rights to inquire about how my daughter is doing. She is 8 now and likely can’t remember what I look like, and in a few more years she’ll barely remember me at all. Better for her that I fade away than to risk more traumatic incidents. I miss all of the kids, my daughter and her siblings. I was their father, and now I’m not.
I don’t think I will ever stop hurting.
First Time Hearing Oliver Anthony – “90 Some Chevy” Reaction | Asia and BJ
This guy is just GOLDEN… every. single. song. He could cash out now and put to shame just about any country act out there. 100% pure talent and soul.
Fresh out of the US Navy, I went to work for Burger King as an assistant manager for $140 a week. Six months later, BK raised the starting pay to $150 a week. I asked my boss to raise me to at least the same rate, but he said no, I had to wait for my annual review. I said: You’re going to hire somebody off the street with zero experience and pay them $10 a week more than me with six months of experience? He said yes. I said no. I went across the street to McDonald’s for $175 a week.
Several years later, I was studying accounting to become a CPA and took a job in January with a small CPA firm for $4 an hour. At the end of tax season, Friday, April 15, he called me into the office and said he didn’t need me anymore, the busy time was over. I was shocked. The following Monday, I called him and said I had a wife and child to support, could he at least pay me two weeks severance pay? He said he would pay me one week. I started with another small CPA firm on Wednesday at $5 an hour. So I got a 25% raise AND I was paid 5 days for my 2 days without work.
By the way, a classmate of mine went to work for Touche Ross, one of the Big Eight Accounting Firms, in July 1979. He scored Number One on the national CPA Exam, out of 42,000 participants. He asked for a raise, they said he had to wait for his annual review. He went across the street to Price Waterhouse with a big raise. Some employers are just STUPID !
Give Huawei whatever it needs and then let it compete against the Iphone 15
On one hand you throttle Huawei with every ban on earth and bullying everyone you know of and at the same time you preach about free trade to the whole world
How can you have a fair assessment of which model is better?
This was originally in my drafts because I expected the Iphone 15 to be vastly superior to the Mate 60 Pro
Instead turns out the Mate 60 Pro held its own against the Iphone 15 which was deemed as “Non Innovative” by Western Experts
In my humble opinion, I don’t think so. The population would have declined with the rapid pace of the urbanization and modernization, even if without this One Child Policy. Please come to think about it, Japan, Korea and ROC on Taiwan all witness the declining of the population growth, but without such a drastic social engineering imposing on the people.
It’s quite natural that population would plummet with the transition from an agricultural society to an industrial and urban society. The modern mindsets and lifestyles, the improving health and education standards, the higher cost of having children and raising them up could contribute to the low expectancy among people to have more children.
Chinese people are also people, who have human agencies and vitalities. Chinese people could and would adapt to these changes without having to undergo this basic state policy for few decades. As a matter of the fact, there was a county, Yicheng, which was once a pilot experimenting place, where the policy of two children in a family was implemented from 1985–2015, however, many folks from there didn’t choose to have more children.
Many answers here jump in and are quick to discredit Sun Tzu.
Have you actually read the book, like, really read the whole book?
It’s not a long book. It’s got 7,573 Chinese characters. In comparison, my graduation paper in Chinese University was 20,000 Characters.
Why does the Art of War say to never put your enemy in a corner?
“Really? Did Sun Tzu write that? Ha! How shallow and obviously wrong! What an overrated fraud!”
Urgh….
Had you read it thoroughly, other than seeing this question on Quora and enters “triggered” mode and discredit Art of War, you’d realize why he said that.
I cannot find the exact quote for “Never put your enemy in a corner”, because I have not read the English version, nor would I ever be interested to do that. But here is the Chinese version of, what I assume to be where the idea come from:
Therefore, the art of war lies in: never face a high mountain, never retreat from a down hill, never follow an enemy army faking defeat, never attack an elite enemy army, never bite a shark-bait, never chase after a retreating enemy army, leave opening for a surrounded enemy army, never pressure a desperate enemyarmy. This is the art of war. The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Chapter Army Conflict
Whoever says Sun Tzu is wrong because surrounding enemy happens all the time in reality, it’s a good strategy; or enemy can always surrender, etc., has evidently not read the book at all, or had interpreted it wrong.
First of all, he never said, you shouldn’t surround an enemy force. He said, surround them, but never completely. Leave a small opening for them.
If you have watched Game of Thrones: Battle of the Bastards, you’ll see why this makes sense. Althought it was fictional, I’m sure good medieval European strategists would have agreed with Sun Tzu, if they had read about it.
If you surround an army completely, even the most cowards will forget about escape, unite and fight you with all they’ve got. But if there is a chance to get out, even the bravest will try to squeeze through that hole and flee.
Would you rather fight a united army? Or a fleeing one? This is a no-brainer.
Why should you never pressure a desperate enemy?
First, what is a “desperate enemy”?
Clearly, you could physically surround an enemy army. But if peaceful surrender is on the table, they are hardly “desperate”, or “cornered” as the question put it.
And that is why most formal armies in the world would shout: “Lay down your arms and we guarantee your safety” when they had the enemy surrounded.
Imagine if you shout: “Stop struggling! You have nowhere to go! Stay where you are and we will come to kill you all, piss in your skull, rape your women, and enslave your children!” instead. The surrounded will no doubt fight you to their last breath, and will rejoice for every bullet they managed to put inside one of you, even at the cost of ten of their lives.
That is when you create a “desperate and cornered” enemy.
Sun Tsu’s book does not only focus on winning a battle, it focuses on winning a war. In the book, you’ll find plenty of sentences like, avoid physical conflict if possible, do not fight unnecessary battles, etc. He is trying to make you understand how casualties are costly, and you must avoid it.
This particular argument here is coherent with that idea. An absolutely “cornered” enemy will fight you and possibly injure and even kill your soldiers, no matter how onesidedly stronger your troops are. It will always lower your morale, and put a financial burden on your country. That doesn’t help you win a war.
Is it really so wrong?
Read this book before you comment on it, seriously, guys. You do realize there are Chinese speakers who can read English and prove you wrong with credible sources, right?
The book Art of War is not outrageously long, or even obscure. Most of the language is quite simple and easy to understand.
The U.S. has established a technical team to study the Huawei’s Kirin 9000S chip!
“The Chinese chip is too advanced for the Americans.”
I have spent the bulk of my adult life working at car dealerships, so I have heard a ton of complaints, especially since I was the fix-it person at some of those dealerships.
One day one of the salesmen came up to me to warn about what was walking up to the door.
His customer had been calling his cell phone for days about how pissed off he was that he sold him a lemon. That was all the guy would say or text, never saying what the problem was.
So he gets directed to me of course.
He starts complaing that he just purchased his car a week and a half ago and that the other day an idiot light came on on the dashboard, he was close to home and the car stalled out as he got to his driveway so he slammed on the brakes and had to pay for a tow truck to tow it into his driveway.
I asked him if the tow truck driver looked at anything in the car to see why it stalled and told me no, he only paid him to put it in the driveway and that we will be reimbursing him for that, the days of having a rental car, free repair for the issue and give him at least 1 year of free oil changes.
I went onto computer and googled warning indicator lights for his vehicle and asked him to show me which light was on. He pointed at the indicator light of a gas pump. Yup folks, he ran out of gas.
I asked him how many times he got gas in his car in the week and a half he had it, thinking maybe there was a leak. His honest to god answer was “Why should I have to put gas in my car, I just got it and only drive miles to and from work”
It took just about everything in me not to bust out laughing in face, but then a woman who overheard everything said “and they think us women are stupid”, well that was where none of us could hold it in anymore and just about every employee and other customers busted out laughing.
After finally calming down, I told him I’d be more than happy to have a runner go over to put some gas in the car so he can get to a station, however told him that he needed to pay for it.
He was not happy and needless to say never came back for anything and left a bad review, but all who read the review commented on how it was his fault for being stupid and not getting gas.
Bobby Driscoll was the original voice of Peter Pan and a successful child actor. He was one of the first people signed into a contract with Disney and starred in many successful films for both MGM and Disney.
Known as Disney’s sweat heart, Bobby Driscoll was riding high on his fame. That was all to change once Boddy became a teenager and Disney dropped him.
Up until he got the booth he was one of Disney’s favourite stars, with a salary 1,700 a week. That all changed once puberty set in and he developed a bad case of acne, forcing Disney to drop him
When he was dropped from Disney, his parents placed him in an ordinary school, but the kids rejected him and started to bully him for his roles in movies. This had a big effect on him so he turned to drugs.
Bobby’s career struggled to take off, and he could only land minor roles in TV series. His drug use got worse, and he was arrested in 1956. He had another run in with the law when he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon, and by 1962, he was unable to land any new roles.
He moved to New York to try and land roles on Broadway, but that didn’t work out for him. He gave his last performance in a film called Dirt in 1965.
Three years, later two kids playing in an abandoned Tenement block in New York stumbled upon the 31-year-old’s decaying body lying in a cot with two beer bottles next to him and religious pamphlets scattered around the cot.
Since the body had no identification and police couldn’t identify him he was buried in an unmarked pauper grave. It wasn’t until a year later when Bobby’s mother was trying to get in contact with her son that she discovered that her he had died.
His death wasn’t reported until 1971 when a reporter was researching the whereabouts of the young film star, and learned of his death. Although his name is on his father’s tombstone, his body remains in the pauper’s grave.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee | Sitting Bull meets Colonel Miles
Movie: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007)
He’s got a point. The Crow tribe hated Sitting Bull and his tribe – Lakota Sioux – for continuously raiding them and aggression towards them. They were actually devastated by the news of the fate of 7th Cavalry. When the Lakota Sioux gave up, the Crow were relieved that they could sleep soundly at night.
Apple Execs have RUSHED to Beijing to reassure them that APPLE IS NOT RELOCATING ANYWHERE and proposes to expand operations in China
Guess what?
China said “No Need. Thanks”
That is CHINA for you
All these MSM Propaganda and all these “Economic Collapses”
Yet if China announces a small ban, the reaction is worth a $ 200 Billion burn
Sure Apple may recover but that panic and impact – THAT’S THE SIGN OF THE DRAGON AND IT’S MIGHT
Now. Imagine China does a scorched earth and bans all SC companies
China may lose 10 years
US Companies will lose at least $ 1.7 Trillion plus a Tech domino that could hit US Banks and Institutions
China is a patient nation but it’s patience is slowly wearing thin
Xi skipping G20
The Mate 60
The Iphone decision
The Decision to rescind Japanese Seafood Imports
The Decision to ban the Iphone for Government officials
It is even likely Xi will allow Country Garden and Real Estate Companies to refuse to pay their debt and default on their bonds completely and keep doing business in China
After all i doubt Country Garden sells homes in Cook County Chicago
Heres another look at how STRONG CHINA IS
Russian Girl First Time Hearing Judy Garland-Over The Rainbow!
It was a sunny day. I was going to my class. Suddenly I saw a lot of people gathered at one place. I stopped my bike and saw a cow badly injured with her broken leg. She was trying hard to get up.
I just couldn’t take it!
I called a tempo and took the cow to the hospital.
There,
Doctor: it will take around 5000 rs to treat her(a big deal for a 17 year kid)
Me: I will arrange the money you start her operation.
I rushed to my home broke my piggybank and gave money to the doctor
i just saw how calmly the cow was walking after treatment i smiled and got away
after 6 days!
I was going by the same road and suddenly I lost my balance and fell from my bike
I felt like someone took me in hands and put me on road
I got no injury!
when I opened my eyes I had fallen on the road.
I saw the same cow looking at me with the bandages still on her!
I felt she saved me. I was on the 7th sky feeling the feel of karma!
Sorry for the grammatical mistakes if any!
so I made this tag line of my life!
karma right
future bright 😉
What matters is how we achieve things Bedazzled
Much evil that is generated in the world is because of the conviction that the end justifies the means.
I was in a commercial for Campbell’s Chunky Soup about 10 or 11 years ago. It was a massive advertising effort by Campbell’s and was constantly on TV. I was in a couple shots and one was the final shot where there was an extreme close-up of me taking a bite of the “soup”.
When we were filming, there was a person that was “pre-loading” spoonfuls of soup for me to “eat”. They would take a few cans of the soup and disect all the contents and reassemble them in “perfect” spoonfuls. They would bring one up to me every take, and I had to pretend to enjoy it. I had to hold the bowl in an awkward angle, and the soup in the bowl was also carefully arranged.
Little do the viewers know that there was a big, white, spit bucket 🪣, that I would chew, smile, look into the wildernerness….then spit it out.
They had me do no less than 20 takes. Each spoonful was heaping and if I had eaten them, i would have destroyed probably 4 full cans of the soup.
I was game to do anything pretty much for what they were paying me, and said that I would eat it, but they said not to do it. Fair enough.
I was on duty and this 55 year old lady was admitted in ICU. She had breast cancer spread to her lungs and was literally struggling for breath. I went to check on her, as her saturation was dropping. There was nothing much I could do. After asking the nurse to give her some medicines, I turned to leave.
That was when I slipped and fell, as there was a little water on the floor, probably from a leaking iv fluid bottle. The lady, while struggling for her breath, asked me:
‘Son, are you all right?’
You may call it touching rather than shocking. Whatever, it was indeed shocking to me that even gasping for the last breath can not stop a human being from caring for someone else.
I saw an answer for this when the person being ‘lit up’ got a parabolic or dish mirror and affixed it so the light was collected and shone back to the bedroom of the owner of the light. When they asked her to turn off the light, she was able to explain it was their light and they could turn it off.
I just loved that answer!
Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Butter
Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Butter
Ingredients
3 quarts sweet cider
8 pounds ripe, well-flavored apples
2 1/2 cups brown sugar, firmly packed
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
2 teaspoons cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
Instructions
Cook cider over high heat, uncovered, about 30 minutes or until it is reduced to half.
Wash, quarter and core unpeeled apples. Add to cider, and cook over low heat until very tender. Stir frequently. Work apple mixture through a sieve, returning the puree to the kettle. Stir in sugar, all the spices, and salt. Cook over very low heat, stirring almost continuously, until mixture thickens.
My main “beef” with my parents was a simple one. At every opportunity for me to do something outside of the school narrative…
“Study hard. Get a good job, and you will be set for life with a good pension.”
…They pretty much sucked at helping me.
I asked my mother; “How do I buy land”? And she looked at me for a moment and answered…
“You just go and buy it.”
Gosh, Mom. That was so helpful.
NOT!
At that time, there wasn’t any Google about. No internet. Only a small town library, and neither the teachers or anyone would help me out. No one could answer my questions.
I’d ask my dad; “How do I buy stocks”?
He would chuckled. Then thought about it, and he answered…
“You just go and buy them.”
Gosh dad. That was so helpful.
NOT!
And it wasn’t just that.
I asked my dad, “How do I ask a girl out for a date”?
And his answer was…
“What, who’s the girl?”
And I would say, “No one you know. So how do I do it”?
And he would chuckle, and he said…
“Oh, you just go up to her and ask her if she wanted to go out with you.”
Wow! So very helpful.
NOT!
…
Do not make the same mistakes that my parents made. Take the time. Enunciate. Explain. Be empathic, and be kind and considerate.
It will make a BIG difference.
Todays…
How China Destroyed US Sanctions and Changed Microchip Forever!
The USA did not declare war on Huawei. They declared war on hundreds of thousands of motivated Chinese set to go starving on the streets, unless they pushed themselves…
What many people don’t know is Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei only owns roughly 1% of the company, and the employees own 99% of the company, so imagine a body of hundreds of thousands of supercharged and super-talented people giving their all, not only for survival of their families but also with a vengeance to prove that they can’t be suppressed and will fight back.
Huawei is a networking equipment maker which makes mobile phones. This means it knows the backend first, and then how to connect the network to its Frontend devices, including mobile phones.
Apple only focuses on Frontend consumer devices, and not connecting with backend devices because its focus is on the user experience.
Apple relies on Qualcomm for its 5G transceiver; Huawei designs its own 5G transceiver.
That is the difference.
Newborn kitten cries when she sees her mother lying motionless on her left side full of thorns
Newborn kitten cries when she sees her mother lying motionless on her left side full of thorns The mother cat and her cubs have an accident on a strange fruit full of thorns A mother cat crashes next to the fruit back.
We have seen the mother cat and her two young children lying here. kittens just a few days old swaddled around their mother. and cried out of voice when he saw his mother in trouble.
next to it is a fruit full of thorns. This cat family is pitiful.
when I thought the fruit from the other corner fell on the mother cat. but luckily the other fruit is just next to the mother cat and the kittens.
Maybe the mother cat was exhausted.
We are walking in a tropical forest. There are a lot of dry leaves here. I came across a family of cats in distress here.
The kittens were crying when they saw their mother lying motionless. The mother cat lies next to the thorny fruit weevil. I come closer to check and will help the cat family.
The kittens are quite small. Luckily this thorny fruit didn’t hit the kitten. The mother cat is very weak. it needs immediate care. I will help this poor meod family.
Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add sweet potato, water and vanilla extract; mix well.
In a small mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff; fold into the sweet potato mixture.
Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; add to potato mixture.
Stir in pecans.
Pour into three greased 9-inch round cake pans.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 22 to 27 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted near the center comes out clean.
Cool for 10 minutes before removing to wire racks.
Frosting: Melt the butter in a saucepan; whisk in sugar, milk and egg yolks until smooth. Cook and stir over medium heat for 10 to 12 minutes or until thickened and bubbly.
Remove from the heat; stir in the coconut, pecans and vanilla extract. Cool slightly.
Place one cake layer on a serving plate; spread with a third of the frosting.
When I was in high school, in my senior year, I had a co-op job as an electronic tech, and worked for a small business. The business was on Rt 11, in a business district leading into Bloomsburg Pa.
One afternoon, while at my bench, we heard a car accident occur outside our building. Apparently, a young man no older than me was speeding and decided to use the enter lane to pass people, and caught a young family getting read to turn off to the seasonal hamburger place next door to so (to the right when facing the highway)
Tye family was ok, but a group of workers from the welding/fabrication shop next to us (on the left) ran out to the car and attempted to pull the young driver out.
But he apparently had a broken neck… I will never forget seeing how his head moved, it just sort of flopped around on his shoulders. That was 43 years ago, and I still remember that part vividly.
A day or two later his sister dropped by and asked us if we had seen a ring of his that was missing. We did walk around the accident scene but never found it.
Because he broke his neck on his steering wheel, I started to wear my seatbelt while driving, long before there was a campaign to require it.
Don’t know if this was a thief or not, but a number of years ago there was a rise in fake “Utility Company Representatives” knocking on people’s doors. In many cases things went missing if these people were allowed into people’s homes (they worked in pairs).
At the time we were living in a duplex. The first floor level was about 6–8 inches higher than the level of the front porch. We had a Siberian Husky/German Shepherd mix (both sides of his parentage were pure blood pedigrees), and he was the best burglar alarm even invented. 60–70 lbs of solid muscle, the face of a wolf, and the most disconcerting part, 1 blue eye and one brown eye. Our storm door had a solid panel that went about halfway up the door. High enough that you couldn’t see the dog if he approached the door. The top was screened.
My wife answered the door and was faced with 2 “Utility Company Representatives” that were checking the water meters which were inside, down in the basement. Their trick was to gain entry, get the person who answered to accompany one down to the meter while the other one stayed in side the front door and “waited”, picking up anything they could find that might be valuable. Like wallets from purses. True to form, they wanted to come in and check the meter. My wife knows better and told them they couldn’t come in without some sort of ID. They started arguing that they had a legal right to inspect their hardware (they didn’t), and she kept telling them no and flicked the lock on the storm door.
Our ever faithful guard dog had walked over to the door while they were trying to talk their way in. When their tone started changing he got interested and decided to see who was talking to the boss-lady like that. He popped up on his hind legs which put his face not too far from level with the people on the porch, who suddenly decided they no longer had to gain entry, and said ‘someone else will contact you later’ as they left for greener pastures.
Best alarm system ever.
EDIT… Punctuation repairs (Thanks Ed), and I thought you all might like to see this buddy of mine. We lost him to The Bridge from cancer 29 years ago now, and still miss him every day. Sadly, we didn’t do a lot of picture taking back then, so my choice of pictures is limited.
He had the black and white Husky markings, and the longer snout and some brown from the Shepherd side. Check out his eyes, and imagine them staring at you through a screen door at eye level.
China and technology
The reason Trump thought that he could stop China from making DUV machines is because DUV machines encompass a lot of technologies.
If China is unable to produce any of these technologies then the DUV machines China purchased from ASML would be completely useless in a year or so. The parts need to be replaced. No parts, no working machine.
The light source breaks down all the time. The coating on the lenses only last for a few months. 1 year at most. All those machines that China bought from ASML for over $500 billion would become very expensive scrap metal.
But China managed to develop these core technologies. And it required the entire Chinese scientific community to do so.
But now that China has the core technologies, there is nothing the US can do to stop China from advancing. The US no longer controls Chinese chip industry.
This video explains just how intricate chip production is and how much leading edge technology is required to make on of these machines work.
The Sopranos || Get It Up
This should get more views, it’s such a perfect clean edit
Start buying them lavish gifts, like expensive vacations at 5-star luxury resorts, free airline flights to exotic destinations, Rolexes, things like that. Then buy their mom’s house and let mom continue to live there for free. Then donate the money for their kid’s education at an expensive university.
Okay, that’s an extreme case, but it works. Most famously, the first black mayors of Los Angeles and Detroit suspiciously became a lot more pro-business after they were elected than before, and that was just the result of freely given campaign contributions, invitations to nice dinners, and perks like the odd bottle of whisky that remain within the rules for gifts.
Take a look at Krysten Sinema, who got elected mostly because she had a massive team of young volunteers who saw her as a progressive. After she got elected, she started getting massive donations from pharmaceutical companies and, all of a sudden, she’s shifted a lot further to the right.
One of the reasons why this works is that running for office is incredibly expensive. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s first campaign cost $2 million, mostly spent on the Democratic primary. She was funded by a group who wanted someone more progressive, and now she’s elected to a safe Democratic seat, she will need less money going forward, but her $170,000 salary (seems a lot doesn’t it) still doesn’t pay for her New York rent, her Washington rent, and her student loans.
One of the best tricks plays on vanity. The politician writes a book, which gets published, and “friends” buy enough copies to make it a best seller. This is really sleazy, but it happens all the time, and it is in no way illegal. There are allegations that Hilary Clinton’s success in the futures market was a set up where a benefactor essentially ate losses and just passed on the gains.
This is why the rich are heavily into “charity”, showing how good they are by building college buildings and universities (with their name on them of course). It’s certainly cheaper than paying taxes for the same thing, that’s for sure. Andrew Carnegie started it with libraries, and is seen as a saint, but governments still had to maintain those (most are now over a century old, including one or two in my home town of Toronto) and the donors usually don’t pay for the upkeep.
I’ve already written about some shocking things I’ve come across in the states in another post, so I suppose this is part 2, but here we go:
Heard people going at it…you cannot imagine my shock as a person coming from a conservative area, one who hasn’t even seen her parents kissing, to witness such a thing. But while staying at a hotel, for the first time in my life, I heard two people going at it very loudly so that it was impossible to ignore them. I was so embarrassed and my husband was laughing at me for looking so shocked.
Serving water for free in restaurants. For a capitalist country like the states, I was surprised they didn’t benefit from this one thing that people will undoubtedly pay for. You certainly have to pay for water over here in restaurants.
Ice.. always. Continuing from the last point, water is always served with ice. Someone like me who can’t have very cold water had to specifically ask for it to be omitted.
Medical issues. I needed antibiotics during my visit because of an infection that I get frequently. Not having insurance as a simple visitor, we had to pay 400$ to see a doctor and get this simple prescription. Meanwhile back home, I got it for less than a dollar. So I swore to pack lots of meds next time I come over.
Vast spaces. Perhaps because I’ve been only to Buffalo, Niagara, and Oregon but there was always a ton of space between buildings. The markets were huge with vast parking lots. And the roads were very big for the most part.
Black people everywhere. In New York airport (JFK), almost all workers were black! That was a surprise because I always heard of the diversity in the states. But even later in Oregon, almost everyone was white.
Security at the airport. That one was quite funny. When you get scanned at the JFK airport, you have to stand in a certain cabin, face your right, raise your arms like a criminal, then they scan you. The woman worker shouted, “Put your arms up!” and I had no clue what she was talking about. She kept repeating then showed me the exact position and where to face. Then she said “Seems like you don’t travel often”. I wanted to say “Excuse me? I’ve been traveling since I was 4 but this doesn’t exist anywhere else I’ve been!”.
Coffee. That was no coffee. That was dirty water. Period. Lol. For real though, our definition of coffee in Egypt is Turkish coffee which is very heavy, dense, and intense in flavor.
Huge meals. Everyone said so before and yet I made the mistake of ordering an appetizer before the main dish, only to be surprised that the appetizer is so big that it’s a meal on its own. I felt so sad throwing half the food away as we were traveling and I couldn’t take it with me.
Reese’s everywhere. It was Reese’s heaven! All sort of sizes, shapes, and mixes. Like mixed with Cadbury, Oreos, and so on.
Credit card everywhere. I am not exaggerating when I tell you there hasn’t been a single place I’ve been to that doesn’t take credit.
Rich wildlife. Coming from a desert, it was so impressive to just casually come across deer and squirrels. And at some point, I saw a massive number of seals. I learned the hard way that they stink.
They use their attractions wisely. I’ve been to countries that don’t give enough attention to grand places that leave you in awe, meanwhile, the states try to give such attention to whatever place they feel people may like visiting. Whenever you go to an especially cool place, you’ll find stores near it selling stamps, mugs, and stickers with pictures of that attraction. I’ve seen that at Niagara Falls and the redwoods in California. Did I mention that I’d never seen such huge trees in my life?
The world’s third-largest contract semiconductor maker, GlobalFoundries, on Tuesday opened a $4-billion manufacturing plant in Singapore as part of a global expansion to help ease an industry supply crunch.
The new Singapore facility will produce an additional 450,000 wafers annually at full capacity by 2025 to 2026, general manager Tan Yew Kong told reporters, raising the city-state’s overall capacity to 1.5 million wafers each year.
The chips, usually used in smartphones and other mobile devices, are also increasingly in demand by automakers, especially for electric vehicles, adding to the pressure to raise production.
“The key megatrends of our industry — digitisation, connectivity, cloud computing — are all driving acceleration to a more connected and data-centric world,” GlobalFoundries president and chief executive Thomas Caulfield said at the launch.
“It demonstrates how central and critical the industry is to the world economy and how pervasive semiconductors are in enabling and enhancing all aspects of human life.”
Caulfield said that despite current economic headwinds, the company estimates the industry will double in the next decade.
“The catalyst for this growth will be AI (artificial intelligence),” he said.
The firm’s 23,000-square meter Singapore facility, which broke ground in 2021, will expand the global footprint of the company, which already has plants in the United States and Europe.
Singapore’s chip output currently makes up 11% of the global semiconductor market.
The global semiconductor market is predicted to experience a downturn of 10.3 percent this year but recover in 2024 and grow by 11.8%, according to estimates by the industry monitor World Semiconductor Trade Statistics.
Very often, the answer is no. Not only do intelligent people very often fail to realize how much smarter they are than everyone else, they also tend to overestimate other people’s intelligence even when they do. Let me tell you a little story.
Once upon a time, I was at a bar with some friends. The bar had an outdoor area where you could stand around and drink beer. There was a guy who thought it would be funny to ride past the bar repeatedly on an extremely loud moped. At certain times, he would stop, rev the moped so loud that nobody could hear themselves think, and begin whooping loudly. This same guy had been at it all day, not just by the bar, but riding up and down the streets and residential neighborhoods, screaming and hollering and bothering everyone he could with his moped.
I mentioned, casually, that I wouldn’t mind chucking my beer mug at his head if he were close enough. A friend of mine, whom we shall call Angus (not his real name), said, “Well, you should probably leave someone as unstable as that guy alone. He obviously has some serious emotional difficulties.”
Angus is a smart dude, but he misread the guy on the moped. The issue is that the guy on the moped was probably not suffering from some deep emotional trauma that had made him so obstreperous. Rather, Moped Guy’s thought process was, most likely, no more complicated than this: “YEAH! YEAH! LOUD! LOUD MOTHERFUCKER! YEAH LOOK AT IT MAN! YEAH! LOUD!”
The issue that Angus was having is that Angus, being an intelligent and empathetic individual, was trying to understand Moped Guy’s motivations and look at things from Moped Guy’s perspective. Angus was thinking to himself, “What would have to happen to me to get me to act that obnoxiously?” The thing is, intelligent people of high character, like Angus, are not moved to act like idiots unless they suffer something really bad, at which point a complicated emotional process leads to bad behavior. Angus’ miscalculation was that Moped Guy would have to have suffered some horrible trauma to act in the way he did. The big issue is that Angus did not account for Moped Guy’s stupidity, and forgot the simple fact that stupid people will act stupid without any suffering or instability. Dumb people just act dumb.
I have suffered from this problem myself. For the longest time, I did not realize that so much of human behavior was posturing, and did not realize how to read people correctly. I thought that, when someone talked to me about their interests, they were merely stating facts and not trying to talk to me about themselves. The vast majority of humans are so subjective that most of their communication is about themselves and not about things or ideas or even other people. Intelligent people have problems grasping that.
My father, as I may have said before, is an ER doctor.
One night, a case arrived to the hospital of a teen girl with what seemed like a regular fever. The team gave her the necessary meds and started running a few tests.
Her mother had rushed to the hospital with her and looked particularly nervous. The doctor asked her some typical questions such as when her daughter showed signs and so on, but she would have vague half-assed answers.
However, within a few hours, the girls fever was sky rocketing, and her blood pressure was getting very low, and for some reason she wasn’t responding to regular meds or fluids.
The mother looked very nervous then she timidly approached a nurse and told her “actually, I forgot to tell you something. My daughter just went through a liposuction a couple of days ago. I don’t know if these two things are related”.
Yet by the time this piece of information reached the doctors, the girl had already died. She was being treated for a regular fever until test results showed the real issue.
Turns out that the mother took her daughter, who was not even chubby to begin with, to undergo a liposuction. Given that the girl was underage, a parent’s approval is a must. Her father was completely against it but the mother went ahead and sneaked it with the daughter anyway.
And she was too scared of her husband knowing what she did so she didn’t want to let the secret out until she realized that the complications are more serious than she thought. But it was too late by then.
Lessons of the day:
1-Don’t put your child through unnecessary plastic surgery.
2-And don’t hold back information from the doctor for God’s sake.
Christopher Moltisanti – So Far (The Sopranos)
The most tragic character in fiction, even with all his flaws he will always be one of the greatest characters in the history of television…
The Chinese government is a lot lot lot more transparent than the western government on the economy. It is simple Chinese government don’t need to be popular it need to be effective!
The U.S. government need to and use their media to fool Americans and hoodwinked them so that Yanks will always be highly naive and ignorant. How do they do that? Western media are profit motivated so they are free to make money by writing what westerners like to hear. So they write or broadcast what westerners like to hear.
After conniving you that China is at fault, China is your enemy, China is backward, China is evil, China steal your technology, China cheats, China take your jobs…..What do you like to hear? China fail and U.S. is great, it is exceptional, its economy is still wonderful. Your technology is unmatched. So you media cohort with your government to fool you and guess what that is what you want!
Chinese government don’t face election and popularity contest every 2 years! You do! China says and report as it is and encourage or motivate its citizens that it needs to buck up and work harder. Hence all the superlatives such ad the U.S. is exceptional, Britain is Great, US is the mist innovative, Britain invents everything…
China don’t do that. To us Empty vessels makes the most noise! Western media are simply lying media that spread half truths, fake news, misinformation, fabrications. Demonising others to distract your people from your impending collapse.
I was studious, which resulted into me getting a scholarship in college. One of my friends asked me for some money (2500/-). He was my good friend, not best, and I was completely aware of his gambling and drinking habits.
I wanted to say “No”, because I knew the importance of money at that moment of my life. I was aware of the fact that he will never return it, but I still lent him the money, which was obviously never returned.
It was my first breakup and I was leading a miserable life. There was this girl who was my junior and she started taking interest in me.
I was uncomfortable, but she was pretty. I wasn’t ready for a relationship and she kept pushing me. Again, I wanted to say “No”, but it could have hurt her feelings.
Unwillingly, I said Yes. And that relationship survived for a month only.
Don’t judge me, I was an immature teenager back then.
There were many incidents in my life where I desperately wanted to say “No”, but ended up saying otherwise. And in return, I paid a huge price, not monetarily, but emotionally and mentally.
But today, things have changed. I have changed for my own good. And I have learned the art of saying “No”. People call me rude, arrogant etc, but who cares about their opinion?
This is my life, these are my struggles. They will only give their absurd opinion which is never required. Sometimes people think that saying “NO” is hard because your image will get maligned or it will hurt other people.
My question is, what will you do with your false pride? Maybe momentarily you will hurt people by saying “No”, but in the long term it will save you from huge disappointment.
This is what I learned the hard way: How to say “No” to the face when/where I am hesitant/uncomfortable.
It comes with multiple benefits:
You don’t have to lie.
You don’t have to make excuses.
You don’t have to justify anything.
I refused to please others at the expense of my emotional well being. Even if it is saying “No” to thepeople who are used to hearing “Yes”.
Learn the art of saying “No”. Don’t lie, don’t make excuses, don’t over explain yourself. Just simply decline.
The Sopranos || Easier
“Man, thanks for this awesome work! This gives me power every time I rewatch it to deal with tough shit in evercold Moscow. I’d love to see more motivating sopranos vids from ya!”
When I first started High School, I had a guy that rode the bus with me every day, and made my life a living hell. His name was David R-. He was 18 years old and still in the tenth grade. He was bigger than me, and cussed like a sailor. He was mean and vicious, and he absolutely scared me to death.
I have vivid memories of him sitting behind me on the bus, slapping me in the back of the head as we rode home from school. It happened almost every day. This was 27 years ago and, back then, bullying was just a “common thing.” It was something you had to deal with. You had to learn to stand up for yourself and “be a man”. I would complain to the bus driver and the principal. Mr. Dave would get a good scolding, but he was right back at it the next day.
Well, after six months of this B/S, I’d finally had enough. I just snapped one day. I turned around and dove over the seat, and started pounding on him. Everyone went crazy. The driver slammed on the brakes, and brought the bus to a stop.
I was getting my tail kicked by this guy. He was bigger, faster and stronger, and the only thing I had on my side, was rage. We were up against the emergency exit, slugging it out, when, all of a sudden, the door just popped open, and we went tumbling into the street.
When we hit the pavement, Mr. Dave had his arm twisted behind his back. He landed on it, and I heard it snap like a piece of kindling. He pushed me off of him, and got up with a bone jutting out of his wrist. He was screaming his head off, and blood was pouring onto the asphalt.
Maybe I should have backed off at that point, but this guy had made my life hell for several months, and I wanted revenge. I twisted his broken arm behind his back, and took him down on the ground where I proceeded to beat the living daylights out of him. There were several cars that had stopped by this time, and it took two grown men to pull me off of him. It was the worst fight I’d ever had in my life, and it remains so to this day. My nose was busted and I had a black eye. Mr. Dave had a broken arm, a busted lip, two missing teeth, and a huge laceration across his forehead. They actually called an ambulance for him.
Both of us were suspended. Dave’s mother contacted my dad a few days later, and threatened to sue us. She wanted us to pay for Dave’s medical bills. However, I had a bus full of people, who absolutely hated Dave, and all of them were telling the principal about my six months of hell, and insisting that Dave had started the fight.
I was suspended for two weeks. I also got a month of detention, and couldn’t ride the bus for the rest of the year, but that was the end of my punishment. As far as I know, Dave never returned to school at all. I didn’t see him again for 15 years.
Then, right around 2005, I moved from Mississippi back to my hometown in Georgia. One day as I was walking out of a convenience store, I spotted my old high school bully picking up aluminum cans along the side of the road.
It totally shocked me, and I wasn’t absolutely sure that it was really him. After all, it had been 15 years. Still, I was PRETTY sure. So, I strolled over to the edge of the parking lot for a better look. Just as I walked up, he turned to stare at me, and I recognized him beyond a shadow of doubt. I’m not very good with names, but I rarely forget a face.
He looked terrible. His hair was long. He hadn’t shaved in several days. His clothes were torn and ragged, and he smelled like a wet dog. He was very thin and dirty, and half of his teeth appeared to be missing. He also had an old duffle bag slung across his shoulder, and I got the distinct impression that he was homeless.
“I’m sorry, you’re David R-, aren’t you?” I asked.
His eyes brightened for a moment, and he looked at me long and hard before responding. “Yeah, who are you?”
My first impulse was to tell him. I wanted to remind him of all those days that he had harassed the hell out of me, and then ask him if he remembered our little brawl and his trip to the hospital. Then I wanted to let him know how much money I had made the year before, and tell him all about the new job I had just started down in Atlanta. Instead, I just stood there, staring at him.
“I think we might have gone to school together,” I replied.
His eyes narrowed again, and he really studied my face. Still, I don’t think he had a clue who I was. Apparently, I had changed a lot in 15 years.
“What’s your name?” He finally asked.
I shook my head. “Not important”, I replied. I dug in my wallet, and pulled out a ten dollar bill. I held it out to him, and he took it. I said, “God bless”, and then slowly walked away.
A push-back against Western influence is reportedly prompting countries to reject the pro-Ukraen agenda. Zelensky during a UN General Assembly session.
Western officials have overestimated the willingness of neutral nations to join anti-Russia policies in support of Ukraen, according to The Wall Street Journal.
It’s clear that the West overall has been surprised by the pretty widespread reluctance by many of the countries in the so-called Global South… to come on board.
“animosity toward the US and Europe” in some parts of the world and the desire of rising powers, such as Brazil and South Africa, to “assert their independence”, the article said.
The WSJ detailed purported successes and failures of Western diplomacy to rally the support of neutral nations for what it called “a fair peace settlement for Ukraen” ahead of next week’s gathering of world leaders at the UN General Assembly.
Loozensky has been internationally promoting his “peace formula” with Western backing. It includes Ukraen regaining control over all former territories, war reparations from Russia, and a tribunal for the Russian leadership. Moscow has dismissed the Zelensky plan as being detached from reality.
My oldest son was driving a red Toyota 4×4 pick up . It was used but solid .
He worked at an auto parts store and had done a pretty good job of fixing it up . One weekend he did a tune up . Plugs , rotor , cap, plugs etc .. about a week later while I was working , he called and said it had statrting running rough then died.
At that point I had more money than time so we had it towed to a shop I had used before .
Next day shop calls me to tell me it jumped time and the engine was a complete loss .
Quoted me 2500 to rebuild .
Only paid 1500 for the truck .
I told them never mind and had it towed to the house .
Finally I was off work a few day and decided to check it out . Pulled the timing belt cover and checked the orientation of the cams to the crankshaft . It was perfect ! So at their point I’m a bit confused . Pop the distributor cap and noticed the rotor was on the wrong cylinder .
Come to find out my son forgot to put the holding screw back in the rotor and it had turned just a bit . This meant the timing was so far off it wouldn’t run .
Put the screw back in, cranked it up and it ran like a champ !
Drove it up to the shop and called out the boss .
Showed him and explained what was found .
His face turned 4 shades of red lol ! Come to find out the tech that looked at it got paid extra to do rebuilds and was condemning engines every chance he got !
Needless to say the tech got fired .3 hours of my time and I saved 2500$ and my son got his truck back .
As an Ordinary user of a smartphone, can you really tell the difference between the 3nm and the 7nm Chips?
You can’t
The difference is more from an engineering point of view and a design point of view than a commercial point of view
The Average customer doesn’t understand 3nm and 7nm.
There is Zero difference from the POV of a retail customer who doesn’t understand Semiconductor Design Or Power Consumption Efficiency (99.9% of the world’s retail customers)
Here are the top six parameters based on which people decide which Smartphones to buy :-
Price
Camera
Battery & Charging
Gaming
Color & Design
BRAND
Do you see ‘Performance’ anywhere?
No
Performance is impossible to gauge for a normal user
You need advanced tools that tech blogger guys from YT have
Sure you can see the difference between a 32 nm Laptop Chip and a 7 nm Smartphone Chip
However it becomes tougher as you come closer and closer to each successive process
Take the I7 vs Loongson 3AC6000
Assuming Loongson had Windows integration
An Average user could not distinguish the two apart unless by GPU performance or Memory superiority
Yet a professional with tools can see that the Loongson is performing only at 50% the rate of the I7
So the answer is YES
My guess is the 3/2nm Chips are redundant for modern smartphones. They are too advanced and unnecessary for the average retail user
Cost effective 7/5 nm Chips are the Uppermost limit for smartphones
The Iphone 15 vs Mate 60 is the best example
The greatest advantage of the Iphone 15 was the GPU of NVDIA according to retail users
Mate60 won with the Camera, Gestures, Satellite Calling, 5G speeds etc
Iphone won with the Graphics
Nobody mentions the A17 Chip except as part of the textbook spec comparison table
3/2 nm Chips will be pathbreaking for the NEXT GENERATION after the Smartphone like maybe Advanced AI systems etc
TSMC will find the 3nm process overkill
Yet if they keep at it, they may find it easier to progress to the next generation of communication technology
We have built a vacation home in a nearby province. Husband took on the contracting while maintaining his full-time police job – so proud of him!
I did not announce this; I dislike the comparison games people play and do not want to be perceived as bragging.
A good friend asked to see pictures at a reunion luncheon. As I flipped through pix on my phone, an acquaintance from long ago came up behind us.
She peered over our shoulders and exclaimed, “When you married that low-ranked cop, I knew you’d end up this way! How far you’ve fallen! How can you live like THAT!!”
The look on her face was not one of concern, but a sneer.
She was looking at a picture of the shed where building materials had been kept (that has since been removed).
*sigh*
*Note Some have asked about my response. I smiled, told her that it was the raw materials shed and went back to my conversation.
Why didn’t I snap back, go for her throat, etc?
Because that (and to embarrass me) is what she expected, what she wanted. She is in her element when someone defends herself or gets angry.
But she has never been able to handle a calm, non-defensive response.
My time in the Marines didn’t go at all as I expected; in fact, I was disappointed with almost all of it. However, I am grateful for these very disappointments. It took me a long time to come this viewpoint, but I am finally able to see the experience in a more wholistic way. As a Christian, I see it through the lens of Romans 8:28:
“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” (ESV)
When I was planning to go into the Marines, my father encouraged me as he always had. He thought I had sound judgment and that I had made a wise decision. It was a sickening shock for me to find out in the Marines that very few people, men or women, thought this way.
I was generally despised as a woman Aircraft Maintenance Officer. Women hadn’t been allowed into this MOS for very long. I was about the sixth woman to choose it. People thought women couldn’t understand machinery or aircraft.
I personally got ugly comments. One was a note passed to me in AMO school that read, “A woman is a life support system for a cunt.” I was very quiet back then and kept to myself a lot, but other Marines’ hatred for me was so great they went out of their way to humiliate me.
At some point I found out I could not be assigned to a deploying squadron; no women Marines could deploy back then. So this fact meant I would not be assigned to any unit that actually had aircraft, unless it was to a training squadron. My dream of going to a deploying squadron and to a carrier ended.
I was so miserable. I had no friends after a while. A woman captain I knew went to Germany, and a woman TBS classmate with whom I was also close had to take a medical discharge. I was lonely and frightened and made bad personal decisions as a result.
But when I was at my lowest point, I reached out to God in desperation, and He answered. It was the beginning of our relationship which continues to this day. It was about that time my EAS rolled around, so I was then set free from the Marine Corps.
In spite of the traumatic stuff and in addition to my now having God in my life, I did however benefit from my service.
I was able to work for Sikorsky Aircraft as a technical writer. I wrote repair manuals for the SH-60B helicopter when it first came out. The job included testing the manuals out on the helicopter by doing an R and R (remove and replace) of all the parts on it, including the engines, blades, and rotor head.
Being a Marine helped me get a job with the Texas Department of Public Safety as a security officer. Marines are highly respected in the Department, and there are a lot of them in it. To my surprise, many other members of the Department admired me for my Marine service and accepted me because of it. That had hardly ever happened before.
A huge benefit was that my husband, a highly decorated combat Marine, chose me to be his wife. He said that when he learned I was a Marine, he knew I could understand him like no other woman could. We got married six weeks after we met.
So my military service was a rough go, but it prepared me for the rough life I had ahead of me. But most importantly, God used it to bring me to Him and to my wonderful husband.
At so many levels… I was a small child in the 60’s. I remember on the news there was a symbol- a silhouette of a soldier walking – with a number in it, and that number was the number of casualties there had been that day. My cousin was in the 101st Airborne- it would take forever to hear anything so we both were encouraged and afraid when they mentioned the 101st.
Many people say the Gulf War was the first war played out on television. It wasn’t. It was Vietnam. I remember it so distinctly. It was terrifying. I asked my Dad what the war was for… he started to explain but in the end, he just said “There is never a good reason for war, and in the end, it won’t change anything anyway…” Looking back now, what did all that death and pain- on both sides- accomplish?
The city I lived in had a Marine base. Many of the kids I played with had dads who were “in country”, or mothers and fathers who worked at the base. I saw many of them saying goodbye because their lives had suddenly changed, either because their dad would not be coming home, or that he had come home and was now facing extended time in rehab. I remember playing in the stadium right in front of the entrance to the housing area for the base… when we saw a black car with a driver, an officer… and a chaplain… all the kids would run home in terror. Someone was about to get some bad news.
I was grateful that my Dad didn’t have to go to Vietnam. He was in the navy as the war started but I was a sick baby and he was discharged on compassionate grounds.
I remembering wearing a bracelet with the name of an MIA soldier… he didn’t come home, well, his remains didn’t come home, until the late 1970’s, I folded up his bracelet and sent it up to his family.
One of my dearest friends, “Sarge” Robert Hultgren, was a 2 tour vet- he campaigned tirelessly for the MIA and POW. “I can’t forget a single brother” he said. Sarge died several years, of Alzheimer’s Dementia. He forgot his daughter, his wife, his own name… but he thought he was in Vietnam. His PTSD pierced his soul so deeply it was too deep even for Dementia to wash away.
Sarge used to put up a bamboo Christmas Tree in front of Boston’s City Hall each Christmas. Lest we forget.
I remember standing on the front steps with my Mom when all the church bells and sirens from Fire Trucks and Civil Defense were sounding to say the war was over. But how could it be over? My friends were still waiting for their dads.
That next year at Memorial Day, the 1st World War vets marched, all snappily dressed and although old were orderly and looked dignified. The same was true of the World War 2 vets, the Korean War vets… then came the Vietnam vets. The looked slouched, and where people had cheered for the other men, they yelled things at the Vietnam Vets… Baby killer. Rapist. Bastards. WHy didn’t you just die there….
Some of the my friends were there watching their dads marching and they winced at the hatred. We had already seen it, protests at the gates of the base, “peace protesters” telling the small children there that their daddies were murderers and rapists. Who did they think they were to “peacefully” destroy these kids?
Neighbours of my grandparents, the place where we spent every spare minute, were a military family. One day when visiting them, the news came on the TV and they turned it off. “We don’t listen to that when we are here… this is our escape” said the lovely Mrs Wittman. Her husband was a senior military officer. This was the reason:
Lance Corporal Narvin O WIttman 26–9–1946 – 7–8–1967 Their son had died in Vietnam. When I went to see the “Wall”, I took a rubbing of his name. He didn’t even make it to 21.
It was years before we learned our lesson. It is this deep wound of guilt that led to Americans thanking Vets for their service… never again would we forget that it’s not the soldier’s fault when he does what his country asks him to do. I hope.
All those of my generation had the same experience… the pain and horror of Vietnam was all over the news, inescapable, imbedding itself in our psyche.
Thanks for your service… as my generation joins those who pass away, I just pray we as a human race never forget. We inflicted pain on those young men- draftees- and their families. For what?
The Sopranos || Lovely
Breaking bad is my all-time favorite show.. But this show is… its a masterpiece. I remember the first time i finished it. Had a feeling i need to watch it again right away…. They don’t make them like they used to before. What a great time it was for entertainment back then.
Southern Crusty Coconut Pie
IMG 0070
Ingredients
1/2 cup milk
1 1/4 cups shredded coconut
1/4 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 (9-inch) unbaked pie shell
Instructions
Pour milk over coconut and set aside while creaming butter and sugar together.
Add eggs to creamed mixture and beat well.
Add milk, coconut and vanilla extract.
Pour into an unbaked pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes or until pie is golden brown and firm.
Chinese are not closed off from the world; more than 130M Chinese travel outside China annually, and they spend about US$250B annually on their travels, making them the single largest tourist group by nation, and the biggest spending one.
Just because you disagree with Chinese government policies, do not say that Chinese are closed off from the rest of the world. It is you who are out of touch with what is really going on.
Here’s a fun fact, once you become a grannie in China, you get to wear a grannie “uniform”. These grannies all wear outlandish crazy floral patterned tops. And it seems to be the unofficial “uniform” of the grannie sect inside of China.
2023 09 19 17 52
I don’t know quite how it works, but seriously… all the grannies wear these God-awful floral tops; the busier, and more abrasive the better.
Don’t you know.
…
Let me tell you all the sad tale of my mistakes in cooking hamburgers.
Grilled Hamburgers 2
You see, as a teenager, my father was trying to lose weight, and at that time he believed that all the fat in hamburgers must be removed for it to be “healthy”. And so, whenever he cooked hamburgers, he would squeeze all the delicious juices out of the burger. Whether on the grill or in the pan. And the result would be a dry burger.
I didn’t know any better. Being all of 12 or 13 at the time, and so I thought that this was the way that you cook hamburgers. You squeeze all the fat out.
Stupid silly me.
No wonder no one wanted me to cook the hamburgers at family get-togethers. I made dry and tasteless hamburgers.
I feel so bad about it, and I wince when I remember that particular memory.
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Today, I leave all the precious juices inside the burger. Let it cook just that way. Don’t ever…ever…EVER squeeze out the juices! The juices are what you want in a fine greasy delicious burger.
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Go get yourself a nice burger. Make sure that it is tasty and delicious and do not skimp on the sides. Have a great meal and a great day!
Being disabled and looking like I do there are two things I always get to overhear. Going through TSA my name comes up red flagged. Meaning check him completely.
A customs agent told me “it’s due to your Military career and past knowledge.”
What the hell does that mean? I’m in a wheelchair and have metal in my leg, shoulder, and back. I am a wand beep show. All hands pat downs in a wheelchair. You need two hips to stand, so I can’t stand. Any chance I am taking over the plane? Gunpowder tests on hands AND ARMS. OK so the Navy/CIA service made me an enemy of the state or something?
I think it is BS and it’s profiling but my wife said “no it’s not.”
Then you have people whispering when we get on first. “Bet they fake it to board first…”
I tore into a woman I heard say that. I yelled so loud the airport got quiet. Does it look like I’m faking it? I tried to get out of wheelchair and fell. Hurt. But I felt better with that. Maybe she’ll get it some day.
My wife wasn’t happy about my antics but I’m so tired of it. And she knows. On the plane though I overheard a mom telling their kid there is no difference between disabled people and us. Except a part of their body just doesn’t work like ours. She had me in tears. The best explanation of a disabled person I have ever heard explained. And plainly so a child could understand it. The kid kept asking me if I needed any help?
Thats mainly because The Ruble is not a very Publicly Traded Currency & Russia is a Net Exporter
Putin did three strategic things:-
Firstly , he rose the interest rates to 20% Short term. That helped when a huge amount of rubles entered into the Banking system, reducing the Supply and subsequently making the Ruble more valuable.
Secondly, he had a rule where all Companies in Russia had to ensure 80% of all Foreign Payments were mandatorily in Russian Rubles. As a result – Companies within Russia had to buy Rubles from Russian Central Bank and this helped the Ruble gain traction and demand.
Thirdly, he announced that he would only take paymets for Gas in Rubles. Now while G7 governments keep talking nonsense as Politicians do, the Businessmen – ie:- The Refineries, The Gas Distributors etc had to assume the worst case scenario and be prepared and so they collectively purchased roughly 160 Billion Rubles over 4 days (Around Euro 1.53 Billion). If they really have to pay for Gas in Rubles – they will need around 1.5 Trillion Rubles but still…this Ruble purchase also took the Ruble rate up.
In this way – the Ruble strengthened from 141 Rubles to a Dollar on 7th March 2022 to 93 Rubles to a Dollar on 28th March 2022.
Meanwhile – Why exactly did the Ruble crash in value???
Its not traded on any Exchange right? No Major Country carries Ruble reserves? Its not as if Rubles are sold in US or EU and they dumped the Rubles right?
I believe this was because the West dumped their entire stock of Rubles
Prior to 24th February – You had 900 Billion Rubles or around US$ 13 Billion with Foreign Countries in the form of Securities or actual Ruble Deposits.
My guess is – the West dumped this entire $ 13 Billion or 900 Billion of Rubles with the intention of causing a major crash in the Ruble and create an economic turmoil in Russia.
My guess was – Crash the value of the Ruble, Make Necessary Imports very expensive , mainly Drugs and Pharma and bring Putin to his knees.
Sadly someone spoilt the party:-
China has the largest Ruble Reserves outside of Russia ($ 55.1 Billion or around 1.5% of its foreign reserves). The West had hoped China would be panic driven to sell their Rubles as well which could have crashed the Ruble even further.
Luckily China didn’t fall for the trap and instead kept their Rubles and even rose the price band between the Yuan and Ruble by 10% instead of 5% to prevent panic sales of Rubles.
No Wonder the West is SO ANGRY WITH CHINA
Its why i always say – A NON CONVERTIBLE CURRENCY is the Greatest Asset for a NET EXPORTER
And another thing
900 Billion Ruble dumping – caused a 13 day turmoil for the Ruble
IMAGINE IF CHINA DUMPS $ 1.273 TRILLION OF US DOLLAR DEBT !!!!!!
I was flying home to Mom’s funeral. Had our 13 month old son with me. A young soldier took the aisle seat. We exchanged pleasantries and then I busied myself keeping N. occupied. Mealtime came and I noticed the young man talking to the flight attendant. Turns out he had told her to hold his meal and he offered to hold N. while I ate and then happily ate his own. When we landed he helped me with my carry-on luggage and wished me luck with the next leg of my trip. I’ve never forgotten that young soldier.
If someone is trying to make you decide in a hurry, they are probably giving you a bad deal. Walk away.
Sometimes pretending that you are naive gets you more information.
Pretending is helpful many times.
If you want to avoid office politics, say good things about coworkers behind their backs.
Physical contact makes you more likely to say yes to a request.
If you want to make someone feel uncomfortable, look at their forehead when you’re talking to them.
When a group of people laugh, they tend to look at the person they like the most.
Nervousness and excitement have the same body reaction, so if you’re nervous for a speech, instead convince yourself you’re excited. Its proven to give better speeches, too.
Ask for something that seems small, but is related, to what you really want. Then, once they’ve agreed to the small thing, just work up with slightly larger requests until you achieve your goals.
I can reverse that. My father recounted the story of a massive brick chimney on the OSU campus. They wanted it down, so put it out for bids. The bids came in the thousands of dollars (a lot of money in the ‘50s), except one. An old guy with a beat-up pickup came by and bid $50. He chiseled out a number of the bricks, replacing them with wood blocks. When he’d replaced enough of them, he threw gasoline on it, lit it, and retreated. When the thing came down, he hauled away all of the brick (what he really wanted).
One of the great media injustices took place in 1994 — and it began a pattern of malignment that escalates to this day.
The case was Liebeck v. McDonald’s. It’s one of the most widely recognized and highly misunderstood lawsuits in history. Most people know it as, “The greedy lady who spilled coffee on herself and wanted an easy payday.”
It’s also the precursor to social media harassment campaigns — including a list of targets I hesitate to even mention — because I know people buy into the nonsense.
Here’s what really happened.
The lead-up to the legal showdown
Stella Liebeck did indeed order coffee and spill it on herself. After pulling through the drive-through, she put the coffee between her legs, and the lid popped off. The coffee then spilled on her inner thighs and crotch region.
What people often miss is that the coffee didn’t burn her — it completely scorched her body.
McDonald’s was keeping the coffee far, far hotter than it needed to be, at temperatures that cause third-degree burns in an instant. Remember: Heat damage is also a proxy of exposure of duration — and there was little time to react (which was exacerbated by her old age).
Liebeck spent more than a week in the hospital battling life-threatening infections.
The media also conveniently ignore that there were more than 700 hot coffee complaints and lawsuits filed against McDonald’s in the lead-up to this case. More than $500,000 in payouts had been given to burn victims.
But when the casual consumer scanned headlines and saw, “Woman Wins Millions After Mistakenly Spilling Coffee On Herself”, it turned McDonald’s into a martyr for lazy, greedy consumers — and the customer into an avatar of laziness and opportunism.
It became so easy to conclude the woman was a fool for not knowing coffee was hot, and that she should have been more careful and taken responsibility for her mistakes.
She’s lucky there was no Twitter back then.
The court case was a hot mess too
During my MBA program, we studied this case in corporate law class. I remember being so surprised at the number of contradictions to public perception within it.
First, Liebeck never sued for millions.
She asked for $20,000 just to cover her medical expenses (the costs her insurance didn’t cover). For six months, McDonald’s refused and instead offered her $800. Eventually, she hired a lawyer. His eyes went wide as he saw the facts of the case. That’s when their claim went way up.
The jury was initially skeptical of Liebeck. They thought she was just another ambulance chaser.
And then they saw the actual images of the burns
Liebeck had permanent damage to her private areas. The images are hard to look at and I can’t even describe them without getting very graphic.
Doctors performed several skin grafts. Liebeck’s physician testified in front of the jury that her burns were one of the worst he’d ever seen, as bad as people who’d been on fire.
Conversely, McDonald’s defense lawyers were flamboyant and pompous. In one of the all-time great legal screw-ups, they responded to the fact that 700+ people had been burned by saying it was “little more than a rounding error”. Regardless of the company’s customer volume, it reflected a callous disregard for the harm they had — and were — causing.
After the jury saw McDonald’s track record of burns, the arrogance of their lawyers, and their refusal to accept any blame, the tide turned.
Even worse, Liebeck’s attorney cross-examined McDonald’s quality control manager and squeezed three painful confessions out of him:
That their coffee was not served at a temperature safe for consumption.
That consumers were not adequately warned of the burn risk.
He also buried his foot in his mouth by saying he had more important matters to attend to than the burn injuries. He said they didn’t constitute a change in policy.
Between these missteps and the facts of the case, the jury awarded Liebeck $640,000. However, the judge added punitive damages totaling $2.7 million, equal to two days of Mcdonald’s coffee sales.
Punitive damages are a judge’s way of saying, “You messed this up so bad that I’m going to add extra damages just to send a stronger message to everyone watching this.”
The aftermath
Sadly, Liebeck never got the millions.
She instead settled out of court for a half-million dollars. She spent the remaining 12 years of her life in poor health while her settlement only covered her medical care and a live-in nurse.
She was never some dumb, greedy, careless woman who didn’t know that coffee was hot. The public’s misconception was a major disservice to someone who genuinely suffered.
This should have been a PR nightmare for McDonald’s. Between the 700+ incidents and the pattern of lava-hot coffee, it was just a matter of time before this happened.
McDonald’s was big enough to take the hit and was blessed with a rare media hall pass. Conservative political talk shows needed an anti-business case study to spin for election season.
The public drew quick conclusions about this woman before even knowing the facts of the case. It highlights a continuing clouding of the truth — often about things that don’t even affect your personal life — yet damage someone else’s.
In recent years, I’ve seen rampant campaigns to target and harass people on social media — Twitter especially — by people who don’t actually know what happened in some person’s divorce. I see Medal of Honor winners being targeted because of bogus campaigns about what happened on a mission — by people who have probably never been in combat.
Taking sides is fun. It’s in our nature to enjoy combative feuds and pick a team. Just remember that we aren’t usually working with hard evidence or perfect information.
It’s so easy to let your own experiences inform your opinion more than the facts.
In short: stay empathetic. Know that even if someone made a mistake — you could easily have been them, looking out from their eyes, seeing all the people holding torches and shouting your name.
The first and only brand new car that I ever bought. About a month later I was driving down the highway doing about 60 mph and the engine shut down without warning. I managed to coast onto the shoulder and it would not start. I waited about 20 minutes and it fired right up! I took the car back to the dealership and they could not find any issues to get the problem to happen again. I picked the car up and while driving home the engine shut down again. S.O.A.B! So I had the car towed back to the dealership and they kept it for 2 days and still couldn’t find the problem. I went home and the next day it happened again. Shut down – wait 20 minutes – then start right up again. This went on for about a week and I was about to contact the dealer again to get this covered under the lemon law.
Then a friend suggested that I replace the magnetic pickup. This is a sensor in the distributor that detects the rotation of the distributor shaft. If is faulty it can trick the computer into thinking there’s an engine failure and shutoff the engine.
I bought the part, took off the distributor cap, pulled the magnetic pickup and there is was. Sticking on-end to the magnet was the tiniest sliver of metal no more than 1/16″ long! Probably left over from when the block was machined. I wiped the sliver off with my finger and put the original part back in and never had the problem again.
Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm DISAGREE With Biden’s Export Control
From a pro-USA source…
In a complex tug-of-war between national security and economic interests, the United States is facing a conundrum in its semiconductor strategy. Discover why the CEOs of major American chip giants, Intel, Nvidia, and Qualcomm, are urging the Biden administration to rethink its stringent export controls on computer chips to China. These restrictions were initially imposed to curb China’s military modernization efforts, but their unintended consequences are starting to surface.
Ukraine SitRep: Western Military Commentators Finally Accept The Obvious
The Kuebler-Ross model of grief describes the human coping mechanism to deal with extremely difficult situations. It has five phases:
denial – “No, not me, it cannot be true”
anger – “Why me?”
bargaining – attempting to postpone death with “good behaviour”
depression – when reacting to their illness, and preparing for their death
acceptance – “The final rest before the long journey”
With regard to the Ukrainian counter-offensive the last phase of the grief model has now been reached.
While not all politician are yet there, the military and intelligence specialists, who are part of the western propaganda squads, have made their conclusions. From their mouth the truth is dripping to the media. While the headlines below may not express it, the content of those pieces, especially in the first four, is finally admitting the obvious. It didn’t work and the counter-offensive is done:
Nothing of the above is new to Moon of Alabama readers. I may have helped to spare you the grief by not clinging to a the narrative but to the reality of the battlefield:
This outcome of the counteroffensive against the hardened Russian defense lines was predictable (May 11!):
In military books this is know as ‘echeloned defense’ with three lines of well prepared positions ten kilometer apart from each other. Each line consists of tank obstacles, mine belts, prepared anti-tank positions to monitor and counter potential breach attempts and well prepared artillery support from behind the next defense line.
To crack such a nut without air support and without significant artillery advantage is nearly impossible.
But the Ukrainians did even worse than I had thought. The delaying action by the Russian army stopped them before they even reached the first defense line.
What may come next was predicted here on June 5, the day the counter-offensive was launched:
I strongly suspect that the Russian military will let the Ukrainian attacks run their course to then launch its own larger scale attacks against weakened Ukrainian defenses.
But to this day and while taking heavy losses the Ukrainian army is still running head first into a wall of Russian fire and concrete barriers. It may well keep going for another few weeks until the rain seasons sets in. That will lessen the chance of a renewed Russian attack. I have no idea yet of what might come instead of one.
To cope with the situation and bad news the U.S. will now send in a new wonder-weapon, the ATAMCS missiles with a range of up to 300 kilometer (190 miles). They come in several variants but the U.S. army will only be willing to hand over its older ones and only a few. The missiles are GPS guided which is unlikely to work well as Russia has sufficient electronic warfare assets that will disturb those signals. Some of these missiles will just divert from their target. Some will be shot down by air defenses. Some will come through. The 230 kilogram warhead can create quite a mess if it hits a large headquarter.
But keep in mind that the Russian forces are now regularly using FAB 500 glide bombs that come with nearly 500 kilogram of explosives. The bigger FAB 1500 have been tested too and are ready to be deployed. The new ATAMCS missiles will thereby not change the balance of force.
Former ambassador MK Bhadrakumar is sensing some diplomatic noise that might point to upcoming talks.
Talks may well follow but I would not expect any agreement. The Russian side will hold up its demands and the U.S. will still be unwilling to fulfill them. Not even a ceasefire will result from them.
Posted by b on September 9, 2023 at 14:44 UTC | Permalink
The road not taken: Dilemma in filling application forms for universities in China
Dean of the School of Journalism and Information Communication at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) delivered a speech to the freshmen of the journalism major at the opening ceremony, in which he mentioned Zhang Xuefeng, a teacher who has recently become a hit on the Internet.
After this year’s college entrance examination, Zhang, like many other teachers in high schools and colleges, provided candidates with suggestions on live broadcasting. But what made him stand out is that his suggestions to each candidate are very customized, with a very sharp and extremely realistic tongue.
According to Zhang, one shouldn’t even think about finding a job at a big Internet company without a Diploma from Project 211 (a Chinese project of developing comprehensive universities and colleges, which, to some extent, symbolizes the quality of the universities and students).
“I’m going to beat my son’s arse off if he wants to study journalism (in China),” he also said.
As an online tutor who focuses on practical benefits, Zhang cares nothing less than helping students find satisfying jobs and living a stable life. His words, however, are very harsh in the ears of many who have already stepped into the university or even the society, because he talks down their past choices and future paths to nothing, and also reveals the cruel reality.
In the dean’s speech, he said in response to Zhang’s view, “Going to university is not only about finding jobs. If it is that way, in today’s highly informationized society, even without going to university people can still achieve this goal.”
Many people working on journalism refuted Zhang’s views before, thinking that he was too one-sided and shallow, and maliciously smeared the journalism major. At the same time, there are students of this major who agree with his views, and more are the parents of the candidates who regard his words as the Bible.
As we can see, the biggest conflict that lies in front of the young generation is the conflict between a sure future and dream chasing.
In East Asian countries, especially in China, voluntary application after the college entrance examination is regarded as an extremely important step in determining the direction of life, and everyone is afraid that their future will collapse if any mistake occurs.
Students face not only the choice between majors, but also the dilemma of huge income differences, overflow in the talent market, and, probably, the only child supporting the whole family under the influence of the abolished one-child policy.
From this point of view, Zhang is just starting from an ordinary student who has studied hard for many years, hoping to live a better life in line with his efforts. Scholars, nevertheless, talk the talk from the academic angle, which includes idealistic elements. In their eyes, Zhang is no more than a “cynic”. Life also has many turning points in store for you, all of which depend on both how hard you work and how lucky you are.
Though experienced, Zhang can never ensure a student’s whole future life with his words. The final decision is still in their own hands.
As far as I can see, the trial and error cost lies not only in whether you are in a well-established family, but also in how much you’d like to sacrifice the time, the pressure, and the fierce competition……every least expected incident may run over you and crush you down.
It’s still ruthless to talk about dreams without mentioning their cost. However, a person who is willing to go through mature deliberation and take advice prudently, always deserves good results.
Freezing Stray Cat Banged On The Door With His Paw, Begging For Help
One evening a woman from Quebec City heard someone scratching at her front door. It turned out to be a cat, probably quite elderly, and it should be noted that the weather outside was already very cold. The woman did not think long and let the traveling cat into her house.
Hi, John McEnany. Thanks for your interesting question!
I’m going to be tackling your question in three parts.
Part One:
Your question, as at September 10, 2023, at approximately 1308 hours (GMT +8), is:
“Do they sell cats on wet markets in China?”
English might not be your first language, so you might have gotten your prepositions mixed up.
“On” – we use this preposition when something (or someone) is touching the surface of something. For example: “Danny is dancing on the roof!” or “Milli has a tattoo of a spider on her right arm.”
“In” – we use this preposition when something (or someone) is located inside of a defined space. It could be a flat space, like in a yard, or a three-dimensional space, like in a building or plane. For example, “Brett is studying in the library.” or “Can you put the potato in my bag, please?”
The question should really read:
“Do they sell cats inwet markets in China?”
Part Two:
Now, to your question.
I’ve been to more than a few wet markets in China (and the rest of East and Southeast Asia), but as of today, there hasn’t been a wet market that sells cats.
If you’re looking to buy a cat in China, I would suggest going to a large pet store.
The larger pet stores tend to have cats for sale. The smaller pet stores may only sell pet food and accessories.
OR, you could go to a reputable cat breeder.
If you’re one of those who are into “pure breeds”, a cat breeder might be your best bet. But the prices can be astronomical.
For example, my cat-owning friend tells me that a Maine Coon can easily cost you 20,000 yuan (approximately $ 2700, USD).
However, as someone who used to be the owner of three dogs (no, not all three at the same time), I would suggest that instead of buying a cat, you might want to go down to a local animal rescue and shelter to adopt a cat instead.
Unfortunately, stray cats are still a common sight in many cities in China.
But there are many animal rescue and shelter groups trying to change that.
Last year, one of this groups opened “Cat Island” in Shanghai.
This “Cat Island” is actually an artificial island with an area of about 800 square meters, located in Laogang town, Shanghai. According to the group, they intend to accommodate 200 to 300 stray cats in the future.
The public can visit “Cat Island” to learn about how to control the stray cat and dog population as well as how to feed and take care of cats and dogs in general.
You can also apply to “Cat Island” to adopt one of their stray cats. From what I’ve gleaned on Chinese social media, many cats that were initially sent to the island have already been adopted.
If you live in Shanghai, you can try adopting from “Cat Island”. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you!
I’ve not come across a wet market selling cats yet.
Like I said above, if you’re looking for a cat, it’s best if you go down to a local animal rescue & shelter and see about adopting a stray cat.
I have come across stray cats that are loitering around wet markets, yes.
But, no, you won’t find wet markets selling them.
Wet markets tend to sell meat, seafood, produce, etc.
They’re like supermarkets or grocery stores, but prices tend to be cheaper and many people believe that wet market stuff is fresher than what you would find in a supermarket/grocery store.
Conclusion (a.k.a. TLDR)
So, just a quick recap:
If you want to buy a cat, you can do so at a large pet store or look for a breeder. However, I would suggest going down to your local animal rescue & shelter operation to adopt a stray cat instead – unfortunately, there are still a lot of stray cats in China and they all need warm homes and caring, loving fur-parents.
Wet markets might not be able to satisfy your need for a cat, but they do sell stuff like vegetables, fruits, meats, seafood, and other food products, so if you’re looking for produce and stuff that’s cheaper than those sold at supermarkets and groceries, wet markets might be the place where you can get some really good deals.
China SHOCKED Whole Industry: The New Twin-Tailed Scorpion Is Launched
Wow, china’s unmanned two-tailed “Scorpion” drone has been launched with a capability of carrying many missiles. This UAV is a remarkable technology as the 3-engines drone is completely autonomous that can fly non stop for 35 hours using precision navigation system. It’s high aspect ratio and two vertical stabilizers guarantee its long range capability and excellent stability.
Researchers at the Zhejiang University in China have devised a new method that allows for easier and cost-effective production of gallium oxide, an alternative to silicon for semiconductors. The discovery assumes importance amidst the ban on gallium export to China.
Silicon may be a significant component powering semiconductor-based applications. Still, the industry has evolved to use compounds such as gallium arsenide and indium phosphide in production processes over the years. Gallium oxide is the newest entrant in the arena.
What is gallium oxide?
Gallium oxide is a fourth-generation ultra-wide band gap semiconductor that can withstand a strong electric field and consumes little power. A band gap is the amount of energy needed to free electrons inside a semiconductor material, and an ultra-wide band gap allows the material to be used for high-voltage applications.
Among other ultra-wide band gap materials, such as gallium nitride and silicon carbide, gallium oxide has many advantages. However, its production is much more challenging.
Gallium oxide is the only material that can form single crystals at atmospheric pressure after solidification from a melt. This can drastically reduce fabrication costs, but the process needs large amounts of iridium to make a crucible for the melt.
A four-inch crucible requires about 11 pounds (five kg) of iridium; since the price of iridium is three times that of gold, this increases production costs. It also raises concerns about intellectual property in China since Japan and the US have used the method.
Chinese innovation amidst US ban
Last year, researchers at the State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials at Zhejiang University made two-inch gallium oxide wafers. This year, they have improved their approach and made four-inch wafers.
Their improved approach involved a casting method that uses up to 80 percent less iridium. This will help reduce production costs and make the process shorter and more manageable for mass production.
The team has spun off a company that holds the patents for these improved methods and is currently working on using a temperature gradient to increase the size of the crystals produced.
Due to their low energy consumption, gallium oxide semiconductors are ideal for use in communications, aerospace, radar, and electrified transportation like cars and trains.
Last year, the US Commerce Department imposed an export ban on gallium oxide to China, citing concerns about national security since they can also be used for military purposes. The ban aimed to prevent China from gaining experience in next-generation semiconductors, where gallium oxide alone is expected to be a $1.5 billion opportunity by the end of the decade.
Not only has China overcome the aims of the ban but, in a tit-for-tat response, imposed a ban on the export of gallium and germanium from August 1 this year.
Inside Michael Imperioli’s History-Filled New York Home | Open Door | Architectural Digest
Competition is always a challenge, right? More than competition, Huawei is a Cinderella story. Remember, it was ranked #1 before Donald Trump torpedoed it.
Now, let’s use a little logic. If Huawei is able to manufacture enough chips to supply the global market, how long do you think it will take Huawei to rocket back to #1? It will have a reputation as the best smartphone on the planet, bar none. It will also have a reputation as the comeback kid.
Do you suppose some people might buy one just to spite Donald Trump or America? That’s precisely why I bought mine.
The Western media never stopped crowing about Huawei’s dependence on Google. In fact, more intelligent people might buy a Huawei phone to escape Google. That was part of my motivation. Unfortunately, my phone runs on Google’s Android program. No problem, I’m going to upgrade to a new Huawei, now that it’s running on Harmony OS.
The iPhone may remain #1 in the U.S., but I predict it will fall to 2nd place (or worse) just about everywhere else.
One thing helping the iPhone is the Apple ecosystem. If you own a Mac, as I do, an iPhone might seem a logical peripheral. Unfortunately, the U.S. tech sector is rotten to the core. I like Apple far more than Microsoft, but I still don’t completely trust it. It also seems like it has become just a little buggier in recent years.
My dream is to someday migrate to a Chinese system, leaving all that U.S. crapware behind once and for all. Unfortunately, I use Adobe software extensively, and I don’t know how long it will be before Adobe software will be compatible with Harmony OS or some other Chinese operating system. However, it wouldn’t surprise me if it happens in the next few years.
Oops, I almost forgot to mention 5G and 6G. China is clearly in the lead here. I don’t know how much that will affect the average person, but it’s certainly a good selling point.
After being wowed by Apple for two decades, I never thought I’d abandon ship, but the Chinese can outperform and undersell Apple at the same time. As a U.S. citizen who’s getting tired of being screwed by the tech sector and my own government, I appreciate bargains, don’t you?
The One and Only Authentic Southern Strawberry Shortcake
2bc25d0a77890f191bb96e28e3ebec5d
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1 large egg, beaten
2/3 cup Half-and-Half
Butter for spreading
4 cups fresh, ripe strawberries, rinsed, hulled, sliced in half, and sugared, to taste
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks
Instructions
Heat the oven to 450 degrees F.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and mix well. Add the butter and using a pastry cutter or two knives, cut the butter into the mixture until crumbly.
In a small bowl, combine the egg and Half-and-Half and mix until well blended. Then add the flour mixture and stir until the mixture is thoroughly moist. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead very briefly. With your hands, pat out the dough to about a 1/2 inch thickness, then, using a floured 3 inch biscuit cutter, cut out six biscuits.
Place the biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet and bake on the upper rack of the oven until slightly brown on top, about 10 minutes.
While they’re still hot, split open the biscuits, spread lightly with butter, and arrange close together on a plate. Spoon berries and cream onto the biscuits and serve while still warm.
HE EXPOSES THE SYSTEM! FIRST TIME REACTING TO ANTHONY OLIVER (Rapper Reacts Series)
For the scene depicting the atomic detonation during the famous Trinity test in the New Mexico desert in July 1945, Christopher Nolan and his creative team did not rely on CGI. Instead, they recreated a real explosion using gasoline, propane, magnesium, and aluminum powder to enhance the blinding light and initial flash of the explosion.
The explosion was filmed at 48 frames per second using 65mm IMAX cameras and Panavision Panaflex System 65 Studio cameras. Additional detailed shots were captured using 35mm cameras at 50 FPS. All elements were shot in a way that made them appear much larger than they were and then composited together in post-production to create ‘a colossal event made up of many small pieces.’ The final product was assembled by overlaying 100 shots and over 400 practical elements, all crafted by a team of more than 150 artists.
This is one of the reasons why I absolutely admire Nolan and his films
Africa SHOCKS the world: EXPOSING France Oppression in Africa!
My father was an engineer. He was a metallurgical engineer. Which was a guy that tests the composition of steel. He made sure that it was pure and the alloying elements were in the right percentages. It was a very important job.
You need this, you know.
No one would buy a cake if pickles were substituted for eggs, and salt was substituted for sugar. Right?
Anyways, being older than me, he had his old work clothes that I inherited, and throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, I used his old safety glasses at work.
LOL.
They were God-awful! Horned rimmed, ugly. Like a scene from the movie “falling down”.
2023 09 18 10 59
Now…
The funny thing was that EVERYONE knew that those were MY glasses. Everyone wore contemporaneous safety glasses, and not those old things.
So, sure as shit, if I misplaced my glasses, after an hour or so, I would find them on my desk at work. They would magically appear out of nowhere.
Not only once.
Not twice…
But every single time! I couldn’t give them away.
i even threw them into the trash bin…
Sure as shit, they walked back to my desk. I’ll tell you what!
…
What do you know?
Life is funny sometimes.
Today…
Thought considerations…
2023 09 18 10 48
War as desirable outcome
The Army War College’s John Deni (Wall Street Journal, 12/22/21) urged the US to take “a hard-line stance in diplomatic discussions,” because “if Mr. Putin’s forces invade, Russia is likely to suffer long-term, serious and even debilitating strategic costs.”
The fact that US officials pushed for a Ukrainian counteroffensive that all but expected would fail raises an important question: Why would they do this? Sending thousands of young people to be maimed and killed does nothing to advance Ukrainian territorial integrity, and actively hinders the war effort.
The answer has been clear since before the war. Despite the high-minded rhetoric about support for democracy, this has never been the goal of pushing for war in Ukraine. Though it often goes unacknowledged in the US press, policymakers saw a war in Ukraine as a desirable outcome.
One 2019 study from the RAND Corporation—a think tank with close ties to the Pentagon—suggested that an effective way to overextend and unbalance Russia would be to increase military support for Ukraine, arguing that this could lead to a Russian invasion.
In December 2021, as Russian President Vladimir Putin began to mass troops at Ukraine’s border while demanding negotiations, John Deni of the Atlantic Council published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (12/22/21) headlined “The Strategic Case for Risking War in Ukraine,” which laid out the US logic explicitly:
Provoking a war would allow the US to impose sanctions and fight a proxy war that would grind Russia down. Additionally, the anti-Russian sentiment that resulted from a war would strengthen NATO’s resolve.
All of this came to pass as Washington’s stance of non-negotiation successfully provoked a Russian invasion.
Even as Ukraine and Russia sat at the negotiation table early in the war, the US made it clear that it wanted the war to continue and escalate.
The US’s objective was, in the words of Raytheon boardmember–turned–Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, “to see Russia weakened.” Despite stated commitments to Ukrainian democracy, US policies have instead severely damaged it.”
OLIVER ANTHONY – 90 SOME CHEVY REACTION
Again, any postings of Oliver Anthony is not about his music. It is about the reactions to his music. It appears that for many Americans, they have a voice. Finally.
Todays reaction REALLY BROKE ME! Anthony’s “90 Some Chevy” really hit home for me!
Their phones are likely to work better with the network equipment than other phones on their network.
But for satellites, they don’t make satellites but they do make network base station equipment. So they might have better knowledge than building to a spec on paper.
You can see with Apple trying to build their own 5G modems and failing. Apple’s 5G modem won’t debut again until 2025. They need time and experts and a lot of testing to make sure that it is going to work in all situations instead of just in the lab. Which was what happened when their modems didn’t work right.
So I would guess yes. But any company can hire experts who have experience to make sure that their equipment works well.
Southern Karo Syrup Chicken
2023 09 16 15 14
Ingredients
1 broiler-fryer chicken
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup Karo corn syrup
1/2 cup orange juice
3 tablespoons lemon juice
Instructions
Cut up chicken.
In skillet over medium heat, cook chicken in butter about 30 minutes or until tender. Drain off fat.
Mix remaining ingredients and pour over chicken. Cook over medium heat, turning often, for 5 to 10 minutes or until glazed.
I didn’t ‘see’ a doctor do this… I was the doctor doing this to a father in a pediatrics emergency room.
Many staff reported this as terrifying, horrifying and other descriptions. I went to many meetings following my actions. If I had to do it over again, with my experience and age, I would have chosen different actions that day and we are outside the statute of limitations for assault and battery.
I’ve never written this one down, so here it goes:
I was the on-call anesthesia provider at the hospital, a children’s hospital. I was moonlighting and doing routine things when I was called to the emergency room to consult. (Moonlighting is when a doctor does his regular job or a lesser medical job, for an hourly wage but usually not at his normal hospital or setting.)
When I came out of the elevator they asked me if I was anesthesia?
I nodded and I was led quickly to a trauma room. There was no trauma but a bunch of people in hazmat suits! They dressed me quickly. I apparently had no choice in the matter. I then was led to another room where a small five-year-old boy was having visible stress and very labored breathing. They were assisting him with oxygen, a bag and mask but his color was just, off. Blue, maybe a little green grey. I had never seen this color for a human before, at least not one alive.
People were screaming at me through their suits. We could hardly hear one another. Unknown poison. Unknown toxin. They told me this patient’s brother is in the next room and fading fast, as well. They then ask me what drugs I want to give to intubate this child.
Holy oral board question from hell!!!! For those of you who are not inside the anesthesia world, the oral-board exams for an anesthesiologist are notoriously difficult. They boast a high failure rate for first-time takers because they are designed to scare the ever living crap out of you so you will be a perpetual student of anesthesiology for life. When you have three minutes to figure something out, you cannot hit the books or even ask “Watson.”
“I don’t want to give him anything!” I thought and said simultaneously.
I am a large male… so… I chose physically to intubate the child without any drugs. I managed not to break any teeth also… always a bonus in my job. I did reason they are baby teeth and if he lived he would be more grateful to be alive than to have all his baby teeth.
I then proceeded in rapid succession to the 7-year-old’s room. He was bigger, stronger and was spasming much worse than his brother, especially his jaw. They could not open it. I thought about man-handling the intubation. Broken teeth, I could break his jaw, but, no, so I ending up choosing and using an older drug to completely paralyze the child to attempt to undo the spastic jaw. This choice of drug was not as fast as some of the modern drugs in the anesthesia arsenal. It was among the most stressful four minutes of my clinical career!
“Please be right. Please be right. Please be right.” In my mind over and over again. I slid my hand to his wrist and felt for a pulse. It was there. Weak, fast, but there.
His color was off, too. Similar to his brother. Our oximeter was not picking up a signal. I was terrified in that moment I had chosen incorrectly and would kill the child. Utterly terrified. Tube in, first time, done. The boys were moved to the ICU.
Had to get out of the small room. Very hot. Hard to breathe myself. Am I poisoned? Did I get exposed?
I threw up.
I was soaked head to foot in sweat and ripped off the headdress.
Yes, you read that correctly. I threw up and THEN I got the stupid headdress part of my isolation bunny suit ripped off. Cold air felt great!
I heard screaming and commotion from the other room.
I’m now pumped with adrenaline. Really pumped. In retrospect, I should probably have not gone to investigate, but I did. An older anesthesiologist would have likely gone back to his on-call duties or hit the call room and slept. I was young.
Nope. Not me. What is happening?!?
I marched in. My bunny suit flapping. The headdress still attached to the back of my neck pulling uncomfortably on the front zipper at my neck. I reached up with my hand and pulled it down away from my throat.
Once in there, I see two police officers, a half a dozen nurses, a pediatric ER doc who was about 4′11″ in shoes and they are screaming at everyone to just stop it!
I am a large male… so… I bellowed, “What the fuck is going on?” Yes, I am a good doctor. Yes, I am human.
Everyone looked and the ER doc said looking at me in the eyes, “the father just drank the poison.”
WTF. WTF. WTF. WTF. WTF.
Toxicology? Still no hit on what the substance was from the poison center but they had said to someone it was likely not transmitted through touching or breathing.
Good to know. It’s ‘not likely’ I’ve exposed myself to God knows what.
I knew one of the nurses standing there, she was holding a nasogastric (NG) tube and the nurse next to her had a charcoal drink and a funnel.
The NG tube goes from the nose to the stomach and allows the ‘forceful’ introduction of liquids such as charcoal to neutralize things, the poison in this case.
The man, for all his abject fright and stupidity, blurted out at me, “None of them know what it is so I drank it to find out, use me to find out, use me!” He pleaded, tears streaming down his face. He was just being a parent. He was just being human. That’s when I saw the small fasciculations in his facial muscles. Fasciculations are involuntary small portions of muscle that ‘fire’ on their own without neural impulses. Have you ever had just one part of your muscle move, twitch and do it over and over again without you consciously controlling the movements? That is fasciculations and both boys had them all over their tiny bodies when I first saw them.
“Nurse.” I said in my ‘Superman’ voice. When I was an intern, some of the staff, younger females mostly, nursing mostly, referred to me as Superman because I always got everywhere so fast in the hospitals and, oh yeah, I am a large male with dark kind of curly longer hair at the time. I used to get that one thick curl on the forehead naturally.
She did not speak but began moving toward the father of the boys. The other nurse followed lock step behind her.
“Fuck no! You’re not sticking that thing in me!” The man backed away reflexively animal like in speed and suddenness. He ran into the wall behind him. His back to the wall, literally.
Not. My. Finest. Medical. Moment.
I used a somewhat unorthodox medical maneuver. I hit, or struck, or punched with the my full force in the father’s face. I caught him with the hand I punched him with and pinned him up against the wall. He semi-slumped, in shock, I believe more than for the blow. Not too certain though.
“Tube.” I reached out with my left hand but did not take my gaze off the man.
I looked at his nose and the one side began bleeding. Well, there are two cops standing behind me. I sighed loudly, I may even snorted a bit. They can write my statement for me at this point. Definitely, battery, maybe assault and battery, and with many witnesses, great. I wonder what jail is really like?
Blood is a lubricant. The NG tube slid down that bloody side quickly and completely. The man bucked hard at me. I let go of the tube and ‘pushed’ well, perhaps thrust with nearly full force upon his chest with both open hands and very physically slammed him the two inches back onto the wall.
The nurse(s) got the tube and out of my peripheral vision I saw a funnel and charcoal pouring down the tube very quickly.
The man made noises. I interpreted that as him having an Airway, he was obviously Breathing and clearly he was Circulating blood as he was semi-conscious. ABC’s checked off. He’ll live long enough to sue me probably.
As the man made a fast grab for the NG tube, I was slammed into and from behind and on either side forcefully.
The two cops grabbed either arm and held them back, pinned tightly on the wall.
I love cops. Even when they pull me over and give me a speeding ticket. Even then.
I let go and slowly slid back a bit. Maybe I was two feet from the man’s face.
… and he threw up charcoal all over me. Along with the ‘poison’ so…
I froze. Kept my eyes shut and my mouth shut. I was led a bit away and then someone poured water over my head several times. I cleaned off with a towel. Several towels, actually.
The man was a farmer. He had left fertilizer of some sort, or perhaps it was a pesticide/fertilizer combo in a mixing jug, an old white plastic milk jug. Some years later, he poured diesel fuel into this same white jug. Years after that, the boys found the jug in the barn and it had brilliant blue crystals in it and some opaque grey liquid. Stunning, they looked like hard candy. The boys shook the crystals out and put them in their mouths.
The reason I told you this story was that it was horrifying to watch. That word was used in reports describing my actions. ‘Terrible. Terror. Unprofessional. Shocking. Disturbing. Ugly. Dysfunctional. Chaotic.” All used in reports to describe the event.
One of the nurses who knew me told me her heart just ‘throbbed’ at the whole surreal situation. Your wording in your question triggered the whole event for me.
Doctors are people, they are human, they make mistakes. It was a mistake striking that man. I know that, now. I was afraid in the moment. My fear and anxiety got the best of me and the human animal part of me reacted, poorly.
Some of you may say what I did is fine. Others will condemn any physical attack or action, especially from a doctor to a civilian in an ER setting.
Everyone lived. They did finally identify the culprit. It was a semi-paralytic chemical. Onset of symptoms in minutes. Spasticity, followed by slow paralysis and then asphyxiation from breathing ceasing with one to two hours in an adult.
What do you think?
~Chris
Dr. Christopher Yerington
Columbus, Ohio
Bio: Retired from clinical anesthesiology by a disability in 2010, Dr. Yerington has turned his love of teaching and service to others to his family, medical colleagues and community. He speaks and educates medical groups and residency programs about the importance of great disability insurance and having an income protection plan. Having attended law and business schools, Chris is a perpetual student, currently working on his financial certifications.
Russia Uncovers US Plot to Eliminate Niger Coup Leaders
“You may not know what must be done but many people like me do. It’s time to start down the road towards ending all of the theft of Africa’s god given wealth. Nationalize all of Africa’s resources and perform all value adding operations in Africa, unless it truly messes up the environment to do so. Doing this will uplift the lives of the people and in the end make Africa the best place to live on earth.”
Not me, my mother. She is Cuban and when she was on her first year of teaching, she was teaching first grade and had a kid that was held back. The teachers called him a bad kid. He found it hard to sit down and pay attention, so he still could not read. My mother made him her “helper” and whenever there was free time she would sit alone with him to go over lessons. He passed first grade and actually did great!
Later on, after the Castro regime took control, my mother left Cuba. She met my father, had children, and moved on with her life.
Years later we were traveling in Florida and a man and his wife came up to her. It was the student! He said he recognized her right away because he never forgot her. He introduced her to his wife as the teacher that did not give up on him.
She is my inspiration!
Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond | Singer Reacts & Musician Analysis
UK girl reacts. Very interesting.
All over the West, the “people” are seeing just how bad and corrupt the American-style of “democracy” actually is. This is the moment in time when quiet people, in secret back rooms, start planning on how to hang people, and burn down their edifices of power.
At a family gathering. It was a birthday party for one of my SIL’s kids. It was a nice day and we were all outside while the kids played with all of their friends and cousins, having a great time while we adults caught up and enjoyed the music and weather.
Then we all hear the terrified scream of a small child. One of the kids ran up and said “Sean is hurt!” We all ran over and there he was with blood pouring from a gash on his head. He had stumbled while running and went head first into the fence and an exposed nail.
Every single adult starts freaking out, running around and NOT HELPING this 4-year-old child who was screaming in fear and pain. WTF did they do when their own kids got hurt??!!
Husband and I were surrounded by not only idiots but dithering, panicking, hand-flapping, weak stomached idiots.
Husband and I picked him up and took him in to the bathroom and we were able to calm him down while we cleaned the approximately 1+″ wound and looked for non-existent bandages (really? in a house with four kids?!) and told him how brave he was and that he was going to get stitches but that it would only hurt a little bit, etc. and that sweet little boy just nodded and said “I’m brave.” We just wanted to adopt him on the spot.
When we brought him out he would not let go of me so husband and I just held him and some paper towels to his wound until his grandmother picked him up to take him to urgent care. Then MIL and BILs start freaking out about all the blood on our clothes (yes, head wounds bleed like stuck pigs) and their biggest concern was that it wouldn’t come out in the wash. IDIOTS!
The next time we saw Sean he showed us his scar and said “I was brave!” Yes he was and much more so than about 12 grown ass adults.
Oh SH*T, America Moves To Counter China!
The US has no (real) money and no railways to speak of…and yet they want to build and finance a new multicountry rail network 10,000 km away from home.
How is the USA going to cough up the money?
Five Russian “Doomsday Planes” in the air 0300 Russia time- Shut Off Transponders mid-flight
Five Russian “Doomsday” aircraft are in the air over Russia or have landed after shutting off transponders near the Ural Mountains, including Aircraft PA-96024, ID RSD309, which is the Presidential plane.
While no one can be sure who – if anyone – is actually on these government evacuation aircraft which took off out of Moscow, and having shut their transponders off, we cannot know the exact landing site, it is very disconcerting to see this type of military aircraft activity inside Russia at this ungodly hour.
In particular, the Presidential aircraft shut its transponder off after crossing over the Ural Mountains.
Did they then make a U-turn to land at Mount Yamantau?
MOUNT YAMANTAU
Mount Yamantau, along with Kosvinsky Mountain (600 km to the north), are claimed by the United States of being home to a large secret nuclear facility or bunker, or both. Large excavation projects have been observed by U.S. satellite imagery after the fall of the Soviet Union, as recently as the late 1990s during the government of Boris Yeltsin.
During the Soviet era two military garrisons, Beloretsk-15 and Beloretsk-16, and possibly a third, Alkino-2, were built on the site. These garrisons were unified into the closed town of Mezhgorye (Russian: Межгорье) in 1995, and the garrisons are said to house 30,000 workers each, served by large rail lines.
Repeated U.S. questions have yielded several different responses from the Russian government regarding Yamantau, including it is a mining site, a repository for Russian treasures, a food storage area, and a bunker for leaders in case of nuclear war.
Responding to questions regarding Yamantau in 1996, Russia’s Defense Ministry stated: “The practice does not exist in the Defense Ministry of Russia of informing foreign mass media about facilities, whatever they are, that are under construction in the interests of strengthening the security of Russia.”
In 1997, a United States Congressional finding, related to the country’s National Defense Authorization Act for 1998, stated that the Russian Federation kept up a “deception and denial policy” about the mountain complex after U.S. officials had given Cheyenne Mountain Complex tours to Russian diplomats, which the finding stated “… does not appear to be consistent with the lowering of strategic threats, openness, and cooperation that is the basis of the post-Cold War strategic partnership between the United States and Russia.”
So why are these Russian military Government evacuation aircraft in the air over Russia at this strange hour? Why have they shut off their transponders mid-flight?
MEDVEDEV MAKES OMINOUS REMARKS “Nuclear 9/11”
On Sunday, Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Federation Council (Senate), made a post to his official Telegram account, calling it “a few words on the eve of [9/11].” In it, he derided the U.S. for what he called its “arrogance and disgusting narcissism” among Western nations and its “universal arrogance on any issue.” Near the end of the post, he also made the ominous prediction that the U.S. would suffer “another 11/09/2001-style attack, but with a nuclear or biological component,” without suggesting outright that Russia would be the nation to launch the attack.
This “mindset” is a direct result of of the “organ of misinformation” funded intentionally to “drum up” anti-China sentiment. This effort is funded in the many billions of US dollars. And it is working.
So…
The question is (better worded) …
“With the American people ripe with rage against China and ready for war… how is China going to respond?”
Oh…
You haven’t noticed?
The value of the USD is approaching that of toilet paper.
The American economy is in tatters, and it is only going to get worse; much worse.
Geo-politically, the “friends” of the United States are slithering away and making arrangments in favor of China.
The American people; uneducated with lofty degrees, a work ethic that resembles a lazy hound-dog on a hot August day, legalized looting at every level, and a media of crazy disinformation are about to ignite a civil war.
Organized crime, mental illnesses, collapsing infrastructure, and crazy levels of inflation, all aggravated with massive drug abuse…
And you (the questioner) somehow thinks that China is worried about the United States and what the American people think?
It’s not even on “the radar screen”.
…
The United States is in CHECK MATE.
Everything that it does; any action it takes, any movement in any direction is a lose move for the nation.
In the slight chance that the United States actually makes a military move against a united China-Russia-North Korean-Iran-BRICS+ axis, the result would be very bad.
Bad as in nuclear bad.
…
Do not go there.
Accept your life and do the best you can for you and yours. Do not worry about things that you have no control over.
I am optimistic about the future.
I really am, but there are many in the West that will have to adjust to a much lower standard of living than they have become accustomed to.
Merkules – ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix (Veteran Reaction)
Here I am doing a reaction to Merkules – ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix. Thank you for taking the time to watch this and for helping me on my journey to 50k subscribers.
Again.
Small Americans are getting a voice. This is the point in time when pitchforks and torches start to get lit.
In fact Francis Ford Coppola deleted a key scene in the movie Apocalypse Now which explains in two minutes what the New York Times couldn’t explain in millions of words in their twelve years of biased reporting.
The United States Office of Strategic Services- the OSS, the precursor to the CIA- invented the Viet Minh to fight the Japanese in wwii. The Viet Minh moved south after the first Indochina war against the French and became known as the Viet Cong. The fact was the U.S. was aware of Ho Chi Minh since he tried to get a meeting with Woodrow Wilson while he was president to elicit U.S. help in his opposition to French colonialism. When war broke out U.S. intelligence agents picked Ho to organize armed resistance against the Japanese and their Vichy French allies in Indochina.
After the Japanese left Indochina in 1945 the British and the French decided that they wanted their respective empires back and instead of holding elections the next year to settle the political situation in Indochina the French battled Ho and General Vo Nguyen Giap for eight years until their ignominious defeat in May, 1954 at a remote valley named Dien Bien Phu.
The United States, which had been bankrolling the French in their losing war at a cost of a million dollars a day continued the war against what was now communist North Vietnam. The United States began it’s war slowly by first setting up military advisory groups in Saigon. Commando missions were initiated from ships at sea to destroy coastal military objectives in the north and naval batteries were used to shell targets up to ten miles inland from the coast. In 1964 the U.S. started launching sorties from aircraft carriers in the Tonkin Gulf to destroy power plants and other targets of high value in the north. The U.S. landed a marine expeditionary brigade (MEB) on the coast of South Vietnam in March of 1965 to provide additional security around the U.S. air base at Da Nang. The marine landing was followed in the next two years by the largest military build up in history with an occupation force eventually totaling over half a million U.S. army troops.
Coppola had to delete the scene at the French plantation because in 1979, four years after the war ended, the truth about the war in Vietnam and how the United States created the conflict and had at various times assisted, armed and bankrolled each side would have been just too much for the American public. Ironically characters in the movie telling the truth about the war in Vietnam would have removed any perceived veracity from Coppola’s film. It was far easier getting the American public to swallow lies about an imaginary ‘Gulf of Tonkin Incident’ or a fictional ‘Domino Theory’ or even that Vietnam was a ‘winnable’ war then it was to get the public to believe actual facts about a long running conflict.
I was going through treatment for cancer back in 2005, and in addition to a surgery I was receiving radiation treatments. There are restrictions on people who receive internal radiation treatments (in my case, it was a large dose of radioactive Iodine 131) and then being sent home after taking the dosage. In the past, I had been kept in the hospital for the treatment in a special hospital room that was lined with lead panels, and the toilet sewer system was sent to a specific tank, where it was kept before being sent to the public sewage system.
At any rate, after taking the treatment I was told to spend three days in isolation, and a few extra days staying away from small children and pregnant women. (It was a a different time, and perspectives on cancer treatments and radiation.)
Anyway, I came home and met my pregnant neighbor near the front door to the building. I stepped away from her and told her I was going through radiation treatment and that I didn’t want to harm her or her baby. She smiled, went in, and a few minutes later I went to my apartment.
About 2 hours later, I heard a knock at my door. It was around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and I went to the door and asked who is it, but got no answer. I opened the door, and on a tray was a meal of beef tips and noodles, some home baked bread, a single flower in a vase, and a note. The note was from my pregnant neighbor, and she had written something like my mom had cancer and I wanted you to know that I am available to talk if you need anything.
Nicest response I got from anyone who ever found out that I was a cancer patient.
China STRIKES BACK at Neocons as Biden ‘Disappointed’ Xi Skips G20 w/ Carlos Martinez & Ken Hammond
This conversation is so good, unbiased and informative.
Southern Shrimp and Grits
Southern Shrimp and Grits is a cheesy delight, and the bacon and green onions add a ton of flavor!
2023 09 16 15 12
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2 slices bacon, chopped
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup instant grits
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled, deveined
4 green onions, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
Cook bacon in large skillet over medium-heat heat until crisp.
Drain on paper towels; set aside.
Bring water and salt to boil in medium saucepan.
Slowly stir in grits. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover. Cook for 7 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheese; set aside.
Add shrimp, onions and garlic to skillet; cook and stir 3 minutes or until shrimp turn pink.
When I lived in American Samoa (Pago Pago), there were many unique aspects of it that I have long since forgotten. But today, well something jogged my mind. And you know what came up? Yes.
Turkey-ass sandwiches.
Yupper. Very popular in Samoa. They (for some reason that I do not understand) inherit a large amount of turkey-ass meat. And the locals take this cheap meat, and cook it and make sandwiches out of it.
Two slices of bread; mayonnaise, and turkey ass meat.
It’s not exactly my “cup of tea”, but I had a few sandwiches (back in the day). It fills your stomach. But not as good as you would hope for them to be. I’ll tell you what.
Long post today. Many videos. More than average number of Oliver Anthony reaction videos. Kinda like a mother-load. But overall thoughts on the absolute devastation of Western culture and Western society today.
Krugman initially made such a report based on the Western Model and predicted Chinas collapse in 2005
Krugman wrote a paper where he established that the Banking Crisis of the 1990s would surface by 2005 and displace China
It didn’t happen
Because as I keep saying Repeatedly – the Chinese work and think differently and their economy works as per their own system
Now Americans and the Western systems HATE Saving money. Money is meant to be spent. Money has to keep being spent and drive consumption.
If you don’t have the money – BORROW or avail what is another major driver – CREDIT
image 33
The Chinese on the other land love saving money. They love having money in the bank. They prefer to spend only money from their current earnings or from any PROFIT or INTEREST they earn on those savings
Likewise Americans invest very heavily in paper or non asset backed instruments
It’s very easy to go to New York tomorrow and raise $ 50 Million capital from a small hedge fund who will simply call someone else who will invest the money from an Insurance or Pension Fund
In the 1980s – the Americans loved the free market
Today they are confident of a Federal Bailout ever since the 2009 Crisis
Chinese don’t trust paper instruments
They trust ASSETS
They like Land, Gold, Resources, Buildings, Windmills
In 2002 – The Government of China converted 160 Billion Yuan of Bad Debt ($ 18.3 Billion) by Banks into Units of Land Holdings owned by the Banks
image 32
They offered these units as sale
The Debt was paid off in 8 Days!!!!
A Debt that was 10 years old, paid off in just 8 days
So unless an Economist knows China, Chinese Culture and the Chinese system including the fact that the State owns all the land and resources – they cannot understand China
image 31
They always judge China by the Western Standard and when China thrives and doesn’t collapse like they predicted
They don’t apologize and realize their mistakes
They double down and keep assuming China must have done SOMETHING SHADY
It’s fodder for the MSM Propaganda against China
These Experts, they apply the Western System everywhere
BASEL was fine in Switzerland and developing companiss
However applying it in India destroyed almost our entire enterprise and banking so far
So Krugman, he simply tries applying the Western system to China
He tried this in 2005 and failed badly
Now he is doubling down
Unless he truly understands the Chinese people and the Chinese system – his predictions aren’t worth a damn
Nobel Prize or No Nobel Prize
I Finally Heard the Viral Country Song EVERYONE is Talking About.
Yep you are right – NATO+G7 hold around 65% of the World’s Gold Reserves
They also hold $ 81.79 Trillion in External Debt combined
If you have a Gold Backed currency, it means the NATO and G7, they can’t keep printing notes anymore
Tomorrow every note they print can legally be redeemed against a few micrograms of gold
Their Printing fun is OVER
Now BRICS
BRICS have 20% of the World’s Gold Reserves
Their Cumulative External Debt is only $ 5.105 Trillion
So now YOU DO THE MATH
NATO +G7+ Japan have 3.25 times more gold
They have a whopping 16 times more external Debt
That’s the Big problem here
Low Country Chicken Bog
2023 09 13 15 18
Ingredients
1 (3 pound) whole chicken
6 cups water
1 tablespoon salt
1 onion, chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup long-grain white rice
1/2 pound smoked sausage of your choice, sliced
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
2 cubes chicken bouillon
Instructions
Place chicken, water, salt and onion in a large pot. Bring to a boil; cook until chicken is tender, about 1 hour.
Remove chicken from pot and let cool. Remove skin and bones and chop remaining meat into bite-size pieces.
Skim off fat from cooking liquid and measure 3 1/2 cups of this chicken broth into a 6 quart saucepan.
Add rice, chicken pieces, sausage, herb seasoning and bouillon to the saucepan. Cover the saucepan. Let come to a boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 30 minutes. If mixture is too watery or juicy, cook over medium low heat, uncovered, until it reaches the desired consistency. Stir often while cooking.
TELL IT LIKE IT IS!!! | Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North of Richmond
All the focus is on the CHIP, the Chip and it’s stacking and it’s revolutionary inhouse design
In reality the real breakthrough by Huawei isn’t the damn Chip.
It’s the FILTER
The Bulk Accoustic wave Filter, the small component that in laymans terms enables those different latent speeds on your smartphone and gives you 5G connectivity
The Chip is great news
Yet that’s nothing amazing or new. Yes China can make 5nm Chips with Foreign DUV equipment
That’s why US sanctioned the equipment which is probably why China now uses stacking to get the same processing power but with higher power consumption
The BAW filter is the BIG BREAKTHROUGH and China is diverting all the attention from this to the CHIP hoping that idiots like Raimondo or Blinken go after the Chips
In reality the BAW Filter made entirely of Chinese Design is the killer here
I bet the Chinese commercially make it at 60% cost
Now China can make it’s entire 5G network spectrum without any dependence on the West
Zero Dependence
They control the raw materials, the equipment, the design and the process entirely in house
Companies that design and make the BAWs are entirely anyway on the US Blacklist so they won’t be affected in the least
Plus now that Huawei has designed a BAW for 5G Latents, it’s only one step for higher latents (6G)
It’s why China and Huawei are diverting everyone’s attention towards the CHIPS again and again
The West will say “They were made using ASML and we have restricted the exports of ASML so this will end”
Nobody will look at the 5G BAW filter designed and made by China from scratch and scaled efficiently
Helping China scale it’s way to 6G without any dependence on the West and KEEPING THEIR LEAD
That’s the big breakthrough Huawei has achieved which they are masking from the world to remain undisturbed for another 2–3 years while the Idiots focus on the Chip again and again
Originally Answered: What does it feel like to go from being wealthy to being poor?
It’s absolutely horrible. I was 50, had recently sold my very successful car washes, had a $1MM in my checking account, the big house, kids in private school and life was grand. I was focused on growing my other business (car wash equipment sales) when the manufacturer we represented lost a client that accounted 1/3 of our business, Hurricane Katrina hit (followed by several other hurricanes), and then the great recession. I had stopped taking a salary and started loaning the company money. I was determined to work through this. I even spent my retirement in a last attempt to turn things around. Fast forward, the company was broke, I was broke, and I couldn’t pay the house mortgage. I had to give up the house and shut down the business. A personal bankruptcy soon followed, and then a separation from my wife of 30 years. The stress was unbearable, and I contemplated suicide. The only thing that stopped me was that my dad had taken his life when I was 26, and I knew first hand the pain that my loved ones would bear for my actions.
The worst part is the loss of self confidence and depression, followed by the loss of “friends”. It’s amazing how quickly they disappear! I will say that two friends stuck by me. One in particular would check on me and take me out to ride his motorcycles to help take my mind off of things. I moved into a friend’s rental property and I started looking for work. I had owned my own companies since college, was a past Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, and had never really worked for anyone. At the worst, I was working at a construction company repairing equipment in their yard, collecting food stamps and living alone.
Fast forward a couple of years. My wife and I got back together, we moved to Texas, and I took a job back in my industry (building car washes). We now rent a nice home, and were recently able to buy a nice used car. It gets better every day. I love my job, and I hope to get back into car wash ownership (with investors), while continuing to do what I do.
In summary, there are a couple of important lessons to take from this:
Good times don’t last; bad times don’t last.
Most of the people who claim to be your friend are only there for the good times.
Business associates that you’ve spent millions of dollars with over decades will instantly turn their back on you when the money stops.
Don’t ever stop taking care of yourself. Exercise is great for relieving the stress.
Face facts. Recognize when you have a losing hand and walk away. And if bankruptcy is inevitable, just do it. Don’t procrastinate and stick your head in the sand.
Do not EVER use your retirement money. I used mine to try and save the company, and I am now 60 years old and starting over.
Never stop believing in yourself.
The Left RAGES Over Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North Of Richmond” | Tomi Lahren Is Fearless
China’s core competence is manufacturing and logistic. It has IP independence in numerous areas, and the industrial chain can collaborate to bring complex, world-class projects online in record time.
As I’ve said repeatedly over the years, China class is world class, because the Chinese competition has to beat the world’s best in order to be counted as domestic champions. There are few absentees in the world’s largest single market. Chinese corporations do not compete in sandboxed silos, unlike elsewhere.
The best thing is, the Chinese are among the best informed people when it comes to business intelligence, because of the completeness of the supply chain.
Case in point: Kuo Ming-Chi has been one of the best-informed and accurate Apple “analyst” over the past decade, because he taps the Greater China-centered supply chain directly.
That is also why only Apple is left in the brutal handset business in China, with the Koreans, Japanese, Taiwanese and Europeans all relegated to “others” or complete irrelevance on the mainland. Transsion, a company few have heard of, outsells Samsung in Africa, a market that Chinese handset vendors dominate. The competition that China offers is multidimensional and immense.
We will see entire industries being remade on a global scale as China moves up the tech ladder and redefine the 21st century factory. Today, a journalist who wants to showcase industrial innovation will find the best material in China, and not Germany, Japan and the US. Instead of going wild over AI’s use as a human-like chatbot, China is deploying AI, ML and big data on an industrial scale to run intelligent factories, automating the often tumultuous marriage between lean manufacturing and quality improvement.
What impressed me about the Mate 60 Pro’s soft launch was the order fulfillment. The announcement went live on the webstore around 12pm, and orders were processed for an hour before selling out. Customers received their purchases several hours later. That’s world class, cutting edge logistics, and it is already what the Chinese consumer expect as norm.
China is writing the 21st century future.
Can you imagine a world where Southeaast Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Russia (yes, Russia!) enjoying the same as the Chinese recreate the mainland experience overseas?
The global south leapfrogging the first world, in delivered outcomes.
Makes for interesting times, don’t you think?
My First Reaction to Oliver Anthony | I want to go home | REACTION
Jim Haywood wrote the best answer to these stupid questions I have come across on Quora:
OK, I’ll bite…
In the UK, I’ve never heard it called “free” by anyone except Americans looking for a straw man argument. In the UK we normally just call it “the hospital”, “the doctor”, “the clinic”, “the ambulance”. The exception is “the dentist”, which has a standard charge if you’re registered with the NHS. AND…
BEFORE YOU START YOUR NEXT STRAWMAN PROJECT… the state of people’s teeth is better in the UK than the US.
A personal experience.
Last year, I spent three weeks in hospital for major surgery. I wasn’t well enough for the operation at first and I was pumped full of antibiotics, vitamins and three fuck-off-size bags of amino acids and other nutrients (its called TPN). My biggest fear was the drip stand falling and crushing me, (like suffocating under a cow’s udder!). I took a photo.
The extra nipple is for visitors.
I’m joking, of course; there were no visitors during the covid lockdown.
I had the operation, and some days recovering, at the end of which (the evening before I was due to be discharged), I tested positive for covid (you remember that funny little bug), so had to stay longer.
I had about £2.60 in my pocket. I went home with £2.00 because, one day, I went for a walk in my hospital slippers and bought a Twix at a vending machine.
(The food, btw, was good, and already paid-for, of course, since you asked. Not Michelin starred, but wholesome, tasty, familiar, comfort-food. It was the same as served in the canteen for visitors and staff and cooked on the premises.)
When finally home, I was looked after by “district” nurses visiting me at home to change dressings, and specialist related to the particular procedure I had. This was daily at first, tapering off as I needed less support.
At home, then, I got a pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung, probably as a consequence of covid combined with the op.), I was reticent to go back to hospital (as you might expect), so the GP came out to me, at about 9pm, just to check me over and make sure I went to hospital (a PE can be life-theatening). I was admitted back into hospital via A&E (Emergency Room) for a day of monitoring.
More drugs. Slow recovery over the last year, with regular checkups and blood tests.
Money?
Now, I’m not a rich man, and I have a mortgage, and bills to pay like everyone else.
Not once did I worry about medical bills. Not once. Because there weren’t any. No forms to fill in, other than a simple consent for the operation, no “co-pays” (as I’ve learned you call them), no payments for diagnostic imaging – x-rays, ultrasound scans, and no insurance man checking whether I could have the treatment or the meds (WTF??).
Being that sick is a shitty experience whatever country you live in. But, by God, I was very grateful for the Nation Health Service.
No, it’s not free. We all pay for it based on our ability to pay. If you’re rich, you pay more; if you’re poor you pay less. It’s funded directly from general taxation and comes out of my monthly salary before I see my pay in the bank. (BTW, the tax system is massively more efficient than in the US, too. I haven’t had to complete an annual tax return for 20 years, for example.)
I post my experience, here, not because it was exceptional – it wasn’t – but because it was ORDINARY and EXPECTED.
Oh yeah, “socialised” medicine:
So when I need medical treatment, it’s already paid for, fairly (we’re not bloody savages), by every tax payer in the country.
Just to head off a few other straw men:
If you haven’t paid your taxes, you still get medical treatment, because the doctors don’t care about your tax: it’s none of their business. And we’re not bloody savages.
If you’re terminally ill, you still get treatment. We’re not bloody savages.
There are no such thing as “death panels”, an invention of liars in the US media. We’re not bloody savages.
And the only time you see a shop till is in the cafe in the reception foyer (and that’s staffed by volunteers) or the staff canteen.
What it really costs you, Americans.
Not only do you, in the US, pay more (about double) for a similar quality of service, some of you pay with your lives.
Being scared of medical bills, people put up with pain, put off worries, and sometimes die, unable to afford the most basic medication. Insulin, for example. You don’t pay for insulin in the UK.
How else do you pay? Drug addiction, as “doctors”, cajoled and incentivised by big pharma, look for a quick, affordable (to the patient) fix, and end up hooking the patients onto addictive drugs.
On average, your life expectancy is two years shorter than in the UK. Now, some people might say “ Well, those are two years of pain and decrepitude at the end of my life, so no great loss!” No. They are two years of healthy life that you haven’t had. And all that’s left to you then is some horrible religious drug-addled fatalism as you watch your life and your savings bleed away to be sucked up by big pharma and the bloated, useless “insurance” companies. This is a one-way flow, notice. Once that money is gone from your family it’s gone for good.
Free-rider “problem”? There’s plenty of free riders – you’re already paying for the health plans of all those insurance salesmen, actuaries, marketeers, administrators…
End of rant. Now the really sad part:
You know, I’m sure you’ve noticed a certain sneering from some respondents on Quora towards the USA. Not Americans, I hasten to add: we tend to like Americans. You might put all that negativity down to “hate” (which seems to mean something different to Yanks, but never mind). I tell you though, it’s not hate, it’s not envy, it’s not spite or helpless rage or snobbishness. It’s something much more damning:
Disappointment.
A footnote about prescription charges.
In the UK, there are prescription charges. But you don’t pay if you’re a child or pregnant or over 60 or suffering from one of a number of long-term conditions or on state benefits, or receiving disability allowance, or unemployed, or living in Wales or Scotland (which have slightly different arrangements).
If you do pay, it’s a standard change of £9:30 per prescription, but you can buy a “prepayment certificate” for £112 per year, if that’s better value.
When I collect a prescription, I’m asked “Do you pay for your prescriptions?” I used to answer “Yes”, and pay, or “No, I have a ‘cert’. Now, they rarely even ask, because I look my age, 60. Not once, have I been asked to prove my age or show a certificate. Why? Because its too much bother – if I needed to cheat, I wouldn’t have to because I would get it free anyway (in most cases)!
BTW, if medicines are dispensed in hospital, there is never a prescription charge.
Anything else?
Yes. One more thing that screws American patients: your litigious culture: if something goes wrong you can be awarded punitive damages. Suing a hospital is cheap and the rewards can be very high. This incentivises ultra-precautionary medicine so you go to a doctor (on your sooper-dooper insurance policy) with a simple strep throat. The Doc writes you up for a mountain of almost certainly completely unnecessary tests to de-risk himself (not for your benefit). He has an army of lawyers on stand-by in his own indemnity insurance, which has to be paid for. So his charge are higher, so insurance premiums are higher, and ultimately, the individual pays. The costs are so high, everyone is looking for an opportunity to screw someone else.
In the UK, the system, even today, works more on trust: patients trust the doctors to advise them and diagnose them correctly, and trust that there are check and balances in place that will identify bad doctors and disqualify them. Suing a doctor is still possible, but damages are only to reimburse the failed patient, not to punish the failing medic.
You’re are all paying to keep the ambulance chasers chasing ambulances.
Finally, let’s go back to your question:
Why do some call universal healthcare free when it isn’t since people pay for it through their taxes?
No, matey. It’s not free despite being paid for through our taxes, it’s free because it’s paid for though our taxes:-
Free at the point of use.
Free from the threat of bankruptcy.
Free from co-pays and desperate attemps to claw back money through lawyers (and their fees).
Free from the fear of lawsuits.
Free from drug companies’ profiteering from your illness.
Free from t.v. adverts for life-saving drugs (ask your doctor for what???).
Free to leave your crappy, toxic, wage-slavery dead-end job, yet still receive treatment for your “pre-existing” condition (as opposed to non-existing conditions, presumably).
Free not to have to choose between your home and living out of pain.
Free to hold your newborn baby in hospital (you’ve GOT to be joking!).
Free from Go Fund Me campaigns for your kids’ cancer treatment.
Free from the selfish, vindictive, judgemental, spiteful attitude that Human Being X doesn’t deserve to live because they didn’t buy enough insurance.
Put all that together, folks: what a weird and twisted SICK system you have (accidentally, perhaps) invented! Some of you think it’s normal, even to the point of QUESTIONING another, better system. If you’re happy with it, you’re just as weird and twisted. But probably not sick. Yet.
U.S Lose $1.7 Trillion USD in Trade, After Tariff On China
Welcome back to Innovative Check! Dive deep into the intricacies of the U.S.-China trade dynamics and uncover how tariffs are impacting American manufacturers. As companies like MISCO feel the strain, what does the future hold for U.S. domestic production?
To little to late, the horse has bolted, China have the ability to make their own now, there is no going back. The USA have lost their little chip war, NEVER start a fight you can’t finish, you’ll end up with a bloody nose. The US never seem to learn, block them from the ISS, no problems, China just make their own, block the chip supply? No problems China just make their own, try and block technology? Won’t work, China will end up with better than yours, when are they going to wake up, that it’s better to work with them than against them? If they start a war with China, they might end up with a lot more than just a bloody nose,
I am planning to study Mandarin Chinese, yet I am overwhelmed by what to do, and what online resources there are available, can you please assist?
If you are serious, move to China and immerse yourself in the environment which will force you to learn Putonghua. If you are not serious about learning Putonghua, don’t bother, because the time investment is worth it.
My second son was a toddler and we were on the way to meet friends at a soft play centre. i always stopped off on the way at a local garage and got a large coffee. There was a short zebra crossing from the parking area to the shop and a young girl in a convertible parked across it. Son was walking holding my hand and I said
“Did you have to block the crossing”
“Too bad you fat cow” she flounced off into the shop.
Coffee in cup holder I watched her pull away between a lorry and the bollards at the shop front … and scrape the side of her pale blue car along the side of the lorry. I almost wet myself laughing so hard and loud enough that she heard me. The driver of the lorry who had watched this with amusement looked across at me and said
“No Chinese can say it?” where have you been? Definitely not China.
I worked with uni students in Guangzhou who major in several European languages including English. They translate English to Mandarin articles for me in a few hours, and here we are, speaking English and Mandarin in a Zhongshan cafe.
My China nephew about to graduate from engineering course from Guizhou university listens to old Beatles songs, he likes the group, and we talked in Chinese and English.
Huawei naming of their latest phone is for the international market. In Kuala Lumpur Huawei has a skyscraper HQ and their mobile phones are popular among Malaysians.
The world does not exist only for English speaking people.
In tiny Malaysia, a former British colony, you’d be surprised how many people eat, live, and breathe Mandarin only, they don’t need the English language.
Kasandras Beware – China’s Economy Will Not Hit A Wall
The economist and columnist of the New York Times Paul Krugman wrote about China hitting the wall:
China is in big trouble. We’re not talking about some minor setback along the way, but something more fundamental. The country’s whole way of doing business, the economic system that has driven three decades of incredible growth, has reached its limits. You could say that the Chinese model is about to hit its Great Wall, and the only question now is just how bad the crash will be. … Wages are rising; finally, ordinary Chinese are starting to share in the fruits of growth. But it also means that the Chinese economy is suddenly faced with the need for drastic “rebalancing” — the jargon phrase of the moment. Investment is now running into sharply diminishing returns and is going to drop drastically no matter what the government does; consumer spending must rise dramatically to take its place. The question is whether this can happen fast enough to avoid a nasty slump.
That was written in 2013 when China’s GDP at purchase power parity reached $16.3 trillion. The number has since more than doubled to a projected $33 trillion in 2023. (In the same time span U.S. GDP(ppp) grew from $17 to $26 trillion.) But that hasn’t influenced Krugman’s conclusions. Two week ago he wrote another column that paints the same gloomy picture and prescribes the same false medicine:
Since the late 2000s, however, China seems to have lost a lot of its dynamism. … … China clearly can’t sustain anything like the high growth rates of the past. … At a fundamental level, China is suffering from the paradox of thrift, which says that an economy can suffer if consumers try to save too much. If businesses aren’t willing to borrow and then invest all the money consumers are trying to save, the result is an economic downturn. Such a downturn may well reduce the amount businesses are willing to invest, so an attempt to save more can actually reduce investment. … The obvious answer is to boost consumer spending. Get state-owned enterprises to share more of their profits with workers. Strengthen the safety net. And in the short run, the government could just give people money — sending out checks, the way America has done.
How is giving checks (btw: no Chinese or European citizen uses those antique instruments) to people who are saving instead of consuming supposed to increase their consumption? I would presume that it would rather increase their savings. Giving more income to people who like to save to increase consumption is like pushing on a string.
David Fishman, an economist who lives in China and speaks Mandarin, had an interesting chat with a taxi driver. He concludes:
1. Even after buying a property, long-term considerations still drive Yang to save money, most prominently his daughter and parents. 2. Yang and his wife give up consumption in pursuit of their long-term goals, even working an extra job, to put away extra cash for those goals. 3. He associates loose/free consumption habits with youth and a lack of responsibility. His consumption today is strategic and intentional. 4. He is unperturbed by the prospect of real estate losing value, since he bought his house to live in, and doesn’t intend to resell it.
Now, macro econ punditry is *not* my lane.
But if I hear a pundit talking about Chinese consumers, and how they will/won’t behave in response to some government policy, I will always wonder what their mental model of this generic Chinese consumer’s behavior looks like.
To be credible, that consumer behavior model should probably look like Yang, willing to work an extra job & skip consumption, not out of today’s financial necessity, but in preparation of being a good filial son, and so his 3-year old daughter can take dance lessons someday.
And that is Krugman’s problem with diagnosing China’s economy. People work hard in China. And they like to save instead of consuming all their income. They retire pretty early but live long (though that retirement age is likely to rise). So having a bit of money on the side will make for a nicer living in later years:
The official retirement age for men is 60. Women in managerial positions have a retirement age of 55, while blue-collar female workers can retire at 50.
Chinese people are simply not Americans. But Krugman’s economic models presume that they are and he isn’t willing or capable of looking beyond those.
Still he was onto something when he opened his column with this:
The narrative about China has changed with stunning speed, from unstoppable juggernaut to pitiful, helpless giant.
It is indeed a fact that the narrative about China’s economy has changed way more than China’s economic numbers. But Krugman fails to ask why.
First, the most salient preoccupations of Western commentators reflect the skewed distribution of foreign-owned capital within the Chinese economy. … The second feature relates to the financial industry’s reliance on the art of political-economic storytelling to sell investment options.
But it is probably more a political instrument to support the general U.S. war against China.
Newsweek recently published a rather laughable story which asked if Shanghai (25 million permanent inhabitants) had turned into a ‘ghost town’.
The Global Times editors see political motives behind such ‘bad China’ narratives:
If only Newsweek is doing this, then it is an isolated case, indicating the media outlet’s problematic professional ethics and the negative impact it caused is not significant. However, starting from March or April this year, not only Newsweek but also other US and Western media outlets have been selectively using some specific data from a certain point or in a certain field to generalize, and even fabricate information to undermine, the Chinese economy. This is a coordinated and large-scale campaign, with consistent steps, intense actions, and extensive content, which is rare in recent years. Can we say that this is a coincidence?
The ‘bad China’ narrative is an economic phenomenon but is used for political reasons:
In the field of economics, there is a term called narrative economics, which uses storytelling to influence judgments, even at the cost of creating false information, to undermine the morale and confidence of the target and attempt to deter foreign investment, thereby having a substantial impact on the economy. The US has openly regarded China as its biggest competitor and even treats China as an imaginary enemy in many practical aspects. We cannot expect it to engage in fair competition with China. In order to win this “competition” initiated by itself, the US often resorts to any possible means. This perspective can explain the phenomenon in which the US is badmouthing the Chinese economy in a collective manner and can also roughly predict the US’ future actions toward China, indicating that it aligns with the basic facts.
War propaganda falls apart when a war is lost. Economic propaganda falls apart when the new numbers come in. Krugman’s doom and gloom propaganda from 2013 was defeated by China’s growth. His 2023 propaganda is likely to have the same fate.
Posted by b on September 12, 2023 at 16:39 UTC | Permalink
EXPLOSIVE! New details in the JFK assassination & RFK, JR responds
EXPLOSIVE! New details in the JFK assassination, and now RFK, JR. is responding. On Saturday, 88-year-old former secret service agent Paul Landis gave an exclusive interview with The New York Times where he shared he shared his revelations regarding what happened November 22, 1963. And it turns out he’s the one that picked up the magic bullet from the back of the President’s limo. This completely upends the story around the magic bullet and undermines The Warren Commission.
I’ll tell you a story from my Marines career. Not marine Corp, Royal Marines. I was responsible for intel and let’s just say I was on detachment to some of the better Royal Marines. We had some young gawky junior officer fresh out of training and looking to stamp his authority on us. So one day he decided to make me do 20 I took the piss and did a few extra got back up and stood to attention. A few hours later I got called to the bosses office.
Conversation as follows.
Hayworth did he reprimand you?
Yes sir
Why?
I was laughing at him behind his back
CO to hotshot,
You might want to remember that this guy is the one who’s going to be getting the right intel to your unit, basically when he’s on operations he is the guy making the decisions
Officer Hotshot. Why, I’m in charge.
CO to hotshot, not without fucking intel you’re not. Now get the fuck out of my base and get a transfer. If you think stamping authority around here is going to get you any favors then you are useless to me and my men. There is no rank around here, not even me. That’s the SBS way. We’re all experts at our jobs and I don’t need a fucking junior officer upsetting my teams. I still love that CO.
My Stepdaughter passed away at 22 due to complications from her Type 1 Diabetes. She had massive medical bills. We had insurance, but it only covered parts. So, let’s start by being harassed by a debt collector calling about someone that had passed away.
When the bills started coming I called all the companies. 99% only asked me to send a copy of the death certificate. But, this one company, well, they were total slime balls. The odd part was this was on a bill that was actually paid by the insurance in full. So, on the first call from them I sent them copies of the paid in full notices, and a copy of the death certificate.
A year went by, and I got a call from them again on the same bill. I told them about their error, even sent a copy of the registered mail signed copy. Week later, another call. This time I was hot. Gave them an ear full. A month later, same thing. This time, the asshat actually said they don’t believe she is dead. Wanted to know how to reach her so they can sue her for the money. I gave them the address to the cemetery. A month went by, another call. Same thing: we don’t believe you, etc. So, I said, Do what you got to do.
And believe it or not, they actually sued her. I went to the office of the lawyer, with my lawyer, and a counterclaim on behalf of the estate. The lawyer wanted to drop everything right then. But, we took it to court. We made them play the recording of the agent telling me that they refused to believe she was dead. The Judge dropped the hammer on them. We won a $30,000 donation in her name to the American diabetes Association.
However, back in he 1960s I was one of a group of about 20 new graduates taken on by a large multinational. We were in an enormous site and were all expected to trek across it in order to clock in every morning. We quickly took it in turns for one of us to go and clock in for us all.
One day, one of my colleagues had just finished clocking in for us when he was apprehended by a portly manager for this illegal practice. “Do you know who I am, demanded this august presence?”
“No” my friend replied and listened to the fellow describe his important position in the company. When he had finished, my friend asked him if he knew who my friend was.
“No” replied the manager.
“Thank God!” said my friend and took to his heels. An investigation followed but we were able to hide the miscreant
Shortly after, we decided to go on strike and all refused to clock in. The company relented after we agreed to sign an attendance sheet. The local union rep found about this and made a fuss about it as it was a privilege normally extended to more senior staff than new graduates. The result was we were all promoted to a position where we were ‘legally’ allowed to sign in which carried a pay rise with it.
I don’t know what this proves except that perhaps it pays not to accept being messed about with.
Testimonial: “They Moved a Biological Man into My Dorm Room!”
The #WalkAway Campaign is a true grassroots movement, founded by former liberal, Brandon Straka, dedicated to providing a place to share #WalkAway testimonials and personal journeys to freedom.
I worked at a state park for a few years. The primary sources of income for the park are day-use fees and the seven campgrounds. The main two campgrounds and day-use areas are developed, very nice with running water, showers, and are only accessible through a manned gate. The other five undeveloped campgrounds and day-use areas are self-pay on the honor system, but since that unfortunately means most people don’t pay, one of my main duties was going around and collecting fees.
More often than not, most people were “just about to go pay.” Sometimes they’d been in the park for days, but were inevitably “just about to go pay.” What timing.
One day I stopped by a campsite where I was immediately confronted by a diminutive and very angry camper. He immediately started accusing me of harassment, then started listing an exhaustive series of offenses I had committed against him and his family, even though I’d been there for about a total of 45 seconds. Recognizing that he had a few too many with lunch, I put on a big smile and assured him I was just there to collect the campground fees. He told me to look in his truck, he had his self-pay permit attached to the windshield.
He wasn’t wrong, it was there. The problem is that the window tag is attached to an envelope. You put your money in the envelope, write down your license plate number, and put it in the locked collection box. There’s even a matching number on both in case you didn’t write your license plate number on it. The tag was on his window, but the envelope was still attached.
I calmly explained this to him, and asked for the $8 fee. He swore at me, called me names, threatened me. I asked him if there was someone else I could talk to. That really set him off. He started screaming at me, hitting his own truck, and threatening to call the cops and sue me. I tried my best to keep him calm, then decided to give him some cool down time. I left and started going to the other camp sites, planning on returning on my way out and maybe even catch someone more sober and reasonable.
However, a few minutes later I received a call on my radio. A camper had called 911 to report that a ranger was harassing and threatening them. They wanted me to go talk to him and see what was going on.
This is a unique form of irony.
Seeing the conflict of interests and not wanting to escalate the situation, I asked if a county deputy was really available. One was, and he was there within minutes. I met them both back at the campsite where I found the man yelling at the deputy. I calmly explained that if he just wanted to pay his $8 we would leave and he could enjoy the rest of the night.
Long story short, he spent the night in jail and received over $100 in fines.
TRAVEL FROM GHANA TO KENYA WITH ME | MY SURPRISING FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF NAIROBI
My wife quite possibly saved our lives. We were on our last vacation, a two-week road trip through some western states. At her insistence I booked two nights on the Las Vegas strip. (I love playing poker but I can’t stand Las Vegas. I would have preferred an extra night in Laughlin or at an Indian casino). The moment we arrived, she was on edge. I did all right, and even cashed in a small sit-and-go Hold-Em tournament.
When I got back to the room, she said we are leaving first thing in the morning. We had reserved a nice room on the strip for Thursday and Friday nights, and this was still Thursday. We had already toured the renovations going on “Downtown” and planned to spend Friday on the strip. There was some huge music festival going on Friday night we wanted to check out. Nope. WE. ARE. LEAVING.
Yes, Dear. Some things shall not be questioned. Change some reservations, whatever. Reminder to self: I don’t even like Vegas. Her idea to go there, and her idea to LEAVE. RIGHT. NOW. Yes, Dear.
We had just settled in to a Motel 6 in Bakersfield CA when Stephen Paddock opened fire at that music festival on the Vegas strip.
Didn’t give the judge a laugh but gave others in the court room one. My older cousin was a senior in high school and her social problems class was on a field trip to the local court. We lived in a small county, so cases ranged from traffic tickets to drug offenses to child support cases before one judge.
This was before DNA testing. A 17 yo mother was on the stand testifying that she had only been with one guy and he denied that he was the father. The judge called the one she named as the father and he admitted he had had sex with her, but so had his two friends. The judge believed the mother. He called each of the guy’s friends and they testified that they had each had sex with her and they were winking at each other as if they were fooling everyone. The teen mother was upset but was quiet. The judge looked at the three friends and ruled that each would pay the full amount of child support and he would see them in a month and maybe by then they would have figured out which one was the father before he ruled if all three would pay back child support.
Bet the three friends had an interesting conversation outside the parking lot
Bobby Asks Tony To Give Him Better Jobs – The Sopranos HD
The evolution of Bobby’s character was one of my favorite details from The Sopranos. From a shy, bumbling guy Tony ridiculed and dismissed into Tony’s most trusted soldier.
Yes, because I was the manager when this incident occurred.
For all of an hour and a half or so, I had to fill in as a temp for the Domino’s store I worked at.
Why my manager picked me, a kid who had just turned 18, to be her fill-in is beyond me, but I guess she trusted me more than I thought she did.
Apparently, she had a doctor’s appointment to attend to and the assistant manager was unable to clock in early, so it was up to me to hold down the fort.
Even under unusual circumstances, I was determined to perform well in my new role, even if it was only temporary.
I did perfectly fine for the first hour, as business was going well as usual.
That was, until some kid wearing a Civil Air Patrol (CAP) blues uniform walked in and told me that he had somehow ‘earned’ some free cookie brownies.
The uniform looked similar to Air Force blues, but without the ribbons, the lapels, and the rank.
And how did the kid supposedly earn free brownies?
According to him, he was walking down the street when one of the delivery drivers pulled up next to him and told him he could have some free brownies solely because he was wearing the uniform and the driver wanted to thank him for his “service to the community.”
I knew that was bullshit immediately because I personally knew all the drivers on shift, and none of them would ever hand out free brownies to anyone, no matter who it was.
And they definitely weren’t going to pull up to some kid and tell him to walk to the store for some free brownies.
That sounds really stupid, doesn’t it?
Anyway, I told the kid he had to pay for whatever he wanted or he wasn’t getting anything.
With that, the kid left. Or so I thought.
A couple of minutes later, his mom walked in and demanded that I give her son his free brownies because of his service to the community or whatever.
There was no way in hell I was going to be a pushover for some entitled boy scout and his even more entitled Karen of a mother.
I told her that I wasn’t going to just give anything out for free and that they would have to pay for what they order, or else they had to leave the store.
The lady didn’t seem very pleased with that, so she told me to ‘get’ my manager so that she could further ‘negotiate’ or really just demand.
I told her no because I was the manager at the time, and I then told her to leave or else I would have to call the cops and whoever else I saw fit.
That scared away the mom and her kid, so they left the store, and I told them to have a nice day.
I was shocked to see that two people could have such an irrational sense of entitlement, and it still bothers me that people like them are out there.
TSMC has a large number of resignations;6,000 Tsinghua scientists defect to Huawei
TSMC has a large number of resignations; 6,000 Tsinghua scientists defect to Huawei; Ren Zhengfei personally receives Chinese students.
16. My province, New-Brunswick, is completely bilingual . You can get served in English or French. Everything has to be bilingual as well, including road signs, menus, food labels, etc…
A few years ago, my wife heard what sounded like an animal scratching around in our attic. I figured a squirrel must have made its way inside. The attic access is a little 3 foot by 4 foot opening in the ceiling of one of the closets. It’s a pain to get up there, but I know even a single squirrel can cause a lot of damage so I got the ladder and a flashlight with Intention of trying to chase it out the vent up there.
i climbed up through the opening and turned the flashlight on to see what was happening and I saw about 50 pairs of bat eyes reflecting back at me. I turned the flashlight off, slowly climbed back down the ladder pulling the door cover closed behind me.
My wife, anxiously awaiting my return asked if I had gotten rid of it already. I just said nope and that I wasn’t going back up there.
it ended up being a whole ordeal to get rid of them. They are a protected species, so you can’t have them exterminated. You have the house sealed off to prevent the bats from getting, but they leave a hatch the bats can get out through. Once they all leave in the evening to eat, you are good. Only problem was, it was their mating season so we were told if we sealed the house now, when the mothers left to eat, they would not be able to return to care for their babies, so we had to wait two months until the babies were old enough to go feed on their own.
it was a long two months hearing them moving around up there. Fortunately, homeowners insurance did pay for the removal and cleanup afterwards.
I’ll never forget all of those eyes staring at me though. Still gives me chills.
Buckle Up: This White House MISTAKE Will Hurt Americans
The European Union’s leader has proposed the idea of a Global Digital ID, which would allow governments worldwide to monitor their citizens. While it’s framed as “keeping track,” it raises concerns about potential surveillance and control. The plan involves countries contributing funds to establish this system, overseen by the United Nations. Critics liken it to dystopian scenarios, like the “Mark of the Beast” from religious texts, as it could enable extensive tracking, restricting access to basic necessities for those with dissenting opinions or unvaccinated individuals.
My mate Graham, almost 70 years old. He came out of his house one day and 3 young guys are lounging against his BMW car parked in the street. “Come on guys, off the car, it’s mine”.
Reply was, “ huh, don’t have to, we can do as we want!”
“Oh, so it’s OK for everyone to do what they want? Regardless of the consequences?” “ Really?”. The guy said “Yes!”
Graham hit him with a left hook that sent the guy flying and bleeding into the road. He turned to the others and said, “Hey, this is great, being able to do whatever I want, with no consequences!” They ran for it and the other one picked himself up off the road and followed them.
The moral of the story: don’t fuck with an Ex British Para and ex French Foreign Legionaire, even if he is almost 70!
Oliver Anthony Slams High Ticket Prices, Cancels Show
I just like this guy more and more as I see how he deals with his success. In a world of so many bad leaders and people who are driven by money alone, it’s so refreshing seeing someone who won’t bend his morals to greed.
When he backed down an abusive teacher without saying a single word.
I was in second grade, and my teacher was haranguing me while I waited for my father to pick me up at the office. He walked in, saw me sitting there, bloody and clothes torn, and simply looked at her. She started, then began to shrilly list my supposed faults. Silence, and the “Dad stare”. She started spouting justifications. More silence and one eyebrow raised. She burst into tears and bolted from the room…
US/EU pressure UAE in effort to pick apart BRICS
This just further shows how desperate the US and collective West are getting, their military industrial complex along with the USD’s hegemony are in decline and they know it.
It is stuff like this that kind of annoys and amuses me because it shows that people that are commenting don’t even have a basic idea of how a cell phone works.
SK Hynix is a manufacturer of DRAM and flash memory chips. DRAM is basically a commodity market, and it would have likely been impossible for SK Hynix to prevent Huawei from using its DRAM even it it wanted to. The thing about DRAM is that is it basically interchangeable with other DRAM and flash memory. So unlike other chips which have to be custom designed, Huawei can replace those with local chips if it wanted to.
One thing that kind of really makes my blood boil is that the US seems intent on preventing China from manufacturing top of the line cell phones. Okay, if the US wanted to restrict China from getting atom bomb secrets or manufacturing better missiles, I can sort of deal with that.
But we are talking about a consumer cell phone, and if China can’t manufacture better cell phones then I don’t know what the US expects China to do.
This is hard to watch…
That chick wouldn’t be so bad looking if she didn’t turn herself into a clownish monster.
Absolutely. There was this kid (literally, he was 17) who was pretty much the model recruit. He never complained; did what he was told; helped the rest of us out; and was physically in great shape.
He’d been in competitive martial arts for years. Not YMCA level, but “has to travel to Japan for belt tests,” skilled. (He never, ever bragged about it.)
The only time I can remember him getting yelled at was when we were in the sand pit learning basic unarmed self defense. (The super cheesy kind that makes you think you’re in a World War II training film. I think that they have dramatically improved that portion of the training now.)
The Private was decidedly and obviously half-assing it. Not arrogantly, more like bored out of his skull.
One of the drill sergeants came over and was doing his motivation screaming thing and asked him, “You think you don’t need this? Are you too good for this?” and other variations on the theme.
Pvt Yarberry replied, again, matter-of-factly and not boastfully, that no, he did not actually need that training.
It went about how you’re imagining it.
The only thing that saved him was that he had been such a model recruit. So the drill sergeant eventually says, “Show me.”
Mind you, this was not an angry fight. They assumed ready stances and this recruit did a series of moves that were very fast and almost gentle? Honestly, I can’t really describe what he did because it was so fast. The drill sergeant was basically laid onto the ground in a control position where he could not do anything about it. Nobody tried to hit anybody, but it was clear that the 17 year-old kid could put this 30 something year-old experienced soldier in the pretty muc…
German deindustrialization accelerates
“I spent a lot of time in Germany. I cannot believe that the Germans I knew would follow the Ukrainian mission over the cliff like lemmings.”
Doom and Gloom
On August 24th, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) announced partial suspension of Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines due to low semiconductor demand. Similar challenges are affecting South Korean semiconductor factories due to the loss of a crucial customer, China. South Korean Chip Factories Announce Shutdown of Lithography Machines Due to Lack of Chinese Orders!
This nightmare will hit South Korea in two steps.
Loss of China market as its chip manufacturers enhance technology and ramp up capacity.
Reduction of global prices as China manufacturers enter the international market in 2024 and that would affect the profit of the South Korea chip companies.
The nightmare for South Korean chip companies is only starting. It is too late to reverse the situation.
Huawei is capable of self-reliance, and the US plan to sanction Huawei has failed, but they will not resign themselves to failure, and there will be more madness in the future. ake trouble, fail, make trouble again, fail again . . . till their doom. that is the logic of the American imperialism over in dealing with the rival companys, and they will never go against this logic.
Over the weekend, the United States and South Korea agreed to a five-year deal to increase the military payments, subject to legislative approval in both capitals. Under the agreement, South Korea will pay $1 billion this year, 13.9 percent more than its annual payments in 2019 and 2020, officials said on Wednesday.
IMO there is little chance of a rapprochement between China and SK until the American Pie and Yankee Doodle singer is gone. His hardline towards China will cost not only his job but has affected the future of many South Korea.
What a jerk SK has elected for the Blue House? Now they understand the price they have to pay for Yankee Doodle democracy as per USA.
I Left USA and Moved To Thailand. Why I’ll NEVER Go Back.
As a korean-american who just came back to the US after 3 months stay in Bangkok, I couldn’t agree more with what you said. My quality of life escalated significantly when I was in Thailand. I miss Thailand so much haha.
I’m a truck driver. One day, when I was waiting in line to load at a coffee warehouse, the driver behind me who was an owner-operator asked if he could load before me because he was in a hurry to get to his delivery on time. So I let him pass in front. He then told me that he’d just bought another truck and asked me if I would drive it. He offered me much more money than my current employer, so I accepted. That was 15 years ago. He now has a fleet of 50 semi-trailer trucks and I’m still working for him.
They need the Chinese market to have the revenues to do research and stay relevant.
If they lose the Chinese market they will end up as laggers in technology rather than leaders.
Micron is already projected to lose 50% revenues. And YMTC hasn’t even started production with their second much larger fab yet. That is due to come online next year.
So Micron can expect to lose the entire Chinese market.
Micron will also lose the world market outside of the US, EU, Japan, lapdogs, etc. As those Chinese chips are going to be going into Chinese products shipper worldwide.
Same for Nvidia, Intel, etc. SMIC is building 4 more fabs. As they come online and start making chips, they will displace US, EU, and Japanese chip makers. And we are talking about all types of chips. Everything from power chips to FPGAs to GPUs to CPUs to DRAM to ASICs for everything.
As BCG’s (Boston Consulting Group) paper said. Western companies would lose their leadership position. They thought it would happen in 30 years…I laughed when I read that. Clearly they didn’t understand Chinese progress in tech.
He who controls the market controls the industry.
Hi-Rez – Rich Men North Of Richmond (Rap Remix) – Reaction
During the G20, Xi Jingping spent his time meeting Nicholas Maduro of Venezuela and setting up a Oil Deal to assure the energy security of his nation
He later toured the provinces of China to supervise the Agricultural Areas and talk to the people about Health Insurance and renewed improvements in Agrarian financing
In short he was doing what a Leader should be doing
Visiting his people and discussing their problems and finding solutions
While people like Sunak , Ursula, Scholz and Biden and Macron paraded around pompously, blissfully ignoring the problems their people face
Xi Jingping is doing what’s best for China and the Chinese people
He sent Li Qiang to Delhi as a representative believing that it was enough, having lost any real respect for the alliance and feeling the alliance to be a lackey group for the G7
image 38
As for PM Modi stealing the limelight
Barely 24 hours later Bidens speech in Vietnam included
I met with the Indian PM, Nare..Nare.. Modi and they didn’t allow a Q & A, those Indians. I had a good talk on Human Rights concerns and the importance of a Civil society and raised several pertinent questions
Meaning Modi has been TOLD to respect human rights and follow a Civil Society
Biden doesn’t tell this to Britain or Japan does he?
image 39
Trudeau openly said
Actions of a few don’t represent Canada. Canada respects freedom of speech and peaceful protests and believes it fosters progress
Any idea what he is referring to?
The Farmers protests of course. A Protest that forced Modi to finally back track his farm laws.
Now what has India gained from the Summit?
It’s over now
The AU are happy but that’s it. They go back home now and they need GRAIN and RAILWAYS and JOBS and TRADE
image 37
India can’t give them any of these
US can’t give them any of these except Bradleys and Howitzers and sermons on Democracy
Only China and Russia can give them all of these
300,000 Tonnes Grain Cargo from Russia is worth 500 G20 Summits
$ 16 Billion waiver of interest for 3 years from China and a new Hydro power plant is worth 500 G20 Summits
The AU had their Pindi Chole, Lal Maas etc and now they are gone
They have trouble, they will call Putin and Xi
They won’t call Modi or even remember him unless they meet him again in Rio in 2024
Same for Saudi Arabia
MBS is on a State Visit
He will persuade India to buy Saudi Oil and ask for investment into Refining and Petrochemicals
India will obviously delay and drag and eventually say no
India has inked 3500 MOUs in the past 4 years or so and only 19 have managed to gain ground and proceed to operations
MBS needs Russia for his OPEC Solidarity and China to modernize Saudi Arabia and even maybe to build a nuclear power plant
Once he leaves India, he forgets Modi until he meets him in Kazan in 2024 or Rio in 2024
LEVERAGE!!!!
That’s what China holds and Russia and even the US
No G20 summit is needed to enforce that
India holds near zero leverage today
A Thousand G20 summits and Pindi Chole and Laser Shows and Five Star pandering can’t advance Indias leverage by 1%
How the U.S. is preparing for conflict in Asia: Hynes
The U.S, is building power by creating a dense network of military alliances among Asian countries, says Phill Hynes, a top geopolitical analyst based in Hong Kong. Meanwhile, here’s the answer to the puzzle of why the media tells Australians that an invasion is imminent, but their submarines won’t be ready until the 2040s.
Mississippi Delta Tamales
2023 09 13 15 20
Ingredients
Filling
6 to 8 pounds boneless meat (pork shoulder, chuck roast or chicken)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup chili powder
2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Wrappers
Corn husks
Corn Meal Dough
8 cups yellow corn meal or masa mix (available in most grocery stores)
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons salt
1 2/3 cups lard or vegetable shortening
6 to 8 cups warm meat broth (from cooking the meat)
Instructions
Filling: Cut meat into large chunks and place in a large, heavy pot. Cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until meat is very tender, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Remove meat and reserve cooking liquid.
When meat is cool enough to handle, remove and discard any skin and large chunks of fat. Shred or dice meat into small pieces. There should be about 14 to 16 cups of meat.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy pot over medium heat. Stir in chili powder, paprika, salt, pepper, cayenne, onion powder, garlic powder and cumin. Add meat and stir to coat with oil and spices. Cook, stirring often, until meat is thoroughly heated, 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside.
Wrappers: While meat is cooking, soak husks in a large bowl of very warm water, until softened and pliable, about 2 hours. Gently separate husks into single leaves, trying not to tear them. Wash off any dust and discard any corn silks. Keep any shucks that split to the side, since two small pieces can be overlapped and used as one.
Corn Meal Dough: Stir corn meal, baking powder, salt and lard together in a large bowl until well blended. Gradually stir in enough warm meat broth to make soft, spongy dough the consistency of thick mashed potatoes. The dough should be quite moist, but not wet. Cover with a damp cloth.
To assemble the tamales, remove a corn husk from water and pat it dry. Lay husk on a work surface. Spread about 1/4 cup of the dough in an even layer across the wide end of husk to within 1 inch of edges. Spoon about 1 tablespoon of meat mixture in a line down the center of dough. Roll husk so that dough surrounds filling and forms a cylinder or package. Fold bottom under to close. Place tamales in a single layer on a baking sheet. Repeat until all dough and filling is used.
Stand tamales upright, closed side down, in a large pot. Place enough tamales in the pot so that they do not fall over or unroll. Carefully fill pot with enough water to come just to the top of the tamales, trying not to pour water directly into the tamales. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily and cleanly, about 1 hour.
If you prefer to steam tamales, stand tamales upright, closed side down, in a large steamer basket. Cover with a damp towel or additional husks. Steam tamales over simmering water until dough is firm and pulls away from the husk easily and cleanly, 1 to 1 1/4 hours.
Serve tamales warm, in their husks. Remove husks to eat.
Yield: 7 to 8 dozen
American cities are collapsing and democrats are in PANIC mode
Should entire families be deported to solve the migrant crisis? That is what Republican Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy promised to do if elected. This would bring about a Fourteenth Amendment question.
Ramaswamy says that there are “legally contested questions under the 14th Amendment.” This comes as progressive politicians are showing real signs of fear over illegal immigration.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams says that the city is facing a “financial tsunami” because of it and predicted that the rapid influx of immigrants will destroy the city that he knows and loves. What is the solution besides burdening the already-burdened U.S. taxpayer?
An apartment complex in the city of Kramatorsk Ukraine was said to be cursed.
In 1980, an 18-year-old woman living in apartment 85 suddenly died. Two years later, the girl’s 16-year-old brother died, followed by their mother. They had all died of Leukaemia, but doctors couldn’t find the root cause of it.
image 36
Then in 1989, another family took up residence in apartment 85. A father and his two sons had been living there less then a year when both sons fell ill. Rumour began to spread around the city that the apartment was cursed when it turned out the two boys also had leukaemia.
With the apartments history the father knew something other than a curse was the problem. When one of his two sick sons dies he pushed to have to apartment inspected.
In the late 70s workers lost a radiation level gauge in the Karanksy Quarry located in the city. Workers spent a week looking for it, but it never turned up. No more thought was given to the level gauge, and the rocks from the quarry were then used in the construction of apartment 85.
When inspectors came out to check for high levels of radiation they found it radiating from a wall along side one of the kid’s beds. They knocked the wall and found a capsule of Caesium-137 that had broken out of the level gauge. By a stroke of poor bad luck for two families the capsule ended up becoming a part of their apartment. 17 other residents living in the apartment block received large doses of radiation.
Bernini’s “The Abduction of Proserpina” is a mesmerizing sculpture that captures the dramatic moment from Roman mythology when Pluto, the god of the underworld, seizes Proserpina, the daughter of Ceres, to make her his queen. Completed in 1622, this Baroque masterpiece portrays the intense emotions of the characters: Pluto’s powerful grasp and Proserpina’s anguish. The work showcases Bernini’s skill in sculpting marble to convey a sense of motion and realism, making it a celebrated piece in art history and a symbol of Baroque sculpture’s dynamism and emotional depth.
image 34
It currently resides in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.
This year, the Chinese economy has been growing more slowly than expected because of the ongoing real estate crisis, and trade decoupling with the G7 countries led by the US.
But the launch of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro offers a bright spot for Chinese spending. Up until US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s China trip, it looked like most Chinese were going to stop spending until things became clearer for the economy. Most Chinese had treated their purchased homes as a major asset and because real estate prices were deflating, they cut back on their spending.
No more.
The US’s demands for Huawei to stop spending on research and development have hit a very nationalist raw nerve among the Chinese. (Huawei spends about US$22B on R&D annually.) Many feel that this is an insult not just to Huawei, but to China, the nation. How do they push back? By buying the Huawei Mate 60 Pro, which sells at 6999 yuan each. Some estimates are that Huawei may sell 35–50M units by year-end.
The Mate 60 Pro is first in a line of tech products developed according to Chinese instead of western standards. While Chinese are careful about their spending, many feel that now is the time to stand up and support Chinese tech companies by buying their products, just as the tech companies are struggling hard for their survival. Some Chinese will do this even though their home values are declining.
This means that it will likewise be a very hard time for foreign tech companies in China such as Apple. Apple has tried very hard to steer clear of the US-China tech dispute and up until now, it has succeeded. At the end of the day though, it is a US tech company which will side with the US government in a crisis.
The friend and enemy lines are being drawn more clearly.
This also means that as the US tries to build new supply chains outside China, in India and Vietnam, they cannot count on support from Chinese suppliers helping to make the switch. The management of some of these suppliers will decide that supporting the Chinese home team is more important than making money.
Some remarkable stories are coming out about the development of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro. Many Chinese component suppliers came together voluntarily, forming cooperative teams across companies which normally were competing against each other. Engineers spent all-nighters in their competitors’ offices developing and testing equipment. Many gave up going home. Some Taiwanese companies in the PRC also joined in. They did this because they felt that the Chinese tech industry was in a life-and-death struggle to survive, and they needed to come up with new standards, components and products which were completely free of western patent claims. This was not normal business, and they needed to fight and survive and set aside the normal profit motive for the time being.
Just to cite one example, they were able to create a 5G wireless modem which went around Qualcomm’s very broad patent claims. Apple has spent the past six years trying to do this, and even buying a business unit from Intel, but so far has failed.
The team around Huawei’s Mate 60 Pro did it in about a year and a half.
Some day, this would make a great movie story.
Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North of Richmond🔥 | WAKE UP AMERICAN
When my daughter was 4 we went into a store. There was a man there that was physically handicapped. His legs were skinny and twisted and he was walking with crutches.
My daughter walked up to him (very confidently) and asked “what’s wrong with your legs?” I wanted to crawl under a rock!!
This man was absolutely AMAZING with her! He looked down at her, smiled and said “God didn’t give me good legs like you have so he gave me these (indicating his crutches).” That was enough to satisfy her curiosity. He looked at me and smiled and said that I had a beautiful child.
He was pleased that she asked instead of being afraid of him because he was different.
I was truly embarrassed when she asked him her question but so amazed at his gracious answer.
This is what really-really AMAZED me
Raimondo was in China where she had hoped that China will return to buying Boeing jets
Given what they had done to Huawei, why would she even think that China would buy Boeing aircrafts
Boeing have forecasted that China would need 8,485 new passenger planes by 2041 and, traditionally Boeing had received half of the Chinese market
but no longer, other than a few immaterial amounts, China has essentially stopped purchasing Boeing aircrafts
image 18
this will now NOT change especially since Huawei had broken the American chip blockade
over one million American aerospace jobs (including related American supply chains) will be/was lost
On a side note, of the industrialized countries that I have travelled in, the United States have one of the poorest telecommunication infrastructure. Because it has locked out Chinese companies, the United States pay a heavier price primarily from non-American/non-Chinese suppliers for a poorer telecommunication product. I won’t discuss what will happen to American semiconductor industry. So Americans are paying what was done to Huawei in MANY ways.
The Americans are SILLY-fied people who are unable to learn and pivot to a better place.
My daughter started talking quite early and was always very curious. Around the time she turned 2 she loved showing off her communication skills by naming things around her. “”Look mommy an apple! Do you like apples? I like apples too!”
It was very cute and she was usually quite loud which garnered much attention and lots of compliments.
On one fine day while driving home from picking up my teenage son from school, he was 13 at the time, she began identifying things around her.. cars, people, buses. Then I heard“”what’s that mommy?” I looked over and saw a dump truck so I responded “”that’s a truck sweetheart.”
Little one can’t pronounce the “t” sound and says ever so innocently “oh… fuck!”
Teenage son loses his mind with laughter which is all the little one needed to know she was on to something. Next thing we hear my 2 year old dropping F-bombs left and right from the back seat.
Wish the story ended there. Couple of weeks and lots of t-phonics practice sessions later, we are in the front yard of my brothers house, when lo and behold a trash truck is driving by. In front of about 15 family members and 5 other kids my sweet little toddler looks at the truck and says very loudly, you guessed it, “FUCK!”
No one was able to hold in their laughter much to my terrible embarrassment.
That eventually some people will be left to pick up the pieces.
Every battle has a clean up just like any other mess. Someone has to make the phone calls to let family know their son or daughter has died.
Someone has to remove the body from the battlefield. It is very common to see soldiers’ bodies with photos of their loved ones, like this Italian soldier in WWII with a picture of his baby in his hand.
image 35
The last thing he did was look at his child before he bled out.
These are the very real sacrifices people make. I grew up on military bases and have been to many military funerals. Families never truly move on from the death of a young loved one like this.
There are often inner conflicting feelings about encouraging their son to join the military (even amongst the most patriotic families). These things are all normal.
War is a terrible thing and anyone who tries to glamorize it as some video game has never truly endured it.
Merkules – Oliver Anthony ”Rich Men North Of Richmond” Remix
Few months ago I was visiting Colorado. While leaving for the airport to go back home, someone hit my rented Tesla from behind. The usual process happened where cops was called, complaint was filed, numbers exchanged, etc.
After this incident, I dropped by at a near-by pizza place with my son. I was tired and somewhat stressed about this accident. Although it wasn’t my car or my fault with the accident but I still felt bad for the person who owned this car. I had a great trip but the last few hours of my trip was something. My son and I walked into the pizza place. The manager asked, “How was your day?” I responded saying, “good” but my son said, “No it wasn’t good. Someone hit our car so my mom is feeling bad.”
We ordered and ate our pizza. I asked the waiter for the bill and he said the manager took care of it ($19). He said, he can sense the stress on my face and wanted me to go home peacefully. In addition, there were two other waiters who constantly checked on us while we were eating to see if we wanted anything else. One of the waiter also entertained my son while I had to take care of some phone calls. In addition, while talking to the waiter, I also learned that the business was suffering during Covid but they’re trying to rise up again slowly. I was so touched by their kindness and willingness to pay for my pizza even though their business was not in the best condition financially. I offered to pay my bill numerous times but the staff wouldn’t let me. So I left a $50 bill with the manager and asked him to split the tip between the three waiters. In addition, I also took the manager’s card and sent him a bottle of wine from my state for their kindness.
This was a small encounter but I’ll never forget this kindness. There are very few people in this world who will think about others even when they have their own problems to worry about. May God bless such people. I hope their business thrives.
Wow, so many upvotes. Thank you for reading this answer. I didn’t expect such a nice a response :).
Update:
Here is picture of the manager, Jonathon. I randomly dropped by Priti’s pizza in Denver and captured a picture of this kind soul 🙂
When I was out of university, I visited home and checked in with my High School friends. The smartest kid in our class: John E. had dropped out of college and was working in the local lumber yard, and getting high on marijuana every single day.
Being old friends we talked about life and work and he told me about “snuffy”.
Now Snuffy was a co-worker of his. And also (as I tell you all now) an old co-worker of my father. And Snuffy loved to eat. In fact, he would eat anything given to him.
So one day…
(I know youse guys know what’s coming…)
My friend John E. offered him a sandwich. But it was conditional. He had to eat the entire thing. Lock, stock and barrel or else he need to pay him $20 (big money in those days).
Now, John E. put an entire container of “chew” in the sandwich between the lettuce, tomatoes, peanut butter and turkey. ‘Chew” is a chewable form of tobacco that is popular in Western Pennsylvania. And a full container is about 100ml. Sizable. Big. Large.
So, let’s talk about “Good Interstate” and “Bad Interstate”
It’s not like the United States didn’t have highways pretty much everywhere when World War II ended in 1945. Route 66, for example, went all the way from Chicago to Los Angeles. If there had been no interstate system, cars and trucks would still be using those roads today. Heck, back in the 1970s, my family drove from Toronto to Orlando via Detroit, taking I-75 all the way. The problem was that I-75 hadn’t been completed yet so, through a couple of very long stretches, we were on crowded 4 lane highways. People still took them.
So, when Eisenhower becomes president, American highways haven’t improved much since he led a road expedition across the country in 1919, a trip that took 62 days and destroyed many of the vehicles they used. Highway standards were wildly different from state to state, with many highways barely having room for two standard cars to pass. Bridges and tunnels were rare to non-existent. Some highways were impassible in winter because they simply couldn’t be maintained. Others were closed during times of heavy rain. Through the numerous mountainous regions in the country, they went back and forth through the mountains hugging the terrain, often for dear life.
Now, Canada currently has a national highway system that is only slightly better than what the United States had in the 1950s, but at least it’s all paved and open all year (at least the main routes). However, a lot of key highways are still two lanes. They all get heavy use.
So let’s take a look at a basic interstate map
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. It joins most of America’s major cities and forms the backbone of the road transportation system. These roads are safe and open year round. One runs through the Donner Pass, which killed most of the people who first attempted to cross it when they didn’t reach it before ten feet of snow blocked it. Now, it’s merely an inconvenience for the California Department of Highways, which keeps a fleet of plows ready. Yes, several portions of it are crowded, and that’s a problem that can’t be addressed with “more highways” but part of it is due to another problem.
So, let’s look at the real problem. “Bad Interstates”. Interstates that join large population centers to other large population centers are crucial. What are not crucial are these.
This is Detroit, Michigan. Motor City. The place that made automobiles a normal thing to own. Starting in the 1940s, the federal government, state of Michigan and local leaders felt that the way to go was to build lots of freeways to keep cars moving.
But it was a trap. It was one of the reasons for the city’s decline as cars started to displace offices and people. The highways cut neighbourhoods in half. People used to walk in downtown Detroit, and only recently started to do it again. However, the interstates that go right through the city, like I-75 and I-94, plus their spurs, plus local ones like the Davison and the Lodge and stroads like 8-Mile and Telegraph Road, while great for tooling around the city by car, make navigating it in any other way impossible.
During the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco, one of their freeways collapsed. They didn’t bother to rebuild it. Traffic actually improved, and the waterfront is now a thriving neighbourhood. Rochester, New York is in the process of removing the “Inner Loop”, a small freeway that joined the three urban interstates that came downtown, and completely destroyed the area. It’s now starting to thrive again.
Freeways just don’t have any place in an urban environment. They automatically turn it into a car-dependent suburban environment, increase parking requirements, displace transit, and don’t really do anything to make traffic more than marginally better.
Brocato’s Spumoni
brocatos spumoni
Yield: 8 to 10 servings
Ingredients
3 pints pistachio ice cream
3 pints strawberry ice cream
1 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks
1/2 cup candied cherries, chopped
Instructions
Put a 2 1/2 quart ice cream mold in freezer.
In a large bowl, beat the pistachio ice cream with electric mixer until smooth but not melted. Evenly spread the pistachio ice cream in the chilled mold. Freeze until firm.
In another bowl, beat the strawberry ice cream with electric mixer until smooth but not melted. Then spread the strawberry ice cream over the pistachio ice cream. Freeze until firm.
Mix the chopped cherries into the whipped cream and spread as the final layer in the mold. Freeze until firm.
Niger forces have attacked a French military base
This is part of a much larger video. Important section begins at this clip.
A tough but necessary decision would likely force the West to back off, enabling an earlier end to the Ukraine crisis and preventing it from expanding to other states
By Professor Sergey Karaganov,honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow
has sparked major debate among experts in Russia about nuclear weapons, their role and the conditions of their use.
This is especially the case given Sergey Karaganov’s status as a former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and his position as head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a noted Moscow think tank.
Some prominent figures have reacted with dismay, while others have been less critical.
RT has decided it would be beneficial for our readers to read it in full. The following piece has been translated and lightly edited.
***
Our country, and its leadership, seems to me to be facing a difficult choice. It is becoming increasingly clear that our clash with the West will not end even if we achieve a partial – let alone a crushing – victory in Ukraine.
Even if we completely liberate the Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, it will be a minimal victory. A slightly greater success would be to liberate the whole of eastern and southern Ukraine within a year or two. But it would still leave part of the country with an even more embittered ultra-nationalist population pumped full of weapons – a bleeding wound that threatens inevitable complications, such as another war.
The situation could be worse if we liberate the whole of Ukraine at the cost of monstrous sacrifices and are left with ruins and a population that mostly hates us. It would take more than a decade to “re-educate” them.
Any of these options, especially the last one, will distract Russia from the much-needed shift of its spiritual, economic, military and political center to the East of Eurasia. We will be stuck with a wasteful focus on the West. And the territories of today’s Ukraine, especially the central and western ones, will attract resources – both human and financial. These regions were heavily subsidised even in Soviet times.
Meanwhile, hostility from the West will continue; it will support a slow-burning guerrilla civil war.
A more attractive option is the liberation and reunification of the east and south, and the imposition of capitulation on the remnants of Ukraine with complete demilitarization, creating a buffer, friendly state. But such an outcome would only be possible if we are able to break the West’s will to support the Kiev junta, and use it against us, forcing the US-led bloc into a strategic retreat.
And here I come to a crucial but hardly discussed issue. The root cause of – and indeed the main reason for – the Ukrainian crisis, as well as many other conflicts in the world, and the general increase in military threats, is the accelerating failure of the contemporary Western ruling elites.
This crisis is accompanied by an unprecedentedly rapid shift in the balance of power in the world in favor of the global majority, driven economically by China and partly by India, with Russia as the military and strategic anchor. This weakening not only infuriates the imperial-cosmopolitan elites (US President Joe Biden and his ilk) but also frightens the imperial-national elites (such as his predecessor Donald Trump). The West is losing the advantage it has held for five centuries to siphon off the wealth of the entire world by imposing its political and economic order and establishing its cultural dominance, mainly by brute force. So there is no quick end to the defensive, but aggressive, confrontation that the West has unleashed.
This moral, political and economic collapse has been brewing since the mid-1960s, was interrupted by the collapse of the USSR, but resumed with renewed vigour in the 2000s (the defeats of the Americans and their allies in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the crisis of the Western economic model in 2008 were milestones).
In order to slow down this seismic shift, the West has temporarily consolidated itself. The US has turned Ukraine into a punching bag to tie the hands of Russia, the politico-military lynchpin of a non-Western world freed from the shackles of neocolonialism. Ideally, of course, the Americans would simply like to blow up our country and thus radically weaken the emerging alternative superpower, China. We, either not realizing the inevitability of the clash or hoarding our strength, have been slow to act preemptively. Moreover, in line with modern, mainly Western, political and military thinking, we were rash in raising the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, inaccurate in assessing the situation in Ukraine, and not entirely successful in launching the current military operation.
By failing internally, Western elites have actively fed the weeds that have taken root in the soil of 70 years of prosperity, satiation and peace. These comprise of anti-human ideologies: the denial of family, homeland, history, love between men and women, faith, service to higher ideals, everything that is human. Their philosophy is to weed out those who resist. The aim is to neuter people in order to reduce their ability to resist modern “globalist” capitalism, which is becoming more and more obviously unjust and harmful to man and humanity.
Meanwhile, a weakened US is destroying Western Europe and other countries dependent on it, trying to push them into a confrontation that will follow Ukraine. The elites in most of these countries have lost their bearings and, panicked by the crisis in their own positions at home and abroad, are dutifully leading their countries to the slaughter. At the same time, because of greater failure, a sense of powerlessness, centuries of Russophobia, intellectual degradation and a loss of strategic culture, their hatred is almost more intense than that of the US.
Thus, the trajectory of most Western countries clearly points towards a new fascism, which could be called “liberal” totalitarianism.
In the future, and this is the most important thing, it will only get worse. Truces are possible, but reconciliation is not. Anger and despair will continue to grow in waves and waves. This vector of Western movement is a clear sign of the drift towards the outbreak of World War Three. It has already begun and could erupt into a full-blown conflagration either by accident, or due to the growing incompetence and irresponsibility of the ruling circles of the West.
The introduction of artificial intelligence and the robotization of war increase the risk of unintended escalation. Machines can act outside the control of confused elites.
The situation is aggravated by “strategic parasitism” – in 75 years of relative peace, people have forgotten the horrors of war, have stopped fearing even nuclear weapons. Everywhere, but especially in the West, the instinct for self-preservation has weakened.
I have spent many years studying the history of nuclear strategy and have come to an unequivocal, if unscientific, conclusion. The advent of nuclear weapons is the result of the intervention of the Almighty, who, appalled that mankind had unleashed two world wars within a generation, costing tens of millions of lives, gave us the weapons of Armageddon to show those who had lost their fear of hell that it existed. On that fear rested the relative peace of the last three-quarters of a century.
But now that fear is gone. The unthinkable in terms of previous notions of nuclear deterrence is happening – a group of ruling elites, in a fit of desperate rage, have unleashed a full-scale war in the underbelly of a nuclear superpower.
The fear of atomic escalation must be restored. Otherwise humanity is doomed.
It is not only, and not even so much, what the future world order will look like that is being decided in the fields of Ukraine right now. But rather whether the world we are used to will be preserved at all, or if all will be left is radioactive ruins, poisoning the remnants of humanity.
By breaking the West’s will in imposing its aggression, we will not only save ourselves and finally free the world from the Western yoke of five centuries, but we will also salvage the whole of humanity. By pushing the West towards catharsis and the abandonment of the hegemony of its elites, we will force it to retreat before a global catastrophe. Humanity will be given a new chance to develop.
Proposed solution
Of course, there is an uphill struggle ahead. It is also necessary to solve our own internal problems – to finally get rid of the mindset of Western-centrism and of the Westernizers in the administrative class. Especially the compradors and their peculiar way of thinking. Of course, in this area, the NATO bloc is helping us, unwittingly.
Our 300-year journey around Europe has given us a lot of useful lessons and it has helped us to form our great culture. Let us cherish our European heritage. But it is time to return home, to ourselves. Let us begin, with the baggage we have accumulated, to live in our own way. Our friends in the Foreign Ministry have recently made a real breakthrough by referring to Russia as a civilizational state in their foreign policy concept. I would add – a civilization of civilizations, open to the North as well as to the South, to the West as well as to the East. Now the main direction of development is to the South, to the North and, above all, to the East.
The confrontation with the West in Ukraine, however it ends, should not distract us from the strategic internal movement – spiritual, cultural, economic, political, military and political – towards the Urals, Siberia and the Pacific Ocean. A new Ural-Siberian strategy is needed, one that includes several powerful spiritually uplifting projects, including, of course, the creation of a third capital in Siberia. This movement should become part of the much-needed formulation of the “Russian Dream” – the image of the Russia and the world to which one aspires.
I have often written, and I am not alone in this, that great states without a great idea cease to be such or simply disappear into the void. History is littered with the graves of powers that lost their way. This idea should be created from above and not rely, as fools or lazy people do, on what comes from below. It must correspond to the deepest values and aspirations of the people and, above all, it must take us all forward. But it is the responsibility of the elite and the leadership of the country to formulate it. The delay in putting forward such a vision is unacceptably long.
But for the future to come to pass, the resistance of the forces of the past – i.e. the West – must be overcome. If this is not achieved, there will almost certainly be a full-scale world war. Which will probably be the last of its kind.
And here I come to the most difficult part of this article. We can keep fighting for another year or two, or even three, sacrificing thousands and thousands of our best men and grinding up hundreds of thousands more who are unfortunate enough to fall into the tragic historical trap of what is now called Ukraine. But this military operation cannot end in a decisive victory without forcing the West into a strategic retreat or even capitulation. We must force the West to abandon its attempts to turn back history, to abandon its attempts at global domination, and to force it to deal with its own problems, to manage its current multifaceted crisis. To put it crudely, it is necessary for the West to simply “piss off” and end its interference in the direction of Russia and the rest of the world.
However, for this to happen, Western elites need to rediscover their own lost sense of self-preservation by understanding that attempts to wear down Russia by playing the Ukrainians against it are counterproductive for the West itself.
The credibility of nuclear deterrence must be restored by lowering the unacceptably high threshold for the use of atomic weapons and by moving cautiously but quickly up the ladder of deterrence-escalation. The first steps have already been taken through statements to this effect by the president and other leaders, by beginning to deploy nuclear weapons and their delivery vehicles in Belarus, and by increasing the combat effectiveness of the strategic deterrent forces. There are quite a few steps on this ladder. I count about two dozen. It could even go as far as warning our compatriots and all people of good will about the need to leave their homes near the objects of possible nuclear strikes in countries directly supporting the Kiev regime. The enemy must know that we are ready to launch a preemptive retaliatory strike in response to its current and past aggression in order to prevent a slide into a global thermonuclear war.
I have often said and written that with the right strategy of deterrence and even use, the risk of a ‘retaliatory’ nuclear or other strike on our territory can be minimized. Only if there is a madman in the White House who also hates his own country will the US decide to strike in ‘defense’ of the Europeans and invite retaliation by sacrificing a hypothetical Boston for a notional Poznan. The Americans and the Western Europeans are well aware of this, they just prefer not to think about it. We, too, have contributed to this recklessness with our peace-loving pronouncements. Having studied the history of US nuclear strategy, I know that after the USSR acquired a credible nuclear retaliatory capability, Washington never seriously considered using nuclear weapons on Soviet territory, even though it publicly bluffed. When nuclear weapons were considered, it was only against “advancing” Soviet forces in Western Europe. I know that the late Chancellors Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt fled from their bunkers as soon as the question of such use came up in an exercise.
Movement down the ladder of containment-escalation should be fairly quick. Given the current direction of the West – and the degradation of most of its elites – each successive decision it makes is more incompetent and ideologically veiled than the last. And, at present, we cannot expect these elites to be replaced by more responsible and reasonable ones. This will only happen after a catharsis, leading to the abandonment of much ambition.
We cannot repeat the ‘Ukrainian scenario’. For a quarter of a century we were not listened to when we warned that NATO enlargement would lead to war; we tried to delay, to “negotiate”. As a result, we ended up in a serious armed conflict. Now the price of indecision is an order of magnitude higher than it would have been earlier.
But what if the present Western leaders refuse to back down? Perhaps they have lost all sense of self-preservation? Then we will have to hit a group of targets in a number of countries to bring those who have lost their senses back to their senses.
It’s a morally frightening choice – we would be using God’s weapon and condemning ourselves to great spiritual loss. But if this is not done, not only may Russia perish, but most likely the whole of human civilization will end.
We will have to make this choice ourselves. Even friends and sympathizers will not support it at first. If I were Chinese, I would not want an abrupt and decisive end to the conflict, because it will draw back US forces and allow them to gather forces for a decisive battle – either directly or, in the best Sun Tzu tradition, by forcing the enemy to retreat without a fight. As a Chinese person, I would also oppose the use of nuclear weapons because taking the confrontation to the nuclear level means moving to an area where my country is still weak.
Also, decisive action is not in line with the Chinese foreign policy philosophy, which emphasizes economic factors (with the accumulation of military power) and avoids direct confrontation. I would support an ally by providing him with rear cover, but I would go behind his back and not enter the fray. (In this case, perhaps I don’t understand this philosophy well enough and am attributing motives to my Chinese friends that are not their own.) If Russia uses nuclear weapons, Beijing would condemn it. But Chinese hearts would also rejoice knowing that the reputation and position of the US had been dealt a severe blow.
How would we react if (God forbid!) Pakistan attacked India, or vice versa? We’d be horrified. Upset that the nuclear taboo has been broken. Then let us help the victims and change our nuclear doctrine accordingly.
For India and other countries of the world majority, including nuclear weapon states (Pakistan, Israel), the use of nuclear weapons is unacceptable, both for moral and geostrategic reasons. If they are used “successfully”, the nuclear taboo – the notion that such weapons should never be used and that their use is a direct route to nuclear Armageddon – will be devalued. We are unlikely to win support quickly, even if many in the Global South would feel satisfaction at the defeat of their former oppressors who plundered them, carried out genocides and imposed an alien culture.
But in the end, the victors are not judged. And the saviors are thanked. Western European political culture does not remember, but the rest of the world does (and with gratitude) how we helped the Chinese to free themselves from the brutal Japanese occupation, and many Western colonies to throw off the colonial yoke.
Of course, if they do not understand us at first, they will have all the more incentive to educate themselves. Still, it is very likely that we can win, and focus the minds enemy states without extreme measures, and force them to retreat. And after a few years, we take take up a position as China’s rear, as it is now performing for us, supporting it in its struggle with the US. Then this fight can be avoided without a big war. And we will win together for the good of all, including the people of the Western countries.
At that stage, Russia and the rest of humanity will pass through all the thorns and traumas into the future, which I see as bright – multipolar, multicultural, multicolored – and giving countries and peoples the opportunity to build their own destinies in addition to the common one, which should unite worldwide.
Americans Can’t Believe What China is Doing to US Farms
(IP)- With 6 new countries joining the BRICS, these 11 countries will create a new grouping at the global level.
The 15th BRICS summit was held last week in the Sandton district of Johannesburg in South Africa. In a joint press conference with the leaders of Russia, China, Brazil, and India, the President of South Africa announced the agreement of the BRICS with Iran, Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Ethiopia joining this group. 6 new members will officially join this group at the beginning of 2024. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and United Arab Emirates. After this event, various comments regarding the position of BRICS at the global level were raised.
One of the views is that with the joining of 6 new countries, each of which is of great economic and political importance, the BRICS can create a new polarization at the level of the global system. The main reason for such a view is that the old and new BRICS members have a large share of the world economy on the one hand and are against the unilateralist political order in the world system on the other hand. Salem Nasser, an international law expert at Brazil’s FGV Direito SP University, says the requests to join BRICS show that there are constant changes in the global balance of power.
BRICS is a new pole of economic and political power that will compete with the hegemony of North America. Mehmet Ali Guller, a Turkish analyst, also believes that BRICS is one of the most important pillars of the new world order and has dealt a heavy blow to the US energy-political powerhouse.
Another issue is that BRICS members, both former and new members, can make important decisions in the economic field at the global level. This influence will be especially high in the field of energy because Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the UAE are among the largest oil-producing countries in the world. The alignment or shared opinion of these countries in the field of energy can have many consequences for Western countries and affect the global economy as well. Also, the expansion of BRICS will increase the share of this group in global exports from 20.2% to 25.1%. Global banking group “Goldman Sachs” believes that by 2050 the economy of the BRICS countries will compete with the economies of the richest countries in the world.
Another important point is that BRICS can be a serious competitor for the Group of 7 (including the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom). With 6 new countries joining the BRICS group, Russian news agencies wrote in a statistical analysis that the total gross domestic product (GDP) of developed BRICS will be approximately 65 trillion dollars in terms of purchasing power parity. In this way, the share of this group in the global GDP will increase from the current 31.5% to 37%. Meanwhile, the share of the Group of Seven advanced economies is currently around 29.9%. Meanwhile, the 11 countries of the BRICS will have an area of 48.5 million square kilometers, which is 36% of the world’s area, and this figure is more than double that of the Group of Seven. Their total population will reach 3.6 billion people, which is 45% of the entire world and more than four times higher than the group of seven.
By: Seyed Razi Emadi
The Sopranos – Ralph Gets Passed Over
Ralph Cifaretto gets passed over as capo of the Aprile crew. Tony makes less qualified solider Gigi Cestone the new captain. One of the reasons being Ralph took Jackie Jr on a pick up that turned violent.
I am from Taiwan, so I am observing you and your masturbative questions more from the sideline in amusement, but I can’t help providing some insight here to address all your diarrhea at a fundamental level. Given the intelligence, or lack thereof, displayed in your questions, I am not sure you would understand what I have to say below. In any case, this answer is for whatever audience can understand it.
All your questions amount to a basic theme, namely, some aspect of China deemed unappealing to your personal bias, which translates into inferiority of China vis-à-vis Japan or South Korea, which you consider yourself a proud member of, despite dubious credential to claim either ownership of or contribution toward such credentials.
I would like to crush your pitiful self-loathing complex with the bottom line, independent of whether your personal bias is justified, or whether you yourself are entitled to such sense of superiority as a member of the group you are hiding under.
Let’s assume all your personal biases are justified, a Big IF, and let’s assume you yourself indeed are entitled to your claims. Under these Big IFs, that would amount to the following picture.
China is like a wolf in the wild, being its own Master. It may be dirty (your personal bias) and rude (your bias) and ugly (your bias) and uncivilized (your bias), and it may not know a lot of fancy tricks to hunt and eat its catch elegantly (your bias). It nonetheless goes wherever it pleases whenever it pleases, and does whatever it pleases, beholden to no one. It is nobody’s slave.
Japan and South Korea are like two pedigree dogs groomed in the most fancy and elegant (your bias) beauty parlors and having the most advanced suite of plastic surgery done on them like the wife of the South Korean president. They look totally beautiful (your bias) and well-mannered (your bias). But they are two slave dogs kneeling under their Master’s feet, living off the craps thrown at them, with their necks held in leash in the hands of their Master. The Master can kick the shit out of their face whenever the Master feels like it, make them eat shit whenever the Master is not in a good mood, and make them lick the Master’s ass whenever the Master wants to remind them who the Boss is.
So this is the real picture of China vis-à-vis Japan and South Korea.
And it is based on facts, with no room for personal bias, because this is in plain sight for everyone to see.
Some people prefer to be the dirty, ugly wolf of the wild, and some people prefer to be the beautiful, elegant slave dog in chains, and be proud of it. It is a matter of personal choice. Everyone is free to choose according to his own personal inclination and character. We know what your choice is and what you are proud of.
See, I am from Taiwan, and I am never as presumptuous and audacious as you are to make similar remarks as you do about China vs Taiwan, maybe because I have more savvy, because Taiwan is just another slave dog like Japan and South Korea, and I don’t want to make stupid remarks to make a fool of myself as you did.
That’s all. Now go on brandishing your diamond studded dog chain to taunt that ugly wolf of the wild.
A Significant Turning Point in History | Paul Craig Roberts
“I am puzzled how such a rational and humane person as Dr Paul Craig Roberts is allowed to publicly express his rational, non-propagandized opinions so openly without facing all the usual impediments. A very fine spokesman for international and economic affairs.”
I stopped trying to convince others of joining activities I want to do but they don’t and rather do them by myself. If they want to join, that’s fantastic but I am not using up energy to get others out of their own inertia.
I stopped buying snacks because realized that if I don’t have them at home, the inconvenience of having to go out and buy them when I get the cravings often prevents me from eating stuff that isn’t good for me.
I stopped badmouthing others because I realized that even though it is a quick emotional relief, it undermines my relationships in the long run.
I stopped smoking because I realized I only did it to deal with boredom and so when I fixed boredom I fixed my urge for cigarettes. Now, instead of a pack of cigarettes, I grab my guitar.
I stopped trying to hide my flaws because I realized that if there is nothing to hide there is nothing to be insecure about.
I stopped worrying about what strangers think of me because I realized that they are busy thinking about themselves and their own problems. Now I just worry about what my friends and family think of me.
I stopped eating meals hot and fast because my digestion deals better with lukewarm and slow.
I stopped judging others for having different views on how to live life because I realized all our experiences of life are different we are all just trying to get by as best as we can.
I stopped watching porn regularly because I realized that it warped my expectations of what healthy and fulfilling sexuality means in real life.
I stopped being so sure I’m right in an argument because in the past, it often turned out I was wrong no matter how convinced I was of being right.
And I feel like I’m a much happier and better person because I stopped all that stuff.
An Empty World, A Time Traveler, Another Dimension | Liminal Spaces: The Reality In-between
In the past year or so, three internet mysteries popped up that really got my attention.
They may seem very different, but trust me, they’re connected.
The first one is about a girl who found a door in the basement of her AirBnB. She opened it and inside was an abandoned shopping mall. The second story is about Javier aka Unico Sobreviviente, who woke up in a hospital in the year 2027, in an alternate universe.
In his version of the future — everyone on earth has vanished. He’s the only one left, and he has video to prove it. The third mystery is known as the Backdoors. A reality adjacent to ours that, if the conditions are just right, you can accidentally slip into.
Then you find yourself lost in an endless maze of dingy carpet, fluorescent light, and yellow wallpaper.
If the specs are confirmed, it spells a huge downturn for one name.
QUALCOMM.
There are many firsts in the Mate 60 Pro, selling for less than $1,000 dollars, a bargain in the premium handset segment today.
First, there is a custom GPU in the SOC, and that means the Kirin is even more inhouse than Apple’s A-series chipset.
Why?
It has an inhouse 5G modem. Apple with its hundreds billion war-chest has been unable to crack Qualcomm’s patent wall on this particular piece of technology, but it appears Huawei has.
If Huawei makes the design available to Chinese handset makers, we can say goodbye to Qualcomm and Snapdragon, where volume sale is concerned. That or a fierce price war ensue. We will see.
…
Second, the Mate 60 Pro can make satellite calls, while industry leaders external to China are only adding texting/emergency signals via satellite. That’s a killer feature for blindspot coverage in China’s vast countryside.
As a reminder, a modern satellite phone looks like a “walkie talkie”. Yup, walkie-talkie size, only with an unsightly antennae.
But the Mate 60 pro, all of 9mm thick and looking like it came out of the future.
…
Three, this runs Hongmeng 4.0, a mature OS that’s designed from the ground up to take full advantage of the IOT ecosystem. For example, Android auto exists as an app, but Hongmeng’s vehicular integration is baked in. Chinese handset makers will increasingly jump onto the Hongmeng bandwagon to hedge against a repeat of Huawei’s booting by Google on “national security concerns”.
My mainland friends have high praise for Huawei’s OS, and these are guys who own multiple handsets, including Apple.
…
Four, it is AI-assisted, with Huawei’s own large language model Pangu built in. That’s a step (or several) ahead of Android and iOS.
I expect this phone to sell out.
This phone runs with the best in class. But it cannot be sanctioned.
Let me repeat.
THIS PHONE IS SANCTION-PROOF.
Not by Google.
Not by TSMC.
Not by any western semiconductor toolermaker.
Not by any Taiwanese/Korean/Japanese/American component or materials supplier.
Not through application of American patent rights.
No other handset manufacturer can boast such an achievement. American IP-Free at the cutting edge is a historic first.
I’ll end with a short note on the significance of the Mate 60 Pro’s announcement, an earth-shattering injection into the news cycle around Gina’s visit.
Let me explain.
The comprehensive sanctions on Huawei severed its dependence on foreign suppliers vulnerable to US sanction, and forced Huawei to create a domestic-only supply chain that could afford sanction without losing their livelihood.
The existence of this completely independent supply chain (not yet complete), which includes Swift-free financing, is a nightmare for Gina and Co., because she won’t have birds-eye view data on Huawei developments, other than resorting to humint and hacking.
American corporations in a completely separate eco-system will be similarly disadvantaged.
China though, remains fully in the game, since all players are represented in the domestic supply chain.
Gina and American corporations will have to fight Huawei (and Chinese high-tech) with the fog of war turned on.
Best of all, this is a problem created by America, for America.
Suck on it…idiots.
Tony contemplates ‘whacking’ Paulie
Paulie repeatedly denies telling Johnny Sack about Ralph Ciparetto’s joke about Ginny Sack.
Happened to a guy I worked with. There was a rocky period in his marriage prior to the pregnancy and the wife had an affair. At some point afterwards it became obvious that the child was not his.
His take on it? He told me, “There is an old English saying, ‘Whosoever bulleth my cow, the calf is mine’”.
He gave it a lot of thought, realized both he and his wife had been at fault, but if they broke up over this situation he’d lose his biological children and his life would be a mess. So he left his name on the birth certificate as the father and he said he would raise the little boy as his own, no different than his other kids. His older kids had no idea what the situation was. He’d made up with his wife and he wasn’t going to destroy everyone’s life over the DNA of this one little child. He said to him it was no different than if they had adopted or had use donor sperm, they were family and the little boy was his son. He kept his ego out of it and moved on.
I was left wondering how many men would do that. I suspect not many.
Huawei has firmly confronted the four rounds of regulations imposed by the United States and fully engaged in independent research and development.
It has successively created the HarmonyOS, EulerOS, and MateERP systems, among others, to meet Huawei’s business development needs.
Amidst great anticipation, Huawei suddenly released news and announced the long-awaited results.
In the first half of the year, Huawei achieved a revenue of 310.9 billion yuan, and the number of devices in the HarmonyOS ecosystem exceeded 700 million.
With cutting-edge core technologies and leading advantages in the industry, Huawei possesses top-notch expertise in communication, chips, operating systems, artificial intelligence, and other fields.
I did actually walk over to her house and asked for the car to be removed. I also told her I had to go to a doctor’s appointment. This is actually what happened and the vehicle was not moved. I called the local deputy station and for a tow truck. She got her vehicle towed and a ticket. Two days later she came over to my house cursing me and making threats. Congratulations, I called a deputy again to come out and explained to him and a friend of mine witnessed what she did. She was taken away in his vehicle.
She was a very entitled person that thought she could do just anything she wanted to do. Keeping me away from my chemotherapy appointment really was the last straw for me.
Jimmy Meets Gus | Better Call Saul
As Jimmy (Bob Odenkirk) is helping Mike (Jonathan Banks) to discover who is following him, he bumps into the iconic owner of Los Pollos Hermanos, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito).
Things are moving very fast as far as BRICS is concerned
Modi had a good US visit and showed his friend Biden that he was a friend of democracy and the rules based order
Yet this summit literally saw Russia and China go on a full flow against Western Hegemony and in favor of Expansion
They spoke of a literal alternate system to protect and counter western hegemony
Russia, China were fully on board and South Africa who were already pretty pissed off about the ICJ warrant against Putin and being forced to look weak, jumped on the bandwagon
Brazil shrugged and decided to change their mind
So Modi had to watch as BRICS expanded openly and set a tone that would slowly involve an escape from western hegemony
He looked very uncomfortable during this summit
Like in a Hypnotic Daze
Modi is caught between a rock and a hard place
He needs Russia badly. If he is asked to pay market price for Oil which is rising now and could reach $ 115 by December, that would cause economic issues and high inflation right at the time of elections
He needs the West of course because all of Indias reserves and exports depend on their markets
He needs China crucially for his Make in India initiative for the value enhancement of $ 300 Billion of retail value
So like a volleyball, he has to keep being bounced from place to place
China busted another CIA spy, the second arrest in 2 weeks | China Currents
In this episode of China Currents: China busted another CIA spy; BRICS welcomed 6 new members; Japan released nuclear contaminated water into the Pacific.
During the souther Ukraine, near Robotino, a Challenger 2 was destroyed while spear heading an assault. The tank burned out due to being penetrated by a Kornet ATGM according to the Russians in the area. Judging from the video which has already circulated in which the internal fire is visible through the side of the tank. It appears that an ATGM hit the front right side of the hull, and also the side of the turret.
The kornet is 152mm tandem warhead ATGM, developed in the 1990s, it has previously penetrated M1 Abrams tanks in Iraq and Israeli Merkerva in Lebanon. It seems highly likely that this is the responsible ATGM. Though, if the hits as I suspect are on the side of the Challenger 2, basically any ATGM could achieve it.
The idea that the Challenger 2 survives 70 hits from RPGs of any kind anywhere other than a small area on the front, is of course fantasy. Tanks tends to have quite weak side armour, certainly incapable of protecting against direct hits unless the warhead is defective or incredibly old.
“The U.S. & Russia Will Go To War Within A Year!” – Tucker Carlson
During a recent visit to Hungary, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson explained to an audience of Hungarians that the American people are being fed a steady narrative by the mainstream media that Ukraine is winning the war with Russia and all it will take to put the Ukrainians over the top is a few more F-16s. The truth, he noted, is quite the opposite. Guest host Craig “Pasta” Jardula, along with Jimmy Dore and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger, discuss another video in which Carlson predicts the U.S. and Russia will be engaged in a “hot” war within 12 months.
This happened to me when I let an old friend live in my spare room “just until he could find a job and a place “ of his own.
After ten days it was obvious that he was “secretly” drinking vodka every day and had no intention of finding a job or another place to live.
When he began to verbally abuse me and physically intimidate me ( never hit me, but would block my access to my room, come sit in whatever room I was in and glare at me, bust into my bedroom and lay on my bed and refuse to leave)it got so bad I called the cops to make him leave.
Come to find out, he had been in my house just long enough to claim legal residence.
Which, in Arkansas, where I live, is not very long.
My only recourse, the police said, was to go pay $168 for and eviction notice that would be served by the sheriff.
The whole experience has made me feel very weary of ever letting anyone stay here more than a few days ever again. So, my advice is to look into whether the state you live in will allow for you to have them evicted.
NIGER: MILITARY ORDERS POLICE TO EXPEL FRENCH AMBASSADOR
What’s wrong with these people do they think that they own Africa?
Around age 10, one of my friends suddenly had this new passion for surfing.
We lived in Florida where that was a big thing. His walls were covered in posters. He could name every surfer, as well as the many types of waves. His encyclopedic knowledge of surfing was immensely impressive — until he actually surfed.
I was surprised. He couldn’t even stand up on his board for more than two seconds. And to be fair, neither could I. But I hadn’t spent a mountain of time studying and talking about surfing.
This speaks to a common issue in self-improvement. People read self-help books for hours. They listen to podcasts and attend seminars.
They do all the things except the actual work. Yet by being near the problem, they feel like they are getting things done. This is why blogs with titles such as “tiny habits” are so popular — they imply massive change comes from small increments of effort.
The easiest way to get better is to focus on one simple framework or set of advice. Put that reading time directly into the effort instead. Our brain can’t focus on twenty self-help priorities at once.
It is focused efforts protracted across stretches of time that produce lasting change. In other words, dedication.
China Just SHOCKED Australia With This $100 Billion MEGA Project!
Prepare to be astonished as China unveils its mind-boggling $100 billion MEGA project that has left Australia in awe. Join us in exploring the staggering scale, innovation, and potential impacts of this monumental endeavor. Discover how this project is redefining the landscape of collaboration and development in the region. Subscribe now to witness how China’s audacious vision is making waves on a global scale.
I can only speak for the situation here in Chicago, where I teach at a private school that has seen an influx of new students in the last five years. Here are the reasons parents here take their children out of public schools and put them into private schools:
Student discipline. Student behaviors in public schools are out of control. This is, by far, the main reason parents pull their children out of public schools. This is also one of the primary reasons for the teacher shortage in some public schools. Adults don’t want to deal with out of control kids all day, and they especially don’t want their own children in that environment. This is also why people move out of neighborhoods, businesses close, etc… Everyone is just trying to avoid people with anti-social behaviors as much as possible. Prices for real estate and schools both fall in tandem with how much riff-raff you have to deal with in that place. The more you’re paying to be in a place, the less likely you have to deal with shitty behavior from others.
Smaller class sizes. My largest class this year has 15 students in it. One of my new students told us that her public school class last year had 33 students in it. That’s par for the public schools around here.
Academic rigor. Because private schools have smaller classes full of relatively well-behaved students, it’s easier for the teachers to challenge each child to their personal level. I’m starting novel groups next week. Some students will be reading a tenth-grade-level novel, while others will be reading an eighth- or sixth- grade level novel. I have the time and experience to teach all three novels at the same time.
Traditional curriculum. One of the common comments from parents, during our open house, when they see my class sets of novels, is that they appreciate that they recognize most of the titles. I have about 50 novel sets to select from for my novel groups, and about 35 of those are “classics.” That’s what the parents want to see. The other 15 are newer, more high-interest novels, but nothing too edgy.
Inclusion of religion/morality in the curriculum. Honestly, not too many Catholic school parents care too much about this. It’s just a nice bonus for them. They want their children to be taught the same general morality that the parents have or, at the very least, not be taught something that directly contradicts the parents’ morality or religion.
Geographical convenience. Sometimes, parents want their child to attend a school that’s closer to the parent’s workplace, or a caretaker’s house, or some place that’s just more convenient logistically. If the public school requires an hour bus ride each direction, and the private school is right across the street from your house, then maybe it’s worth the price, simply for the convenience.
Vinegar Grilled Chicken
vinegar grilled chicken
Prep: 10 min | Marinate: 4 hr | Cook: 10 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
2/3 cup water
1 1/3 cups white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh-ground black pepper
2 tablespoons garlic powder
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
1 tablespoon hot sauce
3 tablespoons butter, melted, or sesame oil
4 (10 ounce) bone-in chicken breast halves
Instructions
Place the water, vinegar, pepper, salt, Worcestershire or soy sauce, hot sauce and butter or sesame oil into a large, resealable plastic bag. Shake to combine ingredients, then add chicken, seal and shake to coat. Place in refrigerator to marinate for at least 4 hours.
Heat an outdoor grill* for medium-high heat, and lightly oil the grate.
Remove chicken from marinade, and shake off excess. Discard remaining marinade.
Cook on preheated grill until no longer pink in the center; about 10 minutes per side.
Notes
* This cooks beautifully on a George Foreman Grill also.
To make this chicken roadside-style, use boneless chicken tenderloins and brush with barbecue sauce the final minutes of grilling.
Huawei Mate 60 Pro: Game over for US chip sanctions?!
The Washington Post, usually a pretty good barometer of the sentiment on Capitol Hill, opined: “New phone sparks worry China has found a way around U.S. tech limits,” which one analyst described as a slap in the face to Washington.
Much deserved, I say!
Today I will break the situation down in layman’s terms, and we’ll also catch up with US geopolitical analyst Thomas Pauken the Second. This is Reports on China, I’m Andy Boreham in Shanghai. Let’s get reporting!
One of the elements of life is to get bad news, suffer though crimes, or be misunderstood. Many times people will place blame on you, and expect you to apologize for your evil. Then they will punish you in all sorts of ways relative to their degree of power and authority.
Once you start your affirmation campaigns, you start to realize (often after years) that what you experience (good and bad) are but manifestations. These manifestations (often parts of larger constructions) that present (relative) bad or uncomfortable to you as part of moving forward to achieve your goals.
You are stuck in traffic, and you miss your plane. (Bad + Bad) You miss an important meeting. (Bad) Where decisions that affect you are made without your consent. (Bad) But when you start working you notice that your life takes a dramatic change in the direction your have been affirming. (Very Good).
Certainly there are other influences (such as fate) that will either enhance or hinder your manifestations, but no matter what remember…
…what ever you experience is part of the system that supports the manifestation of your reality.
So “Bad” just seems that way. In reality, it is a “shedding of old skin” to start a new direction, lifestyle and beginning.
Ha ha. Yep. It was a real Pretty Woman moment too!
I had started with this really wealthy client and they expected me to dress the part when dealing with their customers.
So I was given a $2k clothing allowance and went out shopping. I went to a Neiman Marcus store and went to the high end section. I was ignored. Then I was told they didn’t have anything that would look good on me. (I’m a size 6 for crying out loud…) I wasn’t dressed to the 9’s —I was in my usual nice jeans, nice shirt and boots.
So I ended up in a White House, Black Market store. The ladies were awesome. I told them what I had just been through and the manager was totally horrified at my treatment. She told me not to worry and to literally ‘get ready to have some fun!’
They kept bringing me shirts and skirts and pants and dresses, all while telling me what looked good and what didn’t. And not everything that was on clearance was what looked horrible on me. It was actually a mix between the clearance and regular clothing.
By the time I was done, I had gotten $5k of clothing for about $1700. A great day!
Depending on the degree of the decoupling, it would suffer a slowdown, but the Chinese government is preparing for that scenario by expanding trade ties with other developing economies.
Formed about 450 million years ago, it’s found under a good portion of Manhattan, but is not common in the rest of the New York metro area. It’s thick and hard, which means it has an incredible bearing capacity. Stick a massive skyscraper on top of it and it won’t move a millimeter in geologic time. Putting a skyscraper on it is like putting an ant on a horse. It hasn’t been subject to any tectonic forces in hundreds of millions of years – it essentially rides on top of a stable part of the North American plate.
Unfortunately, it is deep, deep beneath the surface sometimes. In Greenwich Village, it’s about 260 feet below the surface, so it’s not practical to dig down that far to lay a foundation. However, in many parts of Manhattan, it’s less than 20 feet below the surface – trivially easy to dig that deep and put the foundation on top of it.
I had a ‘hometown’ bank (The walk-in, mail in, drive -in, FLY-IN- bank had its own landing strip behind the property) ; I used it for almost 30 years. Everyone knew you, your family and even the pets names.
The founder/owner retired and sold out to Wells Fargo.
Gone were the friendly faces and wide open spaces.
No one knew my name. Partitions went up to block off the ‘important’ offices, the break room was closed to customers, where we used to sit and nibble homemade tea cookies while sipping free Dr. Pepper and coffee, conducting business there instead of an office. (I once bought a car for my son as I was leaving to work a disaster. My loan officer told me ‘When you’re back in town come by and sign the papers. Tell _____to drive careful’.)
I won’t say I hated Wells Fargo. I like the word DETEST. Maybe LOATHE. I remember being charged $5.00 (in the 90’s) to talk to an actual person instead of their ‘robot’.
The straw that broke the camels back occurred when one of my sons graduated high school with a 4.0, 4 year average. That netted him $5,000. I went to get the cash, fifty $100.00 bills. The teller asked why I wanted it. I told her it wasn’t any of her concern and asked for the money a second time. She went to get her manager. Same question. Same reply. He said he would have to make a phone call. I stopped him and asked him to give me all my money from my 2 accounts. He tried to talk me out of it. I suggested maybe it was time to call the police to help get my money.
I closed the accounts. The manager put the cash in a locked bank envelope. I drove a half mile to the newest bank in town, one founded by the employees of my old bank (who were all fired – every one of them). I opened the door and immediately heard, ‘ Ron, What took you so long?’
I was home. The bank offered me those tea cookies. And an iced cold Dr. Pepper.
I will never use Wells Fargo bank again.
Xi Jinping avoids Biden meeting. BRICS more important than G20
Xi Jinping avoids Biden meeting. BRICS more important than G20 The Duran: Episode 1688.
It hurts me to say and then write: Next few centuries or more belong to China. That is the way China and the Chinese wrote their fate.
For nearly fifty years, I worked with Canadians, Overseas, and Mainland Chinese at different levels.
(I have been in Canada for close to fifty years) and besides visiting several other countries, living next to the USA. I believe I can say a few words on this topic.
I was born/grew up in Punjab/India; therefore, I knew India from birth and then went to India at frequent time gaps.
Once reasonably recently, before COVID, I went there to get my ancestral house repaired, and one severe issue was the property. I was there for an extended period. And this trip was immediately after visiting China.
I confirmed in my mind:
Productivity/Super Safety/Shallow crime society/State of the art infrastructure/one of the best mass transportation safe and reasonably priced reliable/almost wiped out hunger/very high literacy rate and going up consistently/relatively very low corruption/drug-free society/heightened civic sense/now controlled in check population growth/for women participation in the workforce/women are very respected and cared and safe/the Chinese Government is made of very devoted and qualified people/Chinese Government does not leave anyone behind/law enforcement agencies are deemed to be friends not corrupted overweight harassers/very frugal and high saving society/
Chinese people are one of the most hardworking races on the earth.
Now I know it hurts: The hard reality is that Indian efficiency/productivity was about thirty percent of the Chinese efficiency/productivity.
India is one of the most corrupt countries. China may not be washed in holy water, but it is relatively clean from this evil.
India has a useless/failed/borrowed system from the former rulers. There is NO WORKING DEMOCRACY IN THE WORLD. It is wishful thinking, which is why The West is sinking with crime/clogged courts/lawless lands/ and the Sun is setting faster than you think.
India still has 200 million people who do not have three meals a day. China has almost wiped out the hunger.
India is a land with corrupt style regimes, super clogged courts, zero justice, appeals appeals appeals, and more appeals and no justice.
Go to YOUTUBE/Google/and read about the Ajmer Sex Scandal, the Nirbhay Case(Seven-year delay in delivering justice)/Kids killing their parents for money/spouses hiring hit people to get rid of the spouse/and similar gut-wrenching a piece of daily news.
India is no match and never will be in INFRA-STRUCTURE with China; please visit China as I did and open your eyes.
Women can walk alone in the middle of the night in Shanghai/Beijing. Try to do something stupid, and you will find out. Just compare this thing with India.
Chinese people are highly disciplined, have great civic sense, and are true Karam Yogi/Yoginis(Good deed philosophy and working diligently).
Chinese universities are far ahead of India: Look at the world list of top universities and find where India stands, including IIT and IIM.
My kids went to school/university with Chinese kids. They will eat the competition alive(which means no match for their hard work; it was great for us because our kids were now equally successful as their completion or even more).
A Chinese woman is a killer(In a good sense); I have seen her multitasking and giving a new horizon to the MOST hardworking human in the modern world.
She has NOT only claimed half of the sky her fair share but also took half the burden of hard work.
In my view, at present times, Chinese/Japanese/Singaporean women are the luckiest of women to gain their proper place in society and job opportunities.
India is the crime capital of the world, where even the MUG in the toilet of the rail compartment is chained to the wall because people steal. Try these things in China and find out the consequences.
China is almost free from drugs now compared to India.
This is a myth that Chinese people are NOT happy: That is utter nonsense. Most of the Chinese people I met in China/Canada and during the travel in Asia, except in HK/Taiwan, are very satisfied and know the future is bright for them.
China is light years ahead of India in literacy rate.
China’s mass-scale public transportation is becoming a world model.
China has now controlled population growth, but India is still going strong.
China has no caste system, and India is still pickling in the caste system.
The best is to go to China and come back and measure: China has surpassed some of the past highest standards set by Japan/Europe/North America.
China’s growth and being the ULTIMATE superpower is a reality, and in the next few centuries, China will be the ULTIMATE power.
Here is the conclusion:
“India is inferior to China in every way.”
My observations/conclusions/: India will NEVER MATCH or EVEN COME CLOSER TO CHINA: India has a failed governing system, And it is ONLY big ra ra in the eyes of the West to counterbalance Chinese Might. The West is a setting sun: It is over for them. And so-called “Democracy” failed miserably.
And
India has lost direction: Nudity/Vulgarity/skyrocketing drug/alcohol/consumption/shallow productivity/zero civic sense/corruption top to bottom/uncontrolled population growth/mafia style regimes/deplorable work ethics/wrong and massive use of modern gadgets/inferior infrastructure/massive hunger/slavery/caste system/low literacy rate/destitute personal safety/assets/and women in specific. Trolls will be significant nails in the coffin in starting the next war with neighboring countries. This list is a never-ending list.
In a country where people do not hesitate to script fixtures such as an inexpensive MUG to clean the user after defecating, What do you expect more?
China has a free battlefield to walk to the crown, and no one can stop her. She is already the real Queen or Chairperson of the board.
Learn to work with her: No use in fighting this might. For over 70 years, she worked extremely hard to clean the house behind closed doors.
I hope it helps.
I JUST CRIED!! OLIVER ANTHONY – RICH MEN NORTH OF RICHMOND
2023 08 20 17 12
Boogie Woogie Beef
OvbIP
Ingredients
1 (10 3/4 ounce) can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup red wine
1 envelope Lipton beefy onion soup mix
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
2 pounds stew beef
8 ounces fresh mushrooms, sliced
8 ounces baby carrots
Instructions
Mix cream of mushroom soup, wine, beefy onion soup mix and dried thyme in slow cooker.
Add meat, carrots, and mushrooms; and stir.
Cook on HIGH for 4 hours, then on LOW for 4 hours, or just cook on LOW for about 8 to 10 hours.
U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s visit in post-coup Niger has incensed Washington’s NATO ally France, according to a weekend report by French news outlet Le Figaro, quoting a source within the French Foreign Ministry.
The United States “did the exact opposite of what we thought they would do,” the French daily wrote, according to the diplomat’s remarks. “With allies like these, we do not need enemies,” it elaborated. Paris has been demanding the reinstatement of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum ever since a new military government emerged in wake of a coup in late July.
Moreover, the French government was prepared to militarily back West African nations to assist with Bazoum’s reinstatement, as it upheld the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in its move to deploy reserve forces after the coup.
By dispatching Nuland to Niger, the United States showed that it was prepared to talk with the coup leaders instead, Le Figaro complained. “For [French President] Emmanuel Macron, the credibility of France, particularly in terms of discourse on democracy, was at stake. For the Americans, even if they are also concerned about a rapid return to constitutional order, the priority is the stability of the region,” the paper’s source within the foreign ministry declared.
Americans merely hope to “to keep their bases” in the region above all else, the diplomat said, elaborating that Washington “will not hesitate” to drop a demand for what he termed as “constitutional legality” to attain that aim.
At the moment, Paris’ worry is that Washington could ink a deal with Niger’s military government without France’s participation.
The United States has a considerable ground presence in Niger, amounting to around 1,300 soldiers and almost rivaling that of France, which has about 1,500 servicemen in the country. Furthermore, American troops are separated between two bases, situated in the Nigerien capital of Niamey and the northern city of Agadez.
Agadez is supposedly of notable significance for the United States, as it is home to a landing strip for drones and functions as a surveillance hub for a large area encompassing the area between West Africa to Libya in the north.
The Le Figaro article continued that Paris is riled by the fact that, notwithstanding that both America and France have troops in Niger, the French presence is the only one that incites unhappiness among the locals. “The United States, like our other allies for that matter, has a habit of letting us take the hits,” the French diplomat complained to the paper.
The coup in Niger happened on July 26, when the presidential guard led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani detained Bazoum and his family, quoting a “deteriorating security situation and bad governance.” The move led to harsh criticism from global powers, while ECOWAS enforced stringent sanctions on Niger and gave an ultimatum to the coup leaders to free Bazoum or be prepared for military intervention.
On Monday, Niger’s military government agreed to hold talks with ECOWAS in an attempt to lower hostilities.
Last week, Nuland visited Niger and cautioned the new military government against having any deals with the Russian private military company Wagner, apart from encouraging them to reinstate the Washington-friendly status quo.
Earlier in August, Niger’s military leaders insisted that the French forces depart the country by early September. Based on media reports last week, the commander of the French forces in Niger told Niger’s military leadership’s chief of general staff about Paris’ plans to transfer “nearly 40 soldiers” who were originally located in Niger to Chad.
“The French forces, which are present in Niger, are there, just like others, at the request of the country’s legitimate authorities, on the basis of agreements signed with the legitimate authorities to help fight against terrorism. We have suspended our military cooperation, as well as civil interaction since the [military takeover],” the ministry replied in written form to the question of whether the French troops would back out from Niger.
“We only recognize the decisions of the legitimate Nigerien authorities.”
A total of 1,500 French soldiers are presently stationed in Niger, and 1,000 are now in Chad after they were forced to withdraw from Burkina Faso and Mali after coups in those countries.
Additionally, Paris did not disclose any details pertaining to the potential withdrawal of French troops from Niger to an airbase in Chad in the future.
French troops deployed in rebel-run Niger have been limited to a military base in the national capital of Niamey, according to Russian-based news outlet Sputnik on August 12.
The troops have not left the base or explored streets of the western African city for days, according to Sputnik’s correspondent. Rebel military convoys have been regularly going around the facility without incident.
Thousands of anti-French protestors gathered outside the base on Friday to demand that Niger’s former colonial master cease its military presence in the country.
An advisor to the ousted Nigerien president told Sputnik News that France had rejected the option of withdrawing troops from Niger after the military demands.
On August 9, Niger’s military leadership raised the threat level in the country before claiming that the actions of French troops led to an assault on the Nigerien national guard. The military also posited that a French warplane entered the African nation’s airspace.
“The National Council for the Safeguard of the Fatherland informs the local and international community about the events of extreme seriousness that are taking place in Niger, about the facts of the behavior of the French forces on our territory
.… Today, August 9, 2023 at 6.30 am [5:30 am GMT], the positions of the Niger National Guard … were attacked.… The actions of the French forces were condemned for unilaterally releasing detained terrorists,” Amadou Adramane, Niger’s military’s spokesman, proclaimed.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “very concerned” about the living conditions and safety of detained Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum and his family and again urged for his immediate and unconditional release, a spokesperson declared in a statement.
The establishment starts to downplay what is going on…
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Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond (Reaction) WOW!
So some backstory.. My house was broken into in 2015. I was about 18–19 at the time and my dog attacked the perpetrators, and ended up taking a bullet for me in the process. At the time I did not own any firearms, at least not at my house. With that being said, she saved my life that night. The first shot was aimed at me, missing by mere inches. The other 2 were aimed at her, although only 1 hit her. Vet said it missed her heart by less than 2 inches, clean entry and exit wound. I ended up vacating the house after that, letting my pup (half GSD, half DSD, Sam) stay with my parents and moving to Jacksonville with my best friend.
When I came back into town, I didn’t have much to my name, forcing me to move back in with my parents, siblings, and my grandfather. My older brother had addiction problems and was on probation because he had gotten caught with a Xanax. His P.O would come to the house some nights to ensure he was following the straight and narrow, and that he was in by curfew. They were random visits with no notice.
One night, at about 9:00 pm or later, my grandfather was stepping out to smoke. Sam would often follow him out to do her business and patrol the yard looking for any threats. She had become very protective of the entire family, and she knows where our property line ends so we never leash her when going out. She never leaves the yard and a simple call or whistle brings her running back inside. It just so happens that this night my brothers P.O. was stopping by to check on him. Sam followed my grandfather out as the cop was rounding the corner, and without hesitation she attacked, grabbing his dominant arm preventing him from drawing his weapon.
I was still dealing with PTSD from nearly being killed, so my gun never left my side. I was licensed to carry, and it was never out of arms reach. Also, I know my dog. I know her sounds, her body language, everything. When I heard her from the living room, my first thought was “She’s in trouble and she needs my help”. I drew my weapon and out the door I went, brushing past my grandfather on the way. The floodlight had the entire situation lit up, so as soon as I exited I realized that she was attacking a county officer. I immediately lowered my weapon and recalled Sam. She let go and went straight inside as I holstered my pistol. The officer stood there looking at me in complete and utter shock, blood running down his arm. I apologized profusely as I tried to help him render aid to his injured arm. He calls for an ambulance, and within minutes there are 2 more units, an ambulance, and a fire truck blocking the road at our driveway.
By the end of it, he was also apologizing, saying that Sam was just doing her job. She was up to date on all of her immunizations, and does not have a history of violence. He chose not to take any legal action against us or our pup, and from that night on, he called when he pulled in the driveway before exiting his patrol vehicle. Sam is now very attached to my mother. Despite me now being moved out with a family of my own, I decided it was best for her to stay with my mother and father. I have included pictures of Sam for good measure. Best dog I’ve ever had. She is now living her days out in luxury, and never wants for anything.
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Heartbreaking Truth!!! Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond | REACTION *TEARS*
In 1972, the Army had learned serious lessons in Vietnam about how durable a helicopter had to be to survive in a combat environment. They needed an aircraft that would not be brought down by a small arms bullet in the right place.
To that end, the Army started the UTTAS (Utility Tactical Transport Aircraft System) program to develop the replacement for the Huey. All of the major helicopter manufacturers submitted preliminary designs that complied with the UTTAS specifications, including Bell. The Army selected the Sikorsky YUH-60 and the Boeing Vertol YUH-61 as competitors for the production contract. Once both companies had working de-bugged models flying, the Army conducted its own flyoff.
An incident during this flyoff influenced the final decision. One of the Army crews attempted to land one of the H-60s in what they thought was an open field, only to find out too late that it was a grove of pine tree saplings. The H-60 weed whacked the saplings around the aircraft, and the fuselage bent or broke those immediately underneath with little damage. The main rotor blades took a bit of a beating, though, and some thought Sikorsky was in trouble.
Company and Army personnel cleared their way to, and around the aircraft. They brought in the portable maintenance crane and a new set of main rotor blades and did a removal and replacement in situ. They then flew the aircraft out of there and back to the base.
In 1976 the Army selected the UH-60A as the winner of the UTTAS contract, and named it the Black Hawk.
Since then over 5000 H-60s have been produced over several models. The aircraft is a brick outhouse that, while not invulnerable, is extremely hard to bring down. It was my honor and privilege to work on all but the earliest ones as a Flight Mechanic, and, later, a Crew Chief, all in the Sikorsky Flight Hangar in Stratford.
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Top picture is a brand new UH-60M. The bottom picture is that of a Turkish Jandarma UH-60L that flew home after taking a hit from an RPG7. As you can see, the damage was extensive, but the airframe was strong enough to fly home, even with the tailcone to cabin bulkhead broken by the blast.
If I was a soldier on the ground needing extraction from a hot LZ, I would want Black Hawks to be coming for me.
SHOCKS the WEST! Europe in Panic as China Cancels $100 Billion Car Order from Germany.
Yes, my ex-wife took me to court for contempt 20 times. She won zero times. I filed once and won once.
My ex-wife filed for contempt for taking my sons to the doctor. They were having trouble hearing. My elder son was talking like a deaf person. I had sent her letters, faxes, and certified letters. She was acting as their pediatrician without keeping a medical record. One child had 19 scripts for antibiotics in the last year, the other 9. These were the only records I could get.
So I took them over the Easter week to an ENT. They were seen by an audiologist and the ENT. The older son was down 30 dB in hearing and the younger one was down 15 dB. There was chronic fluid in their ears. He prescribed medication and said the older son needed tubes/adenoids.
So I filled the script on my dime (the doctor did the entire eval professional courtesy). She called the ENT doctor and chewed him out. SHE WAS A PEDIATRICIAN! She filed contempt against me for taking my own kids (I had joint custody) to the doctor.
When the judge heard what this was about he asked “Did he have surgery done?” “No sir”, her attorney answered. “What did he do?” “He took them to the doctor and got medication.”
The judge looked at her and said “If these are the facts you need to drop this. If not you will pay his court costs, lawyer fees you and your attorney will be sanctioned.”
The ex demanded her attorney proceed. The judge did exactly what he said. In the future I could take them to any doctor, but just needed to notify her. She could no longer be their pediatrician.
Pretty good dressing-down of the ex who had filed the contempt.
ETA: The ex took them to three different ENT’s trying to get a different opinion. 4–0 my son got the surgery he needed and could hear. She would never admit she was wrong.
OLIVER ANTHONY “Rich Man North of Richmond” REACTION! First Time Hearing!
I’m not sure what sort of food falls under “poor person food”.
But I do know that my family wasn’t very well off when I was a kid. We weren’t exactly dirt poor – it was more like we were just struggling to get by.
I remember, early on, come meal time, we would use these carboard boxes as a makeshift dining table.
Eventually, one of my uncles – a carpenter by trade – built us this small but sturdy dining table, and the accompanying four stools.
It was a very small dining table, but given that we had all our meals there, it was a table that witnessed a lot of happy family time centered around food.
We ate mostly tofu and vegetables, with a bit of rice/noodles, a bit of egg, and bits of meat. Every now and again, we would have fish.
Sometimes we went to bed still feeling a little hungry, but we were definitely not starving.
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Then, HK and the Mainland’s economic fortunes and interdependency really started to pick up and my parents enjoyed a significant improvement in their job prospects and investments.
We made the transition to middle class, but we never stopped eating any of the food we were already used to eating.
We still ate the same vegetable, egg, and tofu dishes we had always eaten. No quantity drop there at all.
But there was a huge uptick in meat and seafood consumption. And baked products.
Now we could afford meat and seafood at every meal. And maybe once every week, or once every two weeks, we would go out for dinner at a nice restaurant. If I felt like it, I could eat an egg tart at 4pm.
Today, of course I’m a lot more well off than when I was a kid.
But I don’t feel like I’ve stopped eating any of the “poor person food” I used to eat as a kid – they remain everyday dishes for me.
The difference is now I have a lot more options when it comes to food choices.
I can eat meat and seafood at every meal. I can buy sourdough egg tarts from Bakehouse for my family and niece. I can enjoy dimsum every weekend if I were so inclined.
So, in the unlikely event that I become “mega rich”, I’ll probably just continue eating the same things I always have, just that maybe I can eat more of it – if I wanted to.
I’m not one for Michelin-starrred fine-dining restaurants. I’ve probably never been to one – I say probably here because I might have been to one without realizing it as some of my friends consider themselves foodies and like to drag me along to all these fine-dining food establishments.
Me? I’m more fascinated by what my parents, or my friends, or even myself, whip up at home. Because for me, home cooked food is where the magic is at.
That little wooden dining table, with its unique array of scratches and stains, is now long gone.
But the memories associated with it, of family meals filled with delicious food, contentment, and happiness – well, except for when my sister and I were literally fighting over who got to eat the fish eyes, which saw the unleashing of lightning fists and heaven-splitting kicks – are still here, cuddling each other affectionately in the amphitheater of my mind.
The Science of Ancient Acoustic Levitation | How The Pyramids Were Built?
LEVITATION. The ruins of several ancient civilizations – like the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge in the UK, and many others – are monuments constructed of massive stones.
How the great pyramids of Egypt were built has been the subject of debate for a long time.
The fact is, no one really knows for certain exactly how some of these megaliths were constructed.
Some researchers think ancient cultures may have mastered levitation through sound which allowed them to easily manipulate massive objects.
Unfortunately, anyone suggesting the use of this kind of technology is attacked and labeled a “pseudoscientist”.
Abul Hasan Ali Al-Masudi is known as the Herodotus of the Arabs. Like everyone, he was awestruck by the pyramids.
He wrote a very intriguing passage about how the giant stone blocks were transported — through levitation.
The Great Pyramid of Giza does possess some extraordinary acoustic properties, and can dramatically amplify sounds at certain frequencies.
The Egyptians clearly knew a lot about sound science. Let’s explore the Coral Castle in Florida, built by Edward Leedskalnin, who cut, transported and sculpted over 1,000 tons of rock into a sprawling complex — alone, without heavy machinery.
We’ll visit The Temple of Jupiter at Baalbek in Lebanon which boasts the largest stones ever carved by human hands.
Nan Madol is an archaeological site in Micronesia.
It’s been called the Machu Picchu of the Pacific.
The engineering of Nan Madol is so complex, no one can figure out how it was built.
Let’s hear the story told by Dr. Jarl about Tibetan monks who lifted stones by chanting and playing instruments — which Jarl put on film.
There is science behind all these stories, yet “mainstream” academia dismisses each and every one as pseudoscience.
Why is it wrong to want to explore ancient knowledge that contradicts modern beliefs?
In a true post apocalyptic scenario, every kind of ammo that needs modern day machining will be way too valuable to be used for hunting or fighting. Modern ammo will be the new currency, more precious than gold and diamonds. Even percussion caps are way too valuable, in a society with no electricity it would be almost impossible to make them from scratch.
This pistol here is different. All you need is a good stack of flints and you are all set. Black powder CAN be made with primitive technology, basically from human urine (matured in a heap) and charcoal. You can load pretty much anything into the gun. Steel or lead balls, with a patch if the size is too small. Nails, even stones.
Erasing Android Code, Chinese Tech Giant Surging Where Apple and Google Wouldn’t Dare!
“When they cut off our food supply, won’t we be left helpless?” This was the shocking statement made by Ren Zhengfei when Huawei’s mobile phone business first entered the international market.
https://youtu.be/2NcZyqvYBk4
Russian Transport Jet Arrives in Mali; Wagner PMC Forces Deploying to Niger
A Russian plane has landed in Bamako airport, Mali carrying hundreds of Wagner Private Military Company (PMC) fighters it allegedly picked up from Syria. Wagner is on its way to Niger to protect that country from “outside forces.”
Wagner PMC has recruited thousands of veterans of the Syrian civil war, mostly men who fought on behalf of the Syrian government and defeated ISIS, Al-Qaeda and the FSA. These men have incredible combat experience against terrorists.
Syria is one of the first places where Wagner PMC proved its combat superiority to the whole world. Without their efforts, the Syrian president would’ve gotten the Gaddafi treatment from the west a long time ago. But he prevailed, thanks to RUSSIA and its elite fighting force, Wagner PMC.
Upon arriving Niger, Wagner reportedly told the new Niger administration never to worry about any foreign army on Niger soil and specifically assured the leadership that Wagner will take on the Americans head on, if they ever dare to get involved in the conflict with ECOWAS, or try to deploy their drones.
At the moment, there are about 5,000 RUSSIAN funded volunteer fighters in AFRICA: They are mainly active in Mali, Libya, Sudan, Central African Republic, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Wagner will undertake the protection of Niger’s presidential palace in its capital city of Niamey, and the main infrastructures of the country potentially threatened by the impending Nigerian-led military action.
With a personnel capacity of about 230,000 men, neighboring Nigeria is expected to contribute far more soldiers to the operation against Niger than any other country in the bloc. However the two countries with the strongest armies in AFRICA, Egypt and Algeria have warned against any military intervention in Niger, and vowed they’ll not stand idly and let that happen.
Reportedly, the morale of Niger’s military personnel is at an all time high right now, given that nearly the entire population of Niger are in support of the military and thousands have signed up to fight with the Russian volunteer force, Wagner, in defense of their homeland.
I was a beach boy. Forests, hiking, mountains and campfires were not my thing, but my parents (certainly with immense reservations from my mother) thought it would be good to expose us (3 girls and 2 boys aged 13-8) to the other side of nature.
My godfather worked for the US Forest Service and had access to a no-electric, outside-water-pump, outhouse-equipped, cabin deep the Maine woods. He and his wife had four intrepid sons aged 7 to 13 or so.
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So that’s how six young boys ended up trekking through the hot, sticky woods on a late July afternoon.
I was miserable. I hated washing in freezing water, smelling of smoke, sleeping on hard floors and eating beans and hot dogs.
Even worse I hated my trek mates. As is perfectly normal for that age, they spent all their efforts trying to out-curse and out-dare each other. I was a toothpick-thin, half-blind kid who read at least a book a day. This was not my scene.
Heading back to the cabin alone crossed my mind, but I was sure I would lose my way.
But fate and book-knowledge ended up leaving me no choice.
Dennis, the oldest, spotted a wasp’s nest hanging from a branch about 10 meters away. He announced a contest to see who could hit it with a rock.
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He picked one up and let it fly.
I didn’t wait to see if his aim was true. I flew like the wind. Running was about the only thing other than reading that I was good at.
The first rock missed, but the second hit home and the nest hit the ground. I was a good hundred meters away when the screaming started.
My brother escaped with six stings. Two of the others required a trip to the doctors and medication.
In 1971, Waco representative Tom Moore Jr passed a resolution honouring Albert Desalvo, also known as the Boston Strangler. It was to honour the serial killer for his dedication and devotion to population control.
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The resolution was unanimously passed by Congress, but the whole thing was an April’s fool’s joke. It was also Moore’s intent to show that resolutions were passed in Congress without anyone looking at them or researching the issue presented to Congress.
OLIVER ANTHONY | Rich Men North Of Richmond Reaction
The US, along with the UK, are what we call in China as “shit stirring stick”.
They stir the shit to disgust everyone around, therefore they don’t stir shit near them.
Of course, they call it as “off-shore balancing”.
Both of them are good at one thing: first creating problems, then jumping out to “solve” it.
After WWI, the US fully supported Nazi Germany, because:
it must ensure that Germany is able to pay the war reparations;
both the US and UK wanted to “balance” the European continent and were afraid of France being too outstanding.
And the result was the WWII.
Germany became super nationalist and racist, and France was much weaker than expected to stop Germany.
Essentially, they need people whom living away from them to constantly fight each other, so that they could stay out enjoying peace and intervine from time to time.
It also what the Belgians did in Rwanda. They created 2 ethnic groups based on wealth, and appointed the minority as the ruling class, so that once they left, the majority group would for sure want a revenge.
President Paul Kagame banned the 2 ethnic groups and made everyone just Rwandan, and the west is not happy about him.
Right now, the US is in deep shit.
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The interest rate of 10 year treasury is already 4.3%, which is already suppressing the real economy.
The US will also face very high interest expenditure in the next few years. In 2022, the interest expense was 718 billion USD, not very far from the military expense, and it will breakthrough 1 trillion soon.
Therefore, it needs other places in chaos, to squeeze more USD out and back to the US to support its treasury. After all, even with AA+ rating, the US and its treasury are still safe to invest, just don’t know for how long.
Immortal Joe only needs 500 billion USD more till 2024 election. Even if something bad happened after the election, it would either be the problem of another POTUS, or the voters could not do anything about it.
So what we can see is that the US has been stirring shit around the world, to cause more chaos.
Ukraine is a success, since Europe is already in technical recession due to high energy price and escaping capital.
However, China is not about to bite, nor DPP authority in Taiwan. Xi Jinping is not going to attack Taiwan this year, and Tsai Ing-wen is not Zelensky.
The US couldn’t possibily care more, but focuses on gaining money by selling outdated and futures weapons to Taiwan.
Veteran Reacts To Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home
What fascinates me the most is how he’s able to put so MUCH in so few words. It’s astounding to hear.
However if they keep denying China their most advanced chips or GPUs, it’s very likely that in the next 5–7 years they wil
China is on a surge when it comes to Robotics and AI
AI is used in Agriculture, Drones, Administration, System Operations etc
They have to keep evolving every day and for that THEY NEED ADVANCED CHIPS AND WILL PAY TOP DOLLAR FOR THE SAME
In 2010, you can see that China had a very small size of the pie.
US and EU were the largest markets for advanced technology with nearly 78% sales in these two entities
Take out China and nobody would care in the least
Today things are drastically different
China and HK combined account for almost 36% of the sales for Advanced Technology and Equipment
In fact China and HK have become a larger market for advanced technology than the entire EU combined
Take out China and that’s 33% market share gone and that’s a HUGE HIT
Chinas demand for advanced chips is INSATIABLE
They will do anything it takes to get chips performing to the same level of those advanced chips sold by Intel or Qualcomm or GPUs sold by NVDIA
Today China uses either
Inventory Chips which means chips and GPUs already purchased before restrictions enhancing their performance through ingenuity and skillMade to order GPUs designed exclusively to dodge US Sanctions which are maybe 90% as efficient as the sanctioned GPUs and use skill and ingenuity to enhance their efficiency to 98%Modified Chips that are less advanced chips that perform as advanced chips through technological skill which consume far more power and are less cost effective
China can keep growing it’s AI and Robotics and Advanced Computing for the next 10 years using the above three combinations
Yet by 2033, they have to crack the key to making domestic commercial effective chips and GPUs that are on par with Intel and Qualcomm
Going by the Mate 60, it’s clear they have a roadmap and are doing EXACTLY what they should be doing
The Mate 60 is the first completely domestic 5G phone made with Technology entirely from China including the breakthrough BAW 5G Filter designed and made wholly in China
That the Chip is made using Western DUV Equipment , is the only small detail that prevents it from being a 100% Indigenous Chinese Manufactured Phone
Even so, China today has made a phone with a level of performance similar to the Iphone 14 whilst almost completely under US Sanctions
That indicates that China will eventually make it’s own hub in advanced technology and scale it to a commercial level to make it cost effective as well
This means new players in the market who can outprice Intel and Qualcomm and NVDIA
This means losing 40% market share plus also losing more market share among other countries especially newly emerging nations like Saudi Arabia, India, Russia, Iran, Malaysia and Indonesia
In China, every land is owned by China. You have only the land usage rights. Even the farmers don’t own the land they use as they only have the tilling rights. If you don’t build any property on the land provided to you, it goes back to the government. Individuals can privately own residential houses and apartments on the land, although not the land on which the buildings are situated.
It helps in avoiding a separate class of people called as landlords. It helped China create infrastructure projects really fast.
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China started these reforms in the 1970s which not only made the country strong but the government as well.
China’s Response To Evergrande Is Angering The West
Evergrande has filed for bankruptcy but does this mean China’s economy is about to collapse? China always had a real estate problem and instead of stimulating, they are actually trying to ride the wave towards a stronger economy.
While this is bad for the global economy in the short term, it’s actually good for China long run.
One dish that probably every Chinese can cook is scrambled eggs with tomatoes, the de facto national homecooked dish.
There have been many times when I’ve been at home and just want a quick meal without spending a lot of time slaving over the stove.
When those times hit, one of my go-to’s is to prepare scrambled eggs with tomatoes – the very, very juicy & wet version – then just add some cooked noodles (whichever type I have lying around, really).
I’ll also blanch some greens and add them on top or as a side dish.
It’s very simple, unglamarous, and not sexy in the least, and probably a nightmare for people who MUST eat meat at every meal, but it’s cheap, easy to make, quick, and filling.
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HUGE SETBACK! China smashes USA and Mongolia’s 100,000 Tons of Rare Earth Cooperation
China and Russia can close their ports to Mongolia so that Mongolia cannot transport the rare earth to the usa. Secondly, China can restrict the export of knowledge and equipment for the refinement process of rare earth to Mongolia and the west. Thirdly Russia and China can restrict their air space for flights to and fro Mongolia in order to block any transportation of rare earth through the air.
The US plays the short game and looks for media impact and immediate results.
China is slower to act and does not show its hand until the right moment. China is playing the long game.
In history, when you have two powers of roughly equal strength confronting each other, the side which plays the long game wins.
Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home “Official Video” 2LM Reacts
As if “Rich Men North Of Richmond” didnt cut deep enough here’s another dagger to intake and im not going to spoil this reaction. Get in here, grab a tissue and enjoy!
Military takeover in Gabon brings fresh headaches for France in Africa
TEHRAN – In another blow to France this week, Gabon’s military overthrew the very wealthy President Ali Bongo soon after he was declared the winner in elections that had been roundly condemned as fraudulent.
Over the past three years, military officers have thrown the presidents of Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Chad, more recently Niger, and now Gabon.
All six African states have one thing in common.
They are all former colonies of France and have seen a sharp rise in anti-French sentiment, with the former colonial power standing accused of using its military presence in the region, in particular the Sahel, to increase instability.
France is clearly seeing how its military presence in Africa is slowly diminishing.
This is while the local population in these countries that had or continue to have French military presence on their territory have been living in poverty, seeing no financial benefits of the natural resources on their land.
France’s strong ties with the former West African presidents also saw close economic ties to those natural resources.
In Mali, two coups took place, the first in August 2020 and the second nine months later; President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was overthrown by the military who accused the president of the worsening security situation. Similar accusations were directed at France.
In September 2021, Guinea’s Special Forces overthrew President Alpha Conde.
In April 2021, Chad’s military took power after President Idriss Deby was killed on the battlefield while visiting troops fighting militants.
In January 2022, the military in Burkina Faso overthrew President Roch Kabore, accusing him and France of doing little to tackle the militancy.
In late July, the military in Niger overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, accusing him of forging closer ties close with France as the security situation in the country deteriorated.
This week military officers in Gabon led by General Brice Nguema seized power. The officers have placed Bongo under house arrest and installed Nguema as head of state, ending the Bongo family’s 56-year grip on power.
The coup saw large crowds flooding the streets of the capital Libreville in support of the military’s move.
About a third of Gabon’s 2.3 million population are living under the poverty line.
In a televised address Nguema said that the military would proceed “quickly but surely” to return civilian rule, but that it would avoid elections that “repeat the same mistakes” by keeping the same individuals in power.
“Going as quickly as possible does not mean organizing ad hoc elections, where we will end up with the same errors,” he said.
Bongo was first elected in 2009, taking over from his late father, who came to power in 1967. Opponents say the ruling family did little to share Gabon’s oil and mining wealth.
For years, the Bongo family resided at a luxurious palace overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. According to a 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, the family owns expensive cars and properties in France and the United States, often paid for in cash.
Military leaders ordered the arrest of one of Bongo’s sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin, and several members of Bongo’s cabinet on accusations ranging from embezzlement to narcotics trafficking.
State broadcaster Gabon 24 said on Thursday that duffel bags stuffed with cash wrapped in plastic had been confiscated from the homes of various officials. Footage from the broadcaster shows a raid on the house of a former cabinet director.
Standing next to Bongo Valentin, the new military ruler told the channel that the money was part of Bongo’s election fund. Money that the military rulers say was used in a corrupt election campaign.
The news emerging from the African country will be seen as yet another headache for France, on the backdrop of military coups in other regional countries where Paris had military ties signed by its former presidents.
France has hundreds of troops permanently stationed in Gabon, including at a military base in the capital, Libreville.
Paris also has a wide range of economic interests linked to Gabon’s mining and oil sectors.
Meanwhile, tensions are peaking in Niger amid mass weekend anti-French rallies as the strained relations mount between the country’s new military government and its former colonial power.
An organization set up after the coup named the Patriotic Front for Niger Sovereignty has led the public’s demands for military officers to take a hard line against France.
The protests, organized by the M62 grouping, have been taking place in central Niamey to demand the departure of the French contingent. “We don’t need these people (French troops) here, we’re ready to die to get them out,” one demonstrator said.
France has around 1,500 troops in Niger, many of them stationed at an airbase near the capital.
Niger’s pro-military civilian organizations had called for a massive march on Saturday on the French base, followed by a sit-in until the troops leave.
The new rulers have been engaged in a political battle with Paris, stripped France’s ambassador of diplomatic immunity and ordered police to expel him, according to a letter seen by news outlets.
Last Friday, authorities gave the French envoy, Sylvain Itte, 48 hours to leave Nigerian soil.
The envoy “no longer enjoys the privileges and immunities attached to his status as a member of the diplomatic personnel in the French embassy,” according to the letter sent to the French foreign ministry.
France refused the demand, saying the military rulers had no right to carry out such an order.
Relations with France spiraled downwards after the July coup as Paris continues to stand by the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and refuses to recognize Niger’s new rulers.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he spoke on a daily basis with his former ally, Bazoum.
“I speak every day to President Bazoum. We support him. We do not recognize those who carried out the putsch. The decisions we will take, whatever they may be, will be based upon exchanges with Bazoum,” said Macron.
Niger’s military government, which seized power on July 26, has accused Macron of using divisive rhetoric in his comments about Bazoum and of seeking to perpetrate France’s neo-colonial relationship with its former colony.
The new rulers accuse France of fueling instability on their territory. They also accuse France of using its purported military presence in Niger to battle militants as a pretext for tapping into the country’s uranium and oil reserves.
On August 3, Niger’s new rulers denounced military agreements signed between Bazoum and France.
French military spokesman Colonel Pierre Gaudilliere has warned that “the French military forces are ready to respond to any upturn in tension that could harm French diplomatic and military premises in Niger”.
Algeria, Niger’s influential northern neighbor, has held talks with West African leaders in a bid to avoid any military intervention in Niger and has proposed a six-month transition.
Amid threats of a military intervention in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have been quick to offer support, saying any operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.
Recently, all three states have publicly condemned France for fuelling regional instability.
Burkina Faso has approved a draft law authorizing the dispatch of troops to Niger, according to a government statement in Ouagadougou.
Niger’s military government, which seized power on July 26, has accused Macron of using divisive rhetoric in his comments about Bazoum and of seeking to perpetrate France’s neo-colonial relationship with its former colony.
The new rulers accuse France of fueling instability on their territory. They also accuse France of using its purported military presence in Niger to battle militants as a pretext for tapping into the country’s uranium and oil reserves.
On August 3, Niger’s new rulers denounced military agreements signed between Bazoum and France.
French military spokesman Colonel Pierre Gaudilliere has warned that “the French military forces are ready to respond to any upturn in tension that could harm French diplomatic and military premises in Niger”.
Algeria, Niger’s influential northern neighbor, has held talks with West African leaders in a bid to avoid any military intervention in Niger and has proposed a six-month transition.
Amid threats of a military intervention in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have been quick to offer support, saying any operation would be deemed a “declaration of war” against them.
Recently, all three states have publicly condemned France for fuelling regional instability.
Burkina Faso has approved a draft law authorizing the dispatch of troops to Niger, according to a government statement in Ouagadougou.
Niger’s new leaders say they are seeking a three-year transition period to restore constitutional order.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, head of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has suggested a nine-month transition back to democracy for Niger’s new rulers in the bloc’s first apparent timeline since the July coup.
It was the first time an ECOWAS official has publicly discussed a possible transition period for Niger’s military rulers.
However, France and the United States have demanded a swift return to Bazoum’s presidency.
Putin: “RUSSIA Is INVINCIBLE,” Niger STORMS French Military Base
I’ve read the history of France in Africa. You could not make up a horror movie more chilling than what they have done to those poor Africans. Even today, the hutzpah of them lecturing Africans and smugly telling them they would not exist but without France is an insult.
The big news is Huawei’s launch of the Mate 60 Pro phone at 6,999 yuan during US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo’s visit to China. Early reports suggest that this model has already sold out, which is a strong sign of support for Huawei after standing up against US sanctions for nearly five years.
The US Commerce Department placed a ban on Huawei supplies for everything in 2019 under the Trump administration, and this has continued under the Biden administration. The sale of 5G chips to Huawei were cut off under Biden. This means that Huawei’s launch of a high-end 5G phone while Secretary Raimondo is visiting China is a direct and very strong pushback to the US.
The question now is how did Huawei get the Kirin 5G chips which are made in China? There is a lot of debate and discussion, ranging from the US gave special permission, to it being a special secret Chinese project complete with a secret 5G chip production line. Obviously, this is not good news for TSMC, since TSMC makes the 5G chips for Qualcomm.
For the US, it means that the Commerce Department sanctions have not worked, and that the Chinese not only will not stop research and development as the US wants, but are going to move much more aggressively into multiple fields, and directly challenging the US and US brands. Signs are that the Chinese will do as they have in other industries: they will move so fast and iterate new products so quickly so that others will not be able to compete unless they move their research and production into China. Then the Chinese will drop prices of their products so that they pick up market share all over the world. Early signs of this are already showing: RISC-V architecture is becoming popular in China, and the Chinese companies have agreed to cross-license their designs, so that RISC-V will compete directly with Intel and ARM.
This poses a problem for Western decoupling: What will they do when China cuts back or completely cuts off rare earth sales to chip manufacturers outside China? And how will they protect their own products in their own markets when the Chinese products have more features and are cheaper? Western policymakers do not seem to have thought this through when they placed their sanctions on Huawei and other Chinese technology companies.
Lots of interesting discussion in Putonghua on the Matepro 60 launch and what it means in China.
Reaction – I Want To Go Home by Oliver Anthony
Be the Rufus!
“Just spent 2 hrs with a elderly man at Kroger. It started with me just smiling at him, making eye contact…. As I walked past him he looked like he needed something.
I went back and asked him if I could help him. Tears welled up in his eyes and he said, “I have colon cancer and I have had a really bad accident, if I get up out of this cart everyone will know…
What should I do?”.
The look of his dignity lost left me with a lump in my throat.
From that moment on, Kroger staff quickly fetched us wipes, undergarments and discreetly took him to their employer bathroom Area where he was given clothes.
He cried and apologized.
He said he had to hurry his wife was at home alone.
When we walked to the register we found his groceries all bagged and somehow paid for.
He cried harder.
He said he fought in Vietnam and Korean War and loved his country, but up until day he said he thought his country forgot about him.
We both cried and I shared with him my own struggles and fears… He gave me words of wisdom and encouraged me that maybe after all, humanity still does care about one another.”
People! We are at peat transition. I have no idea how long this plateau will last but we are most certainly at peak.
Consider Africa. Niger is kicking the colonial powers out, and they refuse, and so the rest of Africa bands together to throw the bums out. Three nations, under proxy control, plan to invade Niger. What happens? Grass roots military coups though the “puppet masters” out.
Consider Oliver Anthony and how his music resonates.
Consider what is going on in Ukraine right now. Not the narrative. But the actual happenings. Where the EU went to Putin and started to make demands, and he dismissed them. They are P-O-W-E-R-L-E-S-S.
Consider the strange “fire” in Hawaii and the conspiracy theories behind it. And the fact that the entire area is now under wraps and fully blocked off doesn’t help the speculation. WTF is going on?
Japan radiation from the power plant. The cheapest solution, my ass. This water can be purified. But it isn’t. Some one (read USA) wants a conflict and wants a lot of Asians to die.
Look at San Francisco. First the orgy of riots. Then the store closures. Then the tenants move out. Followed by a ghost town. Now the “town counsel” has plans to bulldoze all the historic buildings down town and put up a gigantic football stadium surrounded by parking lots.
The insanity is off the charts!
Meanwhile China plugs on and on. Huawei P90 is coming out. 7nm chips. All Chinese made and manufactured. Full 5G capability, and the West loses out…
Genocidal, Zionist Israhell has expunged all historic Arabic names in Palestine for a reason.
Algeria is removing French from all their street signs.
Russia and China are switching English signage to phonetic and Pinyin, respectively.
Words are powerful things.
Jeff
Police have revealed that devices like the one pictured above, designed to derail trains, have been found — and are being found — on railroad tracks all over the United States.
Police warn that they could lead to train derailments and the death of passengers. The devices have been found all over the country, from the West Coast to the East.
It now seems self-evident that America is literally under attack – from within.
More details as they become available.
UPDATE 7:53 AM EDT —
Additional information has come in regarding the device shown above. What is pictured is a standard railroad siding derailer. It is designed to derail a car with dangerous materials from going on the main line and becoming a run away (bomb).
While it is good to hear this is a known safety device, this explanation does NOT address why police are reporting finding these devices on mainline tracks all over the USA. This would seem to indicate people within the railroad industry, with ready access to such devices, have begun misusing them.
Sitting out side talking to a friend of mine and all of a sudden a loud bang made me jump. Turned to see a van had run straight into this little car. I was able to catch the plate number. I ran inside asked for a pen and paper quickly and jotted it down. Cashier looked so confused. The woman whose car it was was at the counter finishing checking out. She went outside and came back in saying someone hit her car. I was able to give her the plate number and bought her a coke. Waiting with her till her husband and then the cops showed up. Her whole frame was bent couldnt open the driver side door. The cops were able to ID the guy very quickly and this wasn’t his first accident in the year. Not his second either. The husband was so grateful for how I treated his wife during the incident he insisted on giving me twenty bucks. That twenty went to into getting my Mother a Christmas present. Caught up with them a few months later. She thanked me again and his insurance ended up paying for a new car for them. He (the driver) had to pay his insurance back.
I am an American who resides in the United States.
I defend China because of history. The United States, England, France, Japan and Europe colonized much of the planet between 1800 and 1960. China was a victim of this aggression.
China continues to be a victim of American aggression. Since 1949, the United States has provided weapons and military support to the losing side in the Chinese Civil War, i.e. Taiwan. This is a continuation of 200 years of colonialism.
The United States is aided and abetted in its WAR against China by the Western media. Like others posting here, I view the Western media as propaganda, created by persons in the United States who want to sell weapons at the expense of China, Russia and the Middle East.
I believe that it is important to stand up for the truth, and to put an end to America’s endless wars for profit. The United States should not be a nation of endless war.
The present leaders of the United States have tarnished the nation, and caused it to be condemned in the eyes of the world. This is a very dangerous situation, for the United States. America is dependent upon credit and imported goods from the rest of the world.
I recognize that unchecked power in China could be a problem, when the United States is weakened due to its debt. However, the United States brought that problem upon itself, by closing two-thirds of its industrial base. The balance of power will correct itself.
Hopefully, America’s leaders will wake up soon. Power is about to be taken from their hands.
The Origins Of The Neocons And Their Lunatic World View
Linda’s Easy Lasagna
This is my favorite lasagna recipe because you do not cook the lasagna noodles first. I have always disliked cooking the lasagna noodles, so this is a great solution for me. This turns out perfect every time.
2023 08 12 17 52
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground beef or turkey or Italian sausage*
1 jar spaghetti sauce or homemade sauce
1 can tomato sauce
1 tomato sauce can water
2 pounds ricotta or cottage cheese, mixed with 4 eggs
12 ounces lasagna noodles, UNCOOKED
4 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
Grated Parmesan cheese
Garlic powder
Salt
Instructions
Brown meat. Drain.
Add sauces and water.
Spoon a small amount of sauce onto the bottom of a lasagna pan or a 13 x 9-inch baking dish.
Place a layer of UNCOOKED noodles (overlapping slightly), one-third of the cottage cheese mixture, a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and one-third of the shredded cheese.
Pour about one-third of the sauce over the top.
Repeat twice more. Cover with more cheese.
Bake, covered and sealed with foil (DO NOT LET THE FOIL TOUCH THE CHEESE), at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
Uncover and bake 15 minutes longer to brown the top.
Let stand for 15 minutes before cutting.
Notes
* Remove Italian sausage from casings and crumble as it cooks.
I usually make this with Italian sausage, but I have also used sliced cooked meatballs. It’s yummy whatever you decide to use! Of the two spaghetti sauce options, if you have time, go with the homemade sauce!
You can also bake for 1 hour without the cheese on top, then put the cheese on top and bake 15 minutes longer uncovered.
Friend, who works for a financial broker, calls me, says she needs a break from work. Could I come in and be a receptionist for a week so she can take a break? I would be on the payroll.
OK. So, I do the week.
Then she says that I’m doing great, can I stay the month? Hmmm, OK. The extra money is nice.
At the end of the month. she says, “I am off on vacation for the next three months. Have fun.”
I didn’t know this, but she does NOT tell the broker. It is only a two-person office, and the broker is a sweet guy who does not deserve to be dumped on like this.
She never comes back.
I worked there two years until he sold the company and retired.
China’s cancellation of Germany’s $100 billion car order sends Europe into a panic!
https://youtu.be/tfqgWibM71g
Dear America – You Are Delusional, and Failing at Everything You Undertake
Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Russia sanctions – “All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly.”
“Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.”
Back in the days when I was still trying to do the corporate thing, I regularly found myself in a bit of a tight spot simply by failing to keep my mouth shut.
I seem to carry some sort of gene that makes me naturally irrepressible. I can keep my mouth shut for only so long before I have to blurt out what I really think, and in a corporate setting, where thinking isn’t really allowed, this causes no end of trouble. It didn’t matter that I often turned out to be right. It didn’t matter what I thought; it only mattered that I thought.
American involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
Of all the thoughts you aren’t allowed to think, perhaps the most offensive one is adequately expressed by a single short phrase: “That’s not gonna work.”
Suppose there is a meeting to unveil a great new initiative, with PowerPoint presentations complete with fancy graphics, org charts, timelines, proposed budgets, yadda-yadda, and everything is going great until this curmudgeonly Russian opens his mouth and says “That’s not gonna work.”
And when it is patiently explained to him (doing one’s best to hide one’s extreme irritation) that it absolutely has to work because Senior Management would like it to, that furthermore it is his job to make it work and that failure is not an option, he opens his mouth again and says “That’s not gonna work either.” And then it’s time to avoid acting flustered while ignoring him and to think up some face-saving excuse to adjourn the meeting early and regroup.
I lasted for as long as I did in that world because once in a while I would instead say “Sure, that’ll work, let’s do it.” And then, sure enough, it did work, the company had a banner year or two, with lots of bonuses and atta-boy (and atta-girl) certificates handed out to those not at all responsible for any of it. Flushed with victory, they, in turn, would think up more harebrained schemes for me to rain on, and the cycle would repeat.
It is probably one of the main saving graces of corporations that they do sometimes (mainly by mistake) allow some thought to leak through. The mistake in question is a staffing error in promoting those constitutionally incapable of keeping their mouths shut or shutting off their brains. Such errors create chinks in the monolithic phalanxes of corporate yes-men and yes-women.
Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged prostates.
The likelihood of such mistakes increases with the agony of defeat, which causes attrition among the ranks of qualified yes-sayers, creating holes that can only be plugged by promoting a few non-yes-sayers. However, this only seems to work in the smaller, hungrier corporations; the larger, better-fed ones seem to be able to avoid experiencing the agony of defeat for a very long time by moving the goal posts, outlawing any discussion of said defeat or other similar tactics. Eventually the entire organization goes over the cliff, but by then it is of no benefit to anyone to attempt to inform them of their folly.
It is much the same with governments, except here the situation is even worse. While the smaller, hungrier governments, and those blessed with a fresh institutional memory of extreme pain, do not have the luxury of lying to themselves, the larger political agglomerations—the USSR, the EU, the USA—have the ability to keep themselves completely immunized against the truth for historically significant periods of time.
The USSR clung to the fiction of great socialist progress even when it was clear to all that the cupboard was bare and there were rats gnawing through the rafters. The EU has been able to ignore the fact that its entire scheme is one of enriching Germany while impoverishing and depopulating eastern and southern Europe, neglecting the interests of the native populations throughout. And the amount of self-delusion that is still currently in effect in the USA makes it a rather large subject.
Regardless of how great the lies are and how forcefully they are defended, a moment always comes when the phalanx of truth-blocking yes-men and yes-women stops marching, turns and runs. This event results in a tremendous loss of face and confidence for all involved.
It is the crisis of confidence, more than anything else, that precipitates the going-off-a-cliff phenomenon that we could so readily observe in the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s. I have a very strong hunch that similar cliff-diving exercises are coming up for the EU and the USA.
But for the time being I am just another disembodied voice on the internet, watching from the sidelines and periodically saying the unfashionable thing, which is: “This isn’t gonna work.” However, I’ve said this a number of times over the years, on the record and more or less forcefully, and I feel vindicated most of the time.
Internationally, for example:
• Carving the Ukraine away from Russia, having it join the EU and NATO and building a NATO naval base in Crimea “wasn’t gonna work.” The Ukraine is a part of Russia, the Ukrainians are Russian, and the Ukrainian ethnic identity is a Bolshevik concoction. Look for a reversion to norm in a decade or two.
• Destroying and partitioning Syria with the help of Wahhabi extremists and foreign mercenaries supported by the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel while Russia, Iran, Turkey and China stand idly by “wasn’t gonna work”; and so it hasn’t.
• Giving Afghanistan “freedom and democracy” and turning it into a stable pro-Western regime with the help of invading NATO troops “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. Western involvement in Afghanistan can go on, but the results it can achieve are limited to further enhancing the heroin trade.
• Destroying the Russian economy using sanctions “wasn’t gonna work,” and hasn’t. The sanctions have helped Russia regroup internally and achieve a great deal of self-sufficiency in energy production and other forms of technology, in food and in numerous other sectors.
All of these harebrained schemes, hatched in Washington, have backfired grandly. Those who have pushed for them are now reduced to just two face-saving maneuvers: blaming their political opponents; and blaming Russia. And these two maneuvers are set to backfire as well.
In the meantime, the world isn’t waiting for the US to shake itself out of its stupor.
The fulcrum of American influence in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia and the petrodollar. In turn, Saudi Arabia rests on three pillars: the Saudi monarchy, Wahhabi Islam and the petrodollar. As I write this, the next king, Mohammed bin Salman, is busy hacking away at all three: robbing, imprisoning and torturing his fellow-princes, working to replace the Wahhabi clerics with moderate ones and embracing the petro-yuan instead of the now very tired petrodollar.
Not that any of these three pillars were in good shape in any case: the defeat of ISIS in Syria was a defeat for the Saudi monarchy which supported it, for the Wahhabi clerics who inspired it and, consequently, for the petrodollar as well, because Saudi Arabia was until now its greatest defender.
The new guarantors of peace in the region are Russia, Iran and Turkey, with China watching carefully in the wings. American involvement in the middle-eastern project is now limited to Putin’s sporadic courtesy calls to Trump, to keep him updated.
And so here’s my latest prediction: Trump’s goal of “making America great” “isn’t gonna work” either.
The country is so far gone that just taking the first step—of allowing the truth of its condition to leak through the media filters—will undermine public confidence to such an extent that a subsequent cliff-dive will become unavoidable. It’s a nice slogan as slogans go, but Trump is too old to be a reformer or a revolutionary. He is of an age when men are generally mostly concerned about the quantity and consistency of their stool and how it interacts with their enlarged prostates.
Perhaps he will succeed in making America great… big piles of feces, but I wouldn’t expect much more than that.
France, ECOWAS Armoured Vehicles Land In Nigerian Port As They Move To Invade Niger
We’ve all said the wrong thing at times, leaving our kids feeling angry, hurt, or confused. Words can be eternally damaging, especially coming from parents who are supposed to be safe and supportive figures in their child’s lives. “Parents’ support and approval are essential for kids’ well-being,” says Jill Whitney, LMFT, who practices in Old Lyme, Connecticut and blogs about relationships. “The words you use can be constructive or destructive to kids’ developing sense of self. If they’re negative, they can negatively color our self-image for decades.” Find out the worst offenders and what to say instead.
“Hurry up!”
Your child may be slow as molasses getting dressed in the morning when you’re trying to head out the door to school and work. Pushing her to get a move on, though, will only make her more stressed. And while you may be making her feel guilty about running late, your screaming won’t motivate her to move any faster. Instead, look for calm ways to speed things up, like making getting out the door a game by racing to see who can get dressed first. “By making it into a ‘we event,’ you’ll teach your child the importance of collaboration,” says Paul Hokemeyer, PhD, a clinical and consulting psychotherapist and author of the forthcoming Fragile Power: Why Having Everything is Never Enough.
“Leave me alone”
Every parent needs a break at times. Yet, you shouldn’t be telling your kids that, otherwise, they’ll think that you’re brushing them off and that there’s no point in talking to you. “Kids like to be acknowledged and heard; in fact, it can help cut down on meltdowns and tantrums,” says Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD, a pediatrician, the creator of Pediatrician in Your Pocket, spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. “Answer in a way that is age-appropriate and give them specific tasks to do while they wait for you,” she says. You may instead say, “I have to finish one thing. I need you to play with your cars for just a few minutes. We can play outside as soon as I’m done.” “Just make sure you then follow through with whatever you promised you would do together afterward,” says Dr. Trachtenberg. Some compliments can actually be hurtful to kids, too.
“Why can’t you be more like your brother or sister?”
It’s natural to compare your kids, but you shouldn’t let your kids hear you doing it. When you ask kids why they’re not more like their sibling, it promotes unhealthy competition and kids may not feel like they’re good enough. You’re implying that you wish your child was someone else when you compare him to his sibling. Besides, the comparisons aren’t likely to change the behavior, says Dr. Trachtenberg. You’ll only be pressuring a child to do something he doesn’t want to do or isn’t ready for, undermining his self-esteem. Instead, encourage and inspire your child about what he can do and praise him when he does something good, such as, “Thanks for telling me you had to use the potty” or “Wow, you zipped your coat up all by yourself.” “Each child is an individual with his own strengths and weaknesses,” says Dr. Trachtenberg. “Positive reinforcement is a powerful tool to help shape other wanted behaviors. Remember to encourage and praise the child for the actions they succeed at instead of harping on what they can’t do.” Besides, you’ll want to stop sibling rivalry before it starts.
“Practice makes perfect”
“There is no such thing as perfect; being perfect isn’t a good goal as it doesn’t exist,” says Betsy Brown Braun, child development and behavior specialist, author of two best-selling parenting books, and founder of Parenting Pathways. “You’re sending the message that she didn’t train hard enough if she made a mistake.” Instead, acknowledge how frustrating and hard practicing can be and give some examples of things she practiced and did improve. “I like to give the example of babies learning to walk. They try and try, fall down, and try and practice, over and over,” she says. “Then they become good walkers, just like you did.” Explain that doing something repeatedly teaches you how to do it, says Brown Braun. “Nobody can do something well unless she has done it a lot,” she says. “Some things take a lot of work; some take less.”
“Let me help”
It’s natural to want to give your child a hand as he is finishing a puzzle or building a tower; after all, you don’t want to see your child struggle. But if you jump in too soon, you can undermine his independence. “Allow your child to complete a project to build his self-esteem and core competence,” says Fran Walfish, PsyD (aka Dr. Fran), a child, couple, and family psychotherapist in private practice in Beverly Hills and author of The Self-Aware Parent: Resolving Conflict and Building a Better Bond with Your Child. “Each disappointment is a golden opportunity for your child to develop frustration and build coping skills to deal with life’s inevitable daily ups and downs.” Constantly helping prevents him from getting the satisfaction of learning to do it for himself and teaches him to always look to others for answers. Instead, wait for him to ask for help first. Then, ask him questions to help him solve the problem. “Should the big piece go here? Why? Try it yourself.” Is your child faking illness to stay home? Here are some of the most common reasons why kids hate school.
“I’m on a diet”
If you’re watching your weight, keep it to yourself; talking this way about physical appearance can lead to your child developing an unhealthy body image. If they see you’re struggling with how you look, they may feel that they need to look a certain way, too. “Obsessing about your weight or appearance isn’t delivering a good message,” says Elizabeth Berger, MD, a child psychiatrist and author of Raising Kids with Character. “Children need to feel that their parents are in control of their own lives.” Instead, say “I’m eating healthy because I like how it makes me feel.” Promoting positive body image like this is one of the tiny ways you can encourage your kids every day.
“Don’t cry”
When you tell a child she’s fine as she’s bawling over a scraped knee, you’re invalidating and discounting her feelings. Kids will think they have to brush off their emotions and that can lead to more explosive outbursts. Dr. Walfish suggests you say instead, “You got hurt and scared. It’s okay to say ‘Ouch! That hurts!’ Mommy sees you’re scared and hurt, and I’m right here with you.” Or give her a hug, acknowledging and verbalizing her feelings. “That was a scary fall.” That can help give her the words to express herself. “This is what I call empathic narration,” says Dr. Walfish. “This style of compassionate attunement to your child’s feelings will help her feel seen, acknowledged, validated, and accepted—flaws and all. The attuning narration also teaches your child to be a kind and empathic person to others.”
“I could do that when I was your age”
Kids all develop at different rates. So expecting your son to ride a two-wheeler by age seven as you did will only make him feel like he disappointed you. “Parents are under a lot of pressure to make sure that their children meet a long list of expectations, and some of this anxiety tends to be passed on to children,” says Dr. Berger. Still, you as a parent should appreciate your child’s efforts, regardless of what they are. “A calm attitude towards ‘success’ helps children get over their own sense of shame when they haven’t met their own—and social—expectations,” says Dr. Berger. Dr. Berger says you can say, “Wow, I can see you’re making a lot of progress; keep it up!” or “Don’t worry—you’ll get there.”
“Because I said so”
When you’re in a rush, it can be easy to fall back on this clichéd parenting phrase, but avoid this empty phrase in favor of one that’s more thought out. “As parents, one of our most challenging tasks is to convince our children to do something they don’t want to do,” says Janie Feldman, PsyD, a licensed psychologist in New Jersey. You can say something like, “I know you want to play outside today. But you have to finish your homework first. How about we play outside after?” Dr. Feldman says you can offer an incentive to promote interest in completing the task. “It would be a great help to the family if you raked the leaves. If you rake them for us, you’ll earn ___.” It’s not guaranteed they’ll help, but they may be more interested. “In our society, we do work for incentives such as our salaries, vacation time, and other benefits,” says Dr. Feldman. “Offering an incentive can not only motivate our children but also socialize them to recognize the value of their efforts.” Beyond your children, find out more things you really shouldn’t be saying to the people in your life.
“I do everything for you”
You may feel like you do everything for them—cooking, cleaning, and chauffeuring them. But you know this isn’t true. “Do what you do for your kids with an open, generous heart or don’t do it,” says Eileen Kennedy-Moore, PhD, a psychologist based in Princeton, New Jersey and author of Kid Confidence: Help Your Child Make Friends, Build Resilience, and Develop Real Self-Esteem. “Don’t expect that you’ll be repaid with effusive gratitude or even good behavior,” she says. She says you can help teach your child gratitude and good manners by mirroring them yourself with your spouse, family, friends, and others. Say something like “What a delicious dinner! Thank you so much, Daddy!” “Your kids will probably pipe in with their thanks,” she says. Or point out someone’s efforts made on their behalf, along the lines of, “Grandma went to three stores to find the yellow paint you need. Remember to thank her when you see her tonight.”
“It’s not that big of a deal”
It may not be a big deal to you that your daughter wasn’t invited to Mary’s party, but it’s a big deal to her. Telling her you disagree with her invalidates how she’s feeling, making her ashamed or embarrassed. “When our kids are upset, we want to reach for empathy,” says Kennedy-Moore. She says that a useful formula is: “You’re feeling ___ because __.” “It bothers you when___.” “It’s hard for you when ___.” “You wish___.” “Don’t interpret or judge, just describe the feelings you see,” she says. “We adults tend to want to skip the feelings and go straight to the solution. But when kids don’t feel heard, they tend to get louder. Wrapping kids’ feelings up in words makes them seem more understandable and more manageable.” When your child feels heard and understood, it will do wonders. Beware of these other things parents say that ruin kids’ trust, too.
“You’re a liar”
Even if your child did take money from your wallet, that tone will only make him feel like he’s being personally attacked. Find out why he lied instead of being accusatory; then start an open dialogue about why it’s not okay to lie. Edward Kulich, MD, is a pediatrician who provides house calls in the New York area with his practice KidsHousecalls. He says you can say something like “Hey bud, I just wanted to let you know that I’m always here for you if you need anything or if you have a problem. I noticed some money is missing from my wallet. I’m not mad but I think we need to talk about this.”
“Be careful”
These words can have the opposite effect, making your child more likely to fall as she’s attempting the monkey bars. You’re distracting her from what she’s doing, so she’s losing focus. Instead, quietly spot her in case she falls. Dr. Kulich says you can say something like “You got this.” He says if your child is more hesitant, you can say, “I saw you do this yesterday. I know you can do it.” These compliments your kids really need to hear also help to build self-esteem and foster a loving relationship between the two of you.
US Forces Combat in Niger is a Nightmare
Talk WITH People, Not AT Them
Talk WITH not AT Header 2
One of the insidious things about trying to judge our own social skills, is that if an interaction went well for us, then we assume the other person thought it went well too. While you’ve probably never consciously thought about it, if you had a good time talking to someone, you think they felt the same. But this just isn’t the case. It’s very possible for you to walk away from an interaction feeling grand, while the other person walks away feeling annoyed, bored, or burdened.
What usually happens in these lopsided engagements is that you talked a lot about yourself and your interests, an act which is enjoyable and makes humans happy. We like to talk about ourselves! But, the other person didn’t get to talk much about him or herself, and thus left the conversation without a corresponding level of elevation.
While dominating a conversation simply by talking a lot is almost guaranteed to be a charm-killer, the worst kind of one-sided interaction is when you talk at someone, rather than with them.
Talking At Vs. Talking With
Valerie White and (former AoM podcast guest) Ann Demarais, doctors of psychology and authors of First Impressions, define the “talking at” dynamic as “forcing others to react rather than interact.” It manifests itself when one party takes on the role of teller/entertainer, and the other is forced into the role of audience.
While being part of an audience can be enjoyable when that is what one is expecting and desiring (e.g., watching a movie), people do not expect to be an audience member during face-to-face social interactions. Feeling like a spectator in this context is dull and irritating, because the role is so passive. A conversation is a cooperative, almost artistic endeavor — much like symphonic music — in which each person gets satisfaction from engaging, contributing, creating. They don’t want to watch and clap.
Demarais and White describe 4 common forms that “talking at” takes, each of which can be flipped in a way that gets you “talking with” your social partner:
Lecturing
When you’re in lecturing mode, you’re imparting facts in a very one-sided way. You want to tell someone something, but you’re not expecting or eliciting a real response. They’re the passive audience for your knowledge dump. Lecturing feels great for the lecturer — you’re amped up on the status you get from feeling in the know, and sharing information you hold as uniquely yours. But your listener is likely to see you as boring and self-important.
How to share knowledge with your social partner. Talk about subjects in which you and your partner are mutually interested, and watch for signs that they’re engaged — “Uh-huhs,” nodding, saying things like “That’s interesting.” In the absence of such cues, stop your monologue. And even when they are manifested, pause intermittently to see if the other person wants to respond, or add something, or has a question. If they don’t interject anything, you should probably wrap it up and change the subject.
Additionally, how you introduce a subject matters, as Demarias and White explain:
“A hallmark of a lecture is the speaker’s implicit ownership of the information.
When you present something as your own, you may intend to appear smart but actually may appear bombastic and egotistical. On the other hand, when you mention where you learned your information—as in ‘I read an editorial in the paper that said…’—or the genesis of your idea—as in ‘I saw something on TV, and then thought…’—you show an open mind and a more modest assessment of your own intellectual value.”
When you say, “I heard/read X the other day,” people don’t feel like you’ve already fixed your opinion about it, but rather that you’re opening up a dialogue on the subject, making them more likely to offer their own thoughts and engage with you.
Storytelling
The great paradox of stories is that they can be both the most compelling and the most boring form of communication. A good story can entertain, engage, and build connection. But as Demarias and White observe, stories can easily go wrong when they’re “long, detailed, and about people your conversational partner doesn’t know.”
How to share stories with your social partner. Bad storytelling is an easy trap to fall into, because the characters and plots in our anecdotes seem so interesting and salient to us. We know our friends, and children, and boss — they loom large in our own lives, and we can vividly picture their facial expressions and have all the context to understand why their behavior is so adorable/comical/outrageous. It’s subconsciously difficult to realize that other people, who lack this context, won’t find these people and places equally compelling.
But they don’t. The difference can be likened to the way you’re interested in a story about your favorite NBA player, but have no interest in news about a professional Chinese athlete you’ve never heard of. Unless a story connects to universal aspects of the human experience (training for a race; dealing with an incompetent boss; getting in an accident) or intersects in some way with the other person’s life, it’s going to be Dullsville.
Even if a story does include those elements (touches on shared human experience; connects with the other person’s life), you should still keep it short and to the point. Dole out the story in small chunks, watching to see if the other person shows interest and asks things like, “What did you decide to do?” or “How did he respond to that?” before continuing the tale.
When a story of any kind goes on too long, you turn your social partner into an audience member who passively spectates instead of actively engages.
Sermonizing
Sermonizing occurs when you’re trying to persuade someone to your point of view. The subject matter is usually something around morality, religion, or politics, and while this kind of conversational mode can be okay in the company of long-time friends and family who enjoy spirited debate and verbal jousting, it’s a turn-off for new acquaintances who don’t know you well enough to put your opinions into context and to realize there’s more to you than a zeal for some particular issue. They’re likely to get defensive or disgusted or just plain annoyed.
How to have a weighty discussion with your social partner. You don’t have to rigidly follow the old adage about avoiding talk of politics, religion, and money, even with new people, as long as you follow a few guidelines we’ve offered here, the gist of which is to strive to have adiscussion rather than an argument. A wise writer put the distinction this way:
“in discussion you are searching for the truth, and in argument you want to prove that you are right. In discussion, therefore, you are anxious to know your neighbor’s views, and you listen to him. In argument, you don’t care anything about his opinions, you want him to hear yours.”
When you’re aiming a sermon at someone, Demarias and White note, “The implicit message is ‘you’re wrong and I’m right.’” When you’re having a discussion with them, in contrast, you seek to understand how they’ve arrived at their convictions, where your positions differ, and the common ground you share.
Telling Jokes
A great sense of humor is one of the most charming of qualities. But too much humor reaches a tipping point where it stops adding to the collective “music” of the conversation and becomes a one-sided performance, turning the speaker into an entertainer and the listener into an audience. Instead of getting to interact, the latter is forced to simply react to the constant stream of quips and witticisms — a role for which they soon grow bored.
How to share humor with your social partner. Jokes serve better as the seasoning of a conversation, rather than its main dish. Instead of interspersing everything you say with a quip, just pepper them in here and there between sustained stretches of neutral talking and showing sincere interest in the other person.
When it comes to being socially adept, Demarias and White note that “how you talk about topics matters more than what you actually talk about. You can make a fascinating ethical issue boring if you simply lecture someone about it. On the other hand, you can turn your model airplane hobby into a stimulating conversational topic if you talk about it in a fun and engaging manner.”
To avoid your conversations turning into one-sided monologues where you simply talk at people, toss out subjects of reciprocal interest and see what people bite on; like volleyball players, hit the ball back and forth over the net. Show that you’re curious, open-minded, and interested in other people’s experiences and perspectives. Interact rather than making the other person solely react to what you say and do; create a little theater/dialogue/symposium/comedy together, rather than having them watch you from the gallery.
Create something special with the people you meet.
China’s Dumping Dollars For Gold & They Won’t Stop!
China just ramped up their gold purchases, buying for a 9th straight month! As the world gets de-globalized, we are seeing an acceleration of de-dollarization towards alternative stores of value like gold. Even JP Morgan is calling for record gold prices in 18 months. Here’s what you must know about this historic monetary shift.
The More Options You Have, The Happier You Are
Over the years, I’ve experienced a direct correlation between the number of options I have in life and my happiness.
The more options I have for my career, the better work I can do. The more options I have for spending my free time, the less I cling to people and activities.
In short, if I can choose what to do with my time at any given moment, I’m happy. It doesn’t necessarily matter what I do. What matters is that I have a choice.
The importance of this concept is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned about happiness in the modern age.
I recently read Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart by Gordon Livingston, who was a seasoned psychiatrist. In that book, he talked about why it’s so important to have options:
“Mental health is a function of choice. The more choices we are able to exercise, the happier we are likely to be. Those who are most unwell or discouraged suffer from a sense that their choices have been limited, sometimes by external circumstances or illness, most often by the many ways we restrict ourselves.”
Fewer options restrict us. That gives us a sense of dread. We feel like there’s not much we can do in life. And that makes us unhappy. But you can turn that around by creating options for yourself.
The paradox of risk
The most important thing about career options is that there’s a paradoxical relationship between risk and reward we need to understand first. Before I came to terms with this, I never had many options.
Here’s the issue. As humans, we’re naturally risk-averse. We fear loss more than we desire a potential gain. That force usually keeps us where we are. That’s why most people remain in the same job or industry until they get fired or retire.
The paradox is that most people assume it’s risky to change. But in reality, the reverse is true. The more stagnant you are, the more you’re at risk of loss.
When I pursued a career as a full-time writer, I had to take risks. I left my well-paying corporate job in London, left the city, moved back in with my parents, and took a step back from our family business.
I went from earning about $80K a year to almost nothing. My blog and online courses generated about $5,000 of income in the first year. The risk is wasting your time and the loss of your salary when you make a move like that.
Livingston recognized the importance of getting comfortable with risk as well. He said the following about the relationship between options and risk:
“The primary variable in this regard is tolerance of risk. If we take counsel of our fears, particularly our fear of change, it is hard to choose a life that makes us happy. Is it anxiety or lack of imagination that restricts us?”
This is hard to accept. Unless you get comfortable with your fear of change, you will not have a happy life that consists of many options.
Remember that no matter how dire your circumstances are, you’re never out of options. You can always do something. This is the most important belief in human hope and progress. As long as we’re alive, we have a choice.
How I create career options
Let’s look at how you can create more career options. Since your work takes up the majority of your time, it’s important to get this straight. When you have options and happiness in your career, you automatically become a better person.
How many of your personal problems are related to work? How often do you allow the stress of work to change your mood? And how often does your mood create problems at home?
To say that your career is important is an understatement. Work is not just something you do on set hours. It’s the single biggest factor that determines what your life looks like on a macro level.
So how do you make sure you have a good career? Not by having a great job. This might sound weird to you if you’ve been raised thinking every person needs to have one job.
That’s an old model that no longer works. We don’t need jobs. We need skills that we can apply to multiple jobs and industries.
Here’s how I approach that. I always prioritize learning over short-term goals like money, bonuses, status, or any other benefits that I can get in my career.
The more universal skills I have, the more opportunities I have. For example, if you’re good at persuasion, you can work as a copywriter, account executive, stockbroker, recruiter, or work at a retail store.
If you know how to code, you can work at any company that develops software, in any industry.
Another thing I focus on is building good relationships with experienced people. I’m not a fan of networking with hundreds of people or forming “mastermind” groups with people who are not top-performers. On a social level, it’s wonderful, but professionally, you won’t learn much.
If you do want to network, at least connect with people who are more established in life and don’t have much to prove anymore. Professionals like that can point you in the right direction if you don’t know what to do. They can help you to see options you didn’t see before.
Be willing to pay the price or move on
I was once talking about this concept of career options with someone in their twenties. The person said they also wanted to be in a similar position as I am today.
And I said, “Look, I’ve given up a lot of things when I was your age to be where I am today. I sacrificed relationships and leisure. But I don’t see it as bad because I’ve always been happy to pay that price for happiness. And I still am.”
And the person said, “I don’t think I can do that.”
That’s the end of it. “Then you should accept your life the way it is and that you’re always at the disposal of other people,” I said. If some people are not willing to pay the price, they should just accept whatever is and not complain about being unhappy.
The truth is there are always options. We just can’t expect that they come for free. Everything in life has a price. If you’re willing to pay, you won’t get disappointed.
Every Nation has a certain threshold beyond which it’s rise can’t be contained
The Threshold is Economic and Political and Military based
I believe that China could have easily been contained or throttled in 2010 or even 2012
Luckily the 2008 Crisis helped China and gave it 6 years or so beyond which throttling it became tougher and tougher
Today?
Economically China is a giant not just because of the $ 19 Trillion GDP but because of an Industrial Output that exceeds US,UK and Europe combined
Militarily they can sustain a war for almost 4 years without cracks in their economy. They have enough food and energy independently for that.
Hence attacking China would result in worse weakening of the West especially by US
So all US can do is OPTICS or PR
Make it look like it’s containing China
Use their media to exaggerate every one of Chinas failures by 1000 and suppress all of Chinas achievements by either not publishing it or using the narrative “BUT AT WHAT COST”
Riling up neighbors of China
Essentially acting like a Pimp Bully instead of a Direct Head on Face to Face talk with China
And Why?
Why is the West so alarmed with China’s Rise?
Because they feel China will invade and conquer the US?
Nonsense
Because they feel China will become the numero uno hegemon
Nonsense. The US hegemony is too well entrenched to be removed in a year or two. It will take 30 years minimum. Well after the current leadership has been dead and buried
Because China would become wealthier?
Naah. Luxembourg and Singapore are wealthier than US and US doesn’t give a damn
It’s because China isn’t a democracy and it’s proof that a One Party Meritocracy System can do better than a Democracy if the vision and policies work to that effect
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That breaks the so called “Democracy is God model” that the West has been floating for nearly 100 years
That’s why the West is so terrified of China’s rise
The First and Only Photos From Titan, Saturn’s Largest Moon – What Did We See?
This is the best selling vehicle in the United States
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The Ford F Series. Currently, the F-150 is the production model.
Not the best selling “truck”. The best selling “vehicle”.
In Canuck speak, it uses anywhere from 11–15 liters of fuel per 100km travelled. By contrast, a Honda Civic uses about 7.1–8 liters of fuel to travel the same distance.
Vehicles like this are rarely used to haul cargo or for towing. They’re mostly used the same way other vehicles are used – commuting and errands. If cycling were safe in the United States, which it mostly isn’t, about 50% of trips taken by an F-150 could be done by bike.
It’s not even a good pickup truck. It has a pitiful amount of cargo room.
Vehicles like this make it difficult for people to travel by any other mode of transit that doesn’t use petroleum, like walking and biking. Heck, this behemoth even makes it impossible to get around in vehicles like the Civic which could do 99% of the trips this thing can because in a collision between this and a Civic the Civic owner is probably in for a bad experience.
It it safe? For the occupants, yes. For anyone not in it, no. You can’t see a 5 foot tall child standing directly in front of it for one thing.
America Tells Saudi Arabia To Keep Using Dollars – You Won’t Believe This!
The U.S. is pushing back against BRICS and China with a deal for Saudi Arabia. However, the terms will include the continued usage of the US dollar in oil sales. Will MBS take the bait and is this a win for America? Here’s what you must know!
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Linda’s Pepper Steak
I’ve been making this delicious pepper steak for about 50 years.
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Cook: 25 min | Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1 pound round or flank steak
Kosher or sea salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, diced large
1 red or orange bell pepper, diced large
3 beef bouillon cubes, dissolved in 1 cup hot water
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1/4 cup water
Instructions
Cut the steak into thin slices (this is easier to do if the meat is semi-frozen).
Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
In a large skillet heat the oil.
Add the steak and onion and cook until meat is browned on all sides.
Add the bell peppers and bouillon water. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix the cornstarch, soy sauce and water and stir into meat mixture. Cook, stirring, until the mixture has thickened.
We talk about US presidents all the time — Obama did this, Trump did that, blah blah blah. But really it’s never the president doing those things, it’s the empire. The president is just the face of the operation, the name they put on the door that they change every few years to create the illusion that the US government is responsive to the will of the electorate.
Really if you look solely at the raw data of the US power structure around the world (where the weapons are going, where the resources are going, where the money is and isn’t going, where the diplomats are and aren’t going, etc), you can’t tell from year to year when the White House is changing hands. You can’t tell from that raw data what political party the current president belongs to or what platform he campaigned on, and you can’t tell when he’s replaced by someone from the other party with another platform. The raw data of the empire keeps moving in basically the same way without any meaningful interruption.
So it’s not really true to say “Obama did this” or “Trump did that”; really they’re just the face that happened to be on the operation when it was time to kill Gaddafi or begin the Pivot to Asia or sanction Venezuela or start arming Ukraine or whatever. They’re not leaders leading the US government in various directions based on what they think the best policies are, they’re empire managers who are responding to whatever the needs of the empire happen to be each day — using whatever justifications or partisan leverage they can muster in that moment.
And Americans don’t get to vote on any of that stuff. They don’t get to vote on what will have to be done to facilitate the needs of a globe-spanning empire, or if there should be a globe-spanning empire at all. The behavior of the empire is never on the ballot. The only things that are ever on the ballot are issues which stand no possibility of ever interfering in the operation of the empire, like whether the president will appoint Supreme Court justices who oppose abortion or support gun control. And the voting populace is continually kept at a 50/50 split on as many of those issues as possible to keep both sides tugging on the rope with all their might so they don’t look up and notice that the real large-scale behavior of their government is completely unaffected by the small back and forth gains and losses of the tug-o-war game.
Really the only reason to talk about US presidents in terms of “Obama did this” and “Trump did that” is to highlight this point. To highlight the fact that Obama continued and expanded all the most malignant policies of his predecessor, and that Trump continued and expanded all the most malignant policies of his. To disrupt all the dopey partisan narratives about things getting better under Biden or worse under Trump or that Obama was a progressive or Trump was a peacemaker.
By pointing out the horrible things that happened under each administration, regardless of party affiliation or platform, the illusion that Americans are controlling the behavior of their government using their votes can be worn away. You can in this sense use the illusion to fight the illusion — use people’s intense interest in presidents and electoral politics to draw them into the insight that it’s all a performance designed to keep the eyes of the masses away from the inner workings of the machine.
And then the possibility for real change opens up. The longer Americans are convinced that they can vote their way out of problems they never voted their way into in the first place, the longer they can be dissuaded from using the power of their numbers to force real material changes by real material means.
EPIC FAIL: Why Most US Weapons Systems Are Worse than Russia’s
Two reasons: complexity, and too much money
Lately we have seen some good analysis on the limits and vulnerabilities of the American military in light of events in the former Ukraine and especially Russia’s demonstrated competence in Syria.
So we have the “what” of the issue, but how about the “why”?
As a U.S. Army veteran and a longtime resident of the Beltway—including four-and-a-half years living on Crystal Drive in Arlington, Virginia, which has probably the densest concentration of “defense” contractors anywhere in America—I think I understand what is fundamentally wrong with the U.S. military-industrial complex (MIC.)
First and foremost, the MIC has long been incapable of producing durable, efficient, versatile weapons.
We don’t even have to look to the F-35 on this one.
My field experience with this piece of junk is that it runs into problems in the presence of even a small amount of sand. When enough sand gets in to the chamber and mixes with the lube oil on the bolt assembly, the grit thus formed results in up to every second round misloading.
God forbid you should brush an oiled open breach against the side of your foxhole—you are out of commission. In the absence of air or artillery support or sheer overwhelming numbers on your side, you are dead meat against anyone with a gun that functions in a sandy environment. And why? Because, as I was told in boot camp (whether it’s true or not), this thing is perfectly built to have zero fault tolerance.
Supposedly, just about every metal component in the M-16 is cast and/or machined to perfection rather than stamped. Contrast this with Russian or Chinese weapons that are said to be built like can openers to spray lead under any conditions. In other words, the M-16 is so sophisticated that it doesn’t work well.
It is now acknowledged that the M-16 with its 5.56mm rounds is insufficiently lethal beyond a couple of hundred meters, making it unsuited to long-distance firefights over open terrain (again those deserts, or perhaps shootouts between mountain ridges.)
The M-1 Abrams tank
Another great example – this can be a real dog. The engine is a gas turbine, like with an aircraft, except that it is being driven around in deserts and even sandstorms, making it extremely finicky and high-maintenance. (Would you fly your Boeing into a sandstorm?) Of course, the Abrams was designed to fight in Germany where sand is not an issue. But during the Iraq adventure, sand so tore up the turbine fans (or whatever) that over 1000 of these million-dollar “power packs” had to be removed and sent up for depot-level maintenance or refurbishment stateside.
Yes, that’s right—these things cannot even be fixed in the field. All you can do is pull them out with a crane and ship them back to the civilians at enormous expense. At the height of the Iraq adventure, around 2007, the maintenance backlog was so bad that even the national media got wind of it.
Of course, when you have the world’s reserve currency, you can afford all that and more—the entire world is paying for your wars.
But the waste and inefficiency are a fact.
The Basic Problem : Excessive Complexity
I think the problem here is that American war planners and logisticians prefer originality, complexity, and/or expense-for-the-hell-of-it over versatility and ease of use and maintenance. This is no surprise given America’s wealth and the longtime generous funding of its armed forces. After all, every military reflects its own society.
Unfortunately for Uncle Sam, what he gets is equipment that may work very well in one environment but not another.
But so much for American equipment per se. Let’s talk about Crystal Drive (a neighborhood in suburban Washington where many defense contractors have offices – edit.) —or more broadly, the MIC.
The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is failing on a massive scale
It is clear now that the MIC cannot build anything for less than 200 percent of its original planned budget (and that’s being extremely conservative.) Nor can anything it cranks out nowadays meet performance or survivability expectations. Besides the never-ending supersonic train wreck known as the F-35, we have other boondoggle failures such as the Littoral Combat Ship, which by all accounts is less capable and more vulnerable than the 20 to 30 year-old vessels it was supposed to replace.
Or, going back a few years, we see the Army’s “Commanche” helicopter, an intended replacement for the Apache, which blew through $6.9 billion—in 1983-2004 dollars, probably over $10 billion today—before the entire program was scrapped. That’s right, over $10 billion for nothing—not one Commanche was ever delivered for permanent use to an Army operational unit!
Where did that money go, if they didn’t actually manufacture anything besides a few prototypes? Did they spend $10 billion on PowerPoint presentations?
My brain cannot even wrap around this. Can you imagine what Russia or China could do for $10 billion?
However, even that pales before the Army’s cancelled Future Combat Systems program, which burned through an estimated (no one knows exactly) $20 billion from 2003 to somewhere between 2012 and 2014 (depending on what termination milestone you go by), with almost nothing to show beyond a few prototypes, a lot of concept art, and a 29-pound toy robot made by iRobot of “Roomba” vacuum cleaner fame. In fact, I can’t think of one big new U.S. weapons system that has succeeded in the last 25 years, other than perhaps the Stryker armored car (though some have argued that point, and I just don’t know enough about it.)
As pointed out by many other observers, part of the blame lies with our political system, where MIC corporations buy politicians and then receive favors in the form of contracts, whether or not the contracts make any sense. However, I think this is not the only problem, nor even necessarily the biggest.
Fundamentally what I think we have is systemic over-complexity resulting in nothing getting done, or done well anyway.
US intelligence agencies have the same problem
This is akin to the deep systemic crisis in Uncle Sam’s intelligence agencies, where from 9/11 to the Arab Spring to Crimea to the ISIS conquest of Mosul to Russia in Syria, the word is always “we didn’t expect…” In this case, we have numerous agencies—some of them with overlapping functions—that are drowning in paperwork and garbage data (or too much data) and are almost totally useless.
As some readers will remember, it got so bad that in April 2014 the State Department released a photo collage aiming to prove that (among other things) a bearded Chechen battalion commander going by the name Hamza, who appeared in Russian TV footage of the 2008 Olympic War, was none other than the bearded, overweight Slaviansk militiaman going by the call-sign “Babai”—in other words, Russian special forces have invaded the Donbass. (The New York Times ran with this and was then oh-so-vaguely and gently reproached by its own ombudsman.)
Shouldn’t this awful joke have been prevented by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is supposed to promote info-sharing among agencies and centrally vet all claims and conclusions—especially those being trumpeted on the State Department’s website or at its briefings? Apparently not!
Bureaucratic bloat
On the other hand, what the U.S. lack-of-intelligence complex is very good at—besides hiring way too many buxom, flirty young things straight out of college and with no language skills or any experience at all (DIA and NGA, you know your ex-military managers like to beautify their offices)—is providing employment for tens of thousands of its own staff as well as tens of thousands of grotesquely-overpaid contractors, including those who build and run billion-dollar eavesdropping centers that have proven incapable of picking up anything useful, perhaps because when you try to listen to everything, you end up hearing nothing.
The lesson here is that the more offices and agencies, the more managers and political appointees who will seek to justify and expand their turf and budgets by shoveling out as much money on as many contracts as possible, as quickly as possible, in many cases even paying contractors to do little more than just sit around (sometimes at home) waiting for the next contract. (I have seen this many times in Washington.)
Then you get so big that people simply trip over each other and the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
The US MIC worked great 50 years ago because less money and people were involved
So I think this is what’s going on not only in the intelligence apparatus, but in the MIC as a whole. We have hundreds of thousands of staff and contractors as well as military officers assigned to liaise with them, all kinds of project managers and “six-sigma black belts” and other buzzwords, juggling millions of PowerPoints across the river from Washington and throughout the country, and they can’t field a helicopter after spending $10 billion on it.
Really? How did this great country ever defeat the Japanese Empire?
Go to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington; you will see the most amazing things—e.g. generators designed to operate on the surface of the Moon, drawing electricity from the heat of plutonium decay—that were developed when there was no Crystal Drive, no Tysons Corner, etc.
Then go to the museum’s extension near Dulles airport and check out the SR-71 “Blackbird”, the fastest and highest-flying airplane ever built (this was about 50 years ago.)
How did they do it?
Although there were more men in uniform back then, the MIC itself (or should I say the Military-Industrial-Intelligence-Homeland-Insecurity-Complex (MIIHIC)) – had but a fraction of today’s civilian workforce. Luckily, most of those paper-pushing “systems integrators” and PowerPoint rangers did not exist. Blueprints were drafted with pencil and paper.
Today, Uncle Sam can’t even build a heavy rocket engine, not to mention a good helmet or ejection seat for his F-35.
No hope for change going forward
So it seems that as a technical civilization we are degenerating.
Sure, there are constant advancements in microelectronics (a.k.a. integrated circuits) and the programs they allow, but in terms of heavy engineering—of which the MIIHIC and other government initiatives like the space program were at the forefront since WWII—it seems that the U.S. is tapped out.
And you know what? Throwing more money at it is just going to make it worse.
The organizations with their budgets and their perfectly reasonable-sounding arguments for ever-greater budgets will grow, their workforces will grow, the contracting sector will grow, more shiny office buildings will go up, but the result will be an ever-increasingly-negative marginal return.
John McCain and all the other broken records in and out of the Pentagon will say we still don’t have enough funds to counter a pointless Russian invasion of parasitic, inconsequential Lithuania (currently headed by a longtime communist) or any other 1990s-era speculative wargame training scenario that somehow carried over into the public consciousness and morphed into the Greatest Threat to World Peace.
Of course, as long as the U.S. has the money to send gazillion-dollar armies and armadas against illiterate natives armed with sharp sticks and coconuts, this may not visibly threaten its hegemony. Almost any problem or mistake can be papered over with money, for a long time anyway.
But eventually, even if the money spigot does not constrict, we will get to the point where the military really can’t be used as anything more than a façade or a gunboat road-show, hoping no one calls the bluff, because the stuff just doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, or else is too vulnerable (witness the evacuation of the U.S. aircraft carrier from the Persian Gulf after Uncle Sam found out that Russia has cruise missiles with a range of at least 1500km, or the ridiculous sail-around of China’s little islands which had the sense to infringe only very slightly and briefly on that country’s imaginary territorial waters), or the natives can devise their own countermeasures.
In fact, I would say we are at that point already. Not to mention, the U.S. Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs are still so tapped-out after Iraq and Afghanistan that another major ground operation is unthinkable. (At this point, Washington is more likely to launch nukes at somebody than risk another ground war.)
So you can anticipate a lot of hand-wringing and a lot more money being thrown into the breach. That’s simply what the machine does; there is no chance to reform it, nor will the Hegemony dissipate willingly (although lately it’s done a good job of dissipating unwillingly.)
But all that money may as well be flushed down the can.
The threshold has been reached and it’s all downhill from here.
Pluto Really Is a Weird Place! These Are the Strangest Things Found on Its Icy Surface
Successful Kids and 10 Habits of the Parents Who Raise Them
We’re always checking out other people’s parenting skills in an effort to raise successful kids. Should we make their bedtime earlier? Should we insist on piano lessons? We rounded up the parenting moves that do seem to spur kids on to greatness.
Give children chores
When children are made to complete chores, they are shaping a work ethic from early on. Not only does this give them a chance to contribute to family life, but it also demonstrates that they play an integral role in the successful day-to-day functioning of their family. Chores for kids also teach them valuable skills that will be necessary when they head off to college and start their adult lives.
Set high expectations
Parents of successful kids set high expectations for their children as well as themselves. More often than not, it encourages children to rise to the occasion. If college is the expectation, students will work toward that goal more readily than if a parent doesn’t bother mentioning it. What’s more, parents help their children succeed by modeling high expectations of themselves and demonstrating how to work hard to meet goals. It’s important to make sure that your expectations of your kids are realistic, however—they shouldn’t be led to believe they have to qualify for the olympics, graduate as valedictorian, or even keep their rooms clean 24/7—as the pressure to meet overly lofty goals can cause anxiety and ultimately backfire.
Get yourself educated
Statistically speaking, parents who have completed high school or college are more likely to have children who do the same. Parents who have not achieved higher levels of education might consider pursuing these educational goals in order to provide a good example for their children. As a bonus, studies show that higher education lowers blood pressure.
Show them the good life
If you want your child to follow in your footsteps—getting a steady job, making a nice home, and having a family—it’s helpful to make it look appealing. That doesn’t mean never ever complaining or hiding the truth about real life from your children, but there’s something to be said for modeling a life that motivates your children to want to achieve success. If they see your hard work is paying off, and that it seems meaningful, they will be more inclined to invest in their own futures. Avoid these things that parents say that ruin their kids’ trust.
Make friends with numbers early
Teaching math at an earlier age is not only an indicator of later success in mathematics but also in reading. Preschool now places a stronger emphasis on math skills in order to prepare students for the rigorous math expectations of elementary school and beyond. Giving your child a leg up on these skills will set them up for later success. We did an algorithm to ensure that these math jokes will make you smile (just kidding).
Make time for bonding
Children who have a secure foundation with their parents are more successful than those who do not, regardless of socio-economic status. That doesn’t mean you have to take them to Disney World or to the movies every week, but you’d do well to read a book together at bedtime, share meals whenever possible, and generally make yourself available when they need you. By nurturing a strong bond with your children from birth, you’ll help them feel grounded and secure—and secure children are more likely to become successful adults.
Teach troubleshooting
Parents of successful children give their kids the tools they need to solve problems, whether it means asking them how they think a word is spelled before dictating the answer, or prompting them to suggest solutions when problems arise. These moves help children develop the habit of trying to solve problems themselves, which leads to feelings of competence and confidence—invaluable skills for navigating adult life. These quotes about parenting are sure to make you laugh.
Accept and recognize their feelings
Emotions are tough for a lot of people, especially kids. So it can be particularly helpful to teach kids how to recognize and verbalize their emotions. When children are young, attach names to their feelings, so they can speak about them intelligently. You might say, “I see that you’re feeling very frustrated,” or “I know it must be disappointing to have to miss your friend’s party.” Giving children the space to explore their emotions and helping them process those emotions will contribute to their becoming successful adults. Don’t miss the signs you’re raising an emotionally intelligent child.
Try to chill out a little
Stressed out parents make for stressed out children. Learn to manage your own stress levels in order to provide a stress-free home for your children. Stress is contagious—don’t pass it on.
The impoverished West African state of Niger is the latest flashpoint in the struggle by the imperialist powers for a redivision of the world. The issues involved in the NATO-Russia war in Ukraine—a fight for territory, strategic resources and regime-change—are erupting all over the globe, in China and Taiwan, and now in the Sahel region of Africa.
Though stalled for the moment, what would be a devastating war led by the most powerful country in the region, Nigeria, to oust the coup leaders in Niger and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum is under active preparation. At a summit of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in the Nigerian capital Abuja Thursday, leaders agreed to activate a standby military force and threatened that “no option had been taken off the table.”’
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They agreed a new round of sanctions on Niger, which has been plunged into blackouts by electricity cut-offs and seen food prices rise 60 percent amid a blockade and the freezing of assets and trade.
A conflict would draw in the entire region. Senegal, Benin and the Ivory Coast have already pledged to send troops to aid Nigeria. Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea have declared for the military coup leaders in Niger.
Behind the proposed ECOWAS action stand the imperialist powers, who are intent on blocking Russia and China from further penetrating a continent whose strategic significance is growing rapidly. The long-term decline of France’s economic position in its former West African colonies—culminating in the last three years in a dramatic collapse of its military presence in Mali, Burkina Faso and now perhaps Niger—has thrown open the Sahel region to intense geopolitical competition.
Bazoum was considered an important Western ally. The US and the European powers have responded to the coup against him by cutting aid to Niger supposedly provided on “humanitarian” grounds—on which it relies for 40 percent of its annual government budget. They are determined to secure their interests whatever the cost.
Speaking Tuesday after “difficult” talks with the coup leaders, US Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland—veteran of the US-backed 2014 coup in Ukraine—threatened, “We’ll be watching the situation, but we understand our legal responsibilities and I explained those very clearly to the guys who were responsible for this and that it is not our desire to go there, but they may push us to that point.”
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Caution over a proposed military intervention by ECOWAS has centred on concerns that such action has not been properly prepared and would spark mass opposition throughout the region. A misjudged war could explode the social powder keg in Nigeria, where the US and Britain are heavily invested politically and economically.
A great deal is at stake. The United States currently has 1,500 soldiers of its 6,500-strong declared African deployment stationed in Niger across two bases—one of which is the regional hub for drone missions. France has 1,100 troops in the country, Italy 300 and Germany around 100.
Niger is a major uranium producer, providing a quarter of Europe’s supply. It is due to start exporting oil and plays a central role in policing migration out of Africa to Europe. It has become a frontline state in a battle for economic and military pre-eminence in West Africa and across the whole continent.
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Africa is home to an estimated 30 percent of the world’s mineral wealth, including 90 percent of its chromium and platinum—crucial to the green energy transition. Another such mineral is cobalt, of which 70 percent of the world’s supply is produced in the Democratic Republic of Congo. By the end of the century, Africa could also account for a fifth of the world’s lithium supply.
The continent also produces 65 percent of the world’s diamonds and is home to 40 percent of its gold reserves, 12 percent of its oil and 8 percent of its natural gas, while Morocco alone is home to 75 percent of the world’s phosphate rock, crucial for fertiliser.
In terms of markets, Africa’s consumer expenditure is on track to grow from $1.4 trillion in 2015 to $2.5 trillion in 2030.
The US and Europe are concerned not to let Niger be another loss to the claims made by China and Russia on these riches and opportunities.
Russia’s Wagner group (headed by Yevgeny Prigozhin) is operating in Mali, to Niger’s immediate West, Libya, to its North East, the Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan—providing armed forces for their governments in conflicts with local rebel groups. In the CAR and Sudan, Wagner also runs private gold and diamond mines.
Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a Russia-Africa summit in 2019 promising to help push back against “an array of Western countries [that] are resorting to pressure, intimidation and blackmail of sovereign African governments.” The second, far less well attended, summit held under conditions of anti-Russian sanctions and the war in Ukraine, took place last month, where a special effort was made to court Burkina Faso’s “interim leader” Colonel Ibrahim Traoré.
Russia has sought to leverage its relatively meagre resources to gain allies and the occasional lucrative venture, but China is throwing enormous economic weight behind securing control of Africa’s resources markets. It has controlling stakes in large swathes of the continent’s mining industry—including the bulk of uranium mines in Niger, plus its oil industry—forming part of a total FDI (foreign direct investment) stock of $43.4 billion in 2020, a 100-fold increase in 17 years.
China is Africa’s largest bilateral lender, loaning $153 billion in the two decades to 2019, and its second largest trade partner after the European Union, bigger than any other single country.
Both Russia and China are also major arms suppliers to sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 26 and 18 percent of sales respectively in the last five years, above third-place France at 8 percent, and the US at 5 percent.
In 2019, US Africa Command (AFRICOM) launched a five-year plan to “deter” what it called “Chinese and Russian malign action.” Former head of AFRICOM, Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, told Congress that year that both were after “access and influence to our detriment,” and that, within the decade, China could gain the capability to inhibit US military access and operations. The policy has remained unchanged since Trump’s Republicans were replaced by the Democrats under Biden.
Colin P. Clarke, former RAND analyst and current director of research at the global intelligence and security consultancy The Soufan Group, bluntly explained to Newsweek the implications of the Nigerien situation.
“This could take on the dimensions of a regional proxy war, with Western countries supporting ECOWAS and Russia supporting Niger—and Burkina Faso and Mali, if they joined in—with muscle from the Wagner Group.
“What’s happening in the Sahel is not a sideshow to great power competition, it is great power competition. The events unfolding are not doing so in a vacuum. The US, France, China, and Russia each have their own vested interests in Sahelian countries.”
Workers and the rural poor in Niger and West Africa are confronted with the catastrophe warned of by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) at its 1991 Berlin Conference of Workers against Imperialist War and Colonialism, held in response to the Gulf War.
The manifesto announcing that conference explained: “This ongoing and de facto partition of Iraq signals the start of a new division of the world by the imperialists. The colonies of yesterday are again to be subjugated. The conquests and annexations which, according to the opportunist apologists of imperialism, belonged to a bygone era are once again on the order of the day.”
Based on Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolution, the statement warned that the struggle “against imperialist oppression cannot be waged successfully as long as the working class remains under the political domination of any wing of the national bourgeoisie.” It is inseparable from a fight against national ruling classes which have overseen the continued gruelling exploitation of the African masses, kept in power by militaries trained and funded by the imperialists.
Niger must above all serve as a warning to the working class all over the world of the urgent need to oppose the predatory war aims of the imperialist powers. As the ICFI and the International Youth and Students for Social Equality insisted in calling for the building of a worldwide movement against the NATO-Russia war:
The war in Ukraine is not an episode that will soon be resolved and followed by a return to “normalcy.” It is the beginning of a violent eruption of a global crisis that can be resolved only in one of two ways. The capitalist solution leads to nuclear war, though the word “solution” can hardly be rationally applied to what would amount to planetary suicide. Thus, the only viable response, from the standpoint of securing the future of mankind, is the world socialist revolution.
USA will not allow it to happen. Why do you think all 3 Taiwan candidates needs to appear in US for an interview. They will be questioned on this issue and make their pledges this will not happen.
Scott Ritter will survive. But over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have not survived the carnage that is a direct result of YouTube’s censorship of omission and commission.
In his interviews, Le Tissier comes across as a nice, well-balanced guy, who exudes the abundance of confidence which he himself admits made him such a formidable spot kicker for Southampton FC, which he loyally served for an impressive 16 years, despite getting much better offers from Spurs and other big clubs.
Retiring from football, Le Tissier became a successful pundit before being blackballed over his views, which he continues to express in the most moderate of terms, on censorship and overall state repression. Even more to our point, Le Tissier said that, as a pundit, he described the action from the point of view of a spectator and not as a manager or, in his case, a lethal forward, and that he left the complex strategic analysis and accompanying diagrams to others. In other words, even as a pundit, Le Tissier was a team player, who could see the overall picture and the best role he could play there.
The point here is that, whether we are looking at football or at NATO’s Ukrainian war, we should try eliciting views from many informed quarters, those like Ritter, with a modicum of relevant experience, included.
Although NATO would agree with that, they insist that military pundits must only express the views of Team NATO and no one else, as all else is mis-information, Putin propaganda and so on. Because Ritter not only differs from NATO’s narrative but actually admits to sometimes working in consort with informed Russians, NATO must have him gagged, for what possible benefit could there be for NATO in giving a Russian, any Russian, a fair hearing? As someone who wouldn’t go out of my way to listen to Ritter’s punditry or, for that matter, that of Le Tissier, that is still fundamentally wrong and, in the case of Ritter, dangerous.
It is dangerous because listening to echo chambers on Ukraine or any other war zone is not only dangerous but potentially lethal as well. This can now be seen in the case of Ukraine where, following the collapse of the much-vaunted Ukrainian Army that Ritter, Douglas Macgregor and other informed pundits long ago consistently predicted, MI6 agent Zelensky, a term I borrow from Ritter’s prior excellent work, is now pretending to clean up Ukraine’s rampant corruption, which Ritter repeatedly previously drew attention to.
Not only has NATO lied to us about every aspect of their Ukrainian war, just like they have lied to us about every single other of the countless wars they have waged since their inception but they want to muffle and ban every authoritative voice that might present us with a contrary view.
This is not to say that all views are equally valid and legitimate. They are not. Le Tissier was a pundit because he was an excellent and articulate player and Ritter, as he constantly reminds us, was a senior officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, which I would put on a par with Hitler’s Wehrmacht, many of whose generals, such as Erich von Manstein, provided valuable post-War insights and more of whom, such as Franz Halder, who served as Chief of Staff of Nazi Germany’s High Command from 1938 to 1942, was subsequently showered with medals and awards of appreciation by President John F Kennedy for perpetuating the myth of the “righteous war the clean Wehrmacht” fought against the Red Army’s Soviet Homeland, whose civilians remain NATO’s primary military target to this very day.
NATO has, of course, countless other targets, many of whom are like Gonzalo Lira, where Ritter has singularly missed the mark. Lira is, or rather was, our man on the spot, just as Nazi Party member John Rabe was our much better informed man on the spot during Japan’s Rape of Nanking for which NATO relentlessly pilloried investigative journalist Iris Chang until she suicided.
Scott Ritter, like Matt Le Tissier before him, is strong and resourceful. He will survive. But over 400,000 Ukrainian soldiers have not survived the carnage that is a direct result of the censorship of omission and commission YouTube and other NATO mis-information portals have spewed out. Though each of those soldiers had a story to tell, many of them, who could not afford to bribe their way to safety, came from the poorest strata of society, from mountainside hovels without even a window, never mind any semblance of what we might regard as the barest comforts of life. Instead of letting them be, Zelensky’s thugs kidnapped them and threw them into the meat grinder where they died unlamented, except by those who loved them and depended on them for their subsistence.
When we take Ukraine’s dead, wounded, orphaned, widowed, trafficked and abandoned into account, Zelensky and his YouTube and other NATO censors must have destroyed the lives of well over 4 million Ukrainians and that is without even looking at the Russian side of the lines.
But, because Lira and even Ritter may be our current men on the spot, historians in future years will probably thank them, just as the more honest amongst them previously thanked Rabe, for giving posterity the first draft of why so many millions of lives had to be blighted so low life porno actor Zelensky could accumulate his portfolio of mansions to house his impressive stable of mistresses.
Ritter and Lira, like Rabe before them, might well be just very minor footnotes to all this carnage. But the main authors of this carnage, criminals like Victoria Nuland and John Bolton, are not. Their self-serving threats against the International Criminal Court notwithstanding, all NATO curs like them have very serious questions to answer, the sort of charges Frank, Frick, Jodl, Kallenbrunner, Keitel, Ribbentrop, Rosenberg and Streicher all swung for in Nuremberg.
These NATO curs have repeatedly said that rough justice is for others, for those like their former Iraqi ally Saddam Hussein whom they lynched in 2006, or Gadaffi, whom they sodomised and murdered in 2011. But then there is also Stepan Bandera, who met his Maker in 1959 to settle, in part, vendettas these NATO gangsters continue to this day. And, though Ritter, Lipp, Lira and Assange are immaterial to settling such scores, until they are settled, there can be no justice and no peace because justice demands that NATO’s war criminals pay with their lives for their crimes and, as even the blind can see, as long as Nuland, Bolton and the rest of NATO’s swamp creatures remain uncaged, there definitely can be no peace.
15 Months On Mars: Ingenuity Finds Eerie Spacecraft Wreckage
WTF? Cool.
Through the Western lens
Through the Western lens means 3 things:
Ideological bigotry — liberal democracy is superior; China’s political system is evil, autocratic, repressive.
Western projection — Western colonialism has dominated the world for the last 500 years; therefore, China will also try to dominate the world similarly, either militarily or economically.
Fear of losing hegemony — China threatens the global hegemony of USA, UK and EU. China must be stopped.
Viewing China through this lens yields:
Anti-China propaganda to smear China’s reputation, turn world opinion against China and hopefully cause the world to decouple from China.
Economic and tech sanctions against China, depriving China of 5G market, semiconductors, FDI.
Military intimidation — naval exercises in Taiwan Strait, adding more military bases, selling arms to Taiwan.
The Western lens is blind to 3 facts:
China has fought no wars in over 40 years, since 1979, making China the most peaceful world power to have ever existed.
Outside of USA, UK and EU, the rest of the world holds a favorable view of China. The University of Cambridge published a study in October 2022 called, “A World Divided: Russia, China and the West.” It surveyed 137 countries representing 97% of the world’s population to uncover the favorability of Russia and China to these countries. It found that 70% of the world, excluding the Western countries, had a favorable view of China. Only 23% of Western countries thought well of China.
Evil, autocratic, repressive China has the most trusted and satisfactory government in the world. According to the 2023 Edelman Trust Barometer, 89% of Chinese trust their government compared to 56% for France, 51% for Canada, 47% for Germany, 46% for Italy, 42% for USA, 37% for UK, 36% for Spain, and 33% for Japan.
A November 2019 Ipsos survey shows that 94 percent of Chinese believe their country is on the right track.
According to the Global Happiness 2023 survey from Ipsos, China is the happiest country in the world at 91% compared to 76% for USA, 74% for Canada and France, and 70% for UK.
According to Ash Center at Harvard Kennedy School in 2020, 95.5% of Chinese are satisfied with their government.
A 2019 UC San Diego study shows a high level of satisfaction among the Chinese across a range of aspects up to 95 percent.
According to Latana’s Democracy Perception Index 2023, China is the 6th most democratic nation on earth, well ahead of Germany, Spain, Canada, Italy, UK, USA, France, and Japan.
Use Google search to verify all of the above. Don’t take my word for it.
Western democracy is a failed model. US democracy has degenerated into a plutocracy. UK democracy is a mess. Indian democracy is a mess.
We have bozo leaders like Biden, Trump, Trudeau, Johnson, Truss, Sunak, Scholz, Modi, Zelensky, etc.
Western democracy allowed millions of people to die needlessly from the pandemic.
Western democracy allowed UK and EU to f*ck up their economies thanks to Russian sanctions.
USA is in very sad shape because of a totally incompetent government…
$32 trillion national debt
crumbling infrastructure
homelessness
unaffordable health care
rampant gun violence
mass incarceration
fentanyl crisis
increasing poverty
The list is endless.
India can’t get a handle on ethnic strife and human rights issues. It has poor education and poor infrastructure. China’s economy is 5.2 times larger by nominal GDP and 2.5 times larger by purchasing power parity when, by rights, India’s economy should be roughly on par with China’s. Thank India’s democracy for this.
The West is a waking up…
The US obsession with China is 100% a “they hate us cuz they ain’t us” situation.
Forty years ago, the Chinese were living in rice fields. Now, they’re all super rich and living in cities that look like the Mars Base from Total Recall.
Last time I was there, I was so shocked by the affluence of the general population that I literally made this face:
2023 08 14 11 52
They had to give me tea to relax.
But seriously, I’m thinking of making a trip to China and making a documentary proving that it is a much better country.
A Chinese friend invited me. He’s not even really rich, and he was like “yeah – you can stay at my place. You can sleep on the couch. It’s not a problem – I have 200 couches.”
A Litany of Lies
by Arch Bungle Lifted from an off-topic comment.
Being a catalogue of the lies I have imbibed through by means of torturous exposure to Anglo-American Newspapers and the rumor mills of Continental Europe.
See the examples below:
The Russian MIC cannot manufacture semiconductors. All their semiconductors are obtained via the black market from western sources. Or Iran. Or China. Or North Korea (all of whom are themselves under sanctions!).
The Russian microchip industry doesn’t exist (But the Russians can build things with black market American chips that even the Japanese can’t build)
The Russian microchip industry has collapsed (How something that doesn’t exist “collapses” I am not sure, but there you are)
Putin is a Dictator. He micromanages every single aspect of Russian Society up to the frontline battles (The Surovikhin Line should actually be renamed the “Putin Line”. But russian military bloggers and even military staff are criticising him on a daily basis without apparent consequence, and outspoken media figures are allowed to hurl an endless stream of criticism against Putin and his conduct of the war).
Putin is Russia and “Russia is Putin” (And that one aging bureaucrat alone is enough to terrify the West )
Russia / Putin is Isolated from the global community (Because everyone knows the “International Community” consists of white folks plus some honorary members like the Japs and South Koreans (whose membership may soon be up anyway))
The Russian economy is insignificant and smaller than Italy/Texas/France/etc. (it’s only the biggest economy in Europe by PPP, and nobody cares about PPP)
The Soviet Union was an Empire and Russia is seeking to restore it’s imperialism
Putin is a “Thug” and a “Murderer” (Because he bombed all those Afghan weddings, blockaded the starving people of Yemen and stated publicly that 500 000 Iraqi children were a worthy sacrifice to Mammon)
Russian military operations are at a disadvantage at night due to inferior night vision (The AFU on the other hand has access to the best NATO night vision technology)
Russia is starving the world by withdrawing from the grain deal
The Oil Price Cap, defying all laws of economic gravity, has been surprisingly effective in strangling Russian oil revenues
Russia is running out of artillery/drones/tanks/men Russia is salvaging microchips from dishwashers
Putin is dying from Alzheimers/Parkinsons/Cancer
Russia is stealing millions of Ukrainian children and abducting them to Russian territory
Putin eats brains cooked by Prigozine
Prigozine was Putin’s Chef (literally)
Russian army is demoralised and bordering on mutiny
Putin’s inner circle is plotting a coup against him (It’s going as slow as the SMO because they also believe in the slow grinding approach)
[Counter-Narrative character assassination] Putin was responsible for the Moscow Apartment Bombings
Russian army is incompetent and poorly trained
Russian satellite coverage of the battlespace is poor, so poor large swathes of Ukraine are completely invisible to them
Russian army has poor targeting precision. So bad that even a large CEP and a salvo won’t help
Russia is deliberately targeting civilians
Ukraine is not targeting civilians (deliberately)
Putin is preparing to colonise Africa (The Africans will be given a choice of Russia, China, The EU or the US for their new colonial masters)
The Wagner group is involved somehow in the coup in Niger
Russia has been making extensive use of cluster munitions since the start of the SMO (Extensive evidence of this to be found in Bucha, Mariupol and Kherson)
Ukraine has an artillery advantage over Russia (July/June 2023)
NATO tactics are superior to Russian battlefield tactics (Specifically the training provided by the Brits, those eternal masters of battlefield tactics going back to the charge of the light brigade)
Putin has a poor grasp of strategy (As compared to Biden, Sunak, Boris Johnson, Olaf Scholtz, Jens Stotenberg, Milley, Von der Leyen and Borell who are strategic geniuses)
The Sanctions Are Working (Just like they worked against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, the Houthi, China, Vietnam …)
The HIMARS Missile system will be a “game changer” (It’s impossible to shoot down a hi mars round, and not a single Himars system has been destroyed)
American drones will be a “game changer” (especially the little spy ones)
The AFU has “semi-encircled” the Russian forces in Bakhmut/Artyomsk
Byraktar will be a game-changer (Because somehow the Turks managed to evolve from kebab makers to advanced drone manufacture. Who do they think they are, Iranians?)
F16s will turn the tide of the battle in Ukraines favour
X wonder weapon will “turn the tide against Russia” (I thought the tide was already in Ukraine’s favour from the start?)
X general/commander has been fired/sacked/discipled
X and Y generals have a personal rivalry that is affecting Russian battlefield performance
The Russian army is dependent on decrepit Soviet-era equipment (e.g old Soviet Hypersonic missiles)
There’s nothing special about Ukraine’s neo-nazi problem since neo-nazism is a worldwide problem.
There are no weapons bio-labs in Ukraine operated by the Pentagon
The weapons labs operated in Ukraine by the pentagon are not a threat to Russia
Russia Attacked Ukraine Unprovoked (The bombing of civilians in donbas was no reason to go in guns blazing. R2P is the divine right of Europeans only)
NATO made no commitment (written or otherwise) to not advance on Russia’s borders (Gorbacheff was drunk and hallucinating at the time)
The SMO has nothing to do with the NATO advancement in Eastern Europe
The SMO has nothing to do with the 8-year killings of ethnic russians in donbas
Cluster munitions are acceptable in Ukraine’s case since they’re in dire straits
The Russians invaded Ukraine in 2014 (“Little Green Men”)
Russian tanks are inferior to American tanks (Even Shermans.)Russian tanks are inferior to German tanks (Even WW2 tiger tanks)
Russian tanks are inferior to French tanks (Especially in reverse)
The Russian army is the second most powerful one in the world (Second most powerful in Ukraine, which means the AFU is the most powerful army in the world)
Putin is a Crypto-Jew (Because there are some photos of a Putin-looking dude wearing a weird cap)
Ukraine cannot be a NAZI state because it’s president is Jewish
[Counter-Narrative Character Assassination] Alexander Mercouris is a convicted criminal
[Counter-Narrative Character Assassination] Scott Ritter is a convicted paedophile
“X” pro-russian commentator has never been right (non of his predictions has come true)
“Y” pro-Russian commentator is a convicted x,y,z (character assassinations)
The sanctions will work if we only apply enough rounds of sanctions!
The Russian economy is in tatters!
Putin is losing the political support of his people: Protests breaking out all over Russia with a possible cooler revolution brewing
The Ukrainian Counteroffensive (June/July/August 2023) is/was/will be successful
Russia is firing S300 missiles into Poland (over Ukrainian airspace)
The Russo Ukraine war started in 2022
The Russian Army is using Human Wave attacks (wagner’s HR department must be the most efficient on planet earth – a revolution in HR affairs for sure)
The Russian Army is targeting civilians (And yet the Russians have poor targeting ability?)
The Russian army is using cluster munitions since the start of the war (with not a single mention in the media until the US decided to suggest using them?)
Putin wants to expand the Russian empire into Europe (including such useless basket cases like the Greeks, Italians, French and Spaniards and those malevolent psychopaths the Germans)
Ukrainian Grain is key to solving world hunger (But the EU frequently rejects the grain due to toxins?)
‘International Law’ says x , y , z about the SMO (the same international law that has no enforcer or single legislative body acknowledged internationally)
NATO is a defensive organisation (Except when it comes to brown people in non-european countries, or yugoslavs, who may be bombed with wild abandon)
NATO is limited to the “North Atlantic” (Libya is a north atlantic country of course, everybody knows THAT)
NATO has greater military power than Russia (An organisation made up mostly of countries who got their asses kicked by the Wehrmacht or paid Russia to do their fighting for them are now suddenly the most powerful military force on earth)
Putin is in league with the Russian Oligarchs and therefore targeting the Oligarchs harms Putin (which explains why they’re fleeing Russia for London)
Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure are justified (but Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure are not. All Ukrainian attacks on civilians are unintentional, including the couple killed on Kerch bridge orphaning their daughter)
The Russian Tank Autoloader is inferior to the manually loaded western tank loader (Because a meat-bag on captagon can outperform automation in any era)
The Ukrainian offensive is stalling because NATO is drip-feeding weapons to the regime’ (But still Ukraine is winning!).
Current hostilities between the AFU and the RF are “stalemated” (Even in Kupyansk)
Current hostilities between the AFU and the RF are “stalled” (but Ukraine is making ‘incremental gains’, but Russia is not making ‘incremental gains’)
The Tochka missile attack on the Kramatorsk train station was perpetrated by Russians using an old Soviet missile from Ukrainian stocks.
The Russian people are collectively responsible for Putin’s war on Ukraine (So they need re-education and De-Russification)
The Ukrainian Industry is continuing as normal despite the war. It’s glorious industrial machine pumps out tanks, shells, missiles, semiconductors, fuel and grain at impressive levels, supplying The World and their own army with important commodities (Motorsich is running fine producing tanks for the AFU, jet engines for the Ukrainian Airforce, the neon/argon production facilities have not been captured by Russia, oil reserve facilities are untouched).
Life in Ukrainian cities is continuing as normal despite the war. All is well. Pool parties and street celebrations are commonplace. (Millions of Ukrainians have not fled for Europe, it was merely the tourist high season, hospitals are not filled with the casualties of war, funeral hearses in their thousands are not seen in the streets, WW2 cemeteries are not seeing a capacity problem …)
If the west only gets rid of Putin Russia will collapse and the West will be victorious. (This short, balding, 70-year old bureaucrat is the only one standing between Victoria Nuland and “World Domination”).
The use of nuclear weapons by Russia will end the war and the world will be at peace thereafter (or some variation thereof).
Ukraine should be grateful to the West for supplying the Ukrainian Army (But the West owes Ukraine nothing for fighting their wars for them?)
General Gerasimov was killed on the battlefield.
Putin is dead and what we’re seeing is one of his many body doubles (The body double is somehow as worthy of hatred as the original and as capable of running Russia as the OG Putin (anybody watched Foundation Series lately?))
Russia is the last bastion of the “white, straight, christian male” and is fighting this war in the name of White Christendom (not the chechen muslim, tengrist buryat, buddhist tuvan, shamanist Yakhut … no they’re all just immigrant labour shipped in for their “white” masters)
The Ukrainians should never have surrendered their USSR nuclear weapons (the ones they never had control of to begin with)
If you were against the invasion of Iraq by the USA you should be equally against the invasion of Ukraine by Russia (During which Vasiliy Nebenziya stood up in the UNSC waving a vodka bottle filled with Novichok as evidence the Ukraine was using chemical weapons against “it’s own people”)
The Ukrainian Counteroffensive (June/July/August 2023) is/was/will be successful
The USA is able to fund the Ukraine war on Russia indefinitely (because “infinite money printer capacity” = “infinite manufacturing capacity” and all this manufacturing capacity can be restored to the US in the space of a few months, just like 9 women can birth a single baby in 1 month if working in parallel)
The Ukrainians are winning because they’ve taken back 50% of the territory Russia took from them in a fraction of the time Russia took to take it (at the cost of more than 50% of the Ukrainian army, and just not the part Russia truly cares about. The other 50% of the land will cost another 50% of the AFU probably)
The Wagner Coup’ (Because a 10 minute speech by Putin is enough to stop a coup right in the tracks)
the Wagner Mutiny (Because somewhere there was a ship involved)
The Wagner Protest (Minus the protest placards)
The Wagner Insurrection (Because a couple of clowns barreling down the road with some stolen artillery can take on the entire Red Army)
The Wagner Invasion of Poland (Because “why not”?)
The Russian people would rise up and overthrow the Putin regime if they could only just receive CNN, BBC, MSNBC (Because they’re all nostalgic for a repeat of the 1990s)
The West has unparalleled media freedom (as long as you don’t watch RT, Sputnik, Iranian Opress-TV, Al-Manar because those are obvious propaganda, because we think so)
Putin intends to invade Moldova (skipping on right past Lvov because “Stretch goals: we can do better!”).
Putin is “weaponising” hunger by forcing the West to impose grain sanctions on Russia (“I made you hit me in the face to hurt your hand”).
The Wagner ‘insurrection’ left Putin weakened politically (So weak he had to deliver an entire 10 minute speech including pauses to shut the whole thing down completely).
US Patriot missiles in Kiev shot down Russia’s hypersonic Khinzal missiles without sustaining significant damage.
Ukrainian Air Defences are capable of shooting down Khinzal hypersonic missiles (but by their own admission cannot defend against Onyx, probably because Onyx beats Dagger in trading card games)
…
Posted by b on August 14, 2023 at 17:45 UTC | Permalink
To add a handful more on top of my mind…
108. Journalist Julian Assange raped women and it’s only normal this journalist is locked up in high security prison Belmarch rotting away with psychopaths and murderers 109. The West is not a party to the Ukraine conflict 110. Putin/FSB bombed Nord Streams, Kerch, Kashovka dam in a 5D chess move 111. Putin/FSB murdered Darya Dugina/Vladlen Tatarsky in a 6D chess move 112. Russia would never use nukes against the West so there’s absolutely no risk in ever escalating the war 113. Russia would only use nukes against Ukraine, never the Western war participant so never mind upping the ante 114. The Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 case was carried out by Russians and directing the flight route over the most active war zone of that time as well as lowering the flight altitude from the usual 10 km to 8 km is just imagination 115. To let the war finally end, more weapons payed for by Western tax payers are necessary… war is peace 116. RT, Sputnik News and so many more information streams need censoring to protect our freedom… ignorance is bliss 117. Europe is now totally free of Russian hydro carbons 118. …
During his tenure as president of (what remains of) the Ukraine, Zelensky has wrecked the Ukraine, but has achieved many great things… for Russia. Here are his main achievements in no particular order:
• By being elected with the promise of ending hostilities, then immediately proceeding to escalate the conflict in the east, he thoroughly compromised what was left of Ukrainian democracy. He further demolished the Ukraine’s civic realm by banning all public media except for one government channel, banning all opposition and all Russian news sources and, in effect, establishing a totalitarian dictatorship.
• By relentlessly shelling the civilians in the now Russian Donetsk and Lugansk regions, then, in the spring of 2022, threatening them with a genocidal assault, he provided Russia with an ironclad reason to start the Special Military Operation: to save civilian lives. By so doing, he helped to expand Russian territory by four very valuable provinces (Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporozhye and Kherson) and set the stage for the eventual addition of, among others, Nikolaev, Odessa, Kharkov, and Kiev regions.
• He squandered $150 billion in foreign aid (much of it by the simple expedient of stealing it), expended a huge amount of military equipment and ammunition with nothing to show for it, and killed off 350 thousand Ukrainian soldiers (many of them Nazi war criminals), with possibly twice as many wounded.
• He shrunk his country’s population by almost half, some of it moving to Russia, becoming Russian citizens and integrating productively into the Russian population while rest went to the European Union, becoming a major burden for the welfare budgets of EU countries.
• By ordering Ukrainian troops to shell schools, kindergartens, hospitals and apartment buildings in universally recognized Russian regions such as Belgorod and by launching drone attacks directly on the Kremlin, he declared his government to be a terrorist organization, foreclosing any possibility of forcing Russia to negotiate a peace that would not be entirely on its own terms.
• He demonstrated the superiority of Russian weapons and military technique over NATO’s, most recently with Russia’s destruction of one of the Patriot missile batteries provided by the US. Almost every bit of equipment the West has been able to provide to the Ukrainians has been shown to be inferior to its Russian counterpart.
• He gave the Russian army ample opportunities to perfect their techniques for defeating NATO forces, venturing into new areas of drone warfare and battlefield surveillance from geostationary satellites. This will no doubt be very useful both in opposing NATO and in boosting future weapons sales to non-Western nations that wish to be free from Western oppression and meddling.
• He sold some of the weapons he received from the US to Mexican drug cartels, leaving US officials with no other choice than closing their eyes and pretending that this did not happen. Perhaps they will also be forced to look the other way as these cartels make use of these weapons to take over more and more of US cities and towns.
• He played host to many high-ranking Western officials, whom, on their to visit to Kiev, he presented with lavish presents such as suitcases of foreign aid money he had laundered, which these officials then brought home in diplomatic baggage, thus collecting blackmail material on all of them.
• He set an example for other Russian Jews whose bad luck had caused them to end up in the Ukraine rather than in Russia by resettling his parents in a posh neighborhood in Israel. But he kept his wife by his side, where she did a good job demoralizing the Ukrainian population by squandering more money on a single European shopping spree than most Ukrainians see in several lifetimes, all paid for by the US taxpayer. She also worked hard to gaslight Western officials by making them accept at face value and repeat ridiculous tales, such as the one about Russian troops being issued viagra, for them to better rape Ukrainian women.
• Zelensky is sometimes incautious; for instance, he got caught appointing operatives from Russia’s Federal Security Service (former KGB) to sensitive posts within the Ukrainian defense establishment, although it is unclear whether what’s left of the Ukrainian judiciary will be capable of prosecuting him.
• One of his greatest achievements was in placing the US and NATO in a zugzwang. This is a chess term for a situation in which a player has a choice of several moves, all of which lead to defeat. The US and NATO can either continue supporting the Ukraine, or they can stop supporting the Ukraine; in either case, they will lose.
• Perhaps his greatest achievement of all was in helping Russia turn away from its hostile neighbors in the West and toward friendly countries in Asia, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, cutting its economic, financial and cultural ties to the West and freeing itself from Western influences. His unwavering support for Ukrainian Nazis, whose emblems, insignia and slogans are styled after Nazi Germany and whose heroes are Nazi collaborators, coupled with the lavish support they received from the West, whose leaders chose to turn a blind eye toward their fascist proclivities, cemented in view of the Russians the view of the West as their existential enemy: a fascist, racist entity determined to destroy Russia but too weak and cowardly to do the job themselves.
All of this begs a question: Whom does Vladimir Zelensky serve?
Only 15% of the world’s population dislikes China; they make up the G7. They dislike China because it is a threat to what they think is their monopoly on global influence.
They call themselves “the world” because western-owned media has global influence.
The other 85% of the world either likes China or doesn’t care.
Hi, SJ-Z . Thanks for your very interesting question!
I guess Italians would be super surprised at just how much the Chinese spoil their pets.
Recently, 网易天成 (NetEase Tian Cheng), a subsidiary of 网易 (NetEase, the Chinese internet technology company) that specializes in medium-to-high-end pet food, partnered with 必胜客（Pizza Hut) to come up with a “Chinese-made dog pizza” that is safe to be consumed by dogs (and cats!).
The dog pizza is the brown disk thingy in the picture below:
This is what the “Chinese-made dog pizza” looks like in promotional material:
In the close up below, you can see that on the top of the pizza box, written in Chinese:
宠物零食 冻干生骨肉珍享比萨
This translates to:
Pet Snack Freeze Dried Raw Bone Meat Premium Pizza
2023 08 15 20 15zzz
To be honest, to me, it doesn’t look at all appetizing.
But then again, it’s made for dogs and cats.
Maybe dogs and cats don’t take visual aesthetics into account when it comes to their choice of nosh:
2023 08 15 20 15x
This pizza is part of 网易天成 & PizzaHut‘s “人宠同吃” (Pets eat together with us) promotional marketing campaign.
Basically, you buy a package deal at Pizza Hut that includes:
– a set meal for the humans – the “Chinese-made dog pizza” – Pet items/plushies
2023 08 15 20 16bv
More marketing collateral from the campaign:
2023 08 15 20 16q2023 08 15 20 17111
So, SJ-Z , at the end of the day, I guess it’s whether the dogs (and the cats) are actually going to eat this “Chinese-made dog pizza”.
I mean… you know how fussy some dogs and cats can be with their food…
I checked out Chinese social media platforms, and it appears that there are dogs (and cats) out there who will consume a “Chinese-made dog pizza”.
I guess, while it may look unappetizing to me, it’s tasty enough for them:
Many, many years ago I received a letter in the post. It was a recorded delivery and I had to sign for it to confirm delivery. I was intrigued and opened it immediately. It was a summons to appear in our local small claims court. I was being sued for £6,000. There were no details about the charges or any explanation of what the case was about other than the name and address of the complainant. I was mystified as I didn’t recognise the name. Lets call him Mr Smith.
In the three weeks before the stated date I convinced myself that one of my sons was playing an involved joke on me. I quizzed them all mercilessly but nobody would admit to knowing anything about it. As the date drew closer I determined to go to court just to find out which of my boys was the perpetrator of this rather involved joke.
Court day arrived and I went into the court building and presented my summons to an attendant, still expecting to be told it was a forgery. I was wrong. I was politely directed to a small waiting room and told my case would be called in 10 minutes. I was stunned.
When I was escorted into the courtroom the Sheriff (a lay judge in Scotland) asked me if I had a legal representative. I explained how I thought that the summons was a joke and I had no lawyer. He said that I could ask for a deferment to get legal advice if I choose but he didn’t think that was necessary. I sat down still stunned and confused but by now rather scared.
The Sheriff now asked the other side to outline their case. I listened in stunned amazement as the story unfolded.
Apparently some 6 months previously I had sold Mr Smith a tenpin bowling ball and drilled the ball to suit his hand. I had explained to him the need to keep the ball clean of lane oil on a regular basis. Mr Smith had taken me at my word and had left his bowling ball soaking in a bathtub of hot soapy water overnight. Feeling that the finger and thumb holes were wet when he fished the ball out of the bath in the morning he had decided to dry out the ball. Fifteen or twenty minutes in the microwave should dry it out nicely.
Some time later the ball had exploded. The force of the explosion was enough to destroy the microwave and send the door of the microwave flying upward with enough energy to punch through the ceiling and the floor of the room above his kitchen. Unfortunately the room above his kitchen was his neighbours bathroom. The microwave door not only punched through the floor but punched through the actual bath. Really unfortunately the poor woman was taking a bath at the time.
She was suing Mr Smith for the damage to her bathroom from the flying microwave door as well as the water damage to her carpets from the bath full of water. She wasn’t suing for the shock of a microwave door suddenly puncturing her bath although it must have been a terrific shock.
Mr Smith was suing me for the same amount on the basis that I had sold him a bowling ball without specifically telling him not to put it in the microwave.
By this stage several people in the gallery were laughing and the sheriff was definitely smiling. I was still worried but feeling considerably less scared. We all sat politely until Mr Smith’s lawyer had finished. The Sheriff then drew himself very straight and without a trace of a smile said that he was here to apply the law of the land and not to educate idiots. Case dismissed.
So there I was, sitting in traffic court to plead for a reduced fine and or a payment arrangement. The courtroom was packed, it would appear there were many traffic law criminals in the small town I was appearing in.
So I sit and wait my turn.
And wait…
and wait…
After most of the morning had passed, there were only 15–20 of us left. The judge however stopped calling cases. He was busily doing his after-court paperwork for a good ten minutes. Finally, he looks back out to the courtroom and asks “Why are you all still here?”
The response from more than one of us was we had tickets and were here for our day in court. The judge looked quite unhappy as he side-barred with his clerk. When the conversation was over he looked out at us and said “It would appear my office was not prepared for you all to come today. Since the city cannot see fit to be ready for your legally required court date I am dismissing every one of your cases. Please give your name to the clerk as you exit. Also please accept my apologies for the City’s inability to do its job.”
I am of course paraphrasing, it was long ago, but that is the gist of what happened. As we all filed out we were entertained by the Judge’s not-so-discrete chewing out of his staff.
The voting in the USA was rigged. No doubt about it.'
And not only at the last election, it has most likely gone on for two or three elections before that.
There is only one cure. Paper votes, hand counting and representatives for all interested parties as observers.
And it would be nice if you had a working judicial system as well.
I cannot see how this is not going to end in bloodshed.
It is just a matter of time, before people revolt.
In a way I'm surprised it has not already happened.
Posted by: g wiltek | Aug 15 2023 16:07 utc | 4
When I was in training for my MAJ role at NAS China Lake, I had my first experiences with world-line travel. It wasn’t until later that I start to notice that my journeys would “stick”. I would find myself on a new world-line with new things, and old things that never existed.
One of the things that I miss is the breakfasts with beans. In this present world-line it is with potatoes. Of course, to youse guys, it’s always been that way.
One of the things that seem to be forever changed for me is the soft-drink Razzmatazz. It never existed on this world line. But back in the day, prior to me joining the Navy, it was THE soda that you all would drink. And while there were coke and Pepsi drinks, I always loved my icy-cold Razzmatazz.
My favorite was a malted cherry soda that they made. It had a kind of cherry-butterscotch like feel to it. There was also a birch beer & vanilla, and a malted root beer. Sigh. But none of it exists on this world-line.
France fears that the interim military-led government is willing to explore a deal whereby they’ll agree to keep Russia/Wagner at bay and retain the US’ bases in their country in exchange for Washington ensuring that ECOWAS doesn’t invade like it threatened to do. In that event, the full fury of the Nigerien people would be directed against France, which could either go it alone in trying to forcibly reverse last month’s coup in vain or chalk up the strategic loss and withdraw.
Le Figaro cited an unnamed diplomatic source over the weekend who alleged that the US backstabbed France during Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland’s trip to Niger. The piece is paywalled but was summarized here
. France reportedly fears that the US might tacitly recognize Niger’s interim military-led government in exchange for being allowed to retain its bases. Should that happen, then the US would proactively replace France’s security role in the Sahel before Russia/Wagner has a chance to.
This concern is predicated on rational calculations. From the US’ strategic perspective, the anti-French sentiment that’s sweeping the Sahel will inevitably result in ousting that country’s military from this part of Africa, which could lead to a security void that would likely be filled by Russia/Wagner. Even if France resorts to force for clinging to its last regional bastion in Niger, whether directly and/or via Nigerian-led
ECOWAS, then it’ll only exacerbate the hatred that locals feel for their former colonizer.
A swift victory is doomed to be pyrrhic since another round of anti-French unrest would follow sooner or later to complete the decolonization process that the prior one couldn’t, while the outbreak of a larger regional war risks Russia accelerating its envisaged replacement of France’s security role in the Sahel. Both outcomes are contrary to America’s long-term interests, though some policymakers might find their potential short-term benefits to be alluring.
It’s in this context that Nuland visited the Nigerien capital last week to “push for a negotiated solution” according to what she informed the press during a special briefing after her meetings there. Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin reacted to this development by boasting that “the US has recognized a government that it did not recognize yesterday just to avoid meeting the Wagner PMC in the country.” While some might have dismissed his remarks as trolling, they actually convey a stark truth.
Nuland’s trip was likely driven by her government’s desire to determine post-coup Niger’s intended relations with Russia/Wagner. She made contradictory statements about this during her briefing that were analyzed here , but the point is that this was probably the real reason behind her visit. If she assessed that no clear commitment had yet been made to solicit that group’s services, then it would be possible to make progress on the vague “negotiated solution” that she claimed to have in mind.
Judging by Le Figaro’s report, France fears that the interim military-led government is willing to explore a deal whereby they’ll agree to keep Russia/Wagner at bay and retain the US’ bases in their country in exchange for Washington ensuring that ECOWAS doesn’t invade like it threatened to do. In that event, the full fury of the Nigerien people would be directed against France, which could either go it alone in trying to forcibly reverse last month’s coup in vain or chalk up the strategic loss and withdraw.
The US already backstabbed France a few years back by stealing its nuclear submarine deal with Australia via the surprise unveiling of AUKUS so the precedent exists for it to backstab that country again in the Sahel by stealing its “sphere of influence” there through these means. In this particular case, American policymakers might have concluded that France’s military ouster from the region is inevitable so it’s better to proactively replace it with their own forces than risk Russia/Wagner filling the void.
To that end, it makes sense to opportunistically exploit the latest events in pursuit of a pragmatic deal with Niger’s interim military-led government despite being at France’s expense. There’s no guarantee that it’ll succeed, but it’s strategicallysound from the perspective of the US’ New Cold War interests in Africa. America could present itself as a peacemaker that averted the wider war that France wanted to spark all while stopping the spread of Russian military-strategic influence on the EU’s Sahelian doorstep.
The aforesaid reframing of Nuland’s trip in light of Le Figaro’s report compellingly explains France’s alleged fears of her country’s real intentions in wanting to diplomatically resolve the West African Crisis. The ulterior motive behind its latest “push for a negotiated solution” is to proactively replace France’s security role in the Sahel before Russia/Wagner has a chance to. In this way, the US could mitigate the strategic damage from the Nigerien Coup and arguably benefit from it to an extent.
the GIRLS REACT to *Terminator (1984)* THIS IS TERRIFYING!! (First Time Watching) Sci-fi Movies
Since the Second World War most Britons have unquestioningly accepted the premise that Britain should continue to rank as a first order world Power while, on the other, insisting that living standards should continue rising and social services be protected from taxes to finance foreign policy commitments. The question is not whether Britain can continue to think and behave as a Great Power, but whether it can afford to. – F. S. Northedge, 1970.
The good news is that there will be no war.
The rather sad news is that America can’t afford one.
1980s neoconservative policies – downsize government and privatize everything – have left the US a second-tier power, uncompetitive economically, industrially, scientifically and even militarily, as this STEM ranking suggests:
2023 08 16 20 04
Why we fail
There are at least seven reasons why the US failed in Ukraine. Says Correlli Barnett, “The power of a nation-state by no means consists only in its armed forces, but also in its economic and technological resources; in the dexterity, foresight and resolution with which its foreign policy is conducted; in the efficiency of its social and political organization. It consists most of all in the nation itself: the people; their skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative; their beliefs, myths and illusions. And it consists, further, in the way all these factors are related to one another. Moreover, national power has to be considered not only in itself, in its absolute extent, but relative to the state’s foreign or imperial obligations; it has to be considered relative to the power of other states”. Let’s break that down.
The Power of Other States
Armed forces. No serious military scholar imagines the US Army could challenge the Russian Army in Europe, nor the PLA in Asia – after being humiliated in Korea in 1951. Next year the PLAN will have 400 new warships armed with hypersonic missiles – which the US Navy’s 293 older boats neither possess nor can defend against.
Economic and technological resources. Russia’s economy is the world’s fourth largest, its military sector is 800% more productive than America’s, its military technology is a generation ahead, and its generalship is the world’s best. China’s productive economy is 300% bigger and leads the US in almost all sciences and technologies.
The dexterity, foresight and resolution with which its foreign policy is conducted. Ninety percent of the world’s people do business and sympathize with Russia or China, and their leaders are rock stars wherever they go. Ten percent of the world’s people support America, whose leader is pitied, even insulted to his face.
The efficiency of its social and political organization. 80% of Russians support their government’s policies and 96% of Chinese support theirs. Barely 34% of Americans trust their government or support its policies.
Skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative, beliefs, myths and illusions of the people. China’s and Russia’s recoveries reflect their people’s resilience, skills, energy, ambition, discipline, initiative and collective self-belief. The US has yet to recover from the GFC, struggles to staff a chip fab, and hasn’t given its workers a raise since 1974.
Foreign or imperial obligations. Ukraine, on the heels of the Afghanistan imbroglio, suggests that the US is incapable of sustaining its obligations towards its allies. Its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear pact suggests that it is incapable of making agreements.
National power relative to the power of other states. If America wants to match Russia or China militarily, Washington must double real defense spendingthrough 2034just to match the 2023 capabilities of either, not both, of them.
America is overextended abroad, overinflated at home and its State competence is deteriorating in almost every way – from governance to justice to military to infant mortality – while it ignores its decline.
Next Stop: Failed State?
A failed state’s institutions are feeble and flawed. Often, the executive barely functions while the legislature, judiciary, bureaucracy, and armed forces have lost their capacity and professional independence. A failed state suffers from crumbling infrastructure, faltering utility supplies, educational and health facilities, and deteriorating human-development indicators like infant mortality and literacy. Failed states create an environment of flourishing corruption and negative growth rates, where honest economic activity cannot flourish. Encyclopedia Britannica.
Even before Covid, there were more hungry children, drug addicts, suicides and executions, illiterate, incarcerated, poor, homeless people in America than in China. How long can post-Covid America, riven by factionalism and distrust, weakened by disease, and dying younger each year, compete with dozens of initiatives like this?
The only real barrier to China’s bid to capture Eurasia’s vast Middle Space was the US occupation of Afghanistan. The Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline, TAPI, joining Central Asia’s gas fields to South Asia, was announced in 2018 but progress through the critical Afghan sector was slowed by the war. Since then, the scheme has been revived, opening the way for Chinese investment that could complete its capture of Central Asia. Alfred McCoy
Did you know this was exactly the same stuff published in the Soviet papers and East German papers and Czech papers and Polish papers in the 1970s?
That the US Economy was exaggerated and 60% smaller that it really was
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Man , this is bad
Back then in the 1960s to 1990s, Americans won by Competition, Ability and Achievement
Back then the Soviets claimed victories in paper by publishing lies, lies and more lies and used brute force and twisting of data to claim a superior system (US)was collapsing all the time
Today the opposite is happening
US and the West are Soviet Russia and East Germany today
They hate competition, They hate tolerance in any area other than Transgenders and Homosexuals, They are losing ability by the millisecond
They claim victories by publishing lie after lie, most of which are bizzare and illogical and use the same brute force to claim a superior system is collapsing.
Meanwhile China is becoming exactly what the US was in the 1960s – 1990s
Critically truthful, Exploring Solutions openly, Admitting Problems openly, Keeping Victories as subtle as possible, Fostering Competition in every sphere, Tolerant of every race and religion provided they identify as Chinese first, Focus on Ability and Merit only.
Russia too is following the same road now
The Democracies are collapsing due to their fatal flaws
The Meritocracies and carefully planned one party systems are flourishing
So this Chinas Economy is 60% smaller is basically History going around in Propaganda and Lies
A Testament to the theory that eventually all Democracies decline into a Mediocracy
You Won’t Believe What China Have Done | American CEO’s Protest !
A tiny microchip smaller than a fingernail is at the heart of a high-stakes technology war between superpowers.
Advanced semiconductors form the brains powering everything from AI to hypersonic missiles.
Now a global battle is unfolding between the US and China over who controls the future of these foundational chips.
With national dominance at stake, the US has imposed sweeping sanctions to blockade China from cutting-edge semiconductor designs and manufacturing.
But China is marshaling its vast resources to achieve self-reliance and circumvent restrictions.
The race is on to shape mastery over the electronics underpinning 21st century innovation.
Join us as we uncover the events, technologies, companies, and strategies fueling this multifront semiconductor conflict.
2023 08 16 10 05
The trajectory of global scientific progress and economic power hangs in the balance.
I’m from Indonesia, a country with the largest Muslim population in the world.
When the Uyghur topic arised a few years ago, it was also a trending topic here.
Many people started to curse China because of this issue.
But Indonesia is a neutral & non block country, which means we’re friends with many countries, including China, even North Korea.
Indonesia, as well as many other Muslim countries has been sending alot of Imams (priests), delegations, and even students to China, including Xinjiang regularly.
Guess what? None of Muslim countries condemn China on their acts, because later we realize that it’s only propaganda made by Western countries to weaken China & to create destabilization.
As for me myself, I’ve visited Xinjiang 2 times before the Covid pandemic, I know that there were terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, which the members were mostly from Uyghur ethnic.
The terror movement is called the East Turkestan (Islamic) Movement. It’s backed up by Al Qaeda & Taliban.
The United Nations on their website also listed the Movements as a terrorist Movement, also they list most of the attacks on their website too.
The US already know this issue, and they also bombed Uyghurs, who ran to Afghanistan after Chinese Central Government took control of Anti-Terror acts (because the local government failed to control them and the situation became worse)
Note: This is an American news media, not Chinese media.
So the US also bombed Uyghurs, but later accusing China for their treatments against the Uyghur, don’t you think that it’s hypocrisy?
Nowadays Taliban is close to China, and they promised not to help Uyghur militants anymore, they even sending back the militants who ran and hide in Afghanistan.
I can read a little bit of Mandarin, I use some Chinese social media and make friends with Uyghurs, so I know what happened and what’s happening from the Uyghur themselves.
They said that those terrorists use Turkestan name because they want support from Turkic countries nearby, while those terrorists also killed their own Uyghurs who don’t wanna support them, as well as Uzbek, Kazakh & other Turkic people, also Tajik Muslim, Hui Muslim & Han people in China
And they use “Islamic” name, obviously for supports from Islamic countries.
On the early morning of Wednesday, 30 July 2014, an Uyghur Imam, named Juma Tahir, the imam of China’s largest mosque, (Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar), was stabbed to death by three young male Uyghur terrorists because he was strongly against the terrorists.
Alot of Western Media covered this, but it seems that they forget it easily (or intentionally).
These videos are the example of Muslim Scholars visiting Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region recently, there are Indonesian Scholars too in that event
Beside of those videos, there are still alot of informal visits from Islamic Scholars & imams to China.
In fact, tour to Xinjiang is available in Indonesia and it’s always fully booked, as I work at the one of the biggest Tour & Travel agency in Indonesia.
Latest Xinjiang Muslim Festival in Indonesia, featuring tribes in Xinjiang especially the Uyghurs, and Indonesian ustadz (Islamic preacher), leaders, government, etc
From 19 July – 10 August 2023 to celebrate the Islamic New Year, this is the re-stream from 2 August:
As for now, there are some people who are still condemning China in Indonesia, but most of them are either from extremist groups (we call them kadrun), or just ignorant & uneducated people. Which later we found to have links (directly or indirectly) to the US’ Anti Chinese founding
U.S Boeing Near Suspension in China as Tensions Between US China Escalate!
2023 08 16 20 50
https://youtu.be/pZAhDLwkp9c
“Most Unsafe Site Ever” – Shocking Truths About TSMC Arizona Revealed!
The TSMC Arizona project is one of the biggest FDI deals in United States history with Taiwan investing over $40 billion. It’s all part of the $52 billion dollar CHIPS Act to bring Taiwan’s flagship company to the US, but there are a plethora of problems amounting the question the entire legitimacy of this project. In today’s video we examine the top 5 biggest problems TSMC is currently facing and if this project will be a success.
Beef Chili Cheese Fries
2023 08 16 10 25
Yield: 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cups chopped yellow onions
Salt and cayenne to taste
2 pounds ground beef
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
Crushed red pepper to taste
2 teaspoons dried oregano leaves
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
3 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped fresh or canned tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
3 cups beefsteak or beef broth
2 tablespoons Masa Harina
Vegetable oil for deep frying
2 large Idaho potatoes, peeled and cut into shoestrings, rinsed in cool water and patted dry
1/2 pound grated Cheddar cheese
1/2 pound grated Monterey Jack cheese
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup sliced pickled jalapenos
Instructions
Heat the vegetable oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions, season with salt and cayenne, and cook, stirring, until they begin to wilt, about 2 minutes.
Add the beef, chili powder, cumin, crushed red pepper and oregano. Season with salt and cayenne, and cook until all the pink in the meat disappears, 5 to 6 minutes.
Add the garlic, tomatoes, tomato paste and 2 1/2 cups beef stock; bring to boil, and reduce the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, until the meat is tender, about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Skim off any fat that rises to the surface.
Combine the Masa Harina with the remaining 1/2 cup stock and mix to blend. Slowly add to the pot, stirring to blend. The mixture will thicken. Cook for 30 minutes, then season again with salt and cayenne. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
In a heavy, deep pot or an electric fryer, heat 4 inches of vegetable oil to 360 degrees F. Fry the shoestring potatoes in batches until golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes per batch. Drain on paper towels, then season with salt and cayenne.
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Cover the bottom of a large, glass rectangular baking pan with the shoestring potatoes.
Combine the Cheddar and jack cheeses. Sprinkle the cheese over the fries.
Bake just until the cheese melts, 3 to 4 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and spoon the chili over the top of the fries.
Garnish with the sour cream and jalapenos.
Serve immediately.
“U.S. bullying ends now!” – Putin issues stunning military plan
Yeah. Give nuclear weapons to Iran, Mexico, and a host of other nations that are sick and tired of the USA.
Ukraine’s Grifter Wars Through Gonzalo Lira’s Eyes
Former Glasgow MP George Galloway said it best about Gonzalo Lira, whose re-arrest by Zelensky’s Gestapo was announced by American transsexual grifter Sarah Ashton Cirillo, who is now a staff sergeant in Zelensky’s Wehrmacht even though, as we previously pointed out, Sgt Sarah has not yet completed basic military training.
In wishing Lira well, no matter what Lira’s motives were for staying in Zelensky’s Fourth Reich, Galloway spoke for most of us, who don’t take our marching orders from a transgender American who left his wife and children back in Yankee land to play act at being a girly spokesperson for the homophobic Ukrainian Wehrmacht.
In acknowledging Lira’s chequered history, Galloway said that was not a massive problem for him or for his listeners, who were more interested in Lira’s bird’s eye view on the conflict, rather than on tips on how to pick up hot Ukrainian chicks or, indeed, chicks with dicks like Sgt Sarah. Galloway, with his excellent command of the English language, also doubted that Lira “inflicted strategic damage on Zelensky’s regime”, thereby implicitly agreeing with my earlier analysis that Lira should have got a kick up the transom and be booted across the Hungarian border.
Leaving aside that Sergeant Sarah was a Federal informant, an agent provocateur, a gambler, a sexual deviant, a complete sociopath, and a terminal narcissist who pals around with terrorists, I, amongst others, have seen this D grade Hollywood plot play out a hundred times before.
Ukraine has an unhealthy sprinkling of such grifters on both sides of the lines. Former USMC officer Scott Ritter, who previously defended Lira, now believes Lira is a liar and SBU asset as does Eva Bartlett for the same reasons she objected to the family of Syrian President Assad bringing competition for her begging bowl to Damascus.
Brian Berletic, who posts informative videos under the New Atlas name, believes Lira is more fool than knave and, like Galloway, he admits he found Lira’s input helpful in his own analysis. To counter Berletic, there are a stream of twitter threads like these “exposing Lira” and all ‘kinds of “Putin shills,” some of whom, like Bartlett, Galloway was reduced to calling “flat earth fucks” because of their grifting, much of which, such as lying they were in Syria when they were not and stealing over $1 million of Iranian aid for Syria I have witnessed firsthand.
To get a feel for some of the whack jobs MI6 and the CIA support in Kiev, consider this MintPress article which reports on Cormac Smith, MI6’s hired Irish field hand who tells us that ““Russians are fucking animals” and that the Russkies have committed genocide by admitting that they forcibly transferred “700,000 Ukrainian children” to Russkie land, a figure Smith obviously plucked from Sgt Sarah’s more than ample ass.
MintPress goes on to discuss some of the usual suspects, such as MI6 asset Michael Weiss, the Henry Jackson Society, The Interpreter, the Atlantic Council, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Bellingcat, the 77th Brigade, MI6 contractors Torchlight, and NATO fixer Chris Donnelly, all of whom are grifting in Ukraine.
To me, all of those grifters are just noise. I go back to first principles, to the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and South Tyrone where the British fought a successful 40-year intelligence campaign against the Provisional IRA. As part of their war effort, MI5 bankrolled supposed former PIRA member Vincent McKenna’s Families Against Intimidation and Terror (FAIT),who gave the IRA a series of very black eyes until grifter McKenna was jailed for raping his own daughter.
When I asked two members of the IRA’s Army Council, their governing body, why did MI5 hire such a boomerang, they replied that MI5 were so hell bent on beating the IRA that they turned a blind eye to everything, child rape included. Using that and similar examples as my compass, it is, to me, beyond doubt that MI6 and the CIA have exotic and unhinged operatives working behind the lines in Syria, Ukraine and everywhere else; however, I doubt Lira is one of them. Rather, I believe he is one of those well-meaning fools I have come across who have paid either with their lives or by serving very long prison sentences for their folly in the killing fields of Ireland and Syria.
The problem is that it can be hard to differentiate the wheat from the chaff, the fool from the knave. Jamal Daoud, a Jordanian living in Australia, complains here about an alleged former Hindu extremist terrorist, planning to bump him off. But they, in turn, reported Daoud to Syrian Military Intelligence for bringing Jonathan Spyer, an Israeli spy, into Syria. Because of all that, I bought Spyer’s book, which is published by Routledge, which more or less specialises in academic vanity publishing. Chapter 14, Undercover in Damascus, the relevant chapter of the book, is as forgettable as bland bread and served no benefit to Israel or its allies.
And then we have the Sydney based Anglican priest, who is on an Israeli naughty list because of his long-standing friendship with nuclear missile whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu Barrett tried to manipulate for one of her $40,000 scams and whose face another “street artist” scammer plastered on murals all over Sydney when the priest was already in very hot water with his archbishop for bringing the church into disrepute with his activism. The end result of their “humanitarian intervention” was that the priest became homeless.
That is not to say Israel does not want their legions of little helpers in Syria. It does and I have blocked some of them and observed some others of them up close. But they, like Lira and his critics, are not the main game and they are hardly even a sideshow. As Syria’s best secret service agents joined the colours, it was often the dross that stayed behind to mop up the bribes, often in cahoots with the grifters.
When I told two former senior members of the IRA, whose brothers were murdered by the SAS that Assad had, despite Bartlett’s keening, invited Major General John Holmes, the former commanding officer of the SAS to Damascus, one of them thought it a good idea as, to him, bridges have to be built and the other thought it a bad idea as, to him, the only good SAS officer is a dead SAS officer.
Schooled by such experiences, my own prognosis is quite simple and to the point. The main vectors in the Ukrainian shemozzle are the Armed Forces of Russia and their military allies on the one hand, and NATO and their lemmings on the other. All else is tinsel.
Allied and perhaps even integral to the Russian Armed Forces are a number of spokespeople, the best known of whom are Russian President Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russian Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zakharova, all of whom tend to tell it as it is, not as Tinseltown’ transexuals would like it to be. Opposed to those spokespeople are Hollywood circus clowns like Zelensky and Sgt Sarah, as well as a bunch of supporting clowns in Washington, London, Paris and Brussels.
The Syrian situation is slightly different as Syrian civil society and, indeed, Syrian military intelligence, have left far too many holes for domestic and foreign grifters to exploit. I have met many of these grifters and, not to put too fine a point on it but far better people were found in the back roads of Fermanagh and South Tyrone with bin bags over their heads and bullets through their brains.
Lira, as my previous article described him, is simply a middle-aged Chilean Ukraine will try to trade at a premium, just like they have done with previous civilians they kidnapped. Though Lira is only an irrelevant sideshow, I wish him and his family the best.
That said, this Ukrainian war will end with a resounding Russian victory that is already resonating across Africa and throughout Asia, from Syria in its West to China in its East. Cold comfort for Lira if he gets an OBE (one behind the ear) but, whether he lives or dies, his torture at the hands of Zelensky and transexual nut job Sergeant Sarah is one more score that has to be settled, one more vendetta that must, if necessary, be avenged in blood by the Russian Armed Forces.
ATLANTA — Former president Donald Trump and 18 others were criminally charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, according to an indictment made public late Monday night.
Trump was charged with 13 counts, including violating the state’s racketeering act, soliciting a public officer to violate their oath, conspiring to impersonate a public officer, conspiring to commit forgery in the first degree and conspiring to file false documents.
With so much alleged conspiring should we call all these indictments a conspiracy theory?
This indictment is again too wide and borders on, like the others against Trump, criminalizing the retelling of rumors and free speech.
Just consider this part:
COUNT 29 of 41
And the Grand Jurors aforesaid, in the name and behalf of the citizens of Georgia, do charge and accuse DONALD JOHN TRUMP with the offense of FALSE STATEMENTS AND WRITINGS, O.C.G.A. § 16-10-20, for the said accused, in the County of Fulton and State of Georgia, on or about the 2nd day of January 2021, knowingly, willfully, and unlawfully made at least one of the following false statements and representations to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Georgia Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs, and Georgia Secretary of State General Counsel Ryan Germany:
That anywhere from 250,000 to 300,000 ballots were dropped mysteriously into the rolls in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
That thousands of people attempted to vote in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia and were told they could not because a ballot had already been cast in their name;
That 4,502 people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia who were not on the voter registration list;
That 904 people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia who were registered at an address that was a post ofiice box;
That Ruby Freeman was a professional vote scammer and a known political operative;
That Ruby Freeman, her daughter, and others were responsible for fraudulently awarding at least 18,000 ballots to Joseph R. Biden at State Farm Arena in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
That close to 5,000 dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
That 139% of people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Detroit;
That 200,000 more votes were recorded than the number of people who voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Pennsylvania;
That thousands of dead people voted in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Michigan;
That Ruby Freeman stuffed the ballot boxes;
That hundreds of thousands of ballots had been “dumped” into Fulton County and another county adjacent to Fulton County in the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia;
That he won the November 3, 2020, presidential election in Georgia by 400,000 votes;
said statements being within the jurisdiction of the Office of the Georgia Secretary of State and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, departments and agencies of state government, contrary to the laws of said State, the good order, peace and dignity thereof;
The indictment takes an expansive view of the behaviors it alleges were acts “in furtherance of the conspiracy” — including, as an example, at least a dozen instances of Trump’s tweets alleging fraud and other claims. Such details from the indictment quickly drew criticism as potential violations of the defendants’ free speech protections.
Trials over these indictments, if any, will likely start only next year and will take quite a long time. Any judgment in them will be appealed.
Yet most Americans made up their minds about Mr. Trump long before prosecutors like Fani T. Willis or Jack Smith weighed in, polls have shown. He is, depending on the perspective, a serial lawbreaker finally being brought to justice or a victim of persecution by partisans intent on keeping him out of office. The Georgia indictment, powerful as it is in its language, has been priced into the market, as the Wall Street types would put it.
“The accumulated indictments are kind of a white noise for voters,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican political consultant who has organized opposition to Mr. Trump and conducts weekly focus groups with voters. “They can’t tell the difference between Georgia and Jack Smith because it all blurs together in one long news cycle of Trump’s-in-trouble.”
I believe, like Trump, that the indictment will help him. First in the primary and then in the general election:
Speaking to supporters in Alabama a couple of days after his last arraignment, [Trump] claimed he was looking forward to the next one. “We need one more indictment to close out this election,” he boasted.
That is bravado — the sort of bring-it-on bluster that electrifies a Trump rally.
Contrast that with the case and against the Bidens which will be laid out by a special prosecutor to the same public. As I wrote when the last bits about the Bidens-Burisma saga came to light:
On the one side we have a case which shows the deep corruption of ‘the big guy’ and his family who are supported by the deep state they control.
On the other side we have the underdog who thought he was doing the right thing but is now indicted by the deep state for, at that time, saying so.
The media will shine the light on both cases. Each time they will mention Trump it will, independent of what they write about him, be positive for him by making the case of the lone guy who gets unfairly prosecuted by the deep state.
Each time the Biden case will be mentioned it will remind the public of Biden’s corrupt dealings.
Proceed through that for sixteen month and the outcome is assured.
Now add to that the possible quirks of the Democratic primary. RFK junior has entered that race:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has raised eyebrows as the first right-sympathetic populist to run as a Democrat since William Jennings Bryan. Launching with twenty paid staff and functioning now with seventy, Kennedy’s campaign has latched on to several issues important to mainstream Republicans—Covid tyranny, censorship, government surveillance—as well as to the dissident right: public health threats posed by chemicals in food and water, ending forever wars. The difference is the right frames these issues as matters of social cohesion and public order, while Kennedy uses the language of democracy and freedom.
In the currant fashion RJK Jr. is not really a Democrat:
When discussing the issues that animate him most—the environment, censorship, state and corporate collusion—he brightens. His hopeless intellectual humility and his hesitation to emphasize the most divisive ideological commitments of his own party while regularly taking up the language of his partisan opponents are setting up a general election that could divide populist voters almost entirely on the basis of aesthetics.
During the primaries the Democratic Party mafia will do their best to eliminate him even when he is unlikely to be a real danger to Joe Biden’s candidacy.
Should Trump then consider to run for president with RFK Jr. as his future vice-president he could form a quasi bi-partisan populist ticket that might well attract a larger majority.
Posted by b on August 15, 2023 at 15:47 UTC | Permalink
Taiwan is in BIG TROUBLE as China Vows Retaliation for DPP Visit to US
China has rebuked the U.S. for its latest escalations on Taiwan, from a growing economic war to the DPP’s latest visit to the United States. Here’s what we know thus far about the potential consequences.
The Perpetual Wars You Aren’t Supposed to Notice
By William J. ASTORE
In his message to the troops prior to the July 4th weekend, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin offered high praise indeed. “We have the greatest fighting force in human history,” he tweeted, connecting that claim to the U.S. having patriots of all colors, creeds, and backgrounds “who bravely volunteer to defend our country and our values.”
As a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from a working-class background who volunteered to serve more than four decades ago, who am I to argue with Austin? Shouldn’t I just bask in the glow of his praise for today’s troops, reflecting on my own honorable service near the end of what now must be thought of as the First Cold War?
Yet I confess to having doubts. I’ve heard it all before. The hype. The hyperbole. I still remember how, soon after the 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush boasted that this country had “the greatest force for human liberation the world has ever known.” I also remember how, in a pep talk given to U.S. troops in Afghanistan in 2010, President Barack Obama declared them “the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.” And yet, 15 years ago at TomDispatch, I was already wondering when Americans had first become so proud of, and insistent upon, declaring our military the world’s absolute best, a force beyond compare, and what that meant for a republic that once had viewed large standing armies and constant warfare as anathemas to freedom.
In retrospect, the answer is all too straightforward: we need something to boast about, don’t we? In the once-upon-a-time “exceptional nation,” what else is there to praise to the skies or consider our pride and joy these days except our heroes? After all, this country can no longer boast of having anything like the world’s best educational outcomes, or healthcare system, or the most advanced and safest infrastructure, or the best democratic politics, so we better damn well be able to boast about having “the greatest fighting force” ever.
Leaving that boast aside, Americans could certainly brag about one thing this country has beyond compare: the most expensive military around and possibly ever. No country even comes close to our commitment of funds to wars, weapons (including nuclear ones at the Department of Energy), and global dominance. Indeed, the Pentagon’s budget for “defense” in 2023 exceeds that of the next 10 countries (mostly allies!) combined.
And from all of this, it seems to me, two questions arise: Are we truly getting what we pay so dearly for — the bestest, finest, most exceptional military ever? And even if we are, should a self-proclaimed democracy really want such a thing?
The answer to both those questions is, of course, no. After all, America hasn’t won a war in a convincing fashion since 1945. If this country keeps losing wars routinely and often enough catastrophically, as it has in places like Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, how can we honestly say that we possess the world’s greatest fighting force? And if we nevertheless persist in such a boast, doesn’t that echo the rhetoric of militaristic empires of the past? (Remember when we used to think that only unhinged dictators like Adolf Hitler boasted of having peerless warriors in a megalomaniacal pursuit of global domination?)
Actually, I do believe the United States has the most exceptional military, just not in the way its boosters and cheerleaders like Austin, Bush, and Obama claimed. How is the U.S. military truly “exceptional”? Let me count the ways.
The Pentagon as a Budgetary Black Hole
In so many ways, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional. Let’s begin with its budget. At this very moment, Congress is debating a colossal “defense” budget of $886 billion for FY2024 (and all the debate is about issues that have little to do with the military). That defense spending bill, you may recall, was “only” $740 billion when President Joe Biden took office three years ago. In 2021, Biden withdrew U.S. forces from the disastrous war in Afghanistan, theoretically saving the taxpayer nearly $50 billion a year. Yet, in place of any sort of peace dividend, American taxpayers simply got an even higher bill as the Pentagon budget continued to soar.
Recall that, in his four years in office, Donald Trump increased military spending by 20%. Biden is now poised to achieve a similar 20% increase in just three years in office. And that increase largely doesn’t even include the cost of supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia — so far, somewhere between $120 billion and $200 billion and still rising.
Colossal budgets for weapons and war enjoy broad bipartisan support in Washington. It’s almost as if there were a military-industrial-congressional complex at work here! Where, in fact, did I ever hear a president warning us about that? Oh, perhaps I’m thinking of a certain farewell address by Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1961.
In all seriousness, there’s now a huge pentagonal-shaped black hole on the Potomac that’s devouring more than half of the federal discretionary budget annually. Even when Congress and the Pentagon allegedly try to enforce fiscal discipline, if not austerity elsewhere, the crushing gravitational pull of that hole just continues to suck in more money. Bet on that continuing as the Pentagon issues ever more warnings about a new cold war with China and Russia.
Given its money-sucking nature, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that the Pentagon is remarkably exceptional when it comes to failing fiscal audits — five of them in a row (the fifth failure being a “teachable moment,” according to its chief financial officer) — as its budget only continued to soar. Whether you’re talking about lost wars or failed audits, the Pentagon is eternally rewarded for its failures. Try running a “Mom and Pop” store on that basis and see how long you last.
Speaking of all those failed wars, perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that they haven’t come cheaply. According to the Costs of War Project at Brown University, roughly 937,000 people have died since 9/11/2001 thanks to direct violence in this country’s “Global War on Terror” in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and elsewhere. (And the deaths of another 3.6 to 3.7 million people may be indirectly attributable to those same post-9/11 conflicts.) The financial cost to the American taxpayer has been roughly $8 trillion and rising even as the U.S. military continues its counterterror preparations and activities in 85 countries.
No other nation in the world sees its military as (to borrow from a short-lived Navy slogan) “a global force for good.” No other nation divides the whole world into military commands like AFRICOM for Africa and CENTCOM for the Middle East and parts of Central and South Asia, headed up by four-star generals and admirals. No other nation has a network of 750 foreign bases scattered across the globe. No other nation strives for full-spectrum dominance through “all-domain operations,” meaning not only the control of traditional “domains” of combat — the land, sea, and air — but also of space and cyberspace. While other countries are focused mainly on national defense (or regional aggressions of one sort or another), the U.S. military strives for total global and spatial dominance. Truly exceptional!
Strangely, in this never-ending, unbounded pursuit of dominance, results simply don’t matter. The Afghan War? Bungled, botched, and lost. The Iraq War? Built on lies and lost. Libya? We came, we saw, Libya’s leader (and so many innocents) died. Yet no one at the Pentagon was punished for any of those failures. In fact, to this day, it remains an accountability-free zone, exempt from meaningful oversight. If you’re a “modern major general,” why not pursue wars when you know you’ll never be punished for losing them?
Indeed, the few “exceptions” within the military-industrial-congressional complex who stood up for accountability, people of principle like Daniel Hale, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden, were imprisoned or exiled. In fact, the U.S. government has even conspired to imprison a foreign publisher and transparency activist, Julian Assange, who published the truth about the American war on terror, by using a World War I-era espionage clause that only applies to American citizens.
And the record is even grimmer than that. In our post-9/11 years at war, as President Barack Obama admitted, “We tortured some folks” — and the only person punished for that was another whistleblower, John Kiriakou, who did his best to bring those war crimes to our attention.
And speaking of war crimes, isn’t it “exceptional” that the U.S. military plans to spend upwards of $2 trillion in the coming decades on a new generation of genocidal nuclear weapons? Those include new stealth bombers and new intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) for the Air Force, as well as new nuclear-missile-firing submarines for the Navy. Worse yet, the U.S. continues to reserve the right to use nuclear weapons first, presumably in the name of protecting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And of course, despite the countries — nine! — that now possess nukes, the U.S. remains the only one to have used them in wartime, in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Finally, it turns out that the military is even immune from Supreme Court decisions! When SCOTUS recently overturned affirmative action for college admission, it carved out an exception for the military academies. Schools like West Point and Annapolis can still consider the race of their applicants, presumably to promote unit cohesion through proportional representation of minorities within the officer ranks, but our society at large apparently does not require racial equity for its cohesion.
A Most Exceptional Military Makes Its Wars and Their Ugliness Disappear
Here’s one of my favorite lines from the movie The Usual Suspects: “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist.” The greatest trick the U.S. military ever pulled was essentially convincing us that its wars never existed. As Norman Solomon notes in his revealing book, War Made Invisible, the military-industrial-congressional complex has excelled at camouflaging the atrocious realities of war, rendering them almost entirely invisible to the American people. Call it the new American isolationism, only this time we’re isolated from the harrowing and horrific costs of war itself.
America is a nation perpetually at war, yet most of us live our lives with little or no perception of this. There is no longer a military draft. There are no war bond drives. You aren’t asked to make direct and personal sacrifices. You aren’t even asked to pay attention, let alone pay (except for those nearly trillion-dollar-a-year budgets and interest payments on a ballooning national debt, of course). You certainly aren’t asked for your permission for this country to fight its wars, as the Constitution demands. As President George W. Bush suggested after the 9/11 attacks, go visit Disneyworld! Enjoy life! Let America’s “best and brightest” handle the brutality, the degradation, and the ugliness of war, bright minds like former Vice President Dick (“So?”) Cheney and former Secretary of Defense Donald (“I don’t do quagmires”) Rumsfeld.
Did you hear something about the U.S. military being in Syria? In Somalia? Did you hear about the U.S. military supporting the Saudis in a brutal war of repression in Yemen? Did you notice how this country’s military interventions around the world kill, wound, and displace so many people of color, so much so that observers speak of the systemic racism of America’s wars? Is it truly progress that a more diverse military in terms of “color, creed, and background,” to use Secretary of Defense Austin’s words, has killed and is killing so many non-white peoples around the globe?
Praising the all-female-crewed flyover at the last Super Bowl or painting rainbow flags of inclusivity (or even blue and yellow flags for Ukraine) on cluster munitions won’t soften the blows or quiet the screams. As one reader of my blog Bracing Views so aptly put it: “The diversity the war parties [Democrats and Republicans] will not tolerate is diversity of thought.”
Of course, the U.S. military isn’t solely to blame here. Senior officers will claim their duty is not to make policy at all but to salute smartly as the president and Congress order them about. The reality, however, is different. The military is, in fact, at the core of America’s shadow government with enormous influence over policymaking. It’s not merely an instrument of power; it is power — and exceptionally powerful at that. And that form of power simply isn’t conducive to liberty and freedom, whether inside America’s borders or beyond them.
Wait! What am I saying? Stop thinking about all that! America is, after all, the exceptional nation and its military, a band of freedom fighters. In Iraq, where war and sanctions killed untold numbers of Iraqi children in the 1990s, the sacrifice was “worth it,” as former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright once reassured Americans on 60 Minutes.
Even when government actions kill children, lots of children, it’s for the greater good. If this troubles you, go to Disney and take your kids with you. You don’t like Disney? Then, hark back to that old marching song of World War I and “pack up your troubles in your old kit-bag, and smile, smile, smile.” Remember, America’s troops are freedom-delivering heroes and your job is to smile and support them without question.
Have I made my point? I hope so. And yes, the U.S. military is indeed exceptional and being so, being #1 (or claiming you are anyway) means never having to say you’re sorry, no matter how many innocents you kill or maim, how many lives you disrupt and destroy, how many lies you tell.
I must admit, though, that, despite the endless celebration of our military’s exceptionalism and “greatness,” a fragment of scripture from my Catholic upbringing haunts me still: Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.
Why I’m Raising My Children in CHINA – NOT The UK.
2023 08 16 10 09
What I Wish My Dad Taught Me When I Was Little, According To 11 Me
It’s impossible to teach everything. But it’s helpful to know what untaught lessons might be felt the most.
A father’s influence on their sons is profound. As young men, we look first to our fathers to help lay the foundation for our own future growth and development. In an ideal world, they show us what to do, and what not to do. They help us distinguish between right and wrong. They encourage our strengths and nurture our struggles to prepare us for the future.
But, as well all know, fathers aren’t perfect. Sometimes opportunities to teach life lessons, impart simple skills, or prepare for hard-to-swallow truths get lost in the chaos of life. It happens. And it’s easy to look back with longing and regret at those moments. No, the point here is to not dwell on mistakes. Rather, it is to learn about what you might want to prioritize. We asked a dozen men what they wish their dads taught them when they were still kids. Whether learning how to problem solve, develop confidence, or rock and roll, they all had something to say. Here’s what they told us.
1. How To Be Present
“I grew up in a relatively low-income family with my mother on disability and my father always working hard to put food on the table and clothes on our backs. At one time my family had to file for bankruptcy because of debt. But my father still managed a way to get us what we needed.
My dad was a hard worker and taught me the meaning of hard work and perseverance.
But the one thing I wish I had learned sooner from my father was the importance of experiencing life, moments, and relationships over working for the dollar. Make your living doing what you do, but be present and don’t live life stuck in the past or even the future. Learn from past mistakes, but be in the present and cherish experiences and family because time is the one thing you can’t get back.” – Adrian, 31, Missouri
2. How To Know My Worth
“My father never taught me to be confident in myself. Instead, he forced me, as a little boy, to be timid, weak, and feel inferior to others, especially my peers. He was abusive and manipulative, and as a result, I would doubt whether any actions or decisions I took were the right ones.
Later on, colleagues would insult, hurt, and bully me, and I didn’t have the strength to defend myself.
I did learn lessons from my upbringing, though. The one that stands out in my mind all the time is that I must cherish and value my own children. I should never mistreat them or allow anybody to make them feel inferior. I’m traumatized by what my father did, and I wish he would’ve taught me differently. But what I have learned are essential lessons that I will never forget for the rest of my life.” – Phillip, 37, Colorado
3. How To Play Guitar
“My father was a musician, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever. I begged him to teach me how to play the guitar like him, but I wasn’t very good, and he wasn’t very patient. He got frustrated easily and nudged me toward other interests.
As a father myself, I certainly understand frustration. But I also know how wonderful it feels when your kids finally learn how to do something new.
I did eventually learn to play guitar. I’m still not good, but I’m better than I was when I was younger. My dad passed away before I had any skills worthy of sharing, and I always wonder what it would’ve been like if he were my teacher and we actually got to rock out together at least once.” – Jim, 45, New York
I begged him to teach me how to play the guitar like him, but I wasn’t very good, and he wasn’t very patient. He got frustrated easily and nudged me toward other interests.
4. How To Fix Things
“My dad was one of those guys who was very mechanically inclined. He had a blue collar trade for a career, worked on cars in his spare time, and fixed anything and everything that needed fixing around the house.
I’m not wired the way he was, unfortunately. Fixing broken things and working on cars is not a skill of mine. If I could go back in time to being a kid again, I would have asked my dad to take time to bring me in on some of his repair jobs.
To give me a shot at turning the wrench, so to speak. Not only would it have given me much needed knowledge, but it also would have given me much needed confidence when working with my hands, which happens a lot as a dad.” – Scott, 36, North Carolina
5. How To Set Goals
“When I was younger, I wish my dad had taught me about setting realistic goals. It’s a really important skill that could have helped me grow and become better. It would have made me more disciplined, determined, and adaptable from a young age.
Breaking big goals into smaller tasks can make a big difference in how kids deal with challenges.
If I knew this earlier, I would have been more motivated and faced difficulties with more confidence. Also, understanding the importance of setting timelines would have made me feel more urgent to get things done and not procrastinate. If my dad had taught me to celebrate even the small achievements, I would’ve felt better about myself and been more encouraged.” – Erik, 40, Texas
6. How To Care
“I wish my dad had taught me how to develop emotional intelligence. My dad wasn’t very present during my childhood. He was a traveling jeweler and usually out for two to three weeks, then back home for one or two.
He didn’t show me how to play sports, read, or any of the ‘normal’ stuff.
But the biggest thing he never showed me was how to care for the people I love.
I didn’t need him to be constantly checking up on me, but to be involved in how I felt, what I thought, or even what actually interested me outside of buying me whatever game I wanted. I now know this was something that he just didn’t know how to do, which is why I’ve made it a priority.
My kids will know that I’m interested in what they like, how they think, and the people they are going to become. And my wife will know I support her in whatever she does. Ultimately, their happiness and emotional health are priorities for me as a husband and father.” – Joshua, 33, Arizona
7. How To Connect With People
“Being a dad to two cool boys, 9 and 11, often makes me think a lot about what my own dad taught me growing up. One big thing I wish he’d shown me is how to connect with people.
I’m an introvert and striking up a conversation with someone new feels like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube blindfolded.
It’s tough, and I see the same thing in one of my boys. I realized a few years back that I had a small group of friends and didn’t stay in touch as much as I should. This hit me hard and got me thinking about the importance of connecting and building relationships.
I’m learning to get better at this, and I’m taking my boys on the journey with me. I want them to understand that making friends and keeping them close is just as important as acing a test or scoring a goal. It’s something I’m still figuring out, but hey, that’s part of being a dad, right? We learn, and we teach.” – John, 31, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
My dad was very much a ‘Let me do it’ kind of guy. He wanted to fix the problem, whether it was a broken appliance or hurt feelings, rather than explore it.
8. How To Let Certain Things Roll Off Me
“I wish my father had known about and been able to teach me about the mind, and not letting what others say and do get to me so much. Sometimes the things other people say and do make us change how we do something or what we think about something, which has interfered with my life quite a bit.
Had I have been taught how to manage those types of thoughts, I’m sure some of life’s worst moments wouldn’t have weighed upon me so heavily, for so long, and I would have been able to move on from them sooner.” – Michael, 40, Michigan
9. How To Problem Solve
“Getting older has made me learn to appreciate the ability to understand how and why things work. I’ve taught myself a lot by taking things apart and putting them back together, and I realize now that I’ve been conditioning my problem-solving abilities.
My dad was very much a ‘Let me do it’ kind of guy.
He wanted to fix the problem, whether it was a broken appliance or hurt feelings, rather than explore it. Or help us learn about it. I appreciate what he was trying to do, but I think it hindered my ability to think for myself and really figure things out while I was growing up.” – Trevor, 40, Pennsylvania
10. How To Nurture My Inner Child
“I wish my father had taught me that most adults, even parents, still feel like kids themselves deep down inside. That the feeling of not being ready for adulthood never really goes away, and most grown-ups are still trying to learn how to do stuff the right way.
Since becoming a dad myself, I’ve realized that the feelings I have, like not always knowing the right answers, or trying my best but still making mistakes with my kids, must have been there for my dad, too.
I’ve realized that they must have occasionally felt like a child with adult responsibilities sometimes, just like I do. I also think that lesson would have helped me be a bit more calm and understanding with other people throughout my life.
When I stop and think of other adults as basically kids on the inside, with the same insecurities and fears that I have, it’s a lot easier for me to have patience and compassion for them.” – Phil, 45, Ohio
11. How To Manage Money
“I wish my dad had taught me about stocks and investing when I was young. He rarely talked about money or his work as a director at a large financial institution. His passing in December 2001 left a void in my life and financial knowledge.
As I grew older, my interest in finance intensified, and I felt unprepared to manage money.
I took it upon myself to learn about investing through self-education and seeking advice from others. Now, as a father, I understand the importance of sharing knowledge with my boy. I aim to be open and communicative about finances, empowering him to make informed decisions.
Though my journey to financial knowledge was self-driven, I hope to create an environment for my son where he feels supported and encouraged to learn about finance and investing, just as I wish I had been in my youth.” – Patrick, 45, Korea
How China Space Program Is BIGGER, BETTER & ADVANCED Than NASA
Armed with aggressive timelines, strategic investments, and an insatiable appetite for innovation, China’s space endeavors have propelled it into the forefront of the race to space. The nations remarkable successes, like landing rovers on the hidden part of the moon and building a growing space station, have caught the world’s attention and clearly show that China wants to be a leader in space exploration, challenging the long reign of the US. In today’s episode, we will cover how China space program is better than NASA in several aspects.
Black Wall Street in Tulsa Oklahoma, was one of the richest black community in all of America. Then in 1921, a group of white supremacists attacked the community with the help from the National Guard.
Known today as the Black Wall Street massacre, where 35 square blocks were decimated. The community was home to 10,000 African American residents. It was a thriving community, with brick and wood frame houses, and a bustling place of commerce, with shops, night clubs and theatres. It was a vibrant place, and full of promise which is why it became known as Americas Black Wallstreet.
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Thousands of homes and businesses were destroyed wiping out years of generational wealth. Hundreds had been killed and buried in mass graves as a heavily armed gang of looters and arsonists destroyed everything in there wake. One of the factors in the destruction of the community was resentment over the financial prosperity of the black community.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, a Lawyer bought a really expensive box of Cigars and then insured them against fire. Within a month he had smoked all 24 of these rather fine Cigars, without even paying his first premium payment on the insurance policy.
The Lawyer then filed a claim against the insurance company. In the claim the Lawyer claimed the Cigars were lost in a series of small fires.
2023 08 16 21 4gg7
The insurance company out-right refused to pay, stating the obvious reasons for not paying out the insurance claim, and that the man has consumed the Cigars in the normal way. The Lawyer filed a lawsuit against the insurance company and won.
The Judge agreed with the insurance company that the claim was frivolous, but the judge stated that the lawyer had a policy from the insurance company, which it had warranted that the Cigars were insurable and guaranteed that they would insure them against fire, without defining what was considered to acceptable fire.
Instead of having to go through a lengthy legal battle and costly appeals process they accepted the Judges ruling and paid the lawyer 15,000 dollars for the smoked Cigars.
The Russo – Sino combination would produce an Economic Giant with :-
Combined Real GDP of almost $ 25 Trillion
Combined Food Per Capita of 575 Kg per Year (400 Kg per year being minimum desirable)
Combined Gold Reserves of 5000 Tonnes officially and around 6500 Tonnes unofficially
Around 4 Million Soldiers including Reservists
Capable of outproducing NATO at 17:1 in Ammo, 9:1 in Missiles, 6:1 in Ships and 6:1 in Choppers and Tanks
Oil and Gas Reserves
However this isn’t just adding numbers
China isn’t ready to split the world into camps
China wants a multipolar world and wants both the East and West
No matter what the West does, China is not burning bridges with the West because China still gets a lot of stuff from the West
My guess is China will wait and if Taiwan becomes a major issue then China may finally formally cut off the West and form a major alliance with Russia
Russia is ready even today
It’s tired and sick of the West
Putin and Shoigu are moderates but Medvedev, Lavrov, Surovikin, Prighozin are all extremists and tough hawks who want the West beaten and crushed
So it all depends on Taiwan
That would be the red line for China
If US supports Taiwanese Independence, China will formally get into a United Nuclear Alliance (If anyone nukes China, Russia nukes him back and vice versa) and a United Military Alliance (Anyone attacks Russia or it’s friends and China supplies everything including soldiers )
US politician Robert Kennedy Jr. has confirmed the existence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine which are used to produce banned biological weapons.
Tuesday, 15 August 2023 2:40 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 15 August 2023 9:37 PM ]
US politician Robert Kennedy Jr. (File photo by AFP)US politician Robert Kennedy Jr. has confirmed the existence of American biological laboratories in Ukraine which are used to produce banned biological weapons.
"We have bio-labs in Ukraine because we are developing bioweapons," the Democratic Party presidential candidate told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a video interview posted on the X social network (formerly known as Twitter) on Tuesday.
"Those bioweapons are using all kinds of new synthetic biology and CRISPR (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats in DNA) technology and genetic engineering techniques that were not available to a previous generation," the US politician, also known by his initials RFK Jr., said in the interview.
"When the Patriot Act reopened the biolabs arms race in 2001, the Pentagon began putting a lot of money into bioweapons," Kennedy Jr. added. "But they were nervous at that time because if you violate the Geneva Convention, it’s a hanging offense," he explained. "So they were nervous about actually going full force into bioweapons development.
So they transferred the authority for biosecurity to one agency in the HHS [the US Department of Health and Human Services]," the politician added. "But now, when you do bioweapons development, every bioweapon, it needs vaccine so you develop them side by side because in 100 percent of the cases when you deploy a bioweapon, there’s blowback.
Your side also gets sick," he concluded. The Russian Defense Ministry revealed the existence of US military biolabs in Ukraine working on producing bioweapons as early as February 2022.
In mid-April, a Russian parliamentary commission presented its final report on the investigations into the activities of the US-run bio-labs in Ukraine.
The report concluded that the Pentagon’s military biological program had grown large in scale, being implemented under the guise of anti-terrorist projects and activities that were permitted by the Biological Weapons Convention.
The parliamentary commission also pointed out that the activities of all the US-controlled laboratories involved Pentagon experts.
However, the results of their work were confidential and government agencies in the host countries only had access to secondary research results. Russian Ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, revealed that the secret US labs in Ukraine were producing biological warfare.
As a result of the illegal activities that were being carried out at US bio-labs in Ukraine, Russia last year asked the United Nations Security Council to establish a commission to investigate the reports that Washington and Kiev were in violation of the Convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons.
In the meantime, Moscow believes that the US bio-labs in Ukraine are only a fraction of a global network of 300 similar facilities. However, the US government has now denied the existence of such military bio-labs.
Instead, the US government has admitted to what it calls US-funded biological research facilities.
Earlier this year, Russia said it had obtained documents in Lisichansk, in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (LPR), that revealed the US military-funded labs in Ukraine had been creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of the country.
"Russian troops have secured over 20,000 documents, reference and analytical materials, and interviewed eyewitnesses and participants in American military-biological programs" since the start of the war in February last year, said the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Forces, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov.
The general said that the documents "confirm... the focus of the Pentagon on creating biological weapons components and testing them on the population of Ukraine and other states along [Russia's] borders."
I am 67 years old. These are among the best things I have ever learned:
You spend your first 20 years worrying what people think about you. You spend your next 20 years swearing that you don’t care what people think about you. You spend the next 20 years realizing that they aren’t thinking about you. A liberation!
Any day on this side of the dirt is a good day. Some people didn’t make the cut last night. I was hit by a speeding taxi as I was walking to a bus stop. I spent a month in rehab with two broken legs, a brain injury, multiple back injuries and other fractures. The night before I was hit, a young, married couple was also hit. They both died. Practice gratitude.
A woman I know spends most of her time thinking about how much she hates her thighs. She can give you a detailed report on what is wrong with them. She forgets all the places those legs have taken her, all the miles they have walked for her. It doesn’t occur to her that when she gets up in the middle of the night to pee, those very thighs walk her to the toilet. Spend more time appreciating what you’ve got— a heart that beats, a way to pick up your cup of coffee, the eyes that see that cup and know what color it is. Blessings abound.
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who believe there is enough to go around, and those who don’t. Here is an example: If Margo is leaning up against the car kissing her boyfriend, and I think how nice that must feel, do I try to steal Margo’s boyfriend or do I go out and get my own boyfriend? I go out and get myself a boyfriend. I don’t need to steal Margo’s. I know that there is enough to go around.
An old Native American woman was asked why she was always so happy. She said that she has two wolves in her heart and they are both hungry— one wolf is angry and evil, the other wolf is filled with love, and that’s the only one she feeds.
India Just BURIED The Dollar, Saudi Arabia Is Next
Yes. It is happening.
A truth
funny memes 4
Diver Dan – Riddle of the Hermit Crab – Episode 20
About 30 years ago, I lived in an apartment complex where the owner paid the heat, hot water and cooking gas. The owner was one of the cheapest people I knew and she refused to fix anything or hire a decent Super. Btw, she had paid off the complex 15 years prior so she was making good $$$ off the complex
The boiler breaks and she has an old, used one, that she found in the newspapers, installed during the summer. By state law she was required to provide heat by November 15th. By the 23rd, it is brutal cold and we still didn’t have heat. I called her up to find out what is going on. Her response was that she was out of $$$ and for me to buy some electric heaters. Btw, that meant my expenses would up, since tenants paid for their electricity.
I go to town hall, met with the appropriate officials, let them know what is going and file a complaint. I also let them know that there was a large elderly group of tenants in the complex.
The official calls her, tells her that she is in violation and that she needs to get the heat on ASAP. She tells him off and refuses saying that she knows people. (She didn’t) He tells her that he will fine her $1000/day for each unit or $48,000 a day starting with that day. She tells him that he can’t do that and called him some choice names. What she didn’t realize that the town’s lawyer heard the entire phone call.
The next day she was delivered a notarized invoice for $48,000 along with a legal document stating that this daily fine will continue until the heat goes on. Now she is in a panic since she now owes the town $48,000.
But the best part of the revenge is that this happened on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Do now she had to scramble to find someone who could get the system working which she eventually did. But he charged her double claiming that it was interfering with him going away for the holiday.
One last thing, the town official told her if she tried to harass me for reporting her, the town would go after her and would pay my legal bills if I had to sue her
Couldn’t Be Easier Brisket
2023 08 16 10 23
Prep: 5 min | Bake: 2 to 3 hr | Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
3-4 pounds boneless beef brisket
1 bottle chili sauce
1 can Coca-Cola
1 envelope dry onion soup mix
Instructions
Heat oven to 300 degrees F.
Combine chili sauce, Coca-Cola and soup mix.
Place brisket in a foil-lined baking pan*. Pour sauce mixture over brisket and cover with another sheet of foil sealing edges.
Bake at 300 degrees F for 3 to 3 1/2 hours until tender.
Carve brisket against the grain and serve the pan juices as a sauce.
Notes
* or use a cooking bag for really easy clean-up.
Now CHINA Missile Force Can Destroy US Asia Pacific Command in Just 7 minutes
This audacious assertion unveils a stark reminder that in the realm of modern warfare, the boundaries of possibility are continually pushed, leaving the world to grapple with the implications of China’s missile might and its potential to reshape the geopolitical landscape in a matter of minutes. Today’s episode will cover China’s missile force power.
Today’s treat. Full movie with James Stewart. Please enjoy!
Out of the blue, the grizzled farmhand, John O'Hanlan, receives an unexpected letter from an unknown solicitor in the far-off town of Cheyenne, Wyoming, informing him that he is the proud owner of the Cheyenne Social Club, now that his estranged brother, D.J., has passed away. Intrigued and eager to trade in the dusty landscapes of 1867 Texas for an easy life as a businessman, without delay, John sets out on a long trip with his best friend, Harley Sullivan, to create a better future for himself. But somehow, John's newest and only acquisition has both a good and a bad reputation. Either way, the establishment's inexperienced manager now holds the fates of its loyal staff in his hands: a beautiful sextet of dedicated, and above all, famous female employees. However, is John cut out to run this type of business?
About the image above: The Quora "profile" of a troll that attacked one of my posts.
Notice that he used a revolving profile set up back in 2013. Never used before. No activity at all.
He's a human. Not a bot, and spent a considerable amount of time attacking me personally, my comments, and China.
Ne is gone now.
If you post anything on Social Media, you must be serious about troll, and bot removal.
We are “in the change”.
It is HAPPENING.
Over the next few weeks I will include many reaction videos regarding the various songs by Oliver Anthony. I am placing them here because they are such a MAJOR catalyst to the change that is starting to ignite. Listen to what the people have to say.
He has a number of songs, but Americans have gotten a voice.
But…
It is going to get far, far, FAR worse economically for Americans in the upcoming years. You see, the world is dropping the USD, and with each drop, American USD inflation rises.
At some point it will go into hyper-inflation.
And REAL change is going to be forced upon the reluctant American government. Brace yourself, no matter where you live.
DC says its “little bads” , with a possibility of “middle bads”. But… it is going to be a bumpy ride. Strap yourselves in. You all will come out of the storm clouds intact, but everything will be changed.
Meanwhile, the USA government is going full-on clown show…
The USA government clamps down HARD on “independent reporting”
2023 08 24 09 57
Independent Women CRAWLS Back To Men For Help After Being Fooled Into Feminism
2023 08 19 16 45
Coca-Cola Glazed Kielbasa
Coca Cola Kielbasa
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
1 green bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 rosemary sprigs
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seed
2 pounds Polish kielbasa sausage
1 (12 ounce) can Coca-Cola Classic
Rosemary sprigs for garnish
Instructions
In a 5 1/2 quart Dutch oven over medium-high heat, heat the oil until hot. Add the onions, green bell pepper and two rosemary sprigs. Lower the heat to medium and cook until the onions are nearly translucent, about 3-5 minutes.
Stir in honey, mustard seed, and sausage. Pour the Coca-Cola over the sausage and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook, uncovered, until the liquid is absorbed and glazes the sausage. This will take about 30 to 40 minutes. Stir frequently to prevent the sausage from sticking.
Remove the rosemary sprigs from the Dutch oven and transfer the sausage slices to serving platter. Garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs.
Notes
Variation: Substitute red wine or dark beer for the Coca-Cola Classic; chorizo or andouille sausage for the kielbasa.
I would like to answer for a friend who is not on Quora. She overheard a conversation, and solved a crime.
She found a lost wallet with a couple hundred dollars in cash, as well as credit cards and ID. She also found the owner’s address in a nearby town to mail the wallet back.
We worked together in a company that had a mailroom, so she packed up the wallet, with everything intact, and explained the situation to Sal the mailroom guy, asking him to send it out with the days mail.
A week later, my friend was sitting in the bleachers at her daughters baseball game in that same neighboring town. The woman behind her was telling a friend how she had lost her wallet, and this nice guy Sal had found it. Although the all money was gone, she was happy to pay him the $25 he asked as a finders fee.
Incensed, my friend spun around and asked- “Excuse me are you Mrs. X?”
When she said she was, my friend told her the real story. My friend found the wallet, and packed it with all the contents intact. Sal, the mailroom guy, opened the package, took the cash, then called the woman and asked for $25 to bring her the wallet.
What are the odds of a crime being discovered by eavesdropping?
The wallet owner didn’t want him to be fired, so Monday morning my friend called Sal into her office. She told him that he had until noon that day to come up with the stolen cash as well as his $25 “finders fee”. He did, and my friend returned it to the wallet owner.
My friend did inform Sal’s supervisor, so he could keep a closer eye on him, and sure enough, within a month he was caught doing something else shady and was fired.
Another good reason not to steal, you never know who is listening.
Does Australia Want To Be A U.S Pawn In Aggression Against China
Surprisingly, we don’t know exactly how they copulate. They do this in flight, at several hundred feet altitude. Scientists can’t exactly go up there in some sort of light aircraft, fly around looking for ants on the nuptial flight, say “Oh there’s one!,” and fly up close to film them. It
seems almost unimaginable to study much insect behavior in high-altitude flight.
All we know is that winged virgin females and drones (alates) take flight—easy to observe at an ant colony—and within a couple of hours, they fall to ground, easy to collect if you know where and how. A fire ant specialist who was on my doctoral committee collected just-mated queen fire ants from city parking lots on weekends when the stores were closed. Myrmecologists (ant scientists) can examine these females and find sperm in them, so they know they mated on the nuptial flight. After falling, the queens shed their wings, searchfor suitable ground, and the few successful ones excavate the first burrow to lay their first few eggs. The males that fall from the nuptial flight simply die.
But no one has ever observed the actual mating.
Song Starts Global Movement; People WORLDWIDE “Get” What The Man Sings About . . .
As you read this, today is Friday, August 18, 2023. Two nights ago, on my worldwide TALK Radio show, I played a new song by Oliver Anthony called “Rich Men North of Richmond” and reported to my global audience that this song has struck a chord with common, everyday, working people throughout America. The next day, the song topped Apple Music Charts for GLOBAL distribution.
I take no credit at all for the song reaching the top of the GLOBAL chart, but I certainly hope and pray that I helped.
This song speaks to the real life, everyday struggle that you, and me, and every other common, working-class person, lives. It speaks to the reason for such struggle: The rich men north of Richmond (Virginia) – that is to say, Washington, DC.
The song has real global appeal and a user on Twitter, now called “X,” edited together a video of Podcasters around the world, all listening to the song together, online. Some of them actually had tears in their eyes.
I think it’s because they finally came to realize, we are ALL hit by the situations created by these “Rich Men north of Richmond.” NONE of us is immune. It is a struggle for ALL of us common folk. THe song brings to the forefront the realization that ALL these troubles, all the strife, all the fighting, all the division – pitting groups against each other – is ALL being done by the “Rich men north of Richmond.”
Below is that video of the Podcasters worldwide, of all ages, races, shapes, and sizes, listening to the song. Watch the reactions. It is soooooooo powerful. In those reactions, there are real tears from folk who KNOW how hard it is nowadays just to live. In their faces there is almost relief that THEY are not alone in this struggle; the realization that all of us are being affected, badly. And moreover, we are ALL so very tired of this bullshit.
Pepe Escobar: BRICS Summit DESTROYS Neocons as New Currency and Expansion Top Agenda
Pepe Escobar gives his assessment of the BRICS Summit and the prospects of an alternative financial system and expanded membership coming out of the historic meeting beginning August 22nd in South Africa.
I woke up early(well, that’s not true, I didn’t really sleep at all… lets say I got up) and met my replacement at the office at 630 the next morning to update him on several projects that i was working on at the time, including a $12k grant for technology for the department.
After getting him up to speed, I packed all of my personal effects and left before anyone else showed up at 8am.
By 9am I was at the workforce center signing up for my unemployment. By 11am I had applied for my first job. By 1pm I had my last paycheck from the city. By 2pm I was on the road to my PREVIOUS employer’s office to work on some consultation work for them.
In four months I got the job I am in now.
And overall… I am happier here than I can imagine I would have ever been there.
I let that agency and the ill-advised city council to struggle with their issues as I made the place I am a great place to serve while ensuring good service to everyone.
U.K on the RUN : China Takes Over as U.K exit Zambia Mines!
This is a real thing going on right now.
South Korea To Run “NUCLEAR ATTACK” Evacuation Drill August 23
The entire country of South Korea will stage a NUCLEAR ATTACK EVACUATION DRILL on August 23. Fifty-one Million (51,000,000) citizens are REQUIRED to participate to practice evacuating to shelters or underground safe spaces during the 20-minute exercise.
The drill, scheduled for 2:00 PM on Wednesday, August 23, will see many drivers required to pull over to the side of roads and the exits to subway stations closed with commuters required to remain inside, a statement from the South Korean Interior Ministry said.
“We expect to strengthen the response capacity of the nation through a practical drill reflecting the aspects of provocations of North Korea,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said in a news release this week.
The release said the 20-minute drill is part of a larger exercise to test the South Korean government’s response to potential threats including “advanced nuclear missile threats, cyber attacks, drone terrors, etc.”
The prime minister also called on South Koreans to take the drills seriously, something that hasn’t always been the case.
The Interior Ministry said 17,000 shelters would be open nationwide, and locations are searchable in popular Korean online apps.
The South Korean prime minister said the civil defense drill would be held in conjunction with large-scale US-South Korea military exercises that have drawn sharp criticism from Pyongyang in the past.
It will also come less than a week after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol travels to the United States for a trilateral meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, where “the continued threat posed by” North Korea will be on the agenda, according to a White House statement.
Hal Turner Opinion
HMMMMM. Having a nuclear evacuation “drill” of 51 Million people into 17,000 shelters at THE SAME TIME as a large-scale US-South Korea military “exercise???????????”
Gee, it occurs to me that maybe that military “exercise” isn’t an “exercise” at all. What if they first-strike North Korea?
With 51 Million South Koreans already inside Shelters, and US-South Korean Troops already on-station and fully armed – seems to me it would be a perfect opportunity for the US to first-strike North Korea.
What better conditions would exist than the ones described above?
Young Women Are Furious They Were Fooled Into Feminism
This is surprisingly good. Go traditional marriage. All will be good.
My first real job was working as a Marketing Assistant for a Fortune 500 corporation (that you all have at least one of their products in your house).
The holiday bonus for everyone below a Director was to be invited to the cafeteria, in groups, to hear the “company” choir sing 3 Xmas songs and to have 3 cookies. And then you were rushed back to your desk/office…
This is the reality…
Meanwhile, in Washington DC.
2023 08 20 10 33
Neither Biden Nor Trump Americans Will Choose This Pro China President in New Election
This could very well happen. But most of the viewers of the video have doubts. You can see their disbelief in the comment section.
Yes, and I think about it often. After Hurricane Ike in September 2008 in Texas, none of us in the neighborhood had electricity of course. Our electric pole near our house was pulled backwards and we were told that when the power company came to fix their issues and reconnect, that it would need to be standing upright. I asked my grown nephew and brother in law to help us pull it straight. We couldn’t while the wires were attached, so they said we had to cut them. Scary thought, but we didn’t have power right? The voltage tester said we didn’t also.
I got the cutters and my nephew reached up and cut through the thick wires. At that moment, my sister drove up and said “Hey, the power is back!” She lives across the street. We were stunned. Somehow my nephew was still standing. It turned out that our wire was disconnected from the pole at the street as well, but we didn’t know that. And what if it hadn’t been?
I have a good answer. I hope it is helpful to you. So, the question is, what’s the biggest oopsie-daisy as we age?
Sitting on the couch and consuming crappy food like it’s your full-time job! An inactive lifestyle might seem cozy, but it’s a shortcut to health troubles. As the years pile on, a couple of surprise health hiccups can make getting active even harder. Next thing you know, you’re at risk for slips, trips, and yikes – even broken bones. All this can fast-track us to losing our mojo and independence. So, trade that remote for some walking shoes, and let’s keep the fun in our golden years!
Oh, I have even a piece of better advice; walk every day and lift some weights! It is the key to having decent health while aging. It is no guarantee to increase your lifespan, but as I have experienced the journey, it will create a decent life quality as we get older.
Took our VW Rabbit to a VW dealer for warranty work, When picking up the car I was told that it wouldn’t start and that the fuel injectors were replaced ($400). I refused to pay as this work was not authorized. Dealership said they had a mechanics lien on the car and would not release it without payment. I said I had a spare key and would leave. The dealer called the police. When the cops arrived, I asked the dealer to give me the old parts. He said that the trash had already been picked up. I then asked the dealer to show me (and the police) where the new injectors were under the hood (they should be clean, right?) After a few minutes the dealer emerged from under the hood with a puzzled look on his face. I then told the Cops that the car had a carburetor and not fuel injectors. I went home. The VW dealer went out of business some time later. It pays to know a little bit about your car!
First Time Hearing Oliver Anthony – “Rich Men North of Richmond”
A friend of mine is an automotive engineer – I don’t mean a mechanic, I mean a straight up engineer who fabricates his own parts, designs suspension systems, builds vehicles that stretch their length using hydraulics, steer with all four wheels, can lift a container full of products, that sort of thing. Really smart dude. If I ever decide to build a replica of the Tumbler Batmobile from The Dark Knight, he’s the guy I would have do it.
So what does he do with this knowledge? He opened a shop and builds custom trucks and mods race cars for people.
It’s a good business. He enjoys it and pays his bills on time. But he will never be rich from it.
There are only so many hours in a day, and the market price of his final product has a ceiling. If you’re doing individual builds like that, your income is tied to the clock. He only makes money when he is doing something with his hands. If he’s sick or injured or takes a day off, he doesn’t get paid.
Now, he’s made some really cool stuff along the way – things that could be sold separately and installed by someone else. Some of the things he’s made for customers in the offroad and racing applications could easily be produced and sold to distributors and retailers in the aftermarket auto space, even the little things like joints and brackets. Any of you Jeep/Classic/Muscle/Corvette guys out there know how many parts and accessory catalogs you get in the mail. It’s a $41 billion industry.
But he hasn’t done it, because he doesn’t think at scale. He only thinks in terms of labor and hours, and doing the job the customer is paying him to do.
Even something simple like a roll cage, he’s building them by hand every time. Every time a customer wants a cage, he takes detailed measurements, cuts and bends the pieces, welds it all together, and sends them on their way. It takes hours and hours of labor. If he would write down the measurements and cut ten of each piece at the same time, he could build ten cages on the ground in about the same time it takes him to build one on the vehicle, then sell the other nine as a ready-to-install product through all of those catalogs and websites – who will then put it in front of millions of subscribers. He could be making ten times the revenue for the same amount of work – and even that would still be pretty small-time, but at least it would be a step toward mass production.
I’ve tried to steer him in that direction. And his response, every time, is “Yeah, I know, I’d like to get to that point eventually, but right now I’ve got 10 more customer projects I have to finish.” He’s been saying that for the lastfive years.
If you want to make millions of dollars, you have to think at scale and not be bound by the limitations of your time and labor. Your product has to be working for you, not you working for your product.
Oliver Anthony – I Want To Go Home| REACTION *TEARS*
Everyone feels this.
Microwave Pepperoni
2023 08 24 10 13
Makes 4 (8 ounce) rolls.
Ingredients
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup water
2 tablespoons meat cure
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon oregano leaves, crushed
1 teaspoon onion salt
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon fennel seed
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon Liquid Smoke
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in large bowl; mix well. Divide mixture into 4 equal portions. Shape each portion into a roll, approximately 8 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate 24 hours.
Remove plastic wrap. Place rolls on microwave roasting or bacon rack. Cover with wax paper. Microwave on 30 percent power for 1 hour, turning rolls over and rearranging every 15 minutes. If necessary, continue to cook until rolls have reached an internal temperature of 160 degrees F.
Drain on paper towels. Cool. Wrap lightly with plastic wrap. Refrigerate up to two weeks; freeze for longer storage.
Use as you would regular pepperoni in your favorite Italian dishes and snacks.
Saudi Arabia Just BROKE The Dollar – Record Treasury Dump.
2023 08 24 09 50
Saudi Arabia has dumped their holdings of US treasuries to a 6-year low. Even as a global recession nears, Saudi Arabia is diversifying away from dollar assets into risky investments like stocks. This underscores a big economic and geopolitical shift away from Washington and the world reserve currency.
The latest blow to the United States actually comes from Saudi Arabia no they aren’t pricing oil in the Chinese Yuan or the real yet but they are dumping a ton of their U.S treasury Holdings and this is a big deal.
America is starting to lose control of the petrol dollar and this is confirmed with Saudi Arabia’s move away from U.S treasury Bonds in a big update Saudi power of U.S treasuries at six-year low in shift to risk the kingdom sold three billion dollars of U.S debt in June as they move towards riskier assets and here’s the crazy thing this has been happening for years right under our noses.
From 2016 to 2020 the Saudis were piling on U.S debt they were taking their oil revenues and buying treasury bonds until it picked out at 184 billion dollars but now they have reverse Direction they have sold 76 billion or 41% of their entire Holdings over the last three years that’s even more aggressive than China and it’s all about the timing this comes on the heels of a De-dollarization wave across the global South.
2023 08 24 09 51
Saudi Arabia is losing faith in U.S debt and this is bad for the United States both in the short term and the long term. America is already borrowing a ton of money today racking up an incredible amount of debt in Q3 alone America borrowed one trillion dollars and is facing a fiscal crisis where they have no choice but to keep issuing bonds.
Will Saudi Arabia keep dumping the U.S treasuries and more importantly will they be joining the bricks very soon? Things are getting really interesting as we move towards the BRICS Summit this week.
BRICS could shift the global power dynamics in their favor by controlling the majority of the world’s oil and gas trade. The bloc is keen on expansion by allowing Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates into the group. The inclusion of Saudi Arabia and the UAE into BRICS could have a paradigm shift in the oil economy, as it could force other countries to drift away from the USD. Therefore, the first step of the de-dollarization process could begin with oil and gas sales.
A handful of oil-producing Middle Eastern countries have expressed their interest in joining the bloc. Apart from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, and Algeria are looking to join the BRICS. The five Arab nations represented 60% of the world’s oil reserves, and induction into BRICS could spell doom for the U.S. dollar.
If the BRICS alliance inducts all five oil-producing countries, it could control 90% of the world’s oil supply. This could lead to 90% of the oil and gas trade being settled in local currencies and not the USD. The international markets could subsequently shift away from the U.S. dollar and usher in a new era of global finance.
Accepting local currencies for oil and not the USD could fast-track the de-dollarization process. Countries in Asia, Africa, and South America are most likely to accept paying in native currencies rather than the USD. If BRICS controls crude oil, the U.S. economy could face hardships as the means to fund its deficit narrows. In conclusion, the upcoming BRICS summit holds the key to the U.S. dollar’s prospects.
Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering a large number of French-made Dassault Rafale fighter jets.
Such a purchase would be a break from Saudi Arabia’s long history of buying US and British jets.
This suggests Riyadh doesn’t think its traditional partners will be as reliable in the future.
Saudi Arabia has spent decades building an enormous air force composed exclusively of advanced US and British fighter jets. But Riyadh’s reported interest in potentially purchasing a large number of French jets may be a sign it doesn’t think its longtime patrons are as reliable as before.
In December, France’s La Tribune financial newspaper, citing unnamed sources, reported that Saudi Arabia was considering acquiring 100 to 200 Dassault Rafale fighters. The report came amid developments suggesting that the US and other nations might not provide military equipment to Riyadh in the future.
After Riyadh cut oil production in October, US lawmakers proposed legislation freezing all American arms sales to the kingdom, which could have grounded most of the Saudi air force and would further fray already strained US-Saudi relations.
In July, Germany announced it would not allow additional Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets to be delivered to Saudi Arabia. The Saudi air force has 72 Eurofighters, second only to the number of US-made F-15s it has.
Buying more Typhoons would be “the sensible move” since the Saudis have the infrastructure to train pilots and operate that jet, “but a German block prevents that,” said Sébastien Roblin, a widely published military-aviation journalist.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is “not currently inclined to throw Washington any free bones by ordering F-15EXs,” and despite an “about-face” by President Joe Biden, Roblin said, the Saudis know that future jet sales “could be disrupted by domestic political revulsion for Riyadh’s actions domestically or the war in Yemen.”
As bin Salman pursues a detente with his main rival, Iran, and improves relations with China, opposition to such sales may only increase.
Uncle shame got shunned this time!
She’s Right: The Male Loneliness Epidemic REACTION
It is at the stage where the icy water is lapping on the decks, and the deck chairs are starting to float on cold dark water. There’s a tilt to the deck. Some of the chairs are sliding on the wood surface, and there is a real list to the ship.
People are starting to quietly scream, but a steward walks over to the upset ones, and calmly helps them put on a life-vest.
ALL of the lifeboats are launched and rowing away.
You can hear the barking orders in the dark mist rowing away.
Those that remain on the ship are freaking out. Really freaking out, and scrambling. They are clustered in worried groups whispering to each other, while some are getting shit-faced drunk.
A few are trying to rush about. While others are pretending nothing is going on. Some are trying to talk to someone wishing some soft and soothing words.
But all in all, it’s worrisome.
Panic has set in.
2023 08 10 17 50
Pretty soon, and really quickly, its going to get really bad, and REALLY noticeable.
2023 08 10 17 53
And then…
Right after that, the various “lights” are going to dim out. One by one. Sounds will start to build up. Low rumbles, discord, and open strange behaviors.
It’s going to be a real fright.
2023 08 10 17 54
This might look sudden.
But it isn’t. It is the result of many decades of long and thoughtful planning by merit driven experts based on history and experience. While the inept, and corrupt are busy butt-fucking each other while they are throwing money into the air with rapacious abandon.
And inside the “West” people are starting to eat each other…
Oliver Anthony – Rich Men North Of Richmond | Italian-Ukrainian Reacts
2023 08 20 11 28
Any idea why my answer was deleted on Quoria?
I can’t figure it out. It’s not offensive. It’s a popular answer, and I said what? Five sentences.
As the United States collapses, all of the lies, tricks, and subterfuge becomes evident. Many of us are aghast at how we have been duped for so long, when all the evidence is right there before us.
Taxes are way above what they need to be. Public services are far below the minimum standards. Merit has all been eliminated from the government and replaced with a convoluted system of nepotism based on ever-changing progressive standards.
What is real and what is false? No one knows. At this period of late-stage collapse, we need to question everything. Even our most cherished beliefs.
Fifth five years after Apollo 11, NASA had planned to return to the moon in 2025
EXCEPT that they wont be because they “are NOT ready”
Fifth plus year after Apollo 11, NASA is not able to return to the moon
this time, technology has advanced so greatly that the world will be able to track that return to the moon
when you look at the considerable AND overwhelming evidence
it is clear that NASA never went to the moon in the first place in 1969
internet sleuths have effectively debunked a moon landing confirming what have long been suspected
2023 08 10 15 15
I would be surprised if NASA can return to the moon at all in this decade
Americans and the world have been fooled
one of America greatest exceptionalism is a lie
as are MANY things that Americans have been manipulated into believing about themselves
That is why all data, designs and tapes of Apollo 11 have been “lost” in order to bury that lie
Chicken Verde Tacos
Slowcooker Salsa Verde Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
8 tomatillos, husks removed
2 or 3 poblano peppers
1/2 medium sweet onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
Cilantro, washed thoroughly
3 or 4 tablespoons canola or olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Corn tortillas (you can also use soft flour tortillas, if preferred)
1 roasted chicken (I use store bought rotisserie chicken because it’s easy)
1 to 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
Instructions
Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Arrange tomatillos on a tray and roast for about 15 minutes. Remove and let cool.
Turn oven to 475 degrees F.
Put poblanos on foiled lined baking sheet and roast until skins turn bubbling and partly black. (You can also do this on a grill). Once charred, remove peppers from oven and let cool. When cooled, peel off skins, remove stems and seeds. (If you like spicier food, leave seeds in peppers.)
In a small pan, sauté chopped onion and garlic in enough oil (about 3 tablespoons) so the garlic does not burn. Sauté until onions are softened and slightly translucent. Remove from heat and combine the tomatillos, poblano peppers and the onion and garlic mixture (oil included) into a blender and throw in a handful of cilantro. Add salt and pepper to taste and 1 tablespoon of sugar to balance the bitterness of the tomatillos. Blend until smooth. (Taste after blending. If still slightly bitter, add more sugar to taste.
Meanwhile, take chicken, remove skin and break up meat into shredded pieces. Make sure no bones get in. Put the shredded chicken into pan used to sauté onions and garlic, pour verde sauce over top and heat on medium-low heat until warmed through.
Heat tortillas by package directions. Fill each with chicken verde mixture. Eat as is or you can add your favorite toppings like hot sauce, sour cream, cheese, tomatoes or lettuce.
Richard Wolff | How PATHETIC Has America Become Under THIS SYSTEM?
The system MUST change! What a great video. Fundamentals. Must watch.
In a neutral set up , any half decent economist would be hailing China’s 5.5% growth so far as PHENOMENAL
Yet the very fact that this is talked of negatively shows how badly economics has been compromised for Political Propaganda
Chinas real estate reforms were the boldest in recent history by anyone trying to subside a bubble
The Lockdowns
The Hostile Trade restrictions globally
They all contributed to a large chunk of China’s growth forced to be slowed
Yet China grew at 5.5% indicating a shocking level of resilience and strength
Growing Technological expansion and a deep expansion into domestic markets and focus on private enterprise and plenty of stimulus is China’s way of adding to its economy to fight off US and Western trade throttling & Sluggishness due to weak demand
This alone Shows China is one of the very few Economies on earth which can survive and even grow under hostile US decoupling
Jimmy Dore’s Wikipedia Page Edited By CIA!
In 2007 a hacker and tech whiz named Virgil Griffith revealed that the CIA, FBI and a host of large corporations and government agencies were editing pages on Wikipedia to their own benefit (or the benefit of associates). Now Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger is reporting that the intelligence agencies are still at it, routinely editing pages relating to the Iraq War body count, treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and China’s nuclear program. Jimmy and The Convo Couch host Craig Jardula discuss this modern-day version of information warfare taking place on the pages of Wikipedia.
OMG, people criticize everything about China. Really, there’s nothing but negative news about China. It really seems like Chinese people are a hopeless bunch.
IMO, China’s education system is fairly good. It drums the basics into students’ heads. I very strongly believe that students who have that foundational knowledge are more likely to be innovators than people who don’t know the basics.
Americans believe that American schools are superior to China’s.
American media claim that Chinese people are incapable of critical thinking.
Basically, Americans, Koreans and Indians believe that Chinese people are dummies.
Is it really a matter of opinion, or are Americans and their lackeys correct?
They say that being at the bottom of the PISA chart below makes Americans more innovative. Wouldn’t that also mean that countries like India who didn’t make it on the chart are phenomenally innovative?
However, would you believe that most innovators in the USA are IMMIGRANTS?
Putin isn’t a Fool – The Mother of all Miscalculations | Dmitry Orlov
Dmitry Orlov was born in Leningrad, USSR, into an academic family, and emigrated to the US in the mid-1970s. He holds degrees in Computer Engineering and Linguistics, and has worked in a variety of fields, including high-energy physics, Internet commerce, network security and advertising. He is the author of several previous books, including Reinventing Collapse and The Five Stages of Collapse.
I was driving and started to have car problems. I pulled into a convenience store gas station. Being in the midst of a divorce, barely making any money and feeling broke and alone, needing to pick up my son at his daycare over 20 miles away (to be charged $5/minute late fee after 6:00 pm), I suddenly felt lost and unsure of what to do next.
The cashier saw me and asked if everything was alright. Guessing I looked on the verge of tears. I told her the situation and that I didn’t feel like I had a friend in the world and didn’t have a clue what to do. She came and put her arm around me and said, “Don’t you worry about a thing, honey; we’re going to take care of this”, and made a phone call.
Tow truck arrived and towed my car, while the wife/owner of the tow truck company drove me the 20+ miles to pick up my 3 year old son, then drove us both back to their house to share a large family-style dinner with them, while the husband worked on my car. But first he drove about 100 miles up and back to pick up the correct part as it was a Friday and they didn’t want me to have to wait and be without my car for the weekend. Several hours later, my car was fixed.
Grateful but wondering how I was going to pay for all of this, I asked if I could make payments.
Husband and wife told me “The part was $50; pay for that and you are good to go”. OMG, I about broke down crying in appreciation for their incredible and generous kindness to a distraught stranger they could have instead just ignored or even gouged, but instead chose to go out of their way to make everything right. What angels they were being put in my path. That was 32 years ago, yet it still brings tears to my eyes just writing about it, never to be forgotten.
The economy is in such a state that men don’t have enough money to care for elderly parents and support their wives and children. Even in good years their lives are bitter while, in bad years, they struggle to avoid starvation and death. Under such circumstances, how can you expect them to be civil – let alone lawful? Mencius, 320 BC.
The third conclusion is that the conceptualization of poverty is not something that can be taken for granted. For Gao villagers, currently what is poor is defined by the inability to build a house that is up to the current standard, and to get the family’s son or sons properly married. China may still be a developing country, but daily necessities such as food and shelter are no longer the only aims and purpose of life for most people, even the poorest in Gao Village. Mobo Gao, Gao Village Revisited. 2018.
In the beginning
In 1850, when the West monopolized the world’s wealth, its capitalists privatized credit, land and labor and subordinated human society to their wishes by manipulating the market economy they had thus created.
In 1950, China, the poorest nation on earth, subordinated credit, land, and labor to public welfare and created an organic economy to serve society.
Poverty & Inequality
Today, China is focused on reducing inequality, but a brief recap of how poverty was eliminated contextualizes the new campaign.
In 1993, Shanghai’s successful Minimum Livelihood Guarantee Trial Spot went national, becoming today’s dībǎo, which pays the difference between people’s actual income and the ‘dībǎo line,’ based on local living costs and gives recipients discretionary money and access to benefits like medical insurance.
In 2000, the UN set six Millennium Development Goals: eliminate extreme poverty, hunger, disease, inadequate shelter, exclusion, and gender bias in education by 2015. China took up the challenge and ever since, on Poverty Relief Day, the President and Prime Minister, trailed by TV crews, visit remote villages to remind urbanites what poverty looks like.
in 2008, an ethnic Miao family featured on TV owned a little adobe house, farmed their tiny plot, sold blood, and did odd jobs to get by. With three children (minorities are exempt from family planning), they were unable to afford furniture so their clothes were folded on the floor and their entertainment was a black-and-white TV. They received a monthly living allowance of two hundred dollars from the local government, the husband’s occasional day jobs earned ten to twenty dollars, and blood-selling brought in another hundred dollars. His wife said this paid for sixty pounds of rice, two packs of salt, a kilo of peppers and a bag of washing powder, electricity and transportation. Their village headman explained, “Our village population is 1,770 and more than two hundred people live on blood-selling. Our land is arid, seven hundred villagers’ homes have no arable land at all and, without a road, they walk three miles for drinking water”.
In 2009, rural pensions lowered poverty to fourteen percent then, in 2014, workers’ compensation, maternity benefits, unemployment insurance, skills training and equal access to urban employment reduced it to seven percent.
By 2016, urban poverty had disappeared and by June 1, 2021, almost every Chinese in the lower half of the income distribution owned a home free and clear.
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In 2018, tens of thousands of anti-poverty teams moved into poor villages to help them join the cash economy by growing mushrooms, planting pear trees, raising mohair goats, or hosting eco-tourists–anything to bring them into the cash economy.
Pinned to the door of every poor household was a laminated sheet listing its occupants, the causes of their poverty, their remediation program, a completion date and the name, photograph and phone number of the responsible official. Corporations pitched in. Foxconn, Apple’s assembler, moved two-hundred thousand jobs inland, Hewlett-Packard moved huge factories to Xinjiang, and Beijing moved entire universities. But it was infrastructure–roads, railways, Internet and drones–that tipped the scales.
By 2019, lives in one-hundred twenty-three thousand poor villages had been transformed by high-speed, low-cost Internet service that made e-commerce, distance education, remote healthcare and delivery of public services possible. Isolated villages soon averaged four daily drone pickups and demand for drone piloting classes exploded as crop-spraying, land surveying, and product delivery made off-farm employment the majority of rural income.
To combat isolation, Congress spent $120 billion from vehicle sales tax revenues building 150,000 miles of rural roads, one of which reached Mashuping, an isolated cliff village on the bank of the Yellow River and one of the poorest in Shaanxi Province. Villagers cultivated apples and Sichuan pepper trees but were forced to sell their produce cheaply to the few dealers who came by motorbike. Then a new five-hundred mile, riverbank highway brought ‘targeted anti-poverty teams’ and, said a grower, “Our apples sell out while they’re still hanging on the trees”. By 2019, per capita income was twice the national poverty level.
Villages like Liangjiahe, where Xi Jinping grew up, exploit unique niches. Though cabbage fields still line its single road, its canny inhabitants cultivate tourists, charging thousands of visitors $8 each to hear tales of Xi’s Four Hardships–flea bites, bad food, hard labour, and assimilating into the peasantry. They give three hundred overnight guests a taste of Xi’s boyhood in cave inns decorated with vintage Mao posters and kerosene lanterns and furnished with hard brick beds warmed by earth stoves. “All authentic, of course. We want to protect the Liangjiahe brand image,” a young guide brightly explains.
Dedicated software apps help rural laborers connect with employment opportunities, veterans and disabled folk find piecework, and young people returning home start businesses. In one Zhejiang Trial Spot, five hundred villages employ 200,000 locals to promote local products and skills in e-commerce niches where villages have organized into clusters around market towns.
By 2019, rural online stores employed thirty-million people, creating an e-commerce market bigger than Europe’s.
Beijing judged anti-poverty programs successful when ninety percent of villagers swear, in writing, that they are no longer poor, and after roaming teams of auditors conduct followup studies and send their video reports to anti-poverty officers.
ROI
Beijing plans to recoup its entire poverty alleviation investment by 2040, mostly through e-sales taxes. Accelerating inland growth has triggered coastal labor shortages and forced employers to automate, raise productivity, and move up the value chain–just as Beijing intended. Today, adjusted for productivity, regulations and benefits, Chinese employees cost their employers more than their American cousins, yet barely two percent of them pay taxes.
Inequality
Until recently, millions of migrant workers who contributed to urban retirement funds could only collect full pensions in their home provinces, and local governments had no money for them when they returned at the end of their working lives. Despite pleas from cash-starved inland provinces, rich coastal provinces clung to multi-billion surpluses.
So Beijing created a trillion-dollar National Pension Insurance Program using money from SOE stock sales and, in 2011 and strong-armed provinces to join it. The People’s Daily drummed up support by appealing to national pride, “In developed countries like America – whose Gini index sometimes reaches .41 – income disparities are eased through gradually increasing taxation on the wealthy and improving welfare systems to help the poor. China should learn from America’s experience.”
In 2014, civil servants and academics, under pressure from Xi, joined the national pension plan and, in 2019, Beijing issued a billion electronic social security cards that access personal and medical records, dispense social security benefits, receive government subsidies and reimbursements and pay bills.
As wealth redistribution becomes a priority, economists are finding that inequality statistics have been exaggerated because land, housing and food are much cheaper inland – though quality of care is identical. Rural incomes have fifty percent more purchasing power than the same wages in a coastal city.
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When they adjusted for temporary migration, inequality shrank even further. Until 2019, economists counted people by where their hukou were registered rather than where they actually lived, so the movement of three hundred million migrant workers distorted statistics severely. In reality, the coastal provinces have millions more migrant residents than their registered populations and the inland provinces have millions less, so a worker moving from the interior to the coast lifts inequality indicators because – though she is still counted as living in her rural home – she contributes to aggregate income at her coastal location.
Relativity
When analysts corrected this error, they found that regional inequality has been falling 1.1% annually since 1978.
In 2002, it took the combined earnings of fourteen Guizhou workers to equal one Shanghainese but, by 2020, the number had dropped to five. Nor is the structural gap as painful as it sounds. Inlanders and their friends get richer every year and, to them, Shanghai’s glitzy lifestyle is no more relevant than Manhattan’s is to folks in Little Rock, AK.
In 2023, residents of coastal Guangdong Province were four times richer than those in inland Gansu – but Gansu folk were better off than Armenians or Ukrainians – while …
Busted, China’s Defense Minister At Security Forum Reveal What Will China Do In Response To U.S
Busted, China’s Defense Minister At Security Forum Reveal What Will China Do In Response To U.S
In this video, we reveal the shocking statements made by China’s Defense Minister at a recent Security Forum.
The Minister openly discussed what China’s response would be in the event of a US offensive, providing unprecedented insights into China’s military strategy.
We analyze the implications of these statements, exploring the potential consequences of a conflict between the two superpowers.
Join us as we delve into this important topic and examine the current state of US-China relations, and what this could mean for the future of global security.
Don’t miss out on this exclusive look into the mind of China’s Defense Minister and the potential implications for the world.
The United States, for all of its 800+ military bases, high technology planes and submarines, and for it being involved in over 9 continuous wars all over the globe… it ONLY have 50,000 combat troops.
China has 915,000 active duty troops, of which a full 210,000 are combat troops.
…
Now, let’s do the math.
Assuming that the United States deploys 100% of it’s combat troops in China to fight the Chinese, the Chinese would out number the combat forces by a 4.5x margin. Not a 10x margin.
…
So, no, your friend is wrong.
He means well, but his numbers are off. China would meet parity with the United States with 1/5 of it’s total force. Not 1/10th.
Or 20% of it’s combat reserves. Of course, this assumes that Chinese missiles would not be used, nor the huge advantages in technology, numbers, bases, and other attributes that the Chinese have inside of China. This is a “sanity check” that is available for everyone to crunch the numbers with. What is amazing to me is that the American population has been so dumbed down into a state of numb stupidity, that they are unable to perform the most basic third grade level calculations.
The Last Gasps of the Collapsing Empire | Dan Kovalik
The leading opposition candidate for President of Ecuador, Fernando Villavicencio, was Assassinated today. He was shot to death leaving a Campaign rally. Video Below (Not gory).
Villavicencio, a member of the country’s national assembly, was attacked as he left the event in the northern city of Quito on Wednesday.
A member of his campaign team told local media Mr Villavicencio was getting into a car when a man stepped forward and shot him in the head.
Current president Guillermo Lasso vowed the “crime will not go unpunished”.
Witnesses said Mr Villavicencio, 59, was shot three times.
The suspect was also shot in an exchange of bullets with security and later died from his injuries, the country’s attorney general said on social media.
Washington believes it has a divine right to send its warships wherever it wants, but when ‘rivals’ do the same it’s deemed a threat
By Timur Fomenko, a political analyst
Last week, the US sent a group of warships and a reconnaissance plane to waters off the coast of Alaska after Chinese and Russian vessels conducted a joint naval patrol in the area.
A former US Navy captain and analyst for right-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation described
the patrol as “highly provocative.” Because the US and its allies would never, ever do something like that, right?
The US is engaged in the full-blown militarisation of the peripheries of both China and Russia in a manner that implies it has an unconditional right to do so. This behaviour has not only provoked one war, in Ukraine, but risks triggering a second one, over the Taiwan Strait, too. The reality, of course, is that neither Russia nor China poses any threat to Alaska whatsoever, because the conflict, or risk thereof, is at their own front doors, not America’s.
The US is the most militaristic and aggressive country in modern history. It has established a global military presence that spans every single continent with hundreds of military bases. In doing so, it claims it supports the freedom and self-determination of others. In reality, it provocatively encircles states that it deems rivals to its own global dominance, escalates tensions, and then when these states respond to the situation, subsequently brands them as the “aggressors,” thus affirming and even expanding its military footprint in these given regions.
With Russia, the US has pursued a relentless expansion of NATO eastwards since the Cold War, absorbing former members of the Soviet Union’s alliance system even when Russia had no will to compete with it. NATO has evolved from a unit of collective self-defence in a specific geographic region into an increasingly global ideological crusade which serves the goals of the US. The words “North Atlantic” in its name are increasingly redundant as Washington even endeavours to broaden its reach to Asia and the Pacific.
Which leads to the next point, China. The US is pushing for a full-scale military and naval encirclement around China’s eastern periphery, deliberately using the Taiwan independence issue as a wedge to ramp up tensions despite the One China Policy and giving the island region more and more arms. While doing this, it is forcing more and more countries to accept a greater American military presence. This recently included the Philippines, where the US gained access to a number of bases, as well as Papua New Guinea, where a defence cooperation agreement was recently signed
. At the same time, the US constantly sails warships through the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, citing so-called “freedom of navigation” from a law which it does not even ratify. China’s retaliatory actions are then branded “aggressive” and threatening the peace of the region.
If this constitutes normal behaviour and a sovereign right of the US, why can China and Russia not sail patrols up to Alaskan waters? Why is one behaviour described as “freedom of navigation” but the other is labelled “highly provocative”? The reality is that because both countries are concerned about the US on their doorsteps, they have little interest in ever waging war as far afield in Alaska. The same cannot be said about US actions on their doorsteps, whereby the threat of war is very, very real and is being cranked up even higher by Washington. The US deems it has rights which other countries do not, which leads to the double standards voiced in the media regarding these seemingly equal actions.
China-Russia military cooperation is a product of the US antagonising them both, rather than so-called “provocative behaviour.” In the geographic sphere of Northeast Asia, the two countries have shared strategic interests which concern checking the expansion of US military power in Japan and the Korean Peninsula. This extends to the Northern Pacific. Neither country has any specific ambitions regarding Alaska. Neither China nor Russia is attempting to foster an independence or separatist movement there, unlike what the US is doing with Taiwan, and then groom it into a military partner hostile to Washington. Therein lies the difference between the two sets of military behaviour. China and Russia may cooperate for common strategic objectives, but they are not exerting aggression in the process. On the other hand, the US’ military presence and patrols are designed to upend a region and turn countries against other, provoke strife, and of course advance its economic goals. The irony is that media discourse presents this as entirely normal and justified, but then depicts Russia-China cooperation as a potential threat to Alaska.
TSMC Isn’t A U.S Servant Will Take China’s Order of 7nm Chips!
A real harsh REALITY. And some great changes… none of which is being reported by the West.
In 2009, after the Global Financial Crisis, PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said, “The world needs an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and able to remain stable in the long run, removing the inherent deficiencies caused by using credit-based national currencies.” He proposed Special Drawing Rights, SDRs, digital reserve currency valued against a basket of commodities and currencies. The SDRs have been trialled internationally since 2019 but a means of moving it around securely, quickly, and cheaply was lackinguntil..
Enter mBridge
Cross-border payments, which the US dollar dominates, will reach $250 trillion by 2027, up $100 trillion in a decade. There’s just no stopping it.
The trouble is that international payments are slow and costly, and Washington’s ‘long-arm’ jurisdiction over all dollar transactions has politicized trade.
So Basle’s Bank for International Settlements came up with mBridge.
mBridge, the BIS’ digital interbank payment system, lets Chinese companies pay UAE vendors in digital e-yuan. The mBridge blockchain instantly converts the yuan payment into dirham and and credits it to the vendor’s UAE bank account. mBridge 6-8 ms. execution time and 2.2¢ transaction cost bring Beijing’s goal of frictionless trade a giant step closer.
And best of all? No US regulators, banks, or dollars are involved.
Cause for concern
The PBOC (the world’s richest central bank), the HK Monetary Authority, Bank of Thailand and the UAE Central Bank have been using mBridge with traders in China, Hong Kong, Thailand and the UAE for over a year.
Now BIS says it will release mBridge globally by Xmas.
US Treasury officials worry that mBridge will help Beijing revolutionize wholesale cross-border digital payments, and that this is what will happen with all of China’s 143 trading partners:…
Prof. Richard Wolff on “If the Economy’s So Good, How Come I Feel So Bad?”
this is really good. Take the time to listen to what he has to say.
When it comes to weapons exports, China never sells its latest products and technology unless it has a newer technology to replace it, which it has not yet announced.
This means that if China announces the sale of J-20 stealth fighters for export, it means that the replacement for the J-20 will be announced soon.
Unlike in most Western cultures, the Chinese prefer that everyone, especially their enemy, underestimate their capabilities.
Just because the US or UK or the West don’t hear from someone for a month, doesn’t mean he has gone missing
This obessession of always talking to the press every day is slavish and a Western compulsion
Same with Tweeting every day
He simply has not been seen in the Public Domain
Why should the Chinese care about why he has not been seen??
It’s not their problem right?
The CPC has a message
It’s called MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS
In China, it is the business of the CPC to run the country, govern the country and help it develop and grow and regulate policies to sustain the country and defend the country
The Average Citizens have their own business — Work Hard, Take advantage of the free and heavily subsidized education, Do well, Pay Taxes and ENJOY LIFE — take vacations, buy stuff, play games, have fast food
China is not India
The Average Chinese doesn’t spend all his time discussing Modi vs Raga or saying “Ayega to Modi Hi”
He doesn’t even know the names of most standing committee members and won’t recognise them if they stood in front of him without escort or the party’s No 8 Cars
The CPC tells the Citizens what they HAVE TO KNOW
The CPC doesn’t need to tell them anything more because it won’t be productive
The CPC won’t tell all the problems to the Citizens because the Citizens knowing the problems is counter productive and could complicate stuff
Instead the CPC SOLVES THE PROBLEMS and ensures that the Citizens don’t even feel the negative effects
The CPC will take care of the Governance
The CPC will replace ministers and members if they cannot be fully capable of doing their job which underlies the Meritocracy of the Chinese System
In India, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj worked for a year despite taking cancer treatments half the time
Not in China
China wants 100% and if they don’t get it — you get a golden handshake and a goodbye
You want my opinion
I love such a system and the opacity
Knowing only what I NEED TO KNOW and being protected by a system and confident in such a system is very productive and helps me focus on what my business should be
The Greatest Growth and Development in the world took place under such a system
IT WAS CALLED MONARCHY !!!!!
The World’s greatest inventions — Machine Guns, Spinning Jenny, Steam Engine, Dynamite, Shopping, Telegraph and Modern Banking all took place under this system
Where the Common men did what their business man and where the people who should rule, did their job and ruled
Mixing them was catastrophic and luckily China hasn’t done that yet
Note:—
My point here is to hail the opacity of China and the CPC and not discuss why Qin Gang didn’t make a public appearance for 3 weeks
The Opacity for whatever reason is what makes China the world’s fastest rising threat to the West and it’s degraded political systems
Chilighetti
Quick, easy and delicious! Chilighetti is a great way to feed a hungry family.
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Yield: 8 servings
Ingredients
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
1 (46 ounce) can tomato juice
1 cup water
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 level teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 (16 ounce) package spaghetti, broken into 2 inch pieces*
2 (16 ounce) can kidney or pinto beans, rinsed and drained
Sour cream (optional)
Shredded Cheddar cheese (optional)
Instructions
In a Dutch oven, cook beef and onion over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes or until beef is no longer pink and onion is tender, crumbling the beef; drain.
Stir in tomato juice, water, Worcestershire sauce and seasonings; bring to a boil. Add spaghetti. Reduce heat; simmer, covered, 10-13 minutes or until pasta is tender.
Stir in beans; heat through.
Top servings with sour cream and Cheddar cheese, if desired.
Notes
* Spaghetti may be left unbroken if desired.
Your Threats Are Meaningless Now
Please watch this clip, and consider that us as soul are living in a Prison Planet ourselves… I am interested in your thoughts after viewing this clip.
This is perhaps one of my most important Geo-political posts. Much bigger things than Ukraine is going on RIGHT NOW. Much, much, bigger.
Africa is unifying.
The Third-world is rising up against the West.
Russia is supporting the Africans.
The United States is playing the same old games
Guys, Africa is the sole remaining supply of energy supply to Europe. The USA blew up Nordstrom 1 & 2, fully expecting to get gas from Africa. Now Africa says NO!
So Europe is looking to go BLACK.
Europe (via France) is up for a fight, ha! Take on Africa, China and Russia? The situation is very dicey.
Key areas are [1], [2] , [3] and [4].
The first point…
[1] Africa just SHOCKED the world with this and Putin is watching
Oh MY GOD. The shit is really hitting the fan.
You all must watch this. It is happening right now.
Minimum wage in my state is $12 an hour. Which is multiplied to make $24,960 for full time. To “rich” to disqualify taxes.
With that, I have to live frugally to an impossible extreme. After taxes, no benefits I might bring home $13,000 at best.
Now I’m including federal state, local, gas, food, registration, safety inspections etc etc. all the things to stay legal and manage to work in a rural place where transportation is 100% required and not supplied by public methods. If you fail to meet these requirements, Law Enforcement is likely to levy more taxes. (Poor tax)
So less then $1100 a month. I’m single. My rent is $650 for a 1 bedroom. Now I have $450. Somehow I’m buying food to last…(which I almost entirely make myself.)
What if my already paid for clunker breaks down. what if I get injured, can’t afford the “benefits package” offered.
I’m not even going to break down $15 an hour. I CANT work for less then $20 and figure it out. The job market and employers don’t get it. “No one wants to work anymore” is what I hear. I have a job paying $16. Umm sorry.
I do better these day, worked hard to get there. My sense of compassion hasn’t left from those hard days, however. I live in a rural area with a lower cost of living, but…
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For comparison purposes…
In China, a bottle of ketchup costs 10 yuan. (Roughly $1.40).
Keanu Reeves REFUSED To Sell His Soul To Hollywood
This video calmed me, and erased some earlier strife that I experienced today.
In 2013, a US company was running a routine security check and noticed that someone had been constantly logging into their system from China. Straight away, the company believed it was hackers and hired Verizon to root out the problem and secure their systems.
It didn’t take them long to realise it wasn’t hackers, it was actually a US employee of the company who would only be referred to as Bob.
The quiet and unassuming programmer was outsourcing his job to someone in China. Bob hired a programming firm in China to do the work for him and paid them one-fifth of his 6 figure salary.
Over the years, Bob earned the reputation as one of the best developers in the whole building and received outstanding performance reviews for his well-written code.
As they delved deeper into their investigation, they discovered that Bob had a very relaxed workday. Work at 9 am, where he surfed Reddit watching cat videos. Lunch at 11.30 am, and then at 1 pm, he would browse eBay. From 2.30 to 4.30 pm, he was browsing Facebook and LinkedIn. Finally, sending an email to update management before leaving.
Originally Answered: What's the craziest thing you ever said at a job interview and still got the job?
The interviewer, a very senior technical guy, asked me, “So, do you have any questions for me?”
I thought about it for a moment and said, “What’s the worst thing about working here?”
He thought about it for a minute, then got up and closed his door, and told me. For like half an hour, in painful detail, getting more agitated as he went. Then he was done, and sent me on my way saying I’d hear back soon.
The next day I got called back in. Seems that after he talked to me, he went and resigned, and the HR rep asked what happened in our interview.
After I told them, in detail, I expected to hear nothing further since I would have been reporting to him. Instead, the CTO came in to talk to me, and asked if I would be interested in coming aboard to help him fix all the things that seemed to be wrong with the organization (and solve some cool technical problems as well).
So I did.
Life Lessons
Nobody cares about you, your plans, your goals, or your little dramas. So stop pretending they do, or getting upset when they don’t.
When it comes to reaching your goals, discipline is more important than motivation. If you don’t have discipline, you’ll never stick to anything.
You are the only person capable of changing your life; no one can do that for you. The easiest way to change yourself is to change the things you do each day.
The biggest threat to your progression in life isn’t something or someone around you; it’s you.
The key to a successful life lies not in what you know, but in what you do with what you know.
Failure is just a stepping stone on the road to success.
You can’t change the past, but you can still fuck up your future if you repeat it.
Success is not about what you accomplish, it’s about who you become in the process.
Your comfort zone is a barren place. Nothing ever grows there.
Anything in life worth achieving will not be easy to get. If it were, everyone would get what they wanted. Most people give up on their goals when things become too difficult. Don’t be like most people.
I have been hearing that China is doing dollar-yuan swaps with countries like Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil, etc.
These countries are having difficulty getting dollars to pay back loans because the US Fed has set higher interest rates, drawing US dollars from overseas back to the US. China wants to cut back on its dollar holdings. So China is offering these countries’ central banks US dollars to pay back the dollar-denominated loans. These countries would pay off their dollar loans, and then pay back China in Chinese yuan.
My guess is that in order to get rid of US treasury holdings, China is offering favorable yuan exchange rates to these borrowing countries.
Locking in low exchange rates also helps China because it promotes Chinese exports because they appear to be cheap. Since China is the manufacturing nation to the world, it is very important that Chinese exports be as competitive as possible, especially while the west is trying to set up China-free supply chains outside China.
China has seen the results of the terrible mistake the US made by de-industrializing and letting the dollar rise in parity against other countries’ currencies, hurting US exports, and is likely determined to avoid that mistake.
ASML Not Needed World Shocked as China Makes Domestic 28nm DUV Lithography Machines!
Nothing can stand in China’s way when it comes to technology like it or not!..
2023 08 08 09 28
https://youtu.be/0QHquF8viYM
Best Macaroni and Cheese
This is the tastiest, easiest and fastest macaroni and cheese you will ever eat. DO not skimp on the Colby cheese. Use as much as you can afford.
2023 08 08 14 38
Ingredients
Macaroni (as much as needed)
Colby cheese (lots)
Instructions
While the macaroni is cooking in salted water, dice the Colby cheese up rather small.
As soon as the macaroni is cooked; drain it well. Keep it, covered, in the same pot in which it was cooked.
Add the diced Colby cheese and stir it in. Cover immediately and let it sit for about five minutes so that the cheese melts.
Pilots Report SWARM-LIKE Objects In Military Zones Amid UAP MOMENT
The Hill is a USA Washington Insider publication. Never the less, watch the intro and discard the rest if you want. Point is that swarm drones are fling in and around American bases inside of the USA.
China urges U.S. to stop utilizing South China Sea issue to sow discord
Source: Xinhua
Editor: huaxia
2023-08-07 22:56:30
BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — China on Monday urged the United States to stop utilizing the South China Sea issue to sow confusion and discord, respect China’s territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea, and respect regional countries’ efforts to uphold peace and stability in this region.
A Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson made the remarks in response to a U.S. State Department statement criticizing China for obstructing Philippine vessels that sought to deliver new troops and supplies to a grounded military vessel at Ren’ai Jiao and firing water cannons.
The U.S. statement says such actions are “inconsistent with international law” and “threatening regional peace and stability” and calls upon China to abide by the South China Sea arbitration award issued in 2016. The statement indicates U.S. support for “the Philippines’ lawful maritime operations” and says an armed attack on the Philippines’ Coast Guard would “invoke U.S. mutual defense commitments under the U.S.- Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty.”
The State Department’s statement, in disregard of the facts, attacked China’s legitimate and lawful actions at sea aimed at safeguarding its rights and enforcing the law, and the statement also voiced support for the Philippines’ unlawful and provocative behavior, the spokesperson said.
“China firmly opposes the statement,” the spokesperson said.
For some time, the United States has been inciting and supporting the Philippines’ attempts to overhaul and reinforce its military vessel that was deliberately grounded on Ren’ai Jiao. The U.S. even sent over military aircraft and vessels to assist and support the Philippines, and repeatedly sought to threaten China by citing the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty. The U.S. has been brazenly bolstering Philippines as it infringes upon China’s sovereignty, but those moves will not succeed, the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said Ren’ai Jiao has always been part of China’s Nansha Qundao and the historical context of the issue of Ren’ai Jiao is very clear.
In 1999, the Philippines sent a military vessel and deliberately ran it aground at Ren’ai Jiao, attempting to change the status quo of Ren’ai Jiao illegally. China immediately made serious démarches to the Philippines, demanding the removal of the vessel. The Philippines promised several times to tow it away, but has yet to act. Not only that, the Philippines sought to overhaul and reinforce the military vessel in order to permanently occupy Ren’ai Jiao, the spokesperson said.
On Aug. 5, in disregard of China’s repeated dissuasion and warning, the Philippines sent two vessels that intruded into the adjacent waters of Ren’ai Jiao and tried to deliver the construction materials for overhauling and reinforcing the grounded military vessel. Such actions violated China’s sovereignty and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC). The China Coast Guard (CCG) vessels stopped them in accordance with law and warned them off through appropriate law enforcement measures. Their maneuvers were professional, restrained and beyond reproach, the spokesperson said.
The South China Sea arbitration was a pure political drama staged in the name of the law with the U.S. pulling strings behind the scenes. The so-called award contravenes international laws, including UNCLOS, and is illegal, null and void. The U.S.’ attempt to make an issue of the illegal award will not affect China’s firm resolve to safeguard its territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests in accordance with the law, the spokesperson said.
There has been much written about the failure of the US elites, with three recent thoughtful cases being that of Aurelian and Charles Hugh Smith and Harold Robertson.
While all three make excellent contributions to the discussion they make some incorrect assumptions and miss important contextual drivers.
All of them seem to assume that at some point in US history the nation was led by a highly competent leadership, rather than by a relatively weak leadership which again and again had its wars fought for it, fought relative weaklings, or had its main opponents commit fratricide while luxuriating in a vast continent full of resources far away from its main enemies.
To put it bluntly, the US elite has never really been tested against a peer competitor.
Let’s start with a little history.
From the founding of the British colonies in North America to the independence struggle the colonists relied on the British Army, and British military leadership, to do its fighting.
Only when the British army had thoroughly vanquished the French in Eastern North America could some of the colonists start dreaming of a safe independence.
The War of Independence would not have been won without the extensive support from France (money, arms, men and the containment of the British fleet), a lack of coordination between the British armies, and a Britain that was engaged in a world war with France at the time; later, the US proved incapable of subduing Canada.
In the next century, the US battled a much weaker Mexico and Spain to take vast swathes of territory, purchased the middle of the country from the much-weakened French, and ethnically cleansed the Amerindian population.
Its elite also made fortunes from Opium in a China subjugated by the European powers and Japan.
All this while its heartland was safe from threat, with vast deposits of every mineral possible – including coal, oil and then natural gas.
At the end of the century it jumped on the decline of the Spanish colonies to grab The Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam and dominate Cuba.
Also, by the end of the century it was an economic powerhouse with a thoroughly dominant capitalist bourgeoisie. It would be surprising if it hadn’t been.
Then its main competitors committed fratricide over a three-decade period. For most of World War 1 the US sat back and made huge profits from supplying the war. By the time it did enter the war, the main protagonists were absolutely exhausted, and it was at the margin that the sheer number of US troops coming to the front tilted the balance.
The actual performance of the US military was awful, committing all of the failings that the other belligerents had at the beginning of the war; with massive casualty rates the outcome.
But the Germans knew that more and more would be coming, no matter how many they killed, and the German home front was in absolute collapse.
The compulsory licensing of all German patents provided a massive scientific and technical windfall to the US in the post-war period.
For more than two years, the US sat out WW2 while again making money out of supplying the conflict. When it did enter its contribution was nowhere near what is celebrated.
Its Pacific campaign was one of limited numbers of soldiers fighting other limited numbers of Japanese for one island after another, while the vast US industry turned to war production.
The Chinese were fighting the vast majority of the Japanese army, which they had been doing since 1935.
Late in 1945, as the two nuclear bombs (developed with extensive help from foreign scientists) were being dropped on Japan, the Soviet army showed how to carry out large scale operations by utterly destroying the Japanese armies in Manchuria and Sakhalin within weeks.
They were poised to invade Japan proper, and a case can very much be made that this was the reason for the Japanese surrender not the nuclear bombs, even the US establishment journal Foreign Policy published a paper taking this position in 2013. In Europe, it was the Soviets who destroyed the Axis armies and the most probable outcome without the Normandy landings would have been Soviet dominance of the whole of Europe.
The forces landing at Normandy fought a force significantly made up of divisions resting from their mauling on the Eastern Front, while having overwhelming air and artillery superiority.
As Big Serge puts it so well, the US “recipe for victory was simple: dispense of a superior volume of sustained firepower. Or, as George Patton would have put it: ‘Shoot the bastards.’”
With the end of WW2, the US experienced its first unipolar moment, as the Axis powers and Japan were destroyed and occupied, most of the European continent, Russia and China utterly devastated and Britain utterly bankrupt.
A financial system favouring the US was set up, and the US once again stole much of German scientific ingenuity though the Operation Paperclip that provided scientists central to the development of such projects as the moon landings. The “father” of the H-bomb was also a Hungarian Jew who had fled to the US from Nazi Germany before the war.
The US was good at covert operations but failed at “shooting the bastards” in Korea and then in Vietnam.
At the same time, its industry flourished until the Europeans and Japanese recovered enough to become real competitors; after which many leading manufacturing sectors had to be rescued by subsidies and tariffs (e.g. the car and computer memory industries).
So, then the game changed to a reliance on the reserve-currency status of the US dollar, the offshoring of US manufacturing, and the movement of elite extraction from the US Empire to the home country itself.
Anyone thinking that the US military was full of brilliant leaders should consider the laughable invasion of the tiny island of Grenada in 1983 against no opposition, where nineteen US military personnel died and others were wounded as shown below (starts at 27 minutes).
Another would be the blowing up of the US barracks in Beirut also in 1983, which killed 241 US military personnel.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, which had much more to do with the decay of its institutions and the demolition-style policies of Gorbachev than any US pressures, removed the US strategic competitor; handing over Eastern Europe on a platter.
Together with the opening of China and the end of the Indian License Raj, it provided the second US unipolar moment. An overwhelming win without a fight.
It is from this period, with the extensive neoliberal policies carried out by the Clinton administrations, that we can point to pure hubris among the US elite.
In addition, these massive new market opportunities covered up the failings of the US elite in building a strong domestic base to support their global empire.
At the same time, two underlying trends were eating away at that base. After WW2, the US state and the US foundations (Ford, Rockefeller etc.) worked hard at supporting the development of a non-communist critical theory, which became a non-materialist post-modernist critical theory.
This really took off in the academy in the 1970s, and then from the 1990s in gender theory (e.g. Judith Butler). This theory “world war” has been documented by Gabriel Rockhill, here and here, and while removing class as a central precept of critical theory (as planned) also spread throughout academy and undermined the modernist assumptions upon which it was based.
At the same time, US universities and corporations utilized H1B visas to keep the remuneration for scientists down through an influx of foreign nationals (and also IT offshoring), reducing any incentives for US students to enter scientific programs. Instead, programs in law, business and the social sciences in general rapidly grew and the escalating cost of a university education produced a customer (as against student) mentality in the student body which was supported by a growing administrative bureaucracy.
Once again, the US benefitted from the output of foreign schools and universities to bolster their research and development activities. At the same time, the native population was continuously denuded of these skills as they focused on the social sciences, the professions, and business.
This was the time of the fad of the “Virtual Corporation”, where everything except finance, sales & marketing, design, and legal could be outsourced, and extra profits could be made through financial subsidiaries (e.g. G.E. Capital). Business groups could be treated like a portfolio of stocks, with laggards pruned brutally, “cash cows” milked, and money thrown at growth areas, and continuous mergers and acquisitions done to hone the portfolio.
No need for experts in production, IT, logistics etc., that could all be outsourced and offshored. Generic CEOs could run any corporation, epitomized by Jack Welch and the many GE spin-off executives that helped break corporations such as GE and Boeing.
Welch’s massive expansion of GE’s finance arm (GE Capital) proved utterly disastrous during the GFC. “Greed Is Good” was the motif of the US executive, epitomized by the corporate raider played by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street, as he pumped his stock options with stock buybacks and paid himself exorbitant amounts.
Wealth extraction not wealth creation, handing over industrial leadership to a China who was much more focused on national renewal and far more proficient at playing the hand they had.
The US sleep-walked through two disastrous occupations (both after campaigns against extremely weak opponents) which swallowed vast amounts of money and resulted in the growth of Iranian power in the case of Iraq, and an unceremonious exit in the case of Afghanistan.
Something started to change near the end of the first decade of the new century, as the US economy crashed in the GFC, Russia started to re-establish its sovereignty and strength (and won the proxy war against Georgia), and China emerged as a massive industrialized nation.
Since then the US economy has been on the life support of QE and near-zero interest rates, and the US elites have been struggling to deal with the new geopolitical reality.
After the success of the Occupy Wall Street protests, that focused on class struggle, the “woke” thermostat was turned up to boiling by the elite-controlled media, the elite-controlled state and the elite-controlled corporations; the classic divide and conquer tactics that had always worked in the past, this time on the basis of “identity”.
But this let rip the toxic post-materialist, post-modernist brew throughout a society where so many were damaged by nearly four decades of neoliberalism, stripped of their identities as well-paid competent workers with futures, or even stripped of the hope of that for the younger generations.
Desperately competing with any weapons available for the few remaining “good” jobs.
The wealthy may have been always “not like you”, but as Charles Hugh-Smith notes, decades of financialized asset inflation have separated the asset holders by a yawning chasm from the not so lucky.
With interest rates now rising back to more normal pre-2000 levels and the US dollar slowly losing its reserve status, much of that wealth may prove to be a mirage while the massive debts racked up against that wealth will not.
It’s the courtier class that stand to lose the most from the end of the financial bubble, and even billionaires can lose everything when they are leveraged. With the bubble will go many, many of the “bullshit” courtier jobs that currently pay so much as they extract rather than create wealth.
Robertson points to a change from a “systemic selection for competence” to a “systemic selection for the ideologically compliant” through diversity politics.
He misses the fact that the political-economic base of the US elite has changed, and that they see many of the “competent” jobs as no longer necessary in a world centered around financial and symbol manipulation.
They believe that “competence” can be simply outsourced and anyway they will be long gone before any consequences are felt.
When he goes on about “diversity” hiring, he makes invisible the legions of mediocre rich kids and kids of faculty that get into the elite schools every year.
He also makes invisible the Nigerian-Americans who are one of the richest and most successful ethnic groups in the US, and the Asians-Americans disgustingly discriminated against in US universities, and the Indian-Americans who are also extremely successful.
The issue is not “diversity” hiring, it is a general selection bias for the skills required in a “virtual” corporation where specific knowledge is seen as old fashioned, a trend that has been going on for decades.
Aurelien focuses on the Professional Managerial Class (PMC), but does not understand that these are just the courtiers to the really powerful – the owners. Of course, the owners won’t want competent financial crimes prosecutors when so much wealth today is based upon financial crimes.
A Professor of Human Rights is very useful in creating excuses to invade or regime change another country so that its wealth and ongoing income can be extracted by the US ownership class.
The real “diversity” problem stems from the post-Occupy Wall Street identity politics mayhem that has now invaded so many institutions.
Deep down the US elite has now ruled nearly effortlessly for so long it cannot comprehend of a real competitor, as Russia will be soon be “rubble” and China will “inevitably” collapse.
So, no problem with letting loose an extremely disruptive identity politics as long as the ownership class keep owning. The owners are slowly waking up to the fact that Russia and China (and Iran) are not following the script, and therefore we may see a rapid reversal of the worst aspects of identity politics.
The departments whose name is an anagram for DIE may be doing just that over the next few years. As Aurelien has noted though, there are now legions of PMCs who have happily failed upwards as their failures have served the owners (messed up foreign nations can be very profitable for example), but they are not so useful when the homeland needs to be rebuilt and allies strengthened.
They are the troops of the last war of the US on easy street, but now the street has gotten rough and a much tougher breed are required. But they are generally not available, and any that are may want to go back to their own nations given the increasing racism and state-aggression toward Asians.
The US has been lying about the size of its economy in greater and greater ways since at least the 1990s. Costs (financial system fees) are counted as value added when they are pure rentier taxes, inflation is manipulated downwards, and rent imputed on owner-occupied houses, among many other tricks.
US official GDP also counts value added that is produced in other nations as created in the US, when US corporations such as Apple can capture that for themselves through the control of global value chains backed up by intellectual property, financial and legal control, and state help in the destruction of competitors when required (i.e. the Huawei handset business).
What happens when that disappears, and those nations get to keep that value added? What will be left to fund the US military and stability at home? I tend to agree with Simplicius that actual US GDP, and therefore GDP per capita, is about half of what the US states it is.
If Australia is called the “lucky country”, perhaps the US should be called the “really lucky country”. Its elites have never had to deal with a real competitive threat and have never had to fight a direct war against a peer competitor. The “best army in the world” is really only as good as its ability to overwhelm the opposition with “shoot them” power.
It won’t have that against the Russians, the Chinese and even the Iranians.
Without it, it will be seen to be a shadow of its well-groomed reputation. At home, the US really only had a period of economic dominance in the post-WW2 period which quickly faded as other countries rebuilt their economies.
The US elite may have become significantly worse in the past few decades, but they were never the best.
It’s easy to appear to be brilliant when you have a gun in your pocket and your opponent has a plastic fork.
The US elite have never needed to be brilliant because they have been so lucky; that time is now gone.
The Russian, Chinese and Iranian elites have certainly not been lucky, and therefore their competence level is far, far higher.
There has been much written about the failure of the US elites, with three recent thoughtful cases being that of Aurelian and Charles Hugh Smith and Harold Robertson. While all three make excellent contributions to the discussion they make some incorrect assumptions and miss important contextual drivers.
All of them seem to assume that at some point in US history the nation was led by a highly competent leadership, rather than by a relatively weak leadership which again and again had its wars fought for it, fought relative weaklings, or had its main opponents commit fratricide while luxuriating in a vast continent full of resources far away from its main enemies.
To put it bluntly, the US elite has never really been tested against a peer competitor. Let’s start with a little history.
From the founding of the British colonies in North America to the independence struggle the colonists relied on the British Army, and British military leadership, to do its fighting. Only when the British army had thoroughly vanquished the French in Eastern North America could some of the colonists start dreaming of a safe independence.
The War of Independence would not have been won without the extensive support from France (money, arms, men and the containment of the British fleet), a lack of coordination between the British armies, and a Britain that was engaged in a world war with France at the time; later, the US proved incapable of subduing Canada.
In the next century, the US battled a much weaker Mexico and Spain to take vast swathes of territory, purchased the middle of the country from the much-weakened French, and ethnically cleansed the Amerindian population.
Its elite also made fortunes from Opium in a China subjugated by the European powers and Japan.
All this while its heartland was safe from threat, with vast deposits of every mineral possible – including coal, oil and then natural gas.
At the end of the century it jumped on the decline of the Spanish colonies to grab The Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam and dominate Cuba.
Also, by the end of the century it was an economic powerhouse with a thoroughly dominant capitalist bourgeoisie. It would be surprising if it hadn’t been.
Then its main competitors committed fratricide over a three-decade period. For most of World War 1 the US sat back and made huge profits from supplying the war. By the time it did enter the war, the main protagonists were absolutely exhausted, and it was at the margin that the sheer number of US troops coming to the front tilted the balance.
The actual performance of the US military was awful, committing all of the failings that the other belligerents had at the beginning of the war; with massive casualty rates the outcome.
But the Germans knew that more and more would be coming, no matter how many they killed, and the German home front was in absolute collapse.
The compulsory licensing of all German patents provided a massive scientific and technical windfall to the US in the post-war period.
For more than two years, the US sat out WW2 while again making money out of supplying the conflict. When it did enter its contribution was nowhere near what is celebrated. Its Pacific campaign was one of limited numbers of soldiers fighting other limited numbers of Japanese for one island after another, while the vast US industry turned to war production.
The Chinese were fighting the vast majority of the Japanese army, which they had been doing since 1935. Late in 1945, as the two nuclear bombs (developed with extensive help from foreign scientists) were being dropped on Japan, the Soviet army showed how to carry out large scale operations by utterly destroying the Japanese armies in Manchuria and Sakhalin within weeks.
They were poised to invade Japan proper, and a case can very much be made that this was the reason for the Japanese surrender not the nuclear bombs, even the US establishment journal Foreign Policy published a paper taking this position in 2013. In Europe, it was the Soviets who destroyed the Axis armies and the most probable outcome without the Normandy landings would have been Soviet dominance of the whole of Europe.
The forces landing at Normandy fought a force significantly made up of divisions resting from their mauling on the Eastern Front, while having overwhelming air and artillery superiority.
As Big Serge puts it so well, the US “recipe for victory was simple: dispense of a superior volume of sustained firepower. Or, as George Patton would have put it: ‘Shoot the bastards.’”
With the end of WW2, the US experienced its first unipolar moment, as the Axis powers and Japan were destroyed and occupied, most of the European continent, Russia and China utterly devastated and Britain utterly bankrupt.
A financial system favouring the US was set up, and the US once again stole much of German scientific ingenuity though the Operation Paperclip that provided scientists central to the development of such projects as the moon landings. The “father” of the H-bomb was also a Hungarian Jew who had fled to the US from Nazi Germany before the war. The US was good at covert operations but failed at “shooting the bastards” in Korea and then in Vietnam.
At the same time, its industry flourished until the Europeans and Japanese recovered enough to become real competitors; after which many leading manufacturing sectors had to be rescued by subsidies and tariffs (e.g. the car and computer memory industries).
So, then the game changed to a reliance on the reserve-currency status of the US dollar, the offshoring of US manufacturing, and the movement of elite extraction from the US Empire to the home country itself.
Anyone thinking that the US military was full of brilliant leaders should consider the laughable invasion of the tiny island of Grenada in 1983 against no opposition, where nineteen US military personnel died and others were wounded as shown below (starts at 27 minutes). Another would be the blowing up of the US barracks in Beirut also in 1983, which killed 241 US military personnel.
The collapse of the Soviet Union, which had much more to do with the decay of its institutions and the demolition-style policies of Gorbachev than any US pressures, removed the US strategic competitor; handing over Eastern Europe on a platter. Together with the opening of China and the end of the Indian License Raj, it provided the second US unipolar moment. An overwhelming win without a fight. It is from this period, with the extensive neoliberal policies carried out by the Clinton administrations, that we can point to pure hubris among the US elite. In addition, these massive new market opportunities covered up the failings of the US elite in building a strong domestic base to support their global empire.
At the same time, two underlying trends were eating away at that base. After WW2, the US state and the US foundations (Ford, Rockefeller etc.) worked hard at supporting the development of a non-communist critical theory, which became a non-materialist post-modernist critical theory.
This really took off in the academy in the 1970s, and then from the 1990s in gender theory (e.g. Judith Butler). This theory “world war” has been documented by Gabriel Rockhill, here and here, and while removing class as a central precept of critical theory (as planned) also spread throughout academy and undermined the modernist assumptions upon which it was based.
At the same time, US universities and corporations utilized H1B visas to keep the remuneration for scientists down through an influx of foreign nationals (and also IT offshoring), reducing any incentives for US students to enter scientific programs. Instead, programs in law, business and the social sciences in general rapidly grew and the escalating cost of a university education produced a customer (as against student) mentality in the student body which was supported by a growing administrative bureaucracy.
Once again, the US benefitted from the output of foreign schools and universities to bolster their research and development activities. At the same time, the native population was continuously denuded of these skills as they focused on the social sciences, the professions, and business.
This was the time of the fad of the “Virtual Corporation”, where everything except finance, sales & marketing, design, and legal could be outsourced, and extra profits could be made through financial subsidiaries (e.g. G.E. Capital). Business groups could be treated like a portfolio of stocks, with laggards pruned brutally, “cash cows” milked, and money thrown at growth areas, and continuous mergers and acquisitions done to hone the portfolio.
No need for experts in production, IT, logistics etc., that could all be outsourced and offshored. Generic CEOs could run any corporation, epitomized by Jack Welch and the many GE spin-off executives that helped break corporations such as GE and Boeing.
Welch’s massive expansion of GE’s finance arm (GE Capital) proved utterly disastrous during the GFC. “Greed Is Good” was the motif of the US executive, epitomized by the corporate raider played by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street, as he pumped his stock options with stock buybacks and paid himself exorbitant amounts.
Wealth extraction not wealth creation, handing over industrial leadership to a China who was much more focused on national renewal and far more proficient at playing the hand they had.
The US sleep-walked through two disastrous occupations (both after campaigns against extremely weak opponents) which swallowed vast amounts of money and resulted in the growth of Iranian power in the case of Iraq, and an unceremonious exit in the case of Afghanistan.
Something started to change near the end of the first decade of the new century, as the US economy crashed in the GFC, Russia started to re-establish its sovereignty and strength (and won the proxy war against Georgia), and China emerged as a massive industrialized nation.
Since then the US economy has been on the life support of QE and near-zero interest rates, and the US elites have been struggling to deal with the new geopolitical reality.
After the success of the Occupy Wall Street protests, that focused on class struggle, the “woke” thermostat was turned up to boiling by the elite-controlled media, the elite-controlled state and the elite-controlled corporations; the classic divide and conquer tactics that had always worked in the past, this time on the basis of “identity”.
But this let rip the toxic post-materialist, post-modernist brew throughout a society where so many were damaged by nearly four decades of neoliberalism, stripped of their identities as well-paid competent workers with futures, or even stripped of the hope of that for the younger generations.
Desperately competing with any weapons available for the few remaining “good” jobs.
The wealthy may have been always “not like you”, but as Charles Hugh-Smith notes, decades of financialized asset inflation have separated the asset holders by a yawning chasm from the not so lucky.
With interest rates now rising back to more normal pre-2000 levels and the US dollar slowly losing its reserve status, much of that wealth may prove to be a mirage while the massive debts racked up against that wealth will not.
It’s the courtier class that stand to lose the most from the end of the financial bubble, and even billionaires can lose everything when they are leveraged. With the bubble will go many, many of the “bullshit” courtier jobs that currently pay so much as they extract rather than create wealth.
Robertson points to a change from a “systemic selection for competence” to a “systemic selection for the ideologically compliant” through diversity politics.
He misses the fact that the political-economic base of the US elite has changed, and that they see many of the “competent” jobs as no longer necessary in a world centered around financial and symbol manipulation.
They believe that “competence” can be simply outsourced and anyway they will be long gone before any consequences are felt.
When he goes on about “diversity” hiring, he makes invisible the legions of mediocre rich kids and kids of faculty that get into the elite schools every year.
He also makes invisible the Nigerian-Americans who are one of the richest and most successful ethnic groups in the US, and the Asians-Americans disgustingly discriminated against in US universities, and the Indian-Americans who are also extremely successful.
The issue is not “diversity” hiring, it is a general selection bias for the skills required in a “virtual” corporation where specific knowledge is seen as old fashioned, a trend that has been going on for decades.
Aurelien focuses on the Professional Managerial Class (PMC), but does not understand that these are just the courtiers to the really powerful – the owners. Of course, the owners won’t want competent financial crimes prosecutors when so much wealth today is based upon financial crimes.
A Professor of Human Rights is very useful in creating excuses to invade or regime change another country so that its wealth and ongoing income can be extracted by the US ownership class.
The real “diversity” problem stems from the post-Occupy Wall Street identity politics mayhem that has now invaded so many institutions.
Deep down the US elite has now ruled nearly effortlessly for so long it cannot comprehend of a real competitor, as Russia will be soon be “rubble” and China will “inevitably” collapse.
So, no problem with letting loose an extremely disruptive identity politics as long as the ownership class keep owning. The owners are slowly waking up to the fact that Russia and China (and Iran) are not following the script, and therefore we may see a rapid reversal of the worst aspects of identity politics.
The departments whose name is an anagram for DIE may be doing just that over the next few years. As Aurelien has noted though, there are now legions of PMCs who have happily failed upwards as their failures have served the owners (messed up foreign nations can be very profitable for example), but they are not so useful when the homeland needs to be rebuilt and allies strengthened.
They are the troops of the last war of the US on easy street, but now the street has gotten rough and a much tougher breed are required. But they are generally not available, and any that are may want to go back to their own nations given the increasing racism and state-aggression toward Asians.
The US has been lying about the size of its economy in greater and greater ways since at least the 1990s. Costs (financial system fees) are counted as value added when they are pure rentier taxes, inflation is manipulated downwards, and rent imputed on owner-occupied houses, among many other tricks.
US official GDP also counts value added that is produced in other nations as created in the US, when US corporations such as Apple can capture that for themselves through the control of global value chains backed up by intellectual property, financial and legal control, and state help in the destruction of competitors when required (i.e. the Huawei handset business).
What happens when that disappears, and those nations get to keep that value added? What will be left to fund the US military and stability at home? I tend to agree with Simplicius that actual US GDP, and therefore GDP per capita, is about half of what the US states it is.
If Australia is called the “lucky country”, perhaps the US should be called the “really lucky country”. Its elites have never had to deal with a real competitive threat and have never had to fight a direct war against a peer competitor. The “best army in the world” is really only as good as its ability to overwhelm the opposition with “shoot them” power.
It won’t have that against the Russians, the Chinese and even the Iranians.
Without it, it will be seen to be a shadow of its well-groomed reputation. At home, the US really only had a period of economic dominance in the post-WW2 period which quickly faded as other countries rebuilt their economies.
The US elite may have become significantly worse in the past few decades, but they were never the best.
It’s easy to appear to be brilliant when you have a gun in your pocket and your opponent has a plastic fork.
The US elite have never needed to be brilliant because they have been so lucky; that time is now gone.
The Russian, Chinese and Iranian elites have certainly not been lucky, and therefore their competence level is far, far higher.
The Astonishing REINCARNATION CASE of Patrick Christenson
Children usually remember a past life experience when they’re between the ages of two and seven, then as they get older, the memories begin to fade or the children lose interest where they become less interested in the past and are more involved in the present. About 70% of reincarnation stories involve violent or unnatural deaths and most of the lives that the children described took place about 500 km away from their current location.
China has so much manufacturing that China is able to extract rare earths from their Industrial waste by products from the Nuclear or Aluminium or Steel Industry at a fraction of the cost that it would take say Canada or US to extract the same from a fully developed Industrial procedure
China can produce Gallium at roughly 6% the cost that it would take the Canada to produce the same
That is 17 times cheaper
Likewise China extracts so much rare earth metals and has such a huge scale of processing and refining that it can deliver finished rare earths at 25% the price that it would take the nearest competitor to achieve
That’s China’s advantage
Not having Rare Earths
Many Nations have as much or more Rare Earth Raw Materials or Ores than China does
Using these technologies, China now has unique technology in making Rare Earth components that no other nation has due to PROHIBITIVE COST
Example we imported Rare Earth filament sheets for 260,000 Yuan in ISRO from China
Had this been processed and made in US and imported from there at 0% tariff the cost would have been 1.76 Million Yuan
So commercially China has a huge cost advantage that even 40% tariffs cannot stop or mitigate
And they also have the cost effective technologies that no one else has or even tried to develop knowing that the cost would be simply prohibitive
Deadly Chinese Fighter Jets Which Can Fly Before 2030
I am 67 years old. These are among the best things I have ever learned:
You spend your first 20 years worrying what people think about you. You spend your next 20 years swearing that you don’t care what people think about you. You spend the next 20 years realizing that they aren’t thinking about you. A liberation!
Any day on this side of the dirt is a good day. Some people didn’t make the cut last night. I was hit by a speeding taxi as I was walking to a bus stop. I spent a month in rehab with two broken legs, a brain injury, multiple back injuries and other fractures. The night before I was hit, a young, married couple was also hit. They both died. Practice gratitude.
A woman I know spends most of her time thinking about how much she hates her thighs. She can give you a detailed report on what is wrong with them. She forgets all the places those legs have taken her, all the miles they have walked for her. It doesn’t occur to her that when she gets up in the middle of the night to pee, those very thighs walk her to the toilet. Spend more time appreciating what you’ve got— a heart that beats, a way to pick up your cup of coffee, the eyes that see that cup and know what color it is. Blessings abound.
There are two kinds of people in this world – those who believe there is enough to go around, and those who don’t. Here is an example: If Margo is leaning up against the car kissing her boyfriend, and I think how nice that must feel, do I try to steal Margo’s boyfriend or do I go out and get my own boyfriend? I go out and get myself a boyfriend. I don’t need to steal Margo’s. I know that there is enough to go around.
An old Native American woman was asked why she was always so happy. She said that she has two wolves in her heart and they are both hungry— one wolf is angry and evil, the other wolf is filled with love, and that’s the only one she feeds.
Encountering an online robot, or bot, is as frequent as discovering a pair of shoes in your closet.
This occurrence is intrinsic to the internet, yet users have reached a crucial juncture: A growing multitude of individuals are losing their capacity to differentiate between bots and humans.
This is a circumstance that developers have cautioned about for an extended period, and its rationale is easily comprehensible.
A recent study has determined that bot-generated content now constitutes 47 percent of all internet traffic, marking an uptick of over 5 percent from 2021 to 2022. Concurrently, human activity on the internet has recently hit its lowest point in an eight-year span.
Combined with advancements in AI-driven human-like interactions, nearly one-third of internet users are no longer able to ascertain if they’re engaging with a human being.
Senior US China Diplomats Meet to Decide How Biden Should Apologize!
The owner of the Patriots has five of his Super Bowl rings, and Putin has the sixth one, and you won’t believe how he got it. In 2005, the owner of the American Football team the Patriots, Robert Kraft was in Russia visiting a friend Sandy Weill who was president of the Citi Group. They were attending a press conference with heads of state in Russia, and at the time Kraft’s team the Patriots, had just beaten the Eagles at Super Bowl 39, and he was showing off the Super Bowl Ring he had just received. That’s when someone had the bright Idea to show Putin.
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Putin admired the ring, before he put it on his finger. He loved how it looked on his hand and joked about how he could kill someone with a ring like this and proceeded to put the ring in his pocket.
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Kraft held out his hand expecting to get his ring back, but three body guards surrounded Putin and he left. To avoid international conflict the White House urged Kraft to say that the ring was a gift. Although, he didn’t want to give away the 4.9 carat diamond ring, he goes on to say
“Its a great story I get to tell my friends and I can’t believe my ring is in the Kremlin.”
Officials from the Kremlin responded and said if Kraft wants his ring back so badly we will send him one like it as a Gift from Putin.
Putin isn’t a Fool – The Mother of all Miscalculations | Dmitry Orlov
Man oh man, this is a really excellent interview. Wow.
Beef Turnovers (Empanadas)
You can use the discos or make your own turnover pastry. I’ve done both, and they’re equally as good.
OIP googly
Ingredients
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 pound ground beef
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup tomato sauce
6 stuffed green olives, finely chopped
2 tablespoons sofrito
1 packet sazon with coriander and annato
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
Ground black pepper, to taste
1 (14 ounce) package Goya discos (yellow or white), thawed*
Vegetable oil, for frying
Instructions
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add ground beef and cook until browned, breaking up meat with a wooden spoon, about 10 minutes.
Add onions and cook until soft, about 5 minutes more.
Stir in tomato sauce, olives, sofrito, garlic, oregano and black pepper. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer until mixture thickens, about 15 minutes.
On a lightly floured work surface, using a rolling pin, roll out discos until 1/2-inch larger in diameter. Spoon about 1 tablespoon meat mixture into middle, fold in half to form a half moon; moisten edges with water and pinch to seal closed, or seal with a fork.
Fill a deep saucepan with oil to a depth of 2 1/2 inches. Heat oil over medium-high heat until hot but not smoking (350 degrees F on deep-fry thermometer).
Cook turnovers in batches until crisp and golden brown, flipping once, 4 – 6 minutes.
Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Notes
* Flattened dough for turnover pastries all rolled out and ready to fill – in the Mexican refrigerated section. Make sure you buy the larger ones.
As far as sazon, you can really use whichever flavor you like. Goya now makes a salt-free version of their seasoning. Or, if you don’t want to use sazon for any reason, just use a good seasoning salt, to taste.
The lack of renewable energy in the US is not a lack of ability, but a lack of will.
The US is a post-industrial nation. Sure, a few holdouts of heavy manufacturing exist, but for the most part there aren’t any high-density factory regions in the US. Nations at this point in the industrial chain are most likely to wean off hydrocarbons, but the US is an anomaly. It puts more and more eggs in the hydrocarbon basket.
The reason is there are too many entrenched interests. People want to take the path of least resistance, and the US is no exception.
Moving to solar, wind, hydro, or nuclear requires the US to get its entrenched hydrocarbon industries to keep up with the times. But of course they don’t want to. It’s far easier to just sit on your behind, open your mouth, and have everything spoon-fed to you. And because the US refuses to actually have a government with power, the result can be seen even by a blind man – power flowed from the public to the private. When you give Exxon-Mobil power, do you really think you’re going to be able to move away from hydrocarbons?
—
And that’s how things are. The US will continue with its “but it’s not economic!” excuses, even though anybody who’s studied a cursory amount of history knows no nation ever developed by doing things that are profitable. Want to know why the Qing Dynasty couldn’t industrialize? Just look at the US today.
This is SUPER GOOD.
Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter reacts to the Biden’s failed diplomacy with China and points to the ongoing threat of US interference in Taiwan as a major point of tension between the two countries.
Some years ago I was involved in a traffic accident. The insurance carrier for the car which hit me tried to ignore the whole thing, until I filed suit against the owner of the car.
Insurance settled, and then a few weeks later, I got a call from a secretary at a law office which was working for the insurance company.
She asked me if I was satisfied with the outcome, and I replied that I was.
She then told me that to close out the file, they would like me to sign a document stating that the case was closed. I said, “sure, no problem”.
She sent me the documents, which I read carefully.
Then I threw them in the trash.
In the fine print, the documents stated that I accept full responsibility for the accident, and that I would repay the insurance company plus reimburse insurance company for all the other payments they’d made for the accident, AND I’d pay this attorney’s fees!
All this was very thoroughly hidden in lots of pages of gibberish.
I have learned to NEVER sign anything that I haven’t studied in detail.
[2] Another dispute in the SCS – here’s what’s really happening
As typical for the United States, it is trying to ignite a war (where people die) so that it can obtain “opportunity” to loot, steal and gain control.
In this case, fools (prodded, imbecilic fools, greedy, or drug addicted) are typing to claim this “island” as their own territory. As Philippine citizens, they hope that the resultant Geo-political disputes ignite a conflict where they will be the personal victors. They do not expect to be killed in the process, but rather either [1] forcefully removed, or [2] allowed to stay and claim ownership of the island. Thus making each one multi-millionaires as they lobby China for “rights”.
Stoking this issue is the United States.
What is that all about?
Come one, a group of young men, took a derelict ship and rammed it into a Chinese island, beaching it. And now the United States is using this situation to ignite a war between China and the Philippines.
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Complicating this matter is the fact that this ancient pile of rust and shit used to be a commissioned military vessel.
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And the United States WANTS to claim that it is still in active duty. Thus, any Chinese activity concerning it will be a “military conflict”.
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Like I have said; the USA is “chomping at the bit for a war”.
This is how The Guardian reports on this matter…
An international row is growing between the Philippines, the US and China over a rusting ship that has been turned into a crucial military outpost in the South China Sea.
Tensions have intensified under the current Philippine president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, with the country increasingly accusing China of aggression and pursuing closer ties with the US, with which it has a mutual defence treaty.
On Saturday, China provoked condemnation from the Philippines, the US, the EU, France, Japan and Australia after its coastguard directed water cannon at a Philippine coastguard vessel. The Philippines was trying to deliver food, water, fuel and other supplies to its troops stationed in the grounded ship, the BRP Sierra Madre, on Second Thomas Shoal in the Spratly Islands.
On Tuesday, the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin, underlined the “ironclad nature of the US-Philippines alliance” in a call with his counterpart, the Philippine secretary of national defence, Gilberto Teodoro Jr.
Austin reaffirmed that the treaty between the two countries – under which the US would defend the Philippines if its public vessels and forces were subjected to an armed attack – extended to those of the coastguard in the South China Sea.
And there you have it.
A pre-packaged provocation is hot, ripe and ready to ignite.
…
I say DO IT. Sink that festering bucket of rust.
Show the world that the USA is a toothless, loud-mouth bully.
China bans Mongolia from using Chinese ports to export rare earth minerals to US
I am not sure you are familiar with this device. It is an automatic soda siphon, known as the Sipholux. It was very popular in Israel in the 1950’s and 1960’s. It uses disposable co2 canisters which are simply broken open in a way that injects the co2 into the water.
How it is related to your question? Okay so this is how:
When the British left Palestine in 1948, they left behind them lots of military equipment, from military clothes and tents, to army vehicles and even some fighter airplanes. Not wanting to leave this equipment in combat ready state, the tried to cripple it in all kind of ways, and then sold it as scrap.
The young Israeli army was putting in much effort and creativity into putting as much as possible of this equipment to use, in any way they could, which sometimes brought to pretty amazing stories.
One of them is about 20 Auster Autocrat airplanes that the British left behind them. The airplanes were disassembled and with most of their fabric made body cover and major parts of their engines and other mechanisms missing. The young Israeli air force aquired them, hoping that maybe they can build 2 or 3 operational airplanes from all the pieces. The work was done secretly in the former underground Templar wine storing chamber in Sarona. Eventually the Israeli engineers got 18 airplanes to go back to fly. An operation that took enormous amount of innovation and resourcefulness.
In one of the airplanes, the mechanism that starts the engine by rotating the plane’s propeller by hand, was missing. There was no way to rebuild it, but one especially brilliant engineer figured out that all they have to do is to compress the air in the pistons to make the engine start. So he made a device that allowed to “fire” compressed air into the pistons from bullet shell like canisters. The same canisters were used later in the Sipholux.
So how did Israel had such a formidable army right ftom the start? It did not. It had a bunch of extremely brave and creative people, and more importantly, there was something it didn’t have: any other choice.
[3] Niger CLOSES AIRSPACE Amid Invasion Threat
American military power… European Energy… and the future of BRICS+ is “on the line”…
The 2023 growth rate of several indicators such as exports and industrial profits has slowed down, and economic activity has weakened. Looking at the world, geopolitical tensions are intensifying, global inflation is running high, and the central banks of the United States and Europe continue to tighten monetary policies, …, etc. The International Monetary Fund predicts that the global economic growth rate will hover around 3% in the next five years, which is at a low level in nearly 30 years. In May 2023, due to factors such as the rapid increase in the base of the same period last year, the growth rate of the exports from China turned from positive to negative year-on-year, and downward pressure on external demand emerged.
The industrial upgrading and industrial chain integration in China have been absolutely fruitful. Our world today is reshaping the industrial chain, redundant production, and capacity backup. What can expand aggregate demand in history is actually related to technological progress. The expansion of demand for new energy vehicles is brought about by technological progress. New energy vehicles are indeed easier to drive and smarter than petrol ICE cars.
In an unsafe anti-globalization world, whether it is for security, for the possibility of war, for market expansion, or for long-term prosperity, technological progress is required. In a globalized world, there may be more. The demand in the anti-globalization world may be more autonomy, and the development of technology may also be linked to security. Logically, China must persist in long-term transformation, but the key is how to avoid all the short-term major risks before reaching long-term success.
Inflation is too low because China is still actively destocking. China is still very motivated to leverage technological progress. The end of the active destocking in the manufacturing industry, the natural recovery of the service industry and the slow recovery of the consumption scene can still be counted on. The employment pressure of 10 million college students every year is always there, and the number of workers required for industrial upgrading has decreased. In the future, the development of the service industry must be required to absorb employment.
Actually, China’s economy in 2023 is not too bad.
Needless to say, China had always been getting worse and worse since 1949 according to the foreign media.
China has been predicted to collapse since May 20, 1988, when the high-tech industries in China have started to be developed.
China focused on exponential economic growth potential through ideas and how to add and export value out of automobile ideas. China succeeded to graduate in creating economic value out of a domestic flow of knowledge and ideas.
Industrial upgrading and technological progress are definitely the road that China must take in the modernization, but this road is definitely not smooth. How to deal with bumps is something that the market and the government need to think about and set a model for. The government has to formulate monetary policy based on the long-term economic growth trend line and favor industrial policy and credit policy for high-tech industries. It is estimated that China’s monetary policy, fiscal policy and credit policy will be the basis for many years to come. Monetary policy also plays a role in preventing financial turmoil.
Markets may still be too pessimistic about the economy in China. China’s economy is in the stage of development from quantitative change to qualitative change. People should not only focus on changes in quantity and speed, but also on qualitative changes. China’s economy continues to transform and upgrade in response to pressure. Although the current market demand is insufficient and the internal driving force needs to be strengthened, these pressures and challenges will not change the long-term positive trend of China’s economy.
Some college students and older low-skilled workers have difficulty finding employment, and some industries and enterprises face a shortage of high-skilled and compound innovative talents. Vigorously developing advanced manufacturing clusters and national strategic emerging industry clusters, promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the cultivation and growth of emerging industries will effectively enhance the role of economic growth in driving employment.
From a rational perspective, a lower level of inflation leaves more room for macro policies to stabilize growth, employment, and prices. The decline in prices at this stage is staged and temporary, and its impact should not be exaggerated. Deflation mainly refers to the continuous negative growth of prices, the money supply also has a downward trend, and is usually accompanied by economic recession.
The overall supply and demand of the economy in China is basically balanced. The monetary conditions are reasonable and moderate. The expectations of residents are stable. There is no basis for long-term deflation or inflation.
China’s real estate industry will not pose systemic risks, but there is indeed an imbalance between supply and demand at present, and structural reforms must be carried out in the long run. Preventing and defusing risks is an eternal theme in the financial industry.
Only by coordinating development and security can people ensure the stability and long-term development of China’s economy.
Originally Answered: What’s been the most mind blowing example of incompetence ever displayed by one of your coworkers?
Here’s a good one. Not exactly “incompetence” but just a failure to grasp a simple concept.
The warehouse I worked in stored a whole variety of weird and wonderful things that were in bags, boxes and steel drums of varying sizes. The way our warehouse worked was that the computer would allocate the oldest stock first (obviously) and then the lowest numbered location first if there was more than one pallet of a particular item. Easy enough.
Here’s a pallet of 40 by 25kg bags. 5 bags on a layer x 8 layers… That’s 1000kg… a tonne.
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99% of our customers would order one or multiples of full one tonne pallets. Easy. Grab fork-lift, go to pallet, grab pallet, place on the wagon or in a line ready for loading.
Occasionally a customer would only want half a pallet, or even just a few bags which obviously meant some manual labour but it was easy enough.
We may end up with a pallet with, say, 35 bags on it instead of 40.
The next order would come along and it would be for 40 bags… a full pallet.
The first pallet that the computer wants to allocate is… yes you guessed it… that pallet with 35 on. The computer would instruct us to pick 35 bags from that location and 5 bags from the next location along which had 40 bags in it.
OMG what do we do? It’s so complicated I can’t cope! The drama! The physical exertion!
Actually all we used to do was grab the next full pallet of 40 bags, then relocate the pallet with 35 on to where the pallet with 40 used to be. Easy. No physical work required. It was quicker. The computer’s stock figures are correct and we could only do it if the batch numbers and every detail were the same. Easy-peasy.
Then one day the foreman, Mike, spotted Terry and I doing what we called a “swapsie”.
He’d ambled over for a chat about last night’s football because his beloved Wolves FC had won a game.
Mike – Hi lads. Good result last night for the old gold and black eh.
Me – Yes very good Mike. You’ll be as good as the mighty Albion one day.
Mike – Pah!
Terry appeared out the aisle on his fork-lift with a full pallet.
Mike – What order is this?
Terry – It’s a swapsie for Megachem.
Mike – A swapsie? What’s that?
Me – They want a full pallet of 40 bags but the computer allocates 35 from one pallet and 5 bags off the next one. We do a swapsie as we call it.
Terry – Yeah we do them all the time.
Mike – I don’t like the sound of that.
Me – The sound of what Mike?
Mike – You guys swapping stock all over the place. You should pick stock from where it’s allocated, not just to make your life easier.
Terry – The way we do it means just two movements with the fork-lift instead of manually moving bags by hand. It’s easier and quicker.
Mike – What is the “swapsie” bit then? Sounds like you’ve swapped some stock around to me. Come on lads, I’m not thick.
Me – We take a full pallet of 40. Then move the pallet of 35 to where the 40 used to be. That’s the swapsie bit. The system shows that zero is left where the 35 used to be and 35 where the 40 used to be. Go and look and you’ll see that’s what is left.
Mike went to look and examined Terry’s paperwork. He scratched his head a few times. If only Terry hadn’t used the word “swapsie” we wouldn’t even be in this pickle, but it was a word we used so often it was normal.
Mike – I don’t like this at all lads. Something is wrong here.
Paul the supervisor appeared at this point.
Paul – Come on lads. Hurry up with that Megachem order for fuck’s sake.
Mike – Ah Paul. I don’t like what’s been going on here. This “swapsie” nonsense that John and Terry have been telling me about sounds like a swizz to me. Fiddling the stock figures is not acceptable.
Paul knew exactly what a swapsie was.
Paul – A swapsie is perfectly fine Mike. We’ve been doing them for years.
Mike didn’t want to know and wouldn’t listen to Paul’s explanation. He said we had to stop doing swapsies. Paul tried in vain to explain the mathematics of it. We even put the pallets back where they were before we started and ran through the whole swapsie process again, but he simply couldn’t grasp what went on at all.
He banned us from doing swapsies and pinned a notice to the board to that effect.
We all continued to do swapsies and totally ignored him.
== added on 13/7/2021 ==
I’ve added this image and further explanation to illustrate better what we did. I don’t think I was crystal clear enough.
Obviously in a real warehouse there are hundreds of locations and many different products but hopefully this will help eliminate any confusion.
The computer system would instruct us to pick 40 bags of Batch A for a customer. It would pick the lowest numbered locations first. In this example it has instructed us to pick 5 bags from location 2 and 35 bags from location 3 which has 40 bags in it. Doing a “swapsie” meant that we picked the full pallet (40 bags) from location 3 then relocated the 5 bags from location 2 to location 3.
Therefore we picked 40 bags for the customer, there was nothing left in location 2, and 5 bags left in location 3 which is exactly what the computer system would show.
We would and could only do this operation if every detail regarding the product was identical. We wouldn’t throw a few bags of Batch B into the mix for example.
Therefore no physical work was required, only fork lift movements. We didn’t do this because we were lazy. We did it because it’s quicker, easier and less stress on your back if you were doing many of these movements in a day
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[4] Niger DEPLOYS WAGNER Soldiers For MILITARY INTERVENTION Prep
Good move. These are brave African leaders and this is a noble cause.
Myself, not a coworker. In 1997 I was an assistant manager at a Taco Bell. The gerneral manager spent his days oogling the teen girls and not doing his job. On my day off, at around 8pm he called me said he had something come up and needed to leave, and can I cover him? Sure, I like money, I’ll work. I get there to find out he had already left, and dismissed another employee for the shift as well. That left me, a great guy named John, and a teen cashier who couldn’t stay long. We closed at 10pm. There were already mounds of unwashed dishes, filthy floors, stuff to put away ect ect… at 950 pm, a high school football team came in, about 15 of them. They ordered, ate in, trashed the lobby, left around 1030 pm. My cashier had to leave, he was young, there were work rules ect… So now its just me and John, with EASILY 4 to 5 hours more work ahead of us cleaning and getting that place ready for the next day. Our shift was supposed to be over at 11pm. This wasnt the first time it had happened. I said screw it. Told John we were leaving, didn’t clean anything, and left it all for the manager that screwed me over to fix the next day. They were supposed to open at 6am, they opened closer to lunch time. That was with 4 staff it took them that long to clean up and prepare.
The Slime People (1963) PYSCHOTRONIC
Full movie. Perfect for a lazy Saturday Summer afternoon. Get some iced tea, and light snacks…
For those of you who are new to MM, please take note.
We provide information, and actual intel not found anywhere else here…
But, we immerse it in a deep salty mix of random (but fun) posts, videos, and food. It is very effective in stopping the “troll bots”, and other internet denizens that everyone assumes are organic, but are actually government-instigated interrupter agents.
Though, I do get an occasional stray bullet or two.
Dumb-fucks.
We do have an above average count of visitors. Many are cloaked, or disguised. Nothing like the millions that Drudge pulls in, or the thousands that MoA gets, but about on par with Remus’s old Woodpile Report (back in the day).
This is an intentionally suppressed and avoided website; it’s not hidden, just “in the grey”. No one (who is smart) “touches it”. It’s “electric” if you know what I mean.
Very few reference it. Ron’s UNZ (with respectful disclaimers), CGTN (with special caveats), and a cross-linked network of bloggers.
So, enjoy.
Lots and lots of odd, unusual, cool and interesting stuff on MM.
The important bits are accumulative. Over time, you see the REAL picture, free of the distortion lens. And that makes it atomic.
You’ll find some stuff here that will go against the main steam “news” and the alternative “news”, but it’s real. Plow through the haystack to find the needle that lies within.
It will take time. So be patient.
We start with this…
Green Acres – Hot Water Soup
A classic.
Punishing Sanctions
Xi to Biden:
Do you really want to hamper our chip producing companies?
China on Monday ordered export restrictions on two technology-critical elements in retaliation for new Western sanctions on its semiconductor industry.
The restrictions, which take effect on August 1, will apply to gallium and germanium metals and several of their compounds, which are key materials for making semiconductors and other electronics.
The Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the export controls on gallium- and germanium-related items were necessary “to safeguard national security and interests”.
Exporters in China will need to apply for permission from the ministry, with information about the end users and how the materials will be used.
Gallium and germanium are used in lots of electronic components. AESA (active electronically scanned array) radars used on modern warships and fighter airplanes can not be made without those metals. China produces some 95% of those available on the global market.
It will take one or two years until the currently available stocks outside of China are diminished. But it takes much longer to open up new mining and processing facilities for replacement of the Chinese production. The processes used therein are quite dirty. A not-in-my-backyard attitude will make any setup of new facilities difficult to pursue.
The situation will soon become similar to the titanium market where Russia is the biggest global supplier but has restricted access for certain customers.
This is just one of many cards China (and Russia) can play in their anti-sanction games.
The U.S. is reaching the limits of its sanction power.
Over 2022 and 2023 China has intentionally cancelled in excess of USD 100 billion worth of Chips from the U.S.
You see the majority of the chip business like every businesses is highly skewed toward the lower end higher cut throat business with the higher end more profitable being a minute proportion of total business.
Just like 1000–3000 cc automobiles totalling 99.9% of the world’s car market and 4–6000 cc representing 0.1% of the business.
That is where the U.S. chip strategy of the U.S. gets into serious problems. The U.S. thought naively and simplistically that China will suffer if it bans China from buying the high end chips. True China over a 3–5 years range may encounter some inconvenience but in the 5–10 years range China will have developed an alternatives which is faster, better, smaller and cheaper and wrecked the U.S. business all together.
Meanwhile the U.S. is being totally haunted by China cancelling orders of the 99.9% business. Chip companies at that level is imploding and losing a ton of sales. Most companies have collapsed and depending on tax payers subsidies. If you understand today’s technology and production. There are say 100 parts of materials and parts of the chips. China actually is responsible for a good 60–70% of these and say 5% comes from the U.S. China simply replace all the U.S. parts.
Some by Chinese technologies and others by US competitors. Not only has the U.S. lost the entire bread and butter chip business it is now suffering severe shortages in most US industry.
The harm China’s counter action is destroying the U.S. industry while China has a short term pain and long term gain for the higher end chips. Once again the short sighted nature and the hubris of the U.S. government is laughable. Those who really understand the business equate the U.S. action like shooting both its own foot to scratch China’s shine.
By replacing the 99.9% market chips US parts, China could reduce its cost and improves its profit. And with this it focus R&D fully on the 0.1% business to replace the U.S. within 5–10 years.
The United States today has been so diseased, and so damaged, that it resembles a drug addict with dementia shuffling along a street and throwing insults at the normal people walking on the sidewalks.
Experienced people, know that it is important to avoid this madman.
You walk on the other side of the street. You hope that someday, some compassionate person will imprison this ranting lunatic and put them in a place with care and proper treatment. But it is beyond your control. There is nothing you (personally) can do. You accept the madman at face value; useless. A poison inside society, and one that needs to be quarantined.
However, for now, all you can do is ignore his actions.
Gilligan’s Island – The Lie Detector
The “good ol’ days”.
BRI introduces key tenets of Chinese philosophy to wider world
By Martin Jacques Published: Jun 18, 2023 07:57 PM A view of the construction of Peljesac Bridge in Komarna, Croatia on July 28, 2021.Photo:
VCGEditor’s Note:
This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) proposed by Chinese President Xi Jinping. Through the lens of foreign pundits, we take a look at 10 years of the BRI – how it achieves win-win cooperation between China and countries along the Belt and Road and how it increases people’s sense of fulfillment in these countries.
“China became a powerful voice on behalf of the developing countries, not just by word but crucially by deed,” wrote Martin Jacques, a visiting professor at the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University and a senior fellow at the China Institute, Fudan University.
This is the first article of the series.
When the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first proposed 10 years ago, as well as much anticipation, there was considerable puzzlement. “What is it?” was a widely asked question. And quite reasonably so. Because it was like nothing we had seen before. This was not a plan with fixed dates. There was nothing concrete. There were no boundaries. There was no end date. In every sense it was open-ended. It was an idea, a concept. It was a totally new and original way of thinking about a project. Furthermore, it was on the hugest of scales, encompassing the great majority of the world’s population.
We have never seen anything like this before. The nearest was America’s Marshall Aid plan between 1947 and 1952, but that was puny in comparison. Its inspiration, if anywhere, lay in China’s own past and such extraordinary feats as the Great Wall and the Grand Canal.
The point of departure for the idea of BRI was a reflection on China’s own economic transformation. What lessons might be drawn from this for the developing world? What could the developing countries learn from it? At the heart of China’s transformation was state-led, large-scale investment in infrastructure. If it worked for China, then why not for others? Most of the Eurasian land mass, together with Africa and Latin America, suffered from a disabling shortage of infrastructure. BRI would seek to change that. China would be the hub of the project. It would consist of a multitude of bilateral agreements between China and the developing countries, with China providing the funding, typically in the form of loans. The response has been enormous with 151 countries now participating in BRI.
If many scratched their heads in puzzlement about BRI when it was first announced, this has long ceased to be the case. Everyone now knows in varying degrees what it is about. In 10 short years, it has become part of the global geo-economic firmament, no less than the IMF and the World Bank. Let’s remind ourselves where China was in 2013 when it was first launched. The country was in the process during which the overriding priority had been China’s own economic development; it was quiescent on the global stage, seeking to keep a low profile, a rule-taker not a rule-maker, famous for its extraordinary economic growth rate but not for its international initiatives, which it sought to avoid. Little did we know at the time, but the launch of BRI was to signal a huge shift in China’s relationship with the world. It marked the moment of China’s coming out. And it was to prove remarkably successful. It is not an exaggeration to argue that over the decade of its existence it has changed the world.
In what ways?
First, BRI promoted the question of development to a position of fundamental centrality on the global stage. The West had always paid little more than lip-service to the developing world, which it looked down upon and treated in an exploitative, paternalistic, and authoritarian manner. BRI offered a new kind of solution for the developing countries. And in the process the developing world came to occupy an increasingly important position on the global stage.
Second, BRI forged a new kind of relationship between China and the developing world. China came to be seen as the champion of the developing countries. It became a powerful voice on behalf of the developing countries, not just by word but crucially by deed.
Third, BRI paved the way for a new kind of global alignment and, as a result, a new kind of global politics. The relationship between China and the developing world is not based on a shared view of politics or ideology, nor military alliances, but on the most important issue facing the great majority of the world’s population, that of development. This is entirely different from the West’s approach. BRI has been the agency and stage for this shift, which we see expressed in many different ways. One example is the very independent attitude of the Global South towards the Ukraine war. BRI has heralded the rise of geo-economics as a new force in geo-politics.
Fourth, BRI has introduced, for the first time, key tenets of Chinese philosophy to the wider world. For over two centuries the language and concepts of international relations and politics have been exclusively Western. That era is now well and truly over. With BRI has come new ways of conceptualising: the ability to think in truly global terms because development is quintessentially a global issue; a very different idea of time, with timescales hugely longer – far from being limited to a few years, or at most a decade as in the Western mind, in the case of BRI we must think in terms of half a century, or even without any time limits at all, such is the challenge of development. Then, of course, we have the idea of win-win relationships rather than zero-sum thinking. Then there is China’s concept of a human community with a shared future, with BRI its living embodiment, that encourages us to think beyond the narrow constraints of the nation-state. BRI is like a crash course in Chinese philosophy.
Fifth, BRI is an entirely new kind of international institution. The international system has been dominated by US-style institutions, like the IMF and the World Bank, whose distinctive characteristic is that they represent and speak on behalf of a small minority of humanity. BRI, in contrast, is a new kind of international institution that seeks to represent 85 percent of the world who live in the developing world. In other words, it offers a glimpse of a very different kind of international system in which the interests of the majority rather than the minority predominate.
BRI comprises the great majority of the world’s nations. They are drawn from across Eurasia – including Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe – together with Africa and Latin America. China’s non-financial outbound direct investment to countries along the Belt and Road since 2013 had exceeded $140 billion by the end of June, 2022. It is important to see BRI as a dynamic institution, one that is constantly moving and changing as the world itself changes. In the initial phase, the main emphasis was on very large-scale infrastructural projects, but alongside these, SMEs, environmental and climatic needs, digital technology, and green projects have been acquiring growing significance. An obvious example of how BRI can ebb and flow depending on the wider environment was the pandemic which inevitably led to a period of significantly reduced Chinese investment. Or take a very different example. The Ukraine war has necessitated a new emphasis on maritime routes. For the time being some of the rail routes have been affected – most obviously in Ukraine.
What then, finally, of the Western response.
The US initially dismissed BRI as irrelevant. But, as a growing number of countries signed up for BRI, it became impossible to ignore, so the US then shifted its emphasis and sought to undermine it, accusing China of debt diplomacy.
The contrary, in fact, was the case.
China has gone to great lengths to help countries avoid getting into deep debt. What could China gain from seeing countries becoming debt-ridden: it would defeat the whole object of BRI.
With the overwhelming success of BRI, the West has finally come to recognize that it needs to offer an alternative to BRI. But there is little or no sign that the West, be it the US or EU, or the two combined, has the commitment, the resources, or the political conviction to come up with a viable alternative.
It would require a huge shift in the West’s attitude towards the developing world, one which is patently not forthcoming. After 10 years, the West has nothing to offer. BRI is the only show in town. And what an extraordinary show it has been.
My wife and I moved from Texas to Scotland earlier this year. 3 weeks ago we had our first child.
Why am I glad we’re not living in America?
Total medical and dental bills for the birth of our child came out to £0 (that’s $0 when the current exchange rate is applied). The Scottish government even sent us a large baby box with starter supplies and toys, also at no cost to us.
I’m not worried about my daughter being a victim of gun violence here. I grew up 20 minutes from Thousand Oaks in California where there was yet another mass shooting just yesterday. That doesn’t happen here.
I’m not worried about my daughter ever being homeless or not being offered any social resources that she may need to achieve a basic standard of health and life.
Even with Brexit in the cards, I’m not at all worried about the UK becoming a dictatorship. The US could seemingly go either way at this point in time and that scares me.
I’m glad that people here don’t seem to have the keeping up with the Joneses mentality like they do in the US. Here people don’t flaunt wealth, it’s something to be a bit embarrassed about. And that leads to more realistic goals and general focus on what matters in life.
Scotland seems much more to me like the land of the free than where I’m from.
Why, you ask? Basically, I’m tired of getting the occasional troll or angry comment from someone (typically American but not always) who has taken great offense to my answer because they love America and clearly I must not.
For one, the question answered here doesn’t ask me what I miss from America or what I think America does better than other countries. Hint to those trolls – the answer to that is not “everything”. No country does everything the best and anyone who thinks that is deluding themselves.
Secondly, I’ve laid out some fairly clear facts around areas where America falters. There’s no need to continue debating them in the comments. We’re having another example of this right now, sadly, with the mass shooting in New Zealand. Obviously a terrible event, like any mass shooting of any group of people. But at least New Zealand has the wherewithal to take immediate action and start changing their gun laws. They should be praised for this. Contrary to America – where there are now more mass shootings than there are days in a year – and yet sits staunchly on it’s hands and does NOTHING.
Times change. Civilized people evolve. Help yourselves by helping everyone.
Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses- Reimagined on the Traditional Chinese Guzheng | Moyun
The US is reportedly considering new curbs to hobble China’s semiconductor progress by utilizing long-arm jurisdiction, abusing export rules and coercing allies into further restricting sales of critical high-end chipmaking tools that are key for China’s technological rise.
The latest move underscores the US’ desperation in stepping up efforts to hold back China’s technological ascent after a years-long crackdown did not appear to have much effect, observers noted, while warning that a wider involvement of key firms such as ASML in the industry may deal a further blow to the already fragile global industrial chain.
On Friday, the Dutch government announced a ministerial order restricting exports of certain advanced semiconductor equipment, and though the Netherlands claimed the measures were “country-neutral,” it’s widely believed to have come under accelerated pressure from the US, targeting specific countries like China.
Moreover, the US is expected to go one step further on the Netherlands’ move and use its long reach to withhold even more Dutch equipment from specific Chinese fabs this summer, according to a Reuters report on Friday, which described the measures as “one-two punch” to China’s chipmakers.
This is an intensified siege on China’s semiconductor industry, indicating that the US is now extending its crackdown from advanced process chips to mature ones above 14 nanometers, Ma Jihua, founder of Beijing DARUI Management Consulting Co, told the Global Times on Friday.
At a routine press conference held by the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday, spokesperson Mao Ning voiced China’s firm opposition to the US’ reported action, which “overstretches the national security concept and abuses export controls.”
“The US, under various pretexts, is attempting to cajole or coerce other countries into joining its technological blockade against China, and is intervening in normal economic and trade exchanges between companies through administrative means. This behavior seriously undermines market rules and the international economic and trade order, and disrupts the stability of the global industrial and supply chain, which is not in the interests of any party,” Mao said.
China will pay close attention to the relevant developments and resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.
The United States unilaterally refuses to cooperate with China in the field of space. In 1998, the US Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1999, which stated that “the United States should not export to the People’s Republic of China missile equipment or technology that would improve the missile or space launch capabilities of the People’s Republic of China.” The Wolf Amendment
, enacted in 2011, further explicitly prohibits any form of exchange and cooperation between NASA and any government agency or enterprise in China.
Despite the long-standing technology blockade imposed by the United States, China’s aerospace industry has persisted in independent innovation, overcoming difficulties, and achieving a series of great accomplishments. At the end of last year, China’s space station was fully constructed, becoming the second operational space station in the world, in addition to the International Space Station. The Chinese space station is open to all United Nations member states, and currently, 17 countries including Germany, Italy, France, Spain, and Japan have had their scientific experiments selected, while the United States is unable to participate due to the restrictions of the Wolf Amendment.
China’s aerospace industry has always attached great importance to international exchanges and cooperation. Satellites manufactured in China have been exported to countries such as Nigeria, Venezuela, Pakistan, and Belarus, providing convenient satellite services to the world. At the same time, with the continuous improvement of China’s Beidou Navigation System, China has opened up relevant satellite data to the international community, providing support for global resource survey and monitoring, environmental monitoring and assessment, and Earth science research. In 2017, the European Space Agency even sent two astronauts to participate in the astronaut sea survival training organized by China.
Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, who participated in the training, carried out a mission on the International Space Station in October last year. When the International Space Station flew over China, she took a series of photos and quoted a famous line from the ancient Chinese text “Preface to the Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion”.
To be specific, the working environment and pay schedules are completely different from that of the United States; the self-proclaimed “leader” in freedom and democracy.
I have worked in both the United States and China. And I will use my personal, first-hand, experience to answer this question for you.
…
In this example, we will consider a fictional “white collar” office worker working in a factory. One factory is in the United States, and the other is in China. In general, the base pay for such an office worker is on the lower-tier of the bell-shaped payment graph for both the United States and China. Or, to put it another way, they are equal in social-economic opportunity.
China
Base pay
Minus 5% income tax
Plus one month vacation.
Plus paid medical.
Plus free housing
Plus free breakfast, lunch, dinners
Plus one month off at CNY
Plus 3 weeks of assorted holidays
Plus free daycare for children.
Plus free transportation into town.
Plus company sponsored activities every two months
Plus yearly bonus equaling roughly one month of salary at CNY
Plus discount coupons and awards for movies, and dinners, and KTV trips at neighboring establishments.
Because of this, our fictional Chinese “white collar” worker can save up a significant portion of his / her salary, being from 60% to 95%, for vacations, travel, buying a home, or other projects on their agenda. The Chinese worker, at the end of the year, can opt to stay and continue to save their earnings, or switch to another company, or take their savings and spend it.
United States
Base Pay
Minus 33% income tax
Minus 8% + (8% hidden) Social Security Tax
Minus 3–6% state tax
Minus City Tax
Minus misc taxes
Minus health care deduction(s)
Vacation is 1 week for the first year, and 2 weeks up to 10 years of work experience.
Days off are metered, and require a medical excuse for permission.
7 days of holidays (some of with are “paid”)
Because of this, the fictional American “White Collar” worker lives “paycheck to paycheck”, and any family emergency or lay-off would devastate them. They clutch onto the position in the vain and hopeless attempt that “someday” things will change. But they will not. The only way out of this “rat race” is to leave the farm altogether and go somewhere else. Perhaps a place that has better working conditions.
Like Botswana.
And that is why Chinese workers are (in general) satisfied with their careers, their jobs, and their standard of life, while their American counterparts are popping pills to suppress stress, anxiety and depression, and hold off foreclosures, and divorce.
So to answer why the Chinese don’t have Unions, it’s really very simple. The entire nation of China is one big enormous Union. For that is what a Union is; a social organization formed and run by the workers.
Two kids were arguing furiously near a Crocodile pit
One Kid slipped and fell into the Pit and the Crocodile began to move from the ground where it was resting and move towards the flailing kid
A Chinese tourist rushed and jumped into the Pit and swam desperately and managed to escape just as the Crocodile was inches away from dragging the kid below
The Kid was rescued
The Next Day the most popular question by Quora Prompt Generator :—
WHY IS CHINA KILLING CROCODILES BY STARVING THEM????
BBC Headlines :—
CHINESE TOURIST STEALS LUNCH FROM CROCODILE
CNN Headlines :—
‘STARVING A CROCODILE SHOWS THE EXTENT OF CHINESE DESPERATION' — GORDON CHANG
That’s why
Because everything is blamed on China today
It’s ridiculous of course but that’s how low the Western Media have sunk
in Lebanon (1982–1984), Grenada (1983), Libya (1986), Iran (1987–1988), Panama (1989–1990), Iraq (1990–1991), Bosnia (1992–1995), Somalia (1992–1995, 2007-present), Haiti (1994–1995), Yugoslavia (1998–1999), Afghanistan (2001–2021), Yemen (2002-present), Iraq (2003–2011, 2014–2021), Libya (2011), Syria (2014-present), Libya (2015–2019).
China, on the other hand, has fought no wars at all.
China is assertive about protecting its rights and territory. What, you think the Chinese should knuckle under Western imperialists like they did from 1839 to 1949 (the so-called “century of humiliation”)?
China should protect its interests. China should defend its territories in Taiwan and South China Sea. China should push back on US attempts to smear China’s reputation with lies about genocide, forced labor, etc.
China should voice its disapproval at US military provocations such as conducting naval exercises off the coast of China, and building more military bases in Philippines, and creating military pacts with Australia and Japan.
China should object to US delegations visiting Taipei and violating the One China principle, and to selling arms to Taiwan in direct contravention of the Three Communiqués.
Any nation that isn’t assertive will be stepped on. But being assertive is not the same thing as being aggressive.
Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know? (Official Video)
Decoupling the global semiconductor supply chain would be “extremely difficult and expensive” if not impossible, a senior executive at ASML, the world’s most valuable chip equipment maker.
Christophe Fouquet, ASML’s executive vice-president and chief business officer, said in an exclusive interview that any single country would struggle to build its own fully self-reliant chip industry.
“We do not believe in ASML that decoupling is possible. We believe this will be extremely difficult and extremely expensive,” Fouquet told Nikkei at the company’s headquarters in Veldhoven in the Netherlands. “It’s a matter of time until people realise that the only way to be successful in semiconductors is through co-operation.
“The idea that we could go back to a little dark corner and do it all alone is most probably a very challenging concept,” Fouquet said.
His remarks came as large economies including the US, Japan, the EU, India and China rush to onshore vital semiconductor production in hopes of achieving self-reliance in chips.
The secret to ASML’s success, according to him, is its longtime collaboration with critical global suppliers such as Zeiss and Cymer and the support from its top chipmaking customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Intel.
ASML is the world’s exclusive maker of cutting-edge chip equipment known as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines, enabling production of advanced semiconductors below the 7-nanometre level. In chipmaking, the smaller the nanometre size, the more advanced and powerful the chips. The mobile chip in the premium iPhone 14 Pro and Nvidia’s graphic processors are built with 4nm tech, in which ASML’s machines play an indispensable role.
Zeiss of Germany is ASML’s only supplier of precision mirror systems, one of the most critical optical parts for the EUV machine, while San Diego-based Cymer, which ASML acquired in 2013, is the sole provider of the EUV light source.
None of ASML’s smaller peers — Nikon and Canon of Japan and China’s Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment — can yet match the European supplier’s capabilities in cutting-edge lithography. The US has no domestic makers of chip lithography equipment.
“We prefer to use the very best suppliers [globally] . . . This is a lot more effective. It allows us to move a lot faster,” Fouquet said. “The big difference [in strategy] is Canon and Nikon were trying to do a lot of things by themselves.”
While it is open to cross-border collaborations, however, ASML believes that for some of the most sophisticated components it is best to have only one supplier.
“The investment in Zeiss to get EUV optics is huge. If you make it in two to three places, the cost doesn’t work out any more . . . When it comes to unique technology, we develop partnerships with our suppliers,” Fouquet said. “When it comes to less advanced technology, then we will look at multiple suppliers.”
The bulk of ASML’s production, meanwhile, is done in one place, its headquarters, and Fouquet said it would probably keep the majority — about 80 per cent to 90 per cent — of its production and integration there until at least 2026.
“It’s very important for us to keep R&D and manufacturing together,” the senior executive said. The Netherlands-based company had more than 14,000 R&D employees and a total of 37,643 employees globally as of the end of 2022.
ASML’s headquarters is the tallest building in Veldhoven, an agricultural town in the southern Netherlands, and is about two hours by train from Amsterdam. Surrounded by corn and wheat fields, the building overlooks a vast wind farm at the border with Belgium.
Construction is under way to expand clean-room spaces that will eventually manufacture ASML’s next-generation chipmaking machines, which will use “high-numerical aperture extreme ultraviolet” lithography. The high-NA EUV machines will be essential for Intel, TSMC and Samsung in their race to introduce the most cutting-edge chips after 2025.
Hoàng Thùy Linh – Duyên Âm (Love of Ghost) | Official Music Video
Americans who have spent significant time away/lived abroad, what type of culture shock did you have returning to the US?
For me, the “culture shock” is mostly triggered by our pathetic state of infrastructure and lack of good public transportation.
This is New York:
2023 07 04 06 57
This is Shanghai:
2023 07 04 06 5ggg7
As much as I love New York, every time I land in the JFK airport, I feel that I am in some third-world country.
The airport screams “1950’s” – old, ugly, inefficient, broken down.
The contrast with Beijing and Shanghai airports is truly “shocking”.
The New York City subway, once the crown-jewel of the American cosmopolitanism, is now dirty, smelly, dark, disorganized. In the summer, it is hotter than hell inside the stations, in the winter colder than Siberia.
New York is actually the lucky one compared to the rest of the US – at least they have a public transportation system that works and is somewhat compatible with human life.
Among many causes, the leading one is Biden’s narcissistic buffoonery and stumbling and falling (not only figuratively) along the way starting from the embarrassing Afghanistan retreat fiasco.
His Summit for Democracy flopped twice.
The money pumped into Ukraine is mostly embezzled.
EU economy is in the ICU thanks to the price-gauging of US LNG and blowing up Nord Stream Pipelines.
He affronted China gratuitously, even calling Xi a dictator. Now he is bowing to China’s new ambassador hoping to get Yellen a chance to go borrow some more money. Stubborn inflation still refuses to budge after high interest rate has wiped out a few US banks while Trains keep derailing and bridges are collapsing.
Olaf Scholz is much closer to China than France is, but he ordered (allegedly) color revolution on Macron instead, because the latter showed the balls to praise China and wants to join the BRICS.
Biden gave that disastrous Dylan Mulvaney a photo op in the WH and pissed off Nike and Budweiser loyal customers and almost all straight people. He apparently hangs his hope on fantasized wokeism, just like he does with Summit for Democracy, his one-and-only trick.
And he still hasn’t found his way out of the garage while making it a hobby to shoot himself in the foot, he wants 4 more years to f*ck up more. Maybe he’s got an Ace up his sleeve. Who knows. I frankly can’t think of anything he has done right so far.
Don’t have lawns. Instead, change your lawn to various plants native to your area.
Do you know lawns were designed as a tool of community conformity?
So lawns became popular first in medieval Europe. Originally as a defense structure, make sure areas in front of your gate were flat and open, so you can see whoever came to visit. Later, lawns became a symbol of wealth and prosperity, particularly because of how expensive it was to maintain large areas of lawn.
When nuclear families and Levittown became a thing, the government realized they had an opportunity to regulate families and promote the so-called “American dream.” If you want a government founding house, you need to follow the rules.
Lawns are expensive and labor-intensive to maintain. The government designed the community in such a way that you spend your weekends caring for your front yard and paying a ridiculous amount of money to water it.
2023 07 03 13 37
Ditch the government conformity and grow your front yard with plants native to your area.
2023 07 03 13 38
Nobody will run through your cactus garden.
Unveiling the Intricate Connections and Enduring Strength in Bethany Krull’s Porcelain and Mixed Media Sculptures
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Intertwining the intricate tapestry of humanity, fellow animals, and the vast natural realm, Bethany Krull breathes life into porcelain and mixed media sculptures.
Her art unravels the enigmatic bonds and unyielding strength exhibited by fragile beings. Within her creations, we witness the relentless growth emerging from decay, where the dance of life and death intertwines with resounding harmony. In the face of the ongoing Holocene or sixth extinction, Krull’s masterpieces serve as poignant reminders that each passing moment demands both mourning and celebration, for they are indivisible companions on this ever-evolving journey.
Chinese semiconductor manufacturers expect to raise over $8 billion
Chinese semiconductor manufacturers expect to raise over $8 billion from stock market listings so far this year, looking to expand output capacity to bounce back from a market downturn and U.S. export curbs.
2023 07 03 12 08
Hong Kong-listed Hua Hong Semiconductor received approval in early June for a dual listing on Shanghai’s tech-oriented STAR market, where it aims to raise 18 billion yuan ($2.5 billion).
Hua Hong plans to build a $6.7 billion factory in the city of Wuxi, slated to start up in 2025. The state-owned China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known as the “Big Fund,” is investing in the project.
With production facilities in Shanghai and Wuxi, Hua Hong is China’s second-largest contract chipmaker behind Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. At an exhibit at the Semicon China trade fair, which kicked off Thursday, the company touts itself as a “world-leading foundry.”
Hua Hong and other Chinese chipmakers’ listings come as the U.S. is reportedly considering expanding restrictions it imposed in October on advanced semiconductors for artificial intelligence applications. The move would cover models from companies like Nvidia that fall outside the current bans.
Wei Shaojun, a professor at Tsinghua University who is involved in semiconductor policy, argued at the opening of the trade fair that China should respond by accelerating efforts to build its own supply chain.
Even if more Nvidia chips are added to the ban, that would not be entirely bad news for China, as it would spur further growth in the country’s semiconductor industry, he said.
2023 07 03 12 09
In fact, big Chinese chipmakers have been expanding production capacity, focusing on so-called mature-node technology outside the cutting edge to avoid U.S. sanctions. China’s semiconductor market shrank about 5% last year, but sales of domestically made chips grew 14%.
Aggressive expansion requires funding. As of mid-June, 13 semiconductor companies have listed on yuan-denominated exchanges this year, raising 42.2 billion yuan, a quarter of the total for all IPOs over this period, according to China Central Television. Adding Hua Hong’s planned listing brings the total to roughly 60 billion yuan.
Semiconductor Manufacturing Electronics carried out the biggest float so far this year, raising nearly 10 billion yuan on the STAR market. The foundry is backed by SMIC along with government-linked funds. Many of the upper managers came from SMIC.
SMEC will spend at least 20 billion yuan over the next two or three years building new facilities that will produce power semiconductors that fall outside of U.S. restrictions.
The number of chip companies planning stock market debuts still lags behind the 40-plus IPOs seen last year. However, this does not tell the full story, according to an industry analyst.
“The Chinese government is encouraging the construction of semiconductor plants with tax incentives and money through investment funds,” said the analyst. “They’re quickly expanding capacity by procuring equipment ahead of tougher U.S. restrictions.”
SMIC is currently having difficulty bringing in equipment from overseas.
“We need to make the supply chain more resilient,” Han Di, senior vice president of SMIC, said Thursday at Semicon China.
Despite the U.S.-led pressure, global chip companies plan to continue investing in China. The country is the world’s largest market, commanding a roughly 30% share.
“In terms of sustainable growth, we can’t ignore China,” said an executive at a non-Chinese semiconductor company.
Top executives from Qualcomm, Intel and ASML have visited China this year. Although Chinese regulators have banned operators of key infrastructure from purchasing from Micron Technology due to a failed security review, Micron announced it is committed to investing roughly $600 million in a chip packaging facility in Xi’an, China.
Teen Opera Singer Reacts To Rainbow – Stargazer
Tex-Mex Macaroni and Cheese
P022123202305 1 22755
Ingredients
1 pound ground pork sausage
1 small onion, chopped
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups milk
1 (16 ounce) loaf Mexican pasteurized cheese
1 (4 1/2 ounce) can chopped green chiles, drained
16 ounces macaroni, cooked
8 ounces shredded Southwestern cheese blend
Instructions
Cook sausage and onion in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sausage crumbles and is no longer pink; drain.
Add flour, cumin and milk, stirring constantly, until thickened.
Add Mexican cheese and chiles, stirring until cheese is melted.
Add macaroni.
Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 9 x 13-inch baking dish.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 minutes.
Sprinkle with shredded cheese blend, and serve with salsa.
Over half a trillion more dollars have been dumped into the US government’s debt spiral in the last two weeks alone.
According to the latest numbers from FiscalData, as of June 15th, the US national debt was $32 trillion, a $571 billion rise from June 1st’s recording of $31.46 trillion.
Total US debt is now larger than the total gross domestic product of China, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom combined, and amounts to $244,000 per American household.
At current interest rates, the US is now paying over $2 billion a day in interest payments, and even if every American household contributed $1,000 a month to pay off the debt, it would take 20 years to pay off.
While the US’ debt issue has received increased attention from both analysts and regular Americans, most experts still expect the problem to intensify over the next decade.
Nigel Green, CEO of global financial advisory firm deVere Group, recently predicted that America’s debt was much more likely to reach the $50 trillion level than to shrink to more reasonable numbers.
“What’s the negative for Americans in particular? Well, the debt is continuing to increase. In other words, right now we’re at $31 trillion. It takes 8% to payback-adjust their debt of the taxes.
And you would say, ‘Well it’s only that percentage.’ Well, you can argue that, yes. But if it continues to increase and there is a downturn at some stage, then of course America is going to struggle to pay its debts.
I ask myself the question: it’s $31 trillion right now, is it more likely to go to $50 trillion or $25 (trillion)?
Ultimately, (the) reality is it’s more likely to go to $50 trillion than it is to go up to $25 trillion. So we’ve got this continuing situation. It’s not a bust right now but (at) some stage in the future, America has to repay its debt.”
Ray Dalio, the creator of the largest hedge fund in the world, Bridgewater Associates, also recently declared the the US was entering what he referred to as a “very classic late big-cycle debt crisis.”
“There’s a lot of debt. It has to be bought. It has to have a high enough interest rate.
If we continue down this path, in terms of what’s likely over the next five and 10 years, then you would reach a point that that balancing act becomes very difficult.”
A group of Chinese scientists has published (PDF) a paper titled “Pushing the Limits of Machine Design: Automated CPU Design with AI.” The paper details the researchers’ work in designing a new industrial-scale RISC-V CPU in under 5 hours. It is claimed this AI-automated feat was about 1000x faster than a human team could have finished a comparable CPU design. However, some may poke fun at the resulting AI-designed CPU performing approximately on par with an i486.
The goal of the Chinese research team was to answer the question of whether machines can design chips like humans. Earlier AI-crafted designs have been relatively small or limited in scope, reckons the team. Thus, to test the boundaries of AI design, the researchers thought they would try and get an AI to automatically design a RISC-V CPU.
Projects like this typically start with a period of machine learning. Training consisted of observing a series of CPU inputs and outputs. The scientists generated a Binary Speculation Diagram (BSD) from this I/O and leveraged principles of Monte Carlo-based expansion and Boolean functions to hone the accuracy and efficiency of the AI-based CPU design. Thus the CPU design was formed “from only external input-output observations instead of formal program code,” explains the scientists. It also boasted an impressive 99.99% accuracy.
Using the above-outlined process, an automated AI design of a CPU was created. The taped-out RISC-V32IA instruction set CPU was fabricated at 65nm and could run at up to 300 MHz. Running the Linux (kernel 5.15) operating system and SPEC CINT 2000 on the AI-generated CPU validated its functionality. In Drystone benchmarks, the AI-generated CPU performed on par with an i486. Interestingly, it appears to be a little bit faster than an Acorn Archimedes A3010 in the same test.
Though some might be unimpressed by the performance of the AI-generated CPU, the scientists also seem quite proud that their generated BSD “discovered the von Neumann architecture from scratch.”
The building a new RISC-V CPU from scratch using AI isn’t just of academic interest, or of potential use for making new CPUs from the ground up. According to the researchers, AI could be used to significantly reduce the design and optimization cycles in the existing semiconductor industry. Moreover, in their conclusion, the scientists even ponder whether this research might be taken further to form the foundation of a self-evolving machine.
Latecomer to semiconductors party, China is catching up faster.
I’ll start with the definite truth of my own life: Leaving the US was, without a doubt, the best decision I ever made.
I have said this out loud and reflected upon it often. In short – it had to do with identity and personal happiness.
I was always an energetic child and a hardworking student. Motivated by accomplishments; incredibly obedient; afraid of getting in trouble – a teacher’s pet type. I was generally nice to people around me; just wanted to do well and get on with my day.
After elementary school, I started going to private school – for a better education and hopefully better access in life. During that time, my Black, middle class background became the center of the world. I still did well in school, but I wasn’t spoken to as if I did well or was capable. I was made to feel inadequate at every turn, even in the face of great accomplishments.
As a teenager, this racial alienation was emphasized through social and dating dynamics. All teens have teen problems, but I wasn’t just a moody, insecure kid – I was a Black kid in a sea of White and there was nothing to be done about that. There was no amount of patience, kindness; weight loss; working out; grooming; hair perming – that would make me less Black. And you can’t talk about that to anyone; no one can relate; you’re unceremoniously accused of “bringing race into everything”. A very lonely reality.
Throughout the entire secondary school process, my intelligence was always doubted and I was constantly insulted. My school offered Chinese – they tried to tell me I wouldn’t do well because it’s “a very difficult language”. Within a year, I had top marks. I once had a teacher tell me my writing was so bad I probably had a learning disability. (I’m about to finish my Masters with distinction in England, and I’ll be starting my PhD in the fall).
By high school, I decided to spend a portion of my senior year in China. It was like night and day from my home school. Suddenly, I was smart again. Without a concerted effort of teachers telling me how stupid I was all the time, I was flourishing. I got straight A’s in AP Calculus – a course, among others, my home school wouldn’t let me take because it would be “too hard for me”. When it came to college lists – I was told I couldn’t get into any of the schools on my list; I shouldn’t aim higher than my State school. Mind, at 17 I was a varsity athlete; president of thespians; worked on a number of school plays; danced on the school team and studied Martha Graham independently; first chair clarinet; played alto sax in Jazz band; fairly skilled in drawing and painting; spoke Chinese and had a high honors GPA. So – what made me less than my peers?
In China, it was the first time anyone (other than my parents) had ever told me I was pretty. Looking back, I was still quite young; so a lot of firsts would be happening around that time anyway – but it was definitely different than in America. In America, I was just ugly. People might not say that to my face – but it was reflected in certain ways.
Beyond that, college was the same for socialization. I tried to be cute, preppy and peppy like my White friends – but I wasn’t. I was sad and defeated. And still had some discernible, inferior, human status.
So again, in college, I went to China. And again, I was able to find normality, humanity and love.
After I graduated college, I went back to China to work. I soon met my current partner and we’ve been together six years. We moved to England together last year so I could continue studying to change careers. I’ve done incredibly well and I’m just happy.
In summary:
I personally felt my intelligence and beauty were never appreciated in the US.
I was suicidally sad; until I could no longer deny that I needed to live life a different way.
My partner is Greek and it feels very freeing to not be a part of the radical, racialized, American fervor. Also, biracial relations aren’t questioned in England the way they are in the US.
Life doesn’t feel so heavy. My days are nice. I have a nice home. A nice partner. My efforts are recognized. I’m just, whole.
Ukraine Jailing American Journalist WITH U.S. PERMISSION!
In China, Pizza Hut had a salad bar policy of only allowing one trip. So Chinese people became very creative and created salad stacking or salad towers to get around this rule. Salad stacking led to Pizza Hut removing self-service salad carts from all of its restaurants in China. This policy introduced in 2009 ended salad towers from being made by customers. Here are some pictures so that you can be amazed by the ingenious art form.
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It cost 28 renminbi ($4.57) for full access to Pizza Hut’s salad bar, but customers would only receive one trip to the salad bar.
This picture takes food hacks to the next level.
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Baby carrots and cucumber slices help make the foundation of the salad stacker.
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The diagram below will teach you how to make a salad tower.
Europe must choose: back US tech war on China or support win-win solutions for all — SCMP
The European Commission made an announcement on June 15 that was widely reported as a ban on Chinese telecommunications firms Huawei and ZTE. Rather, the communication endorsed the actions by some member states to restrict or completely exclude the two firms as being consistent with the European Union “toolbox” on 5G security – a set of guidelines designed to be interpreted and implemented by member states.
Some EU countries have followed the United States in treating Chinese telecommunications companies as security risks while others have not, which suggests political factors could be at play. Despite talk of “de-risking” in current EU circles, the growing trend is for language framing China as a security threat, rather like the US debate. Yet Europe is not the US and could benefit from de-escalating the US-China tech war.
China-EU relations have taken twists and turns over the years, but economic interests have usually driven a pragmatic approach when it comes to trade and investment. Some European countries and their consumers have embraced Chinese technology.
The US, on the other hand, in recent years has embarked on a campaign of wide-ranging sanctions and trade barriers to constrain China’s technology industry, notably banning Huawei, sanctioning supercomputer centres and blocking advanced semiconductors from reaching Chinese industrial customers. The US has long dominated global technology industries but now has a rival in setting the norms and rules for the technological revolution under way.
From 2017 onwards, beginning with the Trump administration, China has been identified as a key security threat and strategic competitor, with Huawei in particular singled out. Some political circles in the EU are now echoing the US position.
Without any evidence – at least on the public record – that Huawei is any greater risk than other firms, the claims of security risks or state influence cannot be disproved. The national security focus of the debate about Huawei risks taking our eye off the ball of where future cybersecurity threats may actually arise, and risks can arise anywhere.
Telecommunications systems have long been known to be at risk of hacking. Espionage or other threats to cybersecurity do not only come from China but from a wide variety of states, as well as from non-state actors such as terrorist groups, criminal gangs and even individual cyberhackers.
In some sectors, China plays a major role in setting global standards, such as in high-speed rail infrastructure and autonomous vehicles. However, there is no agreed-upon global set of rules in relation to new digital communications technologies, with progress frozen by the intensification of US-China competition. In the absence of shared rules, norms and institutional enforcement, technologies are being rolled out ahead of our ability to govern their use in the interests of society.
While politicians talk about security threats, telecommunications industry players are focused on developing the infrastructure, equipment and services for the coming convergence of high-speed communications, artificial intelligence and cloud computing that will transform industries and daily lives in the decade ahead.
Huawei is among the global leaders in these fields. If its innovations can be harnessed and securely governed in Europe, together with innovation by European firms, digital connectivity promises to be a major contributor to not only economic efficiencies but also in achieving the European Green Deal, with digitalisation reducing the environmental footprints of industries and consumers alike.
Europe has a choice.
On the one hand, it can join with the US in its tech war on China, risking splitting the world into two techno-nationalist domains weaponised against each other. In such a scenario, the US will still dominate its sphere of influence but at some stage could be overtaken by China. On the other hand, Europe could work to find rational and pragmatic solutions to the security problems posed by new technologies, taking politics out of the debate.
If Europe can help to build a cybersecurity system that is supplier-blind and operates on best practices which can be implemented by other states around the world, it could play a role in de-escalating the US-China conflict and consequently ensure a more secure future in a globalised tech domain. If consumers can both benefit from accessing Chinese and US technology and have their cybersecurity protected, Europeans can have the best of both worlds.
Tex-Mex Roasted Chicken
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Ingredients
1 teaspoon ground cumin (comino)
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon basil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 (3 pound) broiler, skinned
2 cups coarsely chopped zucchini
1 1/4 cups unpeeled, seeded and coarsely chopped tomatoes
Instructions
Combine first 6 ingredients; stir well and set aside.
Remove neck and giblets from chicken and discard. Rinse chicken and pat dry. Rub outside of chicken with spice mixture. Place chicken, breast side down in a deep 3-quart casserole. Cover with wax paper and microwave on HIGH for 8 to 9 minutes.
Turn chicken breast side up and microwave, covered with wax paper, on HIGH for 8 to 9 minutes.
Remove chicken to a serving platter. Reserve drippings in casserole. Let chicken stand covered for 15 minutes.
Add vegetables to drippings, tossing to coat. Microwave on HIGH for 3 to 4 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring halfway through cooking.
Arrange vegetables around chicken.
Yield: 5 servings
Moving Back to the USA
I have moved “back” to the USA multiple times. I remember my immediate reactions, though I can’t necessarily say they were the “biggest” shocks.
Return from France, as a student: Why are all these college students saying “I’m a wild and crazy guy?” It turns out that while I was studying outside the USA, a new show called Saturday Night Live became popular. Never heard of it. Also, why does everyone comment on how I hold my silverware?
Return from France again, seven years later, as a professional: Why is cheese so crappy in the USA? Why is bread so crappy in the USA? Why is coffee so crappy in the USA? (This was before those items became at least a wee bit more artisanal in the USA). Why are my friends irked when they ask where I bought that pretty sweater and I answer “Paris?” Hell, I was living there. Do you know how much it would have cost me to travel to the USA so I could buy a sweater in the USA and answer “Costco” or “Walmart?” I’m not being a snob, I’m just answering your question. I lived in Paris so I shopped in Paris. DUH! And, Americans sure are loud. I am too loud, too. But what a massive, gorgeous country to fly over. When did the American West get so vast?!!! This will be a recurring theme – get a window seat! Look down and fall in love all over again with the USA. Never tire of that. Never. Hate those people who have a window seat and just pull down the window shade and sleep during the day. See the Mid-West farms! See the Rockies! See the Sierras!
Return from Colombia, South America: Where are all the submachine guns? None in the US airport. How scary, no protection from guerrillas, sicarios and narcos. For that matter, where are my bodyguards? Also, how odd to see windows without bars on them. And hey, I MISS AJIACO!!!!! Also, when will folks – and coffee shops – in the USA learn to spell Colombia? It’s not Columbia! And, Americans sure are ugly and poorly dressed. I am ugly and poorly dressed, too.
Return from Ecuador, South America (the coast, not the mountains): Dang, it’s cold in the USA. And dark. And when will folks in the USA stop writing “Equador?” But, thank you for driving well in the USA. How nice to have lanes on the road and drivers who respect them. Americans sure are sweet. I hope I never hear the name Abdula Bucaram again or have to see his stupid Hitler mustache. But really, do American grocery stores need to offer us 10 brands of ketchup/catsup, 15 brands of cat food and an entire aisle of toilet paper choices? It’s so exhausting to go shopping here. Too many choices. Ridiculous abundance.
Return from Germany: Why is cheese so crappy in the USA? Why is bread so crappy in the USA? Why is coffee so crappy in the USA? I thought we were going to get better about this in the USA, but NO. And, folks, Starbucks sucks. It is NOT good coffee, it tastes like shit. Delude yourself and pretend you are cool drinking it, but it is junk. Also, what’s with the slow drivers? Move to the right, you turd turtle! I’m flashing my lights, let me pass. Don’t go 50 mph in the fast lane on the freeway. Also, Monica Lewinsky seems kinda cute….I’d only ever seen a print picture of her in the news, never a moving TV news shot. Yeah, she’s cuter than [my future boss] Hillary.
Return from Colombia, South America, again: Finally, most Colombian coffee bean labels are spelled correctly. Still feeling odd to walk around in the USA feeling safe without political assassinations here and there. Oh, whoops, 9/11/2001 happens on my second day back on the job in the USA. I spoke too soon. Silent skies for a week over Washington, punctuated only by the regular swoosh of US Air Force fighter jets circling the city. America feels on edge. I involuntarily start crying as I pass the Pentagon 2x day. Please send me from District of Columbia back to Colombia.
Teen Opera Singer Reacts To Dio – Last In Line
Shock returning to the USA
I wouldn’t call it a “life shock”, but there was a situation that made a lasting impression, for sure.
Back in early 2014, the day I arrived to the U.S, my team’s coach took me for grocery shopping to Walmart. It was a love at the first sight. For an active consumer like me, Walmart seemed like some sort of heaven. I still miss it, sometimes.
So, I bought some food, also some fresh fruits & veggies. Came to the dorm and put everything onto the book shelves, since there was no refrigerator.
Since candy & junk food seemed much more appealing at the time, I did put those on lower shelves. Fruits & veggies on higher shelves, some so high, it was out of my sight.
2 weeks later, an awful realization came to me. There are fruits & veggies on the higher shelves and I haven’t touched them in 2 weeks. They should be dead rotten and must smell awful. Oh NO! (I also hate wasting food)
So I reach to those shelves expecting an awful rotten smelly mess…and what do I see? FRESH fruits & veggies that HAVEN’T CHANGED A BIT! In 2 weeks.
It felt incredibly weird. Being raised on fruits and veg from farmer’s markets, these never last more than a couple days, a week max- in wildest fantasies.
So, for my peace of mind & sanity I decided not to give too much thought about what is done to those poor veggies for them to stay “FRESH” for so long.
My Neighbor Totoro | Multi-Audio Clip: Totoro and the Catbus
Gallium itself is not a semiconductor, but a series of gallium-based compounds formed with arsenic, nitrogen, selenium, tellurium, phosphorus, antimony and the other metals and non-metals are high-quality and important semiconductor materials for the development of microelectronic devices and optoelectronic devices. It can even be said that gallium leads the development direction of semiconductor materials and is the navigator of the electronic information age.
A series of compounds prepared based on gallium metal, such as semiconductor materials, optical electronic materials, special alloys, organic metal materials and new functional materials, are important foundations for high-tech fields such as communications, military industry, aerospace, new energy, and medicine. one of the materials.
The second-generation semiconductor material gallium arsenide, as an example, is widely used in radar, satellite communication, optical fiber communication and other fields.
Germanium resources in the world are relatively poor, but germanium is a strategic optical information material that can be used for solar germanium cells on satellites. Germanium is also gaining more and more attention in healthcare applications.
The application fields of germanium mainly include infrared optics, optical fiber, electronics and solar energy, polymerization catalysts, etc. At first, germanium was mainly used in the military field in infrared optics, but in the past few years, there has been a demand for thermal imaging equipment using germanium lenses in the civilian field Increase. In addition, the addition of germanium to fiber optic materials can improve communication performance, and the addition of germanium-containing silicon compounds to solar panel production can improve energy differentials in solar panel production.
Gallium and germanium are both RARE elements, a key resource to support the technological innovation and move of China towards the commanding heights of the economy.
‘All I know is that Gonzalo was detained on May 1’ says Father
In the History of the World – Only Two Nations have ever dominated an entire Supply Chain at some point of time
A. United Kingdom
B. United States of America
Both these Nations at their times – the 1850–1920 (UK) and 1934–2000 (USA) dominated the Global Supply Chains and Technology and Markets
Its why they were Economic Behemoths
Of course later – the Capitalism caught up with them and forced outsourcing which made other nations richer and reduced the Technological gap and Economic Gap with rival nations.
CHINA
China has one weakness.
Energy!!!
UK had unlimited Energy in its Coal Seams , US has unlimited Energy in Oil/Gas and Fossils and Nuclear Fuel
China despite its rapid discovery of resources is growing too fast for Energy Independence.
Otherwise China has everything else
Super Powerful Domestic Market
Global Supply Chain
Indigeous Hub Culture
Huge Population and Talent Pool
Loads and Loads of Trade Money
So China have to solve for their Energy
If they can crack Alternate Energy and end dependence on Foreign Fossils – They are guaranteed to become the Next Economic Giant.
This of course is a tough ask
Option 2 is Russo – Sino Alliance
2023 07 03 21 15
The Triple Axis World Order?
Definitely
If these Three Sides can continue their Good Relationships into a Firm and Strong Bond – They can collectively Dominate the World in the next 20 years
As of this date (June 2023) China is over 95% self-sufficient in food. The target goal of (near) 100% self-sufficiency in food seems to be on track to be reached by 2025.
This has not been an accident.
The Chinese government has recognized the vulnerability of its food supplies and have embarked on a very aggressive program of self-sufficiency. Not only in the numbers and quantities of food produced, but stability in distribution, farming techniques and sustainability, as well as development of high-yield harvests.
Were the United States foolishly attempts to engage in a “hot war” with China, the food supplies will remain stable, as systems are already in place to assure that no war-time interruptions could impact it.
…
I know that this does against the American narrative that “China would collapse” if “America did XXXXX”. But you all have to realize that any time a Western publication comes up with an idea to somehow “collapse” China, the Chinese takes this affirmation seriously and treats it as a threat. As a threat vector, systems have been put in place for EVERY SINGLE THREAT made in Western publications so that they will never materialize.
Yuppur!
The Chinese watch FOX “news” and “Alex Jones”.
…
The United States, under the leadership of John Bolton (reporting to President Trump) tried to create a famine in China in 2017–2018. It failed. But a study of the actions that China took is very illustrative.
Aggressive screening for imported pests and plagues.
Chinese (for profit) operatives running the virus-spraying drones for the NED became very patriotic and gave full information to the PLA. As well as the drones, and the virus handling protocols.
Rural and farm crews performed search-and-destroy missions to root out “novel and new” crop-specific viruses. With complete and total destruction of any infected crops.
But this is old news.
Were this to happen again, not only would China be ready, but the retaliation would be something quite horrible.
…
Today, China is unassailable.
Any attempt to harm it would be like trying to punch a swimming pool. Your hand goes into the water, and no damage is done.
It’s best that those who are so enamored with war, refocus their intentions towards peace and a “soft landing” for the ongoing collapse of the United States. A “soft landing” is not a bad thing. In fact, its a very good thing, and there will be a sharp increase in the standard of living, and the overall quality of life for most Americans.
But to get there, some fundamental changes NEED to occur inside the United States. Changes that the current “leadership” is unwilling to do.
“SPIDER BABY” Classic, Rare, Dark Comedy, Bizarre scary Cult film 1967 Colorized
We end with this.
This is one heck of a cool, weird, strange movie that is absolutely precious.
How did I ever get through 1967 and not see this. I feel like I have been missing something of great importance. It’s just so…
You’ve got to watch it. Take the time. You will not regret it.
This is the FULL MOVIE for your viewing pleasure.
This film has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes! Is that even possible?
Watch it in HD.
Very absurd but terrific curiosity from 1967.
The film is apparently a cult film.
I had never seen it before, so it was kind of a revelation.
I tinted it and colorized it for fun. It looked good in B@W but I think it's better this way for the modern age.
Stanley Kubrick eat your heart out.
The full title is "Spider Baby or the Maddest Story Ever Told." and is pretty crazy.
Sick humor., even slapstick.
It is too scary for children and might gross out some adults, but ultimately just a comedy and a parody of horror movies.
Starring Lon Cheney Jr and a bevy of fantastic actors and actresses mostly unknowns.
Cinematography, direction, writing and acting is excellent for a film with a 68 thousand dollar budget.
The movie really is a masterpiece of ridiculousness.
Tell your friends to see it.
Not really about cannibalism as an alternate title had suggested, so not that gross just quirky and deeply hilarious.
Reminds me a little of Rocky Horror Picture Show, Devo the rock band or Todd Browning's, "Freaks"
How I missed seeing this in 1968 is a mystery.
The film is Public Domain, so I took liberties with the tinting. I tried not to get carried away on the tinting. The tinting is my work, nothing else added.
Stay tuned. All of the subjects mentioned in the title has already been covered within the messy slush-file of MM articles. All intentionally buried within a safe coverage of delicious food, cats, music, and stories of the human condition. Impossible for computer algorithms and troll agents to root out and locate. It’s the MM way, don’t you know. What subjects?
Nordstream pipeline detonations
The Pentagon using the Musk satellites to ram the Chinese space station, and then China taking down all of them with an electromagnetic cannon
The UK launching a micro-nuke in Ukraine and caught red-handed by Russia
Bio-Weapons NATO general captured at a weaponized development facility (Ukraine) performing “gain of function” studies. Also known as “weaponizing the virus”.
China stopping the bio-weapon attempts to induce famine
China capturing and killing off all of the CIA and NED assets
North Korea missile attacks
Disabling an American nuclear sub that was “this close” to being captured outright.
Sinking another one that had to be recovered (F-35 splash into the South China Sea anyone?)
The Trump mega-flotilla that turned around and sailed back home
Covid-19, the tick-virus and the humanized swine-flu virus bio-weapons and the Taiwan “surprise” virus.
And that’s all right off the top of my head. But I’m not trying to keep score. In this “game” of world war III, it’s impossible to keep score and absolutely meaningless. You have to keep in mind the objectives of all parties (as best as we can ascertain) and then observe the elements play out. And as they play out, we migrate to areas that will not be affected by the fallout (both figuratively and literally). Remember, the reason why everyone is so confused as to what is going on is simply because no one can see the full picture. There’s a plan. There’s always a plan. Keep in mind why things appear to be a world run by crazy people…
They might actually be crazy.
The Western “news” is a propaganda arm of the US government.
Actual “news” and events are not being reported on.
Trivial events are blown all out of proportion.
Real secrets are kept secret.
Counter intelligence operations are at full-speed.
So just sit tight. The latest information from the Domain Commander is…
No change to the previous predictions; small to medium bads lie ahead.
Events are playing out within predictable patterns well known and understood by Domain (Historians).
Some humans will experience discomfort, but any areas of conflict and turmoil will be isolated and geographically segmented.
Take care. Be prudent.
Important note
WordPress has “updated” it’s software, and messed up everything MM side. Do not be frustrated, but much of the grammar corrections, formatting, and pictures were deleted or screwed up in this post, and I am too exhausted to repair what amounts to 10,000 words of text.
Self-format if you must.
Apollo 13 | “Houston, We Have a Problem”
Singapore and China sign 19 agreements to boost cooperation
Singapore and China sign 19 agreements to boost cooperation at annual apex meeting
The agreements were signed at the 18th Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation meeting, co-chaired by DPM Heng Swee Keat and Chinese Vice Premier Han Zheng
China is where the world future lies :
Small businesses in various states are struggling to pay their rent, a new report shows, with rent delinquency at nearly 40 percent this month.
The findings, published Tuesday by Boston-based business tracker Alignable, are raising more than eyebrows, as they illustrate the stark effect inflation is having on everyday Americans.
The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago.
If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent.
Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses - almost half of all Americans working in the private sector - were left unable to pay rent in October.
Compounding concerns is the fact that several states, including New York and California, are well over the already-high national average.
Offering an explanation for the phenomenon, study author Chuck Casto wrote that small business owners are steadfast, but that their incomes are 'basically being eaten away by inflationary pressures' as grim figures continue to rock financial markets.
Alignable discerned that one-third of businesses are at risk of closing if revenue does not 'ramp up' significantly in the coming months, as consumers shy away from spending amid fears of an impending recession. As to the reasons for the short funds, poll-takers blamed higher rents, the impact of more than a year of high inflation, steeper-than-usual gas prices, increases in supply chain costs, rising labor expenses and shortages, and reduced consumer spending.
Worse, about 49 percent of restaurants were unable to pay their rent this month, up from 36, in September, while an identical 49 percent of car dealership and repair shop owners defaulted on their October rent.
Chips Act Won’t Work
It doesn’t make sense for the US to invest billions of dollars to support the manufacturing of semiconductors if they have to be shipped to Asia to be completed.
Down Time Recently the provider of this Website, Typepad, moved their systems to a new datacenter. It then announced an additional maintenance period to update the system’s architecture. That ended up in a mighty screw-up. For the last days Moon of Alabama was a casualty of it. After a while the Typepad engineers recognized the problems and decided, correctly, to roll everything back to the old version. It took a while, but finally most stuff is working again. There are two maxims in Information Technology. I. Never change a running system. Unfortunately there are circumstances, like growth pain etc, where one HAS to change things. That usually ends up in trouble. Another IT maxim is: II. Never change multiple things at a time. This is where the recent Typepad screw-up happened. Multiple components of the system were changed at the same time and did not interact properly with each other. Been there, done that. Back around 1995, I was working for a large international access provider who’s systems always had growth pains. Everything was well prepared for a down time and a major update of the architecture. A short maintenance period was announced and we proceeded with it. Every element had been tested before. But unbeknown to the software engineers the network providers, those with the physical access lines, had decided to use our announced down time for a change in their systems too. The two changes collided with each other and it took more than 24 hours to even find out what had happened. The roll back, not well planned, created more of a mess. We were down for 72+ hours. We had several million customers at that time. They weren’t happy. Typepad is now back and with it all the blogs that are running on it. I am pretty sure that there are still some bugs that will have to be cleaned up over the next days. But the service has, in general, been good over the many years Moon of Alabama existed and ran on it. It is relatively cheap and relieves me of setting up and administrating my own servers. That’s why I will stick to it. For now.
The European Union (EU) got hit with a double dose of nasty reality today. When the European Union “Sanctioned” Russian natural gas, they stopped buying it and had to look elsewhere, which sent the price skyrocketing for everyone.
Then The EU decided it would impose a Price Cap on . . . RUSSIAN . . . natural gas, telling all other countries they must not pay over the price cap! Imagine the nerve of the EU trying to tell the entire world what price they MUST pay for someone ELSE’s natural gas?!?!?!
Today, Qatar told Europe it will stop sending natural gas to Europe of they try to impose a price cap on RUSSIAN fuels!
Europe is already in a massive mess over natural gas; it’s not only costing them triple or quadruple what it used to, there are actual shortages.
If Europe alienates Qatar by imposing a price cap on RUSSIAN gas, and thereby gets cut off from Qatar gas – people in Europe might freeze to death this winter for lack of natural gas. Power plants in Europe would have no fuel to generate electric. Europe would be plunged into the dark ages.
Speaking of shortages, GAZPROM announced today that, by their measurements, Ukraine has presently stored 14.6 Billion cubic meters (m3) of natural gas.
But the country needs 19 Billion m3 to get through the winter. Ukraine doesn’t have that much . . . and cannot get it, either.
So it seems at first glance, people in Ukraine, will actually end up freezing to death this winter. So much for Ukraine “winning” it’s war with Russia.
Maybe, if Ukraine surrenders now, they can settle things fast enough so that their people don’t freeze to death?
Or is noble surrender too much to ask from the Zelensky tyrants in Kiev?
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This Is Serious! We’re Gonna Crash BIG TIME” – Robert Kiyosaki’s Last WARNING
Interesting, though he’s got a problem with communism. I suppose it’s legacy fear. But check it out.
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https://youtu.be/E4ZDEaqYQDs
Russians Hack U.S. “DELTA Command & Control System” – Complete Ukraine Battle Plans Exposed
. The United States “DELTA” Command and Control System is the computer network that the US uses for battle operations. It is constantly updated by military planners and intelligence sources with troop deployment info, weapons stock info, and complete attack plans. Russia has HACKED it; Ukraine’s battle plans totally compromised. Equally important, the DELTA system is also constantly updated with information about the OPPOSING forces, in this case, Russia. Here is what a Russian computer Hacker got access to, with videos proving he got access, and how it is likely to be dispositive of the entire Ukraine war, in Russia’s favor.
Herman And The Bank Robbers
Enjoy. https://youtu.be/f_DDvG-yv4c
Iran Raises “Red Banner of Retaliation” Over Mosque; Saudis on High Alert
Iran has raised the Red Banner of Retaliation over the dome of Jamkaran Mosque in Qom city, which amounts to a declaration of war. What caused the raising of the Red Banner is yet to be said. The last time the Red Banner was raised was when Qassem Suleimani was assassinated in 2020. After that banner was raised, Iran fired missiles which hit a US Base in the region, injuring many US military personnel. Whatever the present issue may be, Saudi Arabia notified its US Military contacts they expect what they call an “imminent” attack against Saudi Arabia by Iran. They are not certain if the attack will be by missiles, or by Iranian Drones. US and Saudi air defenses are now on high alert.
Men in Black: A Series of Tests
Fun. https://youtu.be/qHR8IdyTO1M
New Fudan Report: US-China Chip War
From HERESecuritisation of the US’s Semiconductor Industry Policy”. Its authors are Shen Yi (沈逸) and Mo Fei (莫非). The former is a controversial professor of international politics and the director of the Centre for International Cyberspace Governance at Fudan University. With a following of almost two million on Weibo as well as regular videos and opinion pieces discussing international relations, he has become a well-known public intellectual in China. Shen has previously written about his experience of being interrogated by the FBI and having his US visa revoked back in 2018. The second author, Mo Fei, is a PhD candidate at Fudan University’s School of International Relations and Public Affairs and a research assistant at the aforementioned Centre for International Cyberspace Governance. This report appears to have been written, or at least completed, in September, in other words, prior to the US’s most recent high-tech export controls. The authors, however, were aware that “the Biden administration plans to further strengthen export controls on China in the areas of artificial intelligence and chip manufacturing, and that it was considering establishing a system within the US government that would give it the power to directly block US entities from investing in China and require information disclosure.” The following summary and excerpts should therefore be read keeping this background in mind. On a side note, I may occasionally post special editions such as this one in addition to Sinification’s weekly format if and when I feel that a particular study is noteworthy, topical and too long to share as a thread on Twitter.
Key arguments from this report:
The US is making a strategic mistake in channelling most of its energy into outdoing China in the tech sector. Semiconductors only constitute a small part of the US-China rivalry.
The US’s chip manufacturing capacity lags far behind that of East Asia. The CHIPS Act is unlikely to provide enough funding and incentives to change this.
US allies will not be willing to sacrifice their own interests for the sake of America’s.
China has the financial firepower, unrivalled capacity for government-industry coordination and absolute determination to accelerate the development of its chip industry, come what may.
On the drivers and dynamics of the US-China chip war:
“China's fundamental national strategy is to strengthen its national power, improve the standard of living of its citizens and enhance its international status through peaceful economic development. The US’s strategy towards China is to 'lock up' China's rise, curtail its international influence and increase its dependence on the US in the international system. Therefore,the essence of the strategic competition between the US and China is a struggle between economic development and domestic governance rather than a traditional hegemonic or military-security struggle.”“The US, however, has rather simplistically focused on the nature of the strategic competition between the US and China as being a 'technological battle', and then even more simplistically determined that a series of [tech-related] policies will be able to successfully block the strategic challenge posed by China in a relatively short period of time and at a relatively low cost.”“The US has [now] put anti-China national security concerns ahead of such economic interests as ‘cost’, ‘efficiency’ and ‘market’.”“Advanced semiconductors have become an outlet for the US to release its security-related anxieties about China and have been turned into a symbol … demonstrating the US’s superior strength and its gradually winning in the context of US-China rivalry. At the same time, in the absence of one single effective ‘tool’ to contain China's technological rise and as one of the very few holds the US [still] has in the economic sphere that can effectively handicap China, any action that can widen the gap between China and the US in advanced semiconductor technology will have the psychological effect of ‘easing the anxiety’ and ‘increasing the smugness’ of US policymakers. Each [US] crackdown on China's advanced semiconductor technology will release the US’s security-related anxiety about China in stages. [But] when new security-related anxieties reach a certain level, it will once again drive the US to take further restrictive measures against [the development of] China’s advanced semiconductor technology.”“At the [current] stage of the strategic stalemate between the US and China, the US can only add to the semiconductor technology embargo compulsively and frequently to demonstrate that it still has considerable coercive power and strategic advantages over China.”“But the fact is thatadvanced semiconductors only constitute a small part of the strategic competition between the US and China.”
On the difficulty for the US to rebuild a chip manufacturing base at home, gain the backing of its allies and shut out China:
“Global economic integration, the formation and consolidation of global supply chains, and China’s deep roots in the global economic system make it almost impossible for the US to replicate its Cold War strategy against the Soviet Union in its strategic competition with China.”“History repeats itself but never in exactly the same way. The United States today does not have the same strategic capabilities as it did thirty years ago, and China is now already highly integrated into both the new international division of labour and the world’s science and innovation cycle. Even in the area of semiconductors, where the US is in a position of power and China is at a disadvantage, the US is no longer in a position to [simply] remove China from the supply chain of advanced semiconductors. The inherent vulnerability of the Biden administration's chip strategy leaves room for China's semiconductor industry to break out of the US’s siege. More specifically:”
“The Biden administration's semiconductor strategy runs counter to the global semiconductor industry’s development pattern and lacks an adequate domestic semiconductor manufacturing base to support it.”
“US semiconductor manufacturing capabilities lag far behind those of East Asian countries. [This is explained by] the wave of de-industrialisation that began in the late 20th century in the US, coupled with the fact that most American IC companies have opted for a 'Fabless' operating model, focusing on design and outsourcing manufacturing.”
“The US’s heavy reliance on East Asian semiconductor production capacity exacerbates the risk of disruption to the US chip supply chain, while also increasing the US's vulnerability in the context of its strategic competition with China.”
“Now, for national security and geostrategic reasons, the US is planning to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to its shores … However, such a systemic change will be very difficult to achieve with just a single ‘chip bill’.”
“The US’s current approach has seen it use mainly federal funding to invest domestically in high-tech R&D … to train new talent and to attract foreign firms to set up factories in the US. However, … if the US wants to restructure the [current] layout of the global semiconductor industry, US$50+ billion from the federal government will clearly not be enough to solve this issue.”
“In September 2022, the Center for a New American Security released [a report] … which stated that the US CHIPS Act is designed to close the cost gap between producing chips in the US versus in East Asia, but that current financial support and related incentives were still far from sufficient to close the cost gap across the industry.”“The actual effectiveness of the CHIPS Act may differ quite significantly from the optimistic estimates (in favour of the US) that are now being made in a large number of studies; one cannot exclude a scenario in which the buzz is followed by business as usual.
“Frankly speaking, although we still need to wait for [these measures] to be put into practice … it is arguably the ‘pull’ by the end customer that will prove more important than the ‘push’ by the US government’s industrial policies. If the end-consumer market proves unwilling to pay a premium [for these high-tech products] … the Biden government's semiconductor strategy … will not be able to [fully] restructure the [current] layout of the global semiconductor industry.”
“The US’s influence within its chip alliances is not sufficient to convince its allies to follow the Biden administration's semiconductor strategy on the premise of ‘America First’ and ‘each country has to pay its own way [i.e. with no help from the US]’.”
“[In reality,] the core of the US’s semiconductor strategy, is, on the one hand, to siphon off resources from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands and other relevant semiconductor companies to make up for the technological shortcomings in its own semiconductor manufacturing sector. On the other, to convince its allies and partners, using its position of power in the high-tech world, to stop semiconductor technology deals and manufacturing cooperation with China.”
“The Biden administration is [effectively] strengthening itself at the expense of others … thus increasing the vulnerability of the Biden administration's semiconductor strategy. In other words, US allies and partners have their own semiconductor strategies and are not willing to sacrifice their own interests in order to serve the US’s semiconductor strategy.”
“[For example,] South Korea cannot [simply] decouple from China, just for the sake of cooperating with Washington in building up the US’s [new] supply chain, without taking into account the fact that China is South Korea’s largest semiconductor market … South Korea is ambivalent about the ‘CHIP 4’ alliance currently being assembled by the US.”
“Taiwan, on the other hand, still has illusions about [the effectiveness of] its ‘Silicon Shield’ and does not want the US semiconductor industry to develop in the direction of self-sufficiency for national security reasons.”
“There are deep-rooted conflicting currents in the underlying logic of Taiwan's semiconductor strategy with the US. Politically, Taiwan is investing in US factories to curry favour with the US on geopolitical issues. Economically [however], Taiwan's semiconductor industry … does not view the US ‘chip strategy’ favourably.”“In addition to [the Netherland’s] ASML, the Biden administration has also tried to pressure Nikon, a Japanese DUV equipment manufacturer, to stop exporting such equipment to China, but the Japanese have also refused. This shows that, when it comes to the technological embargo imposed on China, although the ‘public-private’ alliance formed by the US will cooperate with the US’s strategy, there is a limit to such cooperation. This can be explained by two factors: the pull of the Chinese market and a concern for US technological hegemony [among its allies].”
On the US’s tech crackdown on China and the the medium-to-long term prospects for both the US and China:
“The specific technical details involved in the semiconductor industry are complex enough to ensure that [only] a small group of elite politicians in Washington can monopolise the content and future direction of these discussions, thereby making it easier to gain indulgence and support for their contrarian actions both at home and abroad.”“Take the latest US chip sanctions against China on 1 September as an example … The ban presents a remarkable internal paradox. It was initially intended to create additional barriers to the development of China's high-tech industry. However, it may well end up having the opposite effect. Ironically, in the medium to long term, US pressure is set to ‘force’ China's high-tech industry to develop a more solid industrial base as well as [its own] core technologies. Objectively speaking and from the US’s perspective, this will lead to [the emergence of] a more challenging, comprehensive, and thus more-difficult-to-contain, powerful adversary.”“In the short term, US tech-related policies targeting China will indeed create a window of opportunity. That is to say, a window during which China will be seeking to fix the adverse consequences caused by the US’s technology crackdown. For the US, this window will mean that the US is given more time to develop itself in a number of key and emerging technologies, including advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence, so as to gain the upper hand over China … But such a turn of events is far from being a given. In other words, in addition to restricting technology exports to China, the US government will also need to implement effective domestic policies to support and guide its efforts in these areas. However, if we look at the US’s performance on related issues since the 1980s, the picture is not particularly promising. Of course, the recently passed CHIPS Act provides some room for imagination. However, … in terms of the type of governance capacity required to steer and organise such large-scale strategic industries, the US government is not currently in a position to provide a convincing answer to observers.”“In the short term, the most immediate and tangible effects of the Biden administration's tech-crackdown on China will be: (i) to create real obstacles for the development of related industries in China; (ii) to generate a public opinion wave of pro-US and anti-China rhetoric; and (iii) to use ‘hurting the US’s strategic rival’ as political leverage during the upcoming US mid-term elections and the presidential elections two years later.”“In terms of [economic] weight, the US economy is still the largest in the world, but its lead over the second-placed has narrowed to the point where it is within sight and able to be overtaken. The US still has an overall advantage in terms of cutting-edge technology, but this advantage does not ensure that its use will simply lead to the continued development of its strengths and consolidation of its superiority. It will [probably] not be possible for the US to maintain its overwhelming technological dominance over the rest of the world. In other words, there is a lack of certainty surrounding the US’s ability to make further technological breakthroughs. Its traditional strengths are shrinking or even [already] lost, and its toolbox lacks an obvious ‘magic bullet’ like the US’s containment strategy during the Cold War, which could simply ‘solve the problem once and for all’ vis-à-vis the US’s main strategic rival. In fact, the anxiety that is spreading in Washington's policy-making circles is constantly forcing the US government to look for, and subsequently try out, any type of tool that can produce short-term results. Thus, for policy makers at least, it is a way of justifying domestically that ‘something has already been done’ and avoiding simply looking on [helplessly] at the gradual erosion of the US’s hegemonic powers.”“The specific condition [to the US’s success] is that the target of such a weapon [export controls] must have a sufficiently weak political will to abandon its intention to develop the industry in question immediately after the US’s strike … [However,] China has both the will and an unmatched capacity for industrial policymaking to drive and guide the development of its own alternative technologies [替代性能力]. Chinese companies and industries have long since begun the production of related products but are [currently] in the uncomfortable position of being constrained by the superior and more mature products of US companies. The subtlety of US bans is that it is the US government, rather than the Chinese government, that has helped these companies to achieve the effective exclusion of their competitors from the [Chinese] market [i.e. this will, according to the authors, allow Chinese companies, in the medium-to-long term, to grow even faster and invest even more in R&D].”“In terms of China's [overall] development, the development of its technologies, the development of its industries as well as a number of other dimensions, this [i.e. pressures from the US/West] does not really constitute a [catastrophic] threat akin to ‘the sky is falling’. Objectively speaking, the discomfort caused by the bans will be the best possible impetus to stimulate and push forward the upgrading of alternative industries and technological capabilities [in China]. China's [past] experience shows that once this short-term discomfort has been overcome and alternative capabilities and industries have been developed, what will follow is a complete rewriting of the rules of the game by China by virtue of the country’s superior production capacity. The potential outcomes of such a scenario are truly exciting.”“For [Chinese] policy analysts [政策观察者], it is important to maintain a greater degree of composure, resilience and patience when dealing with US policy decisions, and to analyse more systematically the [potential] discrepancies between policy intentions, policy content and, ultimately, policy effectiveness. For the Chinese government, the more pressing issue is to build [more] effective and refined countermeasures against US [policies], while maintaining the trend of opening up to the outside world and encouraging globalisation, so that the Chinese market and the benefits gained by US companies in China can be used more fully as leverage and, when necessary, a strategic weapon in China's competition with the US. This is a crucial and necessary part of expanding and improving [our] capabilities in the context of China’s rise.”
Zhu hao (祝好), Thomas
he Hangover (2009) – Stun Gun Demonstration Scene
Comeback kid Lula in the eye of a volcano
18439 ViewsOctober 31, 2022
by Pepe Escobar, first posted at the Asia Times, and reposted with the author’s permission
Lula wins but his room for maneuver will be limited by powerful forces aligned against his Global South agenda
Luis Ignacio “Lula” da Silva may be the ultimate 21st century political comeback kid. At 77, fit and sharp, leading an alliance of 10 political parties, he has just been elected as Brazilian president for what will be a de facto third term after his first two from 2003 to 2010. Lula even staged a comeback-inside-a-comeback, during the extremely fast and tight electronic vote counting, reaching 50.9% against 49.1% to the incumbent, extreme right President Jair Bolsonaro, representing a difference of only two million votes in a country of 215 million people. Lula’s back in office on January 1, 2023. Lula’s first speech was somewhat anti-Lula; noted for his Garcia Marquez-style improvisations and folksy stream of consciousness, he read from a measured, carefully-prepared script.
Lula emphasized the defense of democracy; the fight against hunger; the drive for sustainable development with social inclusion; a “relentless fight against racism, prejudice and discrimination.” He invited international cooperation to preserve the Amazon rainforest and will fight for fair global trade, instead of trade “that condemns our country to be an eternal exporter of raw materials.” Lula, always an exceptional negotiator, managed to win against the formidable state machine apparatus unleashed by Bolsonaro, which saw the distribution of billions of dollars in vote-buying; an avalanche of fake news; outright intimidation and attempts of voter suppression against the poor by rabid Bolsonarists; and countless episodes of political violence. Lula inherits a devastated nation that, much like the US, is completely polarized. From 2003 to 2010 – he rose to power, incidentally, only two months before America’s “shock and awe” against Iraq – it was quite a different story. Lula managed to bring to the table economic prosperity, massive poverty alleviation and an array of social policies. In eight years, he created at least 15 million jobs.
Vicious political persecution ended up canceling him out of the 2018 presidential elections, paving the way for Bolsonaro – a project entertained by the hard-right Brazilian military since 2014. Collusion between Brazil’s Public Ministry and dodgy “justice” stalwarts to persecute and condemn Lula on spurious charges forced him to spend 580 days in jail as a political prisoner as notorious as Julian Assange. Lula ended up being declared not guilty in no less than 26 motions against him by a lawfare machine at the heart of the – deeply corrupt – Car Wash operation. Lula’s Sisyphean task starts now. At least 33 million Brazilians are mired in hunger. Another 115 million are fighting “food insecurity.” No less than 79% of families are hostages to high levels of personal debt. In contrast to the new “pink tide” rolling across Latin America – of which he is now the superstar – internally there’s no pink tide.
On the contrary, he will face a deeply hostile Congress and Senate and even Bolsonarist governors, including in the most powerful state of the federation, Sao Paulo, which concentrates more industrial firepower than many latitudes in the Global North.
Round up the usual suspects
The absolutely key vector is that the international financial system and the “Washington Consensus”, already controlling Bolsonaro’s agenda, have captured Lula’s administration even before it begins. Lula’s vice-president is center-right Geraldo Alckmin, who can be catapulted to power the minute that deeply hostile Congress decides to fabricate some Lula impeachment scheme. It’s not an accident that the neo-liberal The Economist magazine has already “warned” Lula to shift to the center: that is, his government must be run, in practice, by the usual financial suspects. Much will depend on who Lula appoints as his finance minister. The top candidate is Henrique Meirelles, former CEO of FleetBoston, Brazil’s second largest external creditor after CitiGroup. Meirelles has expressed unrestricted support for Lula, for whom he previously worked as central bank chief.
Meirelles is likely to prescribe the exact same economic policies as Bolsonaro’s top economic enforcer, investment banker Paulo Guedes. That happens to be exactly what Meirelles himself created during the rapacious Temer administration, which came to power after the institutional coup against President Dilma Rousseff in 2016. And now we get to the real juice. None other than US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland visited Brazil “unofficially” last April. She refused to meet Bolsonaro and praised the Brazilian electoral system (“You have one of the best in the hemisphere, in terms of reliability, in terms of transparency.” ) Afterward, Lula promised the EU a sort of “governance” of the Amazon and had to publicly condemn the Russian “special military operation” in Ukraine. All that after he had already praised Biden, in 2021, as “a breath for democracy in the world.” The “reward” for the accumulated performance was a Time magazine cover. All of the above may suggest an incoming, shady pseudo-Left government by the Workers Party – neoliberalism with a human face – infiltrated by all sorts of right-wing vectors, essentially serving the interests of Wall Street and the Democrat-controlled State Department. Key planks: acquisition of key economic assets by the usual globalist suspects, and thus no room for Brazil to exercise real sovereignty. Lula, of course, is too smart to be reduced to the role of mere hostage but his room for maneuver – internally – is extremely slim. Toxic Bolsonarism, now in the opposition, will continue to institutionally prosper dressed up as – fake – “anti-system”, especially in the Senate. Bolsonaro is a self-described “myth” created and packaged by the military, coming out in the open about a month after Dilma’s election victory that propelled her to a second term in late 2014. Bolsonaro himself and countless fanatic supporters flirted with Nazism; unabashedly praised known torturers during the Brazilian military dictatorship; and milked serious fascist leanings lurking in Brazilian society. Bolsonarism is even more insidious because this is a military-concocted movement subservient to hardcore neoliberal globalist elites and comprised of evangelicals and agribusiness tycoons while posing as “anti-globalist.” No wonder the virus contaminated literally half of a dazed and confused nation.
Old China hand
Externally, Lula will play a whole different ball game. Lula is one of the founders of the BRICS in 2006, which evolved out of the Russia-China dialogue. He’s immensely respected by the leaders of the Russia-China strategic partnership, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. He has promised to serve only one term, or up to the end of 2026. But that’s exactly the key stretch in the eye of the volcano, straddling the decade Putin described in his Valdai speech as the most dangerous and important since World War II. The drive towards a multipolar world, institutionally represented by a congregation of bodies from BRICS+ to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to the Eurasia Economic Union, will profit immensely to have Lula on board as arguably the natural leader of the Global South – with a track record to match. Of course, his immediate foreign policy focus will be South America: he already announced that will be the destination of his first presidential visit, most probably Argentina, which is bound to join BRICS+. Then he will visit Washington. He has to. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Informed opinion across the Global South is very much aware that it’s under Obama-Biden that the whole, complex operation to topple Dilma and expel Lula from politics was orchestrated. Brazil will be a lame duck at the upcoming G20 in Bali in mid-November but in 2023 Lula will be back in business side-by-side with Putin and Xi. And that also applies to the next BRICS summit in South Africa, which will consolidate BRICS+, as an array of nations are itching to join, from Argentina and Saudi Arabia to Iran and Turkey. And then there’s the Brazil-China nexus. Brasilia has been Beijing’s key trade partner in Latin America since 2009, absorbing roughly half of China’s investment in the region (and the most of any Latin American investment destination in 2021) and firmly placed as the fifth largest exporter of crude for the Chinese market, second for iron and first for soybeans. The precedents tell the story. Right from the start, in 2003, Lula bet on a strategic partnership with China. He considered his first trip to Beijing in 2004 as his top foreign policy priority. The goodwill in Beijing is unshakeable: Lula is considered an old friend by China – and that political capital will open virtually every red door. In practice, that will mean Lula investing his considerable global clout in strengthening BRICS+ (he already stated BRICS will be at the center of his foreign policy) and the inner workings of South-South geopolitical and geo-economic cooperation. That may even include Lula formally signing up Brazil as a partner of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in a way that won’t antagonize the US. Lula, after all, is a master of this craft. Finding a path in the eye of the volcano, internally and externally, will be the definitive political challenge for the comeback kid. Lula has been written off countless times, so underestimating him is a bad bet. Even before starting his third term, he has already performed a major feat: to emancipate a majority of Brazilians from mental slavery. All eyes will be on what the Brazilian military – and its foreign handlers – really want. They have embarked on a very long-term project, control most levers in the power structure, and simply won’t give up. And so the odds may be stacked against an aging neo-Ulysses from northeast Brazil reaching his Ithaca ideal of a fair and sovereign land.
YOU HAVE 6 DAYS LEFT!! ARE YOU READY? | Patrick Humphrey
Really? In six days, eh? It is pretty weird that a Walmart Distribution Center in South Carolina, US. Is usually really busy this time of year. They have not hired anyone in months now. With it being seasonal time also, that is so strange to me!! Also the ones that are working there, are getting NO hours. This has been going on for months, since February. No departments are working full shifts. Check out the video and then monitor the prices at your local grocery store. Let’s watch the clown-show together. https://youtu.be/SXCtROaU-AE
Brandon’s “Usable Nukes” Are the Fast-Track to Jopocalypse
“The Biden administration’s Nuclear Posture Review is, at heart, a terrifying document. It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk.
Citing rising threats from Russia and China, it argues that the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.” Stephen Young, Union of Concerned Scientists
Maybe you’re one of the millions of people who think the US would never use its nuclear weapons unless the threat of a nuclear attack was imminent.
Well, you’d be wrong, because according to the recently-released Nuclear Posture Review, the bar for using nukes has been significantly lowered. The new standard reads like this: (nukes can be used) “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”“
Defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies”??
That’s a pretty broad net, isn’t it? That could include anything from a serious threat to national security to an ordinary economic competitor. And that loosy-goosy definition appears to be just what the authors were looking for. The hardliners wanted to fundamentally change US nuclear doctrine so the conditions under which nukes could be used was greatly expanded.
The obvious objective of this dramatic policy-shift is to eliminate any obstacle to the free and unfettered use of nuclear weapons. Which is precisely what the neocons have always wanted; a green light to Armageddon.
Now they got what they wanted. Here are a few of the changes in policy that suggest that a full-blown nuclear war is no longer a remote possibility, but an increasingly likely prospect.
1– First-Strike Use: Biden refuses to rule out first-strike use of US nuclear weapons …in reversal of his campaign promise. This is from The Daily Mail:
“… on the campaign trail, Biden had vowed to switch to a ‘sole purpose’ doctrine, which maintains that the US would only use nuclear weapons to respond to another nation’s nuclear attack….
President Joe Biden is abandoning a campaign vow to alter longstanding US nuclear doctrine, and will instead embrace existing policy that reserves America’s right to use nukes in a first-strike scenario, according to multiple reports.” (Daily Mail)
2– Nuclear Escalation: The Biden team has accelerated the deployment of modernized U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons to NATO bases in Europe. (The B61-12 carries a lower yield nuclear warhead than earlier versions but is more accurate and can penetrate below ground.) This is from Reuters:
Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernised U.S. B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning.
Amid the Ukraine crisis, Politico reported on Oct. 26 that the United States told a closed NATO meeting this month that it would accelerate the deployment of a modernised version of the B61, the B61-12, with the new weapons arriving at European bases in December, several months earlier than planned.
“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency. (Reuters)
3– ‘Tactical’ means ‘Usable’: Biden’s new regime of low-yield nukes (which can still blow up a city the size of New York.) are called “tactical” weapons because they are designed for use on the battlefield, which is to say, Biden no longer limits the use of nukes for national defense but also supports their use in conventional wars. (like Ukraine?) This is from Aljazeera:
“Tactical nuclear warheads were created to give military commanders more flexibility on the battlefield. In the mid-1950s, as more powerful thermonuclear bombs were being built and tested, military planners thought smaller weapons with a shorter range would be more useful in ‘tactical’ situations,” according to Al Jazeera’s defence analyst Alex Gatopoulos. (Aljazeera)
4– Fasttrack to Nuclear War: Biden’s New Euro-Nukes have lowered the threshold for nuclear war. This is from MSN: Russia said on Saturday that the accelerated deployment of modernized US B61 tactical nuclear weapons at NATO bases in Europe would lower the “nuclear threshold” and that Russia would take the move into account in its military planning…
“The United States is modernizing them, increasing their accuracy and reducing the power of the nuclear charge, that is, they turn these weapons into ‘battlefield weapons’, thereby reducing the nuclear threshold,” Grushko said….
… Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said on Saturday on Telegram that the new B61 bombs had a “strategic significance” as Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons were in storage, yet these U.S. bombs would be just a short flight from Russia’s borders.
“We cannot ignore the plans to modernize nuclear weapons, those free-fall bombs that are in Europe,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state RIA news agency. (MSM) 5– Increasing the Reasons for using Nukes: The Nuclear Posture Review abandons Biden’s promise to ensure that US nuclear weapons would be used for the “sole purpose” of deterring or responding to a nuclear attack. Instead, the NPR states that the US will consider the use of nuclear weapons “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”
Sole purpose could significantly reduce the risk of unintended escalation and increase the credibility of more flexible and realistic nonnuclear response options in a range of importance contingencies.” (Federation of American Scientists)
6– More Escalation: The US now reserves the right to use its nukes against non-nuclear weapon countries. This is from an article at Bloomberg News: The Pentagon’s new National Defense Strategy rejected limits on using nuclear weapons long championed by arms control advocates and in the past by President Joe Biden.
Citing burgeoning threats from China and Russia, the Defense Department said in the document released Thursday that “by the 2030s the United States will, for the first time in its history face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors and potential adversaries.” In response, the US will “maintain a very high bar for nuclear employment” without ruling out using the weapons in retaliation to a non-nuclear strategic threat to the homeland, US forces abroad or allies.” (“Pentagon’s Strategy Won’t Rule Out Nuclear Use Against Non-Nuclear Threats”, Bloomberg) Here’s more from an article at the World Socialist Web Site:
In the Defense Department briefing, this point is elaborated. The NPR, a department official stated, “establishes a strategy that relies on nuclear weapons to deter all forms of strategic attack. This includes nuclear employment of any scale, and it includes high-consequence attacks of a strategic nature that use non-nuclear means.”
The publication of the document was rapidly condemned by arms control experts. “The Biden administration’s unclassified Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is, at heart, a terrifying document,” wrote the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
“It not only keeps the world on a path of increasing nuclear risk, in many ways it increases that risk,” the UCS argued, by claiming that “the only viable U.S. response is to rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, maintain an array of dangerous Cold War-era nuclear policies, and threaten the first use of nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.”…
This marks a significant development from Trump’s 2018 National Defense Strategy, which largely referred to the use of military force to secure economic interests in the negative—asserting that it was China that was doing so. While this was the clear implication of the 2018 document, the definition of “national interests” advanced by the Pentagon’s 2022 document to include “economic prosperity” constitutes an even more open step toward advocating the doctrine that war is an acceptable means to secure economic aims.
A section of the 2022 National Defense Strategy:
These documents, which were not seriously discussed in the US media, make clear the fundamental falsehood that the massive US military buildup this year is a response to “Russian aggression.” In reality, in the thinking of the White House and Pentagon war planners, the massive increases in military spending and plans for war with China are created by “dramatic changes in geopolitics, technology, economics, and our environment.”
These documents make clear that the United States sees the economic rise of China as an existential threat, to be responded to with the threat of military force. The United States sees the subjugation of Russia as a critical stepping stone toward the conflict with China.” (“Pentagon national strategy document targets China”, Andre Damon, World Socialist Web Site) he White House, the Pentagon and the entire US foreign policy establishment now march in lockstep behind the most fanatically-lethal defense policy in the nation’s 246-year history. The National Defense Strategy, the Nuclear Posture Review and the National Security Strategy all embrace the same reckless warmongering policy that will inevitably lead to mass annihilation and civilizational collapse. The doves and critical thinkers have all been removed from the foreign policy apparatus while the madmen and warhawks drag the world inexorably towards catastrophe. God help us.
Prussian Major General Carl von Clausewitz famously drew on his own experience in the Napoleonic Wars to examine war as a political phenomenon. In his 1832 book “On War” he provided a frequently quoted pithy summary of war versus peace, writing in terms of politico-military strategy that “War is a mere continuation of politics by other means.” In other words, war-making is a tool provided to statesmen to achieve a nation’s political objectives when all else fails. One can reject the ultimate amorality of Clausewitz’s thinking about war while also recognizing that some nations have historically speaking exploited war-making as a tool for physical expansion and the appropriation of foreigners’ resources. As far back as the Roman Republic, the country’s elected leaders doubled as heads of its consular armies, which were expected to go out each spring to expand the imperium. More recently, Britain notably engaged in almost constant colonial wars over the course of centuries to establish what was to become history’s largest empire. America’s dominant neocons characteristically believe they have inherited the mantle of empire and of the war powers that go hand-in-hand with that attribute, but they have avoided other aspects of the transition in turning the United States into a nation made and empowered by war. First of all, what comes out the other end after one has initiated hostilities with another country is unpredictable. Starting with Korea and continuing with Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq as well as other minor operations in Latin America, Africa and Asia, American war-making has brought nothing but grief on those on the receiving end with little positive to show for the death, destruction and accumulated debt. Also forgotten in the rush to use force is the raison d’etre to have a federal national government at all, which is to bring tangible benefit to the American people. There has been none of that since 9/11 and even before, while Washington’s hard-line stance on what has become a proxy war against Russia over Ukraine promises more pain – perhaps disastrously so – and no real gain. If one has any doubt that going to war has become the principal function of both Democrats and Republicans in Washington, it is only necessary to consider several stories that have appeared in the past several weeks. The first comes from the Republican side, and it includes a possibly positive development. House Minority leader Republican Kevin McCarthy warned two weeks ago that the GOP will not necessarily continue to write a “blank check” for Ukraine if they obtain the House majority in next month’s election, reflecting his party’s growing skepticism about unlimited financial support for the corrupt regime in place in Kiev. McCarthy explained “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine. They just won’t do it. … It’s not a free blank check.” America’s uncritical support for Ukraine, which has been a contrivance by the White House and media since the fighting started, has led to a growing number of Republicans, particularly some of those aligned with Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, to challenge the need for massive federal spending abroad at a time of record-high inflation at home. Since Russia launched its invasion in February, Congress has approved tens of billions in emergency security and humanitarian assistance for Ukraine, while the Biden administration has shipped billions more worth of weapons and equipment from military inventories, all done with only limited or even no oversight of where the money and weapons are winding up. But, unfortunately, the GOP is far from unified on its approach to Ukraine-Russia. Congressman Liz Cheney demonstrated that her apple did not fall far from her father’s tree, taking some time off from trying to hang Donald Trump to denounce what she refers to as the “Putin wing of the Republican Party.” She put it this way: “You know, the Republican Party is the party of Reagan, the party that essentially won the Cold War. And you look now at what I think is really a growing Putin wing of the Republican Party.” Cheney criticized Fox News for “running propaganda” on the issue and in particular called out Fox host Tucker Carlson as “the biggest propagandist for Putin on that network… You really have to ask yourself, whose side is Fox on in this battle? And how could it be that you have a wing of the Republican Party that thinks that America would be standing with Putin as he conducts that brutal invasion of Ukraine?” Cheney notably did not address the issue of how the war developed in the first place because the US and UK preferred saber rattling to diplomacy with Moscow. Or why the United States feels compelled to tip-toe to the brink of a possible nuclear war over a foreign policy issue that is of no real national interest to the American people. And where did she make her comments? At the McCain Institute in Arizona. Yes, that’s a legacy of Senator John McCain another Republican who never saw a war he couldn’t enthusiastically support. Both President Joe Biden and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi have confirmed that the US is in with Ukraine until “victory” is obtained, whatever that is supposed to mean, while other Administration officials have indicated that the actual purpose of the fighting is to weaken Russia and remove President Putin. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre glibly spouted the party line when asked about McCarthy’s comments. She thanked congressional leaders for bipartisan work to “support Ukraine to defend itself from Russia’s war crimes and atrocities,” adding that “We will continue to work with Congress and continue to monitor those conversations on these efforts and support Ukraine as long as it takes. We are going to keep that promise that we’re making to the brave Ukrainians who are fighting every day, to fight for their freedom and their democracy.” Perhaps more bizarre than Cheney’s comments is the tale of a letter that was prepared by thirty Democratic Party progressives urging US support for negotiations to end the fighting in Ukraine. The letter was prepared in June but not released until last week before being quickly retracted under pressure on the following day. Pramila Jayapal, who heads the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said it was retracted because it “was being conflated with [the] comments” made by McCarthy over his warning about budget cutting for Ukraine. Jayapal referred to the letter as a “distraction,” but what she really meant was that her group had no desire to make common cause with the Republicans over any issue, including war and peace in an escalating conflict that is manifestly pointless. A clueless Jayapal also took pains to contradict the message put out by her own group, emphasizing that there has been no opposition to the administration’s Ukraine policy from Democrats in Congress. She said Democrats “have strongly and unanimously supported and voted for every package of military, strategic, and economic assistance to the Ukrainian people.” She doubled down on the White House message, affirming that the war in Ukraine will only end with diplomacy after “a Ukrainian victory.” So basically, anyone talking sense about Ukraine in Washington is being shut down by forces within the political parties themselves working together with a compliant national media that is mis-representing everything that is taking place on the ground. It is a formula for tragedy as the Biden administration has shown no sign of seeking diplomacy with Russia to end the conflict despite the president’s recent surprising warning that the world is now facing the highest risk of nuclear “Armageddon,” which he, of course, blames on Putin. Given all of that, in my humble opinion a government that is unable or unwilling to take reasonable steps to protect its own citizens while also avoiding a possible nuclear catastrophe that could end up engulfing the entire world is fundamentally evil and has lost all legitimacy. It should recognize that fact before submitting its resignation.
The Twilight Zone – A Most Unusual Camera (clip)
Why does CCP tell their citizens they “will not be enslaved by foreigners” when no foreign nation is interested in doing that?
To the Chinese, it brings back very bad memories to see Western powers sending fleets to China’s coasts, forming alliances against China, working closely with a brutally Sinophobic Japan, speaking of the breakup of China into Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet, Xinjiang, etc., tolerating racist attacks on Chinese immigrants, trying to embargo China and cut off its access to markets and resources, speaking of the desire to overthrow China’s government (e.g. far-right scumbag Arkansas senator Tom Cotton and scumbag British diplomat Roger Garside, author of China Coup), vilifying and barbarizing China’s culture, political system, history, and even regional cuisines, and proclaiming the superiority of Western belief systems.
Anyone who doesn’t understand why should really just exit any discussion of China because they don’t know anything about China’s history over the past 200 years. All of this is extremely familiar to the Chinese. In fact, it makes up most of China’s historical experience with the West. Major Western (British) diplomats visited China for the first time in 1793. Most of the 200 years after that were quite a miserable time for all Chinese.
This is why the CPC has always refused to restore or reconstruct the Old Summer Palace (Yuanming Yuan) in Beijing, which was once world-famous, breathtakingly beautiful and something like China’s Pyramids or Hanging Gardens. It was looted and destroyed by the French and British in 1860, and today 47 Western museums exhibit and profit from its treasures. This is all that’s left of the Old Summer Palace, and it’s a depressing sight in the capital city of the world’s second-richest nation; but the dilapidated ruins are a reminder to new generations.
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Can you imagine that these charred pillars and scattered stones mark the spot where the emperors of China once lived and governed for 125 years? Not in ancient times, but from 1735 to 1860.
I think the average patriotic Chinese is thinking, You did all of this before, and we were weak and you won. You really want to do this again? Well this time, we’re just as big as you are.
The story of the Old Summer Palace increases the kinship I feel with China as an Egyptian, because my country’s stolen treasures also fill Western museums from Boston to Berlin.
The West has always seen non-Western peoples more of less as barbarians, but I don’t think barbarians are people who practise polygamy, eat dog meat, worship idols, have no written language, or are ruled by an emperor instead of a parliament. Barbarians are people who have to brutalize and plunder every corner of the earth they ever go, simply because they can.
What kind of people make you ashamed to be a human being?
These absolute sacks of shit.
This is the Westboro Baptist Church. A Baptist church based in Topeka, Kansas. Every day, WBC pickets approximately six locations. They claim to have picketed in all 50 states. What kind of events do they picket? Any events that don’t align with their homophobic, transphobic, anti-Catholic, anti-Orthodox, anti-atheist, Islamophobic, antisemitic, antiziganist, and anti-American views. Organizations like the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League have accused them of brainwashing, and the church is often heavily criticized for resembling a cult (which it completely is). Some notable events that they picketed are:
Hundreds, possibly even thousands, of military funerals.
The funeral of Michael Jackson.
The funeral of Ronnie James Dio.
The funeral of Christina Green, a 9 year old victim of the 2011 Tucson Shooting. Luckily, they were unsuccessful because the Arizona legislature passed an emergency bill banning protesters within 300 ft of the memorial.
On October 5, 2011, Margie Phelps (daughter of the church’s founder) tweeted from her iPhone that the church would be picketing Steve Jobs’ funeral. Read that again. She used an iPhone to tell the world that they were going to protest STEVE JOBS’ funeral.
They tried to picket Leonard Nimoy’s funeral, but they couldn’t find it.
They picketed the funerals of the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting.
They picketed the funerals of the Orlando nightclub shooting.
They protested the National Holocaust Museum, stating that the Jews are the real Nazis.
They also picketed the 9/11 memorials, with signs that said “Thank God for 9/11,” yet they also demanded that “teh gayz” be punished for causing 9/11.
These slippery little shits use every loophole in the book (or rather, the constitution) to ensure that they can continue their heinous activities.
These parasitic barrels of monkey nuts make me ashamed to not only be American, but a human being. I find some comfort in the parody of the church that was featured in Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Oh NO! This is BIGGER than the Snowden leaks, much bigger
This is pretty important. Really. Please watch this video. https://youtu.be/6lSLks0XaAY
They Won’t Be Able To Deny The Cold, Hard Reality Of What Is Happening To The U.S. Economy Much Longer
by Michael They are trying really hard to convince all of us that everything is just fine. But close to one-fifth of the U.S. population is skipping meals because food prices are too high. And nearly 40 percent of our small businesses couldn’t pay rent in October. Our leaders are trying to put a positive spin on things, but the truth is that we are witnessing a tremendous amount of economic suffering all over the United States right now. The core consumer price index just surged to “the highest level since 1982”, and this is putting an enormous amount of financial stress on American families and businesses. This week, I was stunned to learn that a survey that was just released found that 37 percent of all small businesses in the United States could not pay rent last month…
The survey of 4,789 randomly selected small business owners saw more than half of respondents say their rent is at least 10 percent higher than six months ago.If you go back seven months, the majority said their rents had increased by at least 20 percent.Moreover, the study found that roughly 37 percent of small businesses – almost half of all Americans working in the private sector – were left unable to pay rent in October.
Prior to getting this news, if someone had asked me to guess the percentage of small businesses that are currently unable to pay rent, I would have responded with a figure that was far lower. So often, things turn out to be even worse than I thought they were. If those small businesses continue to be unable to pay rent, they will eventually be forced to shut down. So what will our communities look like if millions of small businesses suddenly close up shop on a permanent basis? Meanwhile, a different survey has discovered that 18 percent of Americans are now skipping meals because food prices have become so crazy…
Over the last 12 months, nearly two in five American households (40%) received food or goods from a food bank (22% for Millennials), and the same amount (17%) stopped buying healthier foods (organic or high-priced healthy foods).Nearly one in five Americans (18%) say they skipped meals or didn’t buy groceries due to high inflation (including 28% of Gen Z and 23% of millennials).
Skipping meals can be a positive thing, because fasting is actually really good for your health. But most of these Americans are not skipping meals for the health benefits. In addition, the same survey found that many Americans are not taking medications or seeing their doctors because prices have gone up so much…
Many have cancelled or postponed plans in the past 12 months to see a specialist (14%), take a prescribed medication (10%) or get an annual physical (11%) due to high inflation.
If things are this bad already, what will those numbers look like next year at this time when economic conditions are significantly worse? The American people are going to become increasingly frustrated as our standard of living continues to plunge. All of us have to eat, and so many of the products that so many of us buy on a regular basis have gone up dramatically in price…
A year ago, a bag of potato chips at the grocery store cost an average of $5.05. These days, that bag costs $6.05. A dozen eggs that could have been picked up for $1.83 now average $2.90. A two-liter bottle of soda that cost $1.78 will now set you back $2.17.
Sadly, this is just the beginning. Even though the Federal Reserve has declared war on inflation, food prices are going to continue to rise for a variety of reasons. And as the cost of living keeps becoming more oppressive, more American families are going to struggle to make it from month to month. Even now, nearly two-thirds of the entire country is currently living paycheck to paycheck…
As rising prices continue to outpace wage gains, families are finding less cushion in their monthly budget.As of September, 63% of Americans were living paycheck to paycheck, according to a recent LendingClub report — near the 64% historic high hit in March. A year ago, the number of adults who felt strained was closer to 57%.“Consumers are not able to keep up with the pace that inflation is increasing,” said Anuj Nayar, LendingClub’s financial health officer.
The worse things get, the more we will see people clamoring for the federal government to help them. In fact, one recent survey actually discovered that 63 percent of all U.S. voters are in favor of “inflation stimulus payments”…
A recent poll found that almost two-thirds of Americans are proponents of the federal government sending out inflation stimulus payments.About 63% of eligible U.S. voters expressed some degree of support for federal inflation relief checks being distributed, the Newsweek poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies showed. Of those who agreed the federal government should do so, 42% indicated they “strongly agree” while 21% said “agree,” according to the poll.
Sadly, most voters don’t seem to understand that sending out more stimulus checks would create even more inflation. There is always a cost when the government gives out “free money”. If our politicians would have exercised discipline over the past several years, we would not be in the mess that we are in today. But now years of very bad decisions are catching up with us in a major way, and economic conditions are rapidly deteriorating. At this point, the vast majority of the U.S. population can see this. According to one recent Gallup survey, a whopping two-thirds of all Americans believe that economic conditions in this nation are getting worse. So many people are talking about the possibility of a recession in 2023. If all we have is a recession next year, we would be extremely fortunate. Because right now the economy is starting to crack and crumble all around us, and the outlook for the months ahead is exceedingly bleak indeed. .
What are some unwritten social rules everyone should know?
1. 1+1 = 3 if you don’t use the condom.
2. Alcohol increase size of the “SEND” button by 89%.
3. Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
4. Sometimes we create our own heartbreaks through expectations.
5. Life is too short to be with the wrong person.
6. Just because you love them, it doesn’t mean they’re right for you.
7. Feelings that come back are feelings that never left.
Gosh it’s a crazy time. The Drudge report is pure garbage. It’s all non-stop American war-propaganda. Check this out…
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Reading about Putin having brain cancer, and that he’s going to be jailed and replaced any day (now) gets old real fast. As does the endless stories of brave Ukrainian fighters and how they expertly use American HIMARS rocket launchers with only weeks training and how they have the Russians running scared. Ugh! Please spare me the endless bullshit.
It’s nauseating.
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I’d rather watch traffic lights turning red and green.
Don’t ya know…
Pay attention. The United States is at war. It’s engaging EVERYONE. And the entire domestic spiel is all about war.
Everyone is just flabbergasted in WHAT THE FUCK IS THE USA DOING?
PUTIN JUST WON
Just now? Nope. It’s all there.
https://youtu.be/iM_K3ivJdNQ
Sigh
Ok, so the Chinese holiday is ending. As is the unusual heat wave. No longer is Zhuhai an oppressively humid 34C (93F) but it is now a very dry 25C (78F or so). And so it’s pretty nice out.
I still have three days remaining on my “strikes” on you-tube because I provided “misinformation on coronavirus” in variance with “local law enforcement”. Uh hum. Sure.
I can just see the local Chinese baoan talking with the purple haired chicks about my videos on getting swabs. LOL!
Anyways, the value of the dollar keeps on raising against the yuan. This is a good thing. Not bad. Especially for me personally.
Value of the yuan against he dollar. And exchange rates summary of the last year.
What do you think about the Chinese government killing and imprisoning CIA spies in China?
The answers…
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Well, the public opinion is running really anti-USA on this American forum…
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OK. Enough of that.
Moving on…
Russian nuclear war
Scott Ritter, who knows a bit about nuclear deterrence, has explained Russia’s nuclear doctrine:
NATO and Ukraine both believe that the Russian forces, even after receiving the 300,000 mobilized troops, will not be able to defeat Ukraine. This inability to achieve the desired objectives, they believe, will compel Russia to resort to the use of tactical nuclear weapons on Ukrainian targets in order to break the will to resist on the part of the Zelensky government.The reality, however, is that Russian nuclear doctrine does not allow for such a scenario. Indeed, there are only two conditions where Russian nuclear doctrine permits the employment of nuclear weapons.No 1. “[I]n response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies,” the 2020 Russian Nuclear Posture document states, orNo 2. “in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.”U.S. nuclear posture, however, does allow it.
All the war mongering talk and reports about Russia’s alleged threat of nuclear weapon use in Ukraine is totally unfounded. That ‘western’mediasuddenlyengageinit shows that it is part of a well directed propaganda campaign.
A upcoming false flag event?
One must ask what this propaganda campaign about a non existing threat is really about. Could it be in preparation of a false flag incident in which a U.S or British nuclear device is used in Ukraine to then blame it on Russia as the pretext of an all out military engagement in Ukraine?
Setting off a tactical nuclear weapon as a pretext for a direct US and Polish military incursion into Western Ukraine - perhaps to preserve a Ukrainian rump state there, in the event that Kiev looks likely to fall somewhere down the line in the conflict.False flags and/or WMDs are after all the indisputable standard US MO and playbook for pretexts for military action from the Spanish American War, to Vietnam, to Iraq, to Syria.The Pentagon has been openly and proudly developing and deploying what they call “more usable” battlefield nuclear weapons, specifically for use against Russia and China.And the US is the only country in history to have used nuclear weapons in war on another state, on entire Japanese cities full of people, actually.Or – possibly could this be dog whistle signaling to the Zelenskiy regime or NeoNazi forces in Ukraine about just how to generate the extremis conditions to allow the US to jump directly into the conflict, much like how the US did the same with jihadist forces and chemical weapons “red lines” in Syria.
With Zelenski becoming increasingly unhinged the ‘west’ should be careful what it wishes for.
China says a few words…
China’s Global Times is editorializing about the US losing a nuclear war, and using nuclear weapons in space.
Note to the US – a nuclear war can be won by rivals
... there is no justification for responding to a non-kinetic EMP attack with the killing of millions in a kinetic nuclear counterstrike based only on unverified suspicion.Nuclear war can be won, and Russia and other US competitors are well prepared to emerge as victors.
Some advice for the US is don't allow a parochial political agendas or allies to manipulate its decisions.
Nuclear weapons in space might not kill on earth but it would make space unusable for generations to come. Point made HERE
By Franz Gayl
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that Russia is prepared to employ nuclear weapons in defense of its sovereignty. The US dismissed the warning as a bluff and threatened Russia by stating the use of such weapons would be met with unspecified “devastating” consequences.
The US retains faith in the doctrine of mutual assured destruction(MAD). MAD contributed to its Cold War victory, and it is assumed to still be effective today.
Under an umbrella of US MAD deterrence, Ukraine assumes it can now crush Russian aims with modern US conventional weapons and take back what it claims to be its own.
An emboldened Taiwan island could conceivably take a lesson from Ukraine and declare its independence from China.
However, even after Russia was lectured by the US, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, emphasized that Russia is not bluffing.
Considering the likelihood that the Biden Administration was misinformed, the sincerity of Russian leaders should be given the benefit of a doubt.
After the Cold War the US cashed in what it called a peace dividend. Funds were diverted from strategic capabilities as the probability of nuclear war seemed negligible.
Instead, the US appointed itself the task of world policeman, enforcing its foreign policy ideals with conventional general purpose and special operations expeditionary forces.
Sensing strategic neglect, in 2004 Congress became concerned for the unique threat posed by nuclear weapons-generated high altitude electromagnetic pulse (EMP).
Experts contended that an EMP would cause nationwide electrical grid anomalies, cascading systems failures, and ultimately unravel the fabric of American society. Even non-state and rogue state actors could defeat the US with only a small number of EMP weapons.
Nevertheless, other funding priorities took precedence. US’ civilian and military systems remain vulnerable to EMP nearly two decades later due to Washington’s continued faith in MAD.
However, Russia and others remain skeptical of the new US-led world order.
Nuclear conflict was not only possible, but perhaps more likely.
Nuclear powers are repelled by memories of the US nuclear bombings in Japan that incinerated two cities and well over one hundred thousand people. Rational nations know that all humanity would suffer planetary devastation and a horrible aftermath in a kinetic nuclear war, and these aspects of MAD still serve as deterrence.
The assumed reliability of MAD has animated the US-supported Ukrainian leadership to disregard Russia’s perspectives.
With similar confidence in the US nuclear umbrella Secessionists on the Taiwan island pursue secession in disregard of China’s sovereignty.
Some may seek to minimize the risks of any nuclear weapons employment because all nations will suffer equally, reinforcing MAD deterrence. But the electrical infrastructure designs of Russia and others have spared no expense in applying Cold War civil defense lessons.
Command economies, long range planning, hardened grids, and stability of centralized leadership further aid their societies in surviving any potential EMP attack.
Given their histories and traditions, those cultures are probably more adept at continued functionality in the absence of amenities and infrastructure than the US.
Others will cite a nuclear adversary’s inescapable accountability for an attack through the positive attribution of a weapon’s launch or delivery.
A perpetrator will be immediately identified and targeted with a devastating counterstrike.
Positive attribution is crucial, but far from guaranteed.
At least 15 nations can access low earth orbit, and many have access to geosynchronous orbit. The real nature of every object launched cannot be known with certainty. Nuclear weapons can also be concealed in and called down from the clutter of the super-synchronous graveyard orbit for surprise use.
At best, positive attribution would take time, during which the EMP-debilitated US comes apart at the seams.
And there is no justification for responding to a non-kinetic EMP attack with the killing of millions in a kinetic nuclear counterstrike based only on unverified suspicion.
Nuclear war can be won, and Russia and other US competitors are well prepared to emerge as victors.
Some advice for the US is don’t allow a parochial political agendas or allies to manipulate its decisions.
Knowing that nuclear war can be won, the US should listen to, acknowledge and respect the core priorities Russia and China to de-escalate tensions in negotiations before it is too late.
The Sopranos – Badass Furio Giunta
Hardly Anyone In Washington Seems To Care About The Future At This Point
Our politicians in Washington are literally destroying our future. But do you see anyone out in the streets protesting their calamitous policies? By now, you have probably heard that the U.S. national debt has hit 31 trillion dollars. To be more precise, as I write this article the U.S. national debt is currently sitting at $31,142,591,307,260.01. It is the largest single debt in the history of the world, and given enough time it would completely destroy our economy all by itself. Unfortunately, hardly anyone in Washington seems to care about our rapidly exploding debt at this point.
In the old days, the Republicans would at least put on a show for us. They would huff and puff about the national debt but then give the Democrats virtually all of the spending that they wanted anyway.
But now they have figured out that such a charade is no longer necessary, because most of their constituents just don’t care.
So most of our politicians no longer even pretend to care about fiscal responsibility. In recent years they have been on the biggest borrowing and spending binge in our entire history, and there are no indications that they ever plan to stop.
They borrow and spend trillions upon trillions of dollars, and they expect you, your children, and your grandchildren to pay it back.
Of course that will never happen.
We are never going to pay back the 31.1 trillion dollars that we have borrowed.
Instead, we are just going to push the accelerator all the way to the floor until we finally go off a cliff.
Some things never change — such as the federal government spending more money than it has month after month after month.August was no different. The US government ran a massive $219.6 billion budget deficit last month, according to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement. That nudged out July as the second-largest monthly deficit in fiscal 2022.
Sadly, I didn’t hear of anyone in Washington giving a major speech when that happened, because the national debt is not even considered to be an important national issue today.
But our entire standard of living depends on the value of the U.S. dollar. Having the default reserve currency of the world has been such a massive advantage for the United States, and now we are frittering it away.
The rest of the world can see what we are doing.
We are transforming our currency into toilet paper, and it is just a matter of time before it completely collapses.
Today, our politicians are stealing more than 200 million dollars from future generations of Americans every single hour of every single day.
Just think about that.
The old geezers in Washington know that they are near the end of the road.
So they know that they will never have to pay any of this money back.
But they get to spend it on whatever they want.
Of course it was inevitable that all of this borrowing and spending would eventually create rampant inflation, and now we are facing the worst inflation crisis in our history.
Yes, even worse than the Jimmy Carter era of the 1970s.
The Federal Reserve is rapidly hiking interest rates in a desperate attempt to get inflation under control, but that is causing all sorts of problems.
For one thing, the interest payments on our national debt will soon exceed a trillion dollars a year…
According to the Congressional Budget Office, this is exactly what will happen. It projects interest payments will triple from nearly $400 billion in fiscal 2022 to $1.2 trillion in 2032. And it’s worse than that. The CBO made this estimate in May. Interest rates are already higher than those used in its analysis.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that the current system will survive until 2032.
Previous generations handed us the keys to the reserve currency of the world and the greatest economic machine that the planet had ever witnessed.
Sadly, we took those precious gifts and completely destroyed them.
As a society, we have lost all regard for long-term consequences.
“At the president’s direction, the Department of Energy will deliver another 10 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the market next month as part of the historic 180-million-barrel release the President ordered back in March. And the President will continue to direct SPR releases as necessary,” she said.
What an incredibly foolish thing to do.
It is only supposed to be used in the event of a national emergency, and what Biden has decided to do is absolutely unprecedented.
The fact that things are not looking good for his party in November is not an “emergency”, and Senator Tom Cotton is not amused…
Whoa, say critics, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).“Well, it’s called the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It’s not the political petroleum reserve,” Cotton told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham Wednesday night.
We are going to need that oil someday.
But thanks to Biden, most of it will already be gone.
If we found ourselves in the middle of a major war, the worldwide flow of energy supplies would suddenly be greatly restricted. That is the sort of emergency scenario that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was designed for.
Sadly, thanks to the warmongers in the Biden administration we may soon find ourselves fighting wars with Russia, China, North Korea and Iran simultaneously.
Most Americans have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. Things with North Korea are getting really, really tense, and a major war in the Middle East could erupt at any time.
World War 3 has already started, but thankfully we haven’t gotten to the part where billions of people die just yet.
Unfortunately, our current crop of leaders couldn’t care less about the long-term future of humanity.
So they continue to pursue policies that are incredibly self-destructive, and we are all going to pay a very great price for their foolishness.
Welcome to the season of chaos, sponsored by the Party of Chaos, America’s Democratic Party, owner and operator of the shadowy “Joe Biden” regime, dedicated to wrecking what’s left of the country — and the rest of Western Civ with it. Do you think I exaggerate? Consider for a moment that your personal ruin — the loss of your freedoms, your livelihoods, and your posterity — is at stake behind the more general demolition of our society.
We are barreling into an election that will determine the composition of Congress. There is much chatter about whether this election will be allowed to happen. Signs and portents point to a grievous loss of power for the Party of Chaos. Power is all they care about — certainly not the public interest or the common good — and a particular sort of power: the power to coerce, persecute, and punish.
It is obvious in everything they do, from the FBI swat-team home invasions of select opponents and the gross mistreatment of the January 6 defendants, to the craven censoring of public speech, to the imposition of medical tyranny and the deadly fraud of Covid shots, to the degenerate insults of their race-and-gender hustles, to their assault on the value of our money, to their sabotage of the oil-and-gas industries, to their treasonous abandonment of border control, to the deliberate perversion of policing and public order, to their promulgation of a faithless and unnecessary war, sharply against our national interests, in faraway Ukraine.
Adults understand that politics is a crooked business, but through the whole of US history until now filters existed in the public arena that allowed for enough sorting out of truth from untruth to enable the formation of a reality-based consensus — which, in turn, allowed daily life to operate coherently. The Party of Chaos has thrown the kill-switch on that crucial function by corrupting the news business and subverting the new social media. The result is a public culture of pervasive and immersive lying, and a stupendous institutional failure of the courts to correct any of that behavior.
Case-in-point: the John Durham Special Counsel Investigation on the origin of the RussiaGate fraud. It now apparently terminates in the prosecution of the tiniest minnow (Igor Danchenko) in that vast inland sea of corruption. Some of the figures who carried out the perfidious seditions of RussiaGate are still employed in the Department of Justice and the FBI, and to this day are active in the continued cover-up of the crimes committed to overthrow President Trump, notably: Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and others.
Mr. Durham is supposedly among the highest officers of the federal courts charged with enforcing a very particular region of criminality. His staff must be marinated in evidence of the RussiaGate misdeeds — reams of which have been independently documented in the public record, ranging from (just for example) the nefarious activities of figures like Nellie Ohr, wife of DOJ higher-up Bruce Ohr, working as go-between with Christopher Steele and the FBI, to the spectacular failures of Judge James Boasberg and his FISA court, not to mention the well-known machinations of Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Andrew McCabe, Rob Rosenstein, Dana Boente, James Baker, Andrew Weissmann, Jeannie Rhee, Aaron Zebley, Brandon Van Grack, Robert Mueller, and other top officials who worked sedulously against the public interest. All these remain apparently off-the-hook for their sketchy activities.
How did that happen? If the Party of Chaos loses control of its Congressional majority, Mr. Durham may have to answer that question. And until he does, American justice will remain a deeply broken institution that citizens can’t trust. In that light, how is our country any better than the most overt petty despotisms around the world? How does it deserve the citizens’ respect or even compliance?
The stakes in the midterm elections are huge for the Party of Chaos, and its worker bees may be capable of any duplicity to throw it off the rails. In my soon-to-drop next podcast, blogger Tom Luongo (of Gold, Goats, and Guns) introduces a surprising twist: the election takes place, he says, but the Party of Chaos finds a way to delay the announcement of the results via procedural shenanigans that go on for weeks after November 8, leaving the country in a state of anxious limbo. What an idea! Such a strategy would wreck the last shred of public trust in elections without having to cancel, postpone, or overtly overthrow the process. It would also invite just the sort of public protest that the Party of Chaos can spin into another insurrection narrative.
I’m strangely confident that there is a hidden column of people that love this country who will not allow this final insulting scam to succeed. Its appearance among us will shock and amaze the multitudes. The rule of the Woke Jacobin maniacs will end. And even though we’ll have to live through the wreckage they brought about, we’ll move about this strange new landscape of hardship in the light of reality-made-visible, seeing clearly what has happened and knowing what we must do to revive our country.
Pat Buchanan on Suicide of a Superpower
Can cats be mad at their humans?
Oh yes! I emigrated to Australia and my buddy, Kaiser von Floppenschnorren, emigrated with me. However, whilst I was exempted from undergoing quarantine, Kaiser had to endure a full 30 days of it.
Let me tell you, when we went to get him released from the Big House, he was as pissed as could be! He shouted at me for the entire trip home and once there, proceeded to shout at me for another half-hour or so until he decided it was time to eat.
My wife took this photo as, like me, she’s had cats all her life, and had never seen such an angry kitty as Kaiser was on that day! He just sat there and shouted!!
x
Two Dollars… (Better Off Dead)
Have you ever bought a car that didn’t run and found that it was an easy fix?
Yes, actually I didn’t buy it. I got it for free……. It wasn’t a car, But an RV…. Yes an actual RV. It was a 2002, 26 foot class A RV. It was in perfect condition.
Just didn’t run.
Inside was perfect. The RV only had 16000 miles on it. Generator only has 30 hrs on It. The RV was practically new.
The guy that owned it didn’t want it anymore.
He was paying storage to park it. He said he didn’t want to pay storage anymore for an RV that didn’t work. I guess it wouldn’t start one day.
He took it to a shop and they told him the engine was blown and he needed a new one. The cost would have been around $8,000.
Crazy.
So he just parked it.
So this guy who I didn’t know came to my work wanting to dispose of the RV. I said I would take it. I got the RV to my Mechanic.
He looked at it and replaced a $70 part on the fuel system…. RV started right up!!!!!
Ran perfect.
Took it to a smog shop and it passed in a few min. I couldn’t believe it.
I got an $25000 (today’s value, new was over $100k) RV for free!!!! Best RV ever. I have driven that thing all up and down California. Amazing. What a find….
x
Reports of Mid-Air MISSILE INTERCEPT over Silver City, Yukon
There are reports that today, Thursday, October 6, 2022, there was a mid-air intercept of an incoming missile, over the Yukon Territory of Canada.
Locals in Silver City, Yukon claim that about 8:30 AM local time:
" . . . 2 objects collided mid air high altitude. The first object looked like it came from the north and the second object came from the west. There was a notable boom that shook the windows in the shack I was working in. The one coming from the north wasn't moving that fast but the one from the west was hauling ass.There's no mention on the news about a plane crash or anything but there's been a bunch of military helicopters most of the day in the area."
If a Russian vessel in the Arctic, fired a missile at the US, the trajectory could send it over that part of the Yukon Territory, “from the north.”
If US Missile Defenses in Alaska tracked it, they could have fired a missile interceptor, “from the west.”
Sounds like bullshit to me. -MM
One Crazy Summer – Godzilla
Roasted Tomato Soup
“Recently had an extra pint of cherry tomatoes on hand and was in search of comfort food. Devised this soup in a pinch and thought it was worth sharing. Mine was a quick soup for one but the recipe has been scaled up and uses the more economical Roma tomato. If you have lots of cherry or grape tomatoes — they have a sweetness that pairs beautifully with the vinegar — use them or do a mix with the roma tomatoes. If you are making this Kosher, skip the cheese or be sure to use vegetable broth.”
Wash and cut tomatoes, placing in a shallow baking dish cut side down.
Add onion pieces, garlic, oregano and basil to the pan.
Drizzle vegetables with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
Season with salt and pepper.
Bake for 45 minutes.
Place roasted vegetables in food processor bowl or blender and begin puree. Slowly add broth or water until soup has desired consistency. Continue blending until smooth.
An immersion blender also works very well. (If you warm the broth first, the soup will be hot without reheating.).
Serve garnished with cheese if desired.
Rufus Story
Sitting in McDonald’s carpark waiting for an appointment, a gentleman who I later found out was named Tony, approached my car window.
He asked if I knew about the state of my tyres.
I explained that I knew I needed new ones but at the moment simply couldn’t afford it.
He asked me if I would follow him to Bridgestone Pimpama across the road to see what they could do for me.
This complete stranger, Tony explained he couldn’t live with himself if he walked away from the situation knowing they were about to blow at anytime.
Tony didn’t expect anything in return, just asking that one day when I’m in the position where I’m able to help someone that I pay it forward.
535 dollars, a lot of tears on my behalf, a few hugs, three brand new tyres, a wheel alignment and the offer to fuel up my car.
Then he left.
No last name, no contact number.
Just Tony the gentle giant with his two beautiful sons teaching them a life lesson.
Tony if this ever reaches you, thank you!
Thank you for your utterly selfless act, your kind words, for restoring my faith in humanity.
From the bottom of my heart thank you!
Also a big thankyou to Bridgestone tyres Pimpama for fitting me in on a fully booked out day and for the great service, you guys are champs!
x
Credit – Tegan Langley
Madonna in Desperately Seeking Susan #2 (1985)
What is your biggest regret as a cat owner?
My biggest regret EVER, is not doing it sooner. For so many years, I didn’t like cats…all for dumb reasons. This is my best friend in the world, the Captain. I like to think we both changed each others lives for the better.
x
Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices for Europe but Hikes Them for the US Again
Saudi Arabia is raising oil prices for US buyers, following a similar move a month ago.
Meanwhile, state-run Saudi Aramco lowered prices in Europe and left them largely unchanged for the Asian market.
The price moves come after OPEC+ slashed production quotas, which the White House said aligns the oil group with Russia.
Oh SH*T, something big is happening to our food supply thanks to the WEF
Quick Creamy Broccoli Soup
“Adapted from epicurious.com. This is a fantastic low-fat soup recipe that tastes very creamy. It is also fast and easy-a really great healthy soup for the broccoli lover!! I used my immersion blender to make it even creamier.”
In a large pot, combine broccoli, onion, garlic, broth (I used vegetable broth) or water, and salt.
Cover pot, bring to a boil, and then simmer for about 15 minutes, or until everything starts getting soft.
Use a ladle to transfer 2/3 of the soup into a blender.
Blend the soup until smooth. (I just used my immersion blender until I was happy with the texture.)
Pour back into saucepan and turn on heat to medium setting.
In a small bowl, combine milk with flour and whisk together until smooth.
Pour mixture into soup and stir.
Add basil and parsley and stir until soup begins to thicken.
Add vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.
Desperately Seeking Susan (7/12) Movie CLIP – Into the Groove (1985) HD
U.S. Now Provoking North Korea Missile Launches
Poor kitty
This cat tried to come into my house at the end of June of this year while we were in the middle of a heat wave in WA.
It’s like she was saying, “I’m sick of being ignored! Someone has to help me!”
This is the cat after 3 months of living inside and being out of the elements.
I discovered the cat was very old, she has been declawed, so there was no way for her to catch any food for herself.
The cat was horribly dehydrated, had 104 temperature, she was skin and bones and yet she was so sweet and loving!
She also was microchipped but I never heard back from the original owners.
I took the cat to the vet immediately where she had x-rays, the vet said she has severe arthritis in her back.
Poor kitty could barely walk!
So this is quite a success story, I named her Ladybug and she is so much happier now!
You can tell she feels like someone’s pet again.
She loves to cuddle and gives back so much love, she didn’t deserve to be abandoned and left for dead.
x
Chinese Movie ‘Home Coming’ Becomes National Day Box Office Hit China’s latest patriotic blockbuster ‘Home Coming’ focuses on Chinese diplomats as the saviours of overseas Chinese in times of trouble.
The movie is said to be based on real events but it is set in the fictional Numia Republic (努米亚共和国).
According to Chinese state media outlet China.org, Home Coming is inspired by an evacuation event in Libya in 2011, when the Chinese embassy reportedly evacuated more than 30,000 Chinese nationals in a time frame of 12 days.
At the time, Chinese official media called it “the largest such operation China had mounted abroad since the Nationalists fled in 1949” and Chinese nationals were evacuated from the war-torn Libya via land, sea, and air (Zerba 2015, 107).
On Weibo, there are many reviewers giving Home Coming a five-star rating, with some saying the movie moved them to tears.
“I needed four tissues,” one movie-goer said, while another person complained that they forgot to bring any tissues to dry their tears.
In light of the movie’s premiere, photos of people crying while watching the film also circulated online.
Why do Chinese think Westerners have an easy life?
Because on some level, it is the truth.
I’ve lived in Australia for 20 years, longer than I have had in China, and have seen lives on both sides.
I have this Aussie female friend, young, blonde, pretty and just getting to her late 20’s. A white collar, not high ups but she gets by well enough. She makes what, 80K AUD a year? That’s median up level for a average worker in Sydney. She drives a BMW M4, goes to professional race tracks every few weeks for fun. She’s not married, but in a stable relationship, boyfriend is also a white collar, makes less money than her but not by much. No mortgages because by god who can afford in Sydney anymore these days, so they rent. Every year she takes her 4 weeks annual leaves to Fiji or Europe or Hawaii or wherever she fancies, since she still wants to see the world before deciding to settle down. No plan for babies yet, god, that’s a huge responsibility isn’t it? Her parents sold their family home and moved to a regional city a few years back, to a nice picturesque little town near a lake, she visits them often. She has a sister, who apparently lives in another city but they are quite close. The plan is should the parents’ health fails, they would move into a nursing home close to home, with assisted living.
This is what many young Aussie’s life, you take away the names you can almost slot in any guy/gal you know in there and you wouldn’t call it out of place.
My wife has this Chinese female friend. Same age, just as pretty. She lives in China, has a stable job but highly stressful since she has KPIs to reach every month. She makes 5000 yuan a month, a respectable amount for a young Chinese professional, but still there’s not much left after paying off the monthly bills. She doesn’t have a car, and changes bus three times every morning to work. She got married last year, and the baby is on the way so she’s very stressed about the job and the finances. Husband is a hard worker, works three jobs, one regular during the week and two other jobs on the weekend. He’s a heavy smoker, to which I’m not surprised, on account of all the work he does on the side. They bought an apartment in a Tier 2 city last year before they got married, with their own savings, but I’m sure the parents contributed a fair amount as well. Parents on both sides got their own place, so at least they got that going for them. But her mother’s health is failing and she’s constantly worried about that. Oh the woes of being the only child ! They don’t entertain much because by gosh who has time. They prefer having hotpots with friends on a Friday evening in the alleyways behind their apartment building.
This is a typical young Chinese’s life. Same deal, put your friend’s name there you probably can’t tell who’s who.
Now you tell me which side of the two lives is easier?
China is getting there, but the price is paid via blood and sweat of this generation. The Aussies have already paid theirs. You don’t get to see it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. What the Chinese are doing today is making sure their kids can live a somewhat easier life in their future.
Gravitas: China reveals new nuclear submarine ahead of Congress
The US Empire is eating its own tail (vassals) and its own homeland (the US) because it can no longer extract vast wealth from outside its imperial core with ease. Happening on a smaller level with respect to France with respect to its African ex-colonies. Its going to be a rough time from here for the populations of the West, en route to a Soylent Green world (perhaps it will be made of bugs not people).
Better to leave the West, or at least give it some distance. Georgia, Hungary, Slovakia, and now possibly Austria see the light. As do all of Asia, much of Latin America and most of Africa. Spain has also shown some independent orientation. Also, perhaps Romania.
The French, Germans, Italians, British, Canadians, Australians (their elites not the general population) will keep themselves in the bowl as they get made into broth.
Posted by: Roger Boyd | Jan 10 2025 16:00 utc | 1